Read Chapter 25: — THE FIRST DEATH

The first Ravensbridge Line driver to die was not someone Ethan knew well.

Samir Patel was fifty-six and had joined in the second week. He drove night shifts because his wife worked days at a supermarket and somebody needed to care for her elderly mother.

He developed symptoms, was admitted, deteriorated and died twelve days later.

The group chat became a memorial wall.

Photographs. Voice notes. Stories.

A nurse wrote that Samir once waited outside the hospital for forty minutes because she had been delayed, then refused to let her apologise.

Another said he always kept mints in sealed packets for passengers.

Mark posted nothing until late that night.

Then:

We stop tomorrow from noon to twelve-ten. Engines off. Wherever you are.

At noon the next day, dozens of volunteer cars across the city pulled over.

Ethan sat in silence beside St Anne's.

Maya stood in the neighbourhood centre kitchen, hands still on a box of tinned food.

At 12:10, engines restarted.

The work continued.

That was grief during a crisis: ten minutes, then the next person needed you.