Trigger warnings: Blood, injuries, attempted rape.
Please leave me a comment on what you think.
Chapter 1
It must have been around 4.30 a.m. when the alarm sounded. I did not know what kind of an alarm it was, only that it wasn't my alarm clock nor any other friendly sound to wake me up. I jumped up from my camp bed and got dressed in a hurry. I quickly picked up my emergency medical kit that I kept next to my make-do bed. Other nurses already ran by me to see what was up now. When I got outside the tent, I stumbled and fell down. I looked back to see what I had stumbled over only to realize that it had been the entire ground shaking and not just me.
Next to me, Hằng muttered a word that I did not understand. Only later did I realize that she must have said "aftershock". I got back to my feet and ran to my camp leader Bùi who was shouting instructions. My Vietnamese was still basic, so I only made out some words, among them "emergency" and "priority".
"What's going on?" I asked Hằng.
"Earthquake," she explained. "They said half the buildings up north have collapsed. The military has been deployed but it will take at least half an hour until the first casualties are brought in. We have to prepare."
I nod. I hadn't felt the initial quake. My slumber must have been too deep. I rush over to the main tent and help with the sorting of medical kits to each station. It takes more than half an hour until the first casualties are brought in. They have been transported by unhurt civilians on mopeds, family members and friends. I feel my brain shutting off and my senses kicking in. Fractures – needs splint. Internal bleeding – administering vitamin K, give blood, call one of the doctors. I change my gloves every two minutes but they are dripping again. The patient does not respond. We don't know a blood type, we are not a hospital. I stand there silently watching in shock how the doctor fails to save him. Did I call him too late?
"Attend the next," the medical doctor shouts at me in Vietnamese. I nod and without thinking I get to the next person carried in. It's just a boy. Massive bleeding, probably craniocerebral injury. He is carried by a non-Asian man with short dark hair. He helps me put the boy on a camp bed. "Press this tissue on the head," I instruct the man in English. He reacts quickly. I grab the torch and shine into the boy's eyes. Definitely a concussion. I grab an oversized patch and apply it to the boy's head.
"Is he yours?" I ask.
The man shakes his head. "I was just walking by when the earthquake happened."
I nod and turn to the next patient. Only half an hour later do I realise how odd it is that someone just happened to be walking through a small southern town in the middle of the night. The military is bringing in new injured in masses. Soon our capacities are overpassed. We are just a team of volunteers in the middle of nowhere, offering help to villagers with no access to medical care. All I wanted to do was to get my head free since Tom had left me and see something new before dedicating the rest of my life to one town and one job. And here I am watching how people are dying in front of me with their bloods on my hands. Literally. Whether also figuratively, I don't know. I am a fully qualified nurse, but I have only just finished my studies. I am doing my best but today is one of those days where they warn us against – "a day will come when doing your best is not enough. And then you go to bed and the next day you do your best again. Maybe you are in luck and it is enough then. But you never quit, and you never stop trying." I remember head nurse Chapel repeating this mantra to us every day. My classmates used to make fun of her. But now I realise that she had just wanted to prepare us. There is no way to be prepared for this.
It is after mid-day that I finally get some rest. I sit down on a rock away from all the trouble. The emergencies have been dealt with and the only emergencies left are those that only the fully qualified doctors can handle. I realise how I am shaking. I must have had only a couple of hours of sleep and no meal in 18 hours. My adrenaline is slowly wearing off and I am cold and exhausted. How am I cold?, it's hot and humid. I get dizzy and bend forward. There is nothing in my stomach to vomit out.
Suddenly I feel a hot cup pressed into my hand. I look at it. I can't look up because I think that it would make me faint. The man who had brought in the boy cowers down next to me. He holds a bánh mì in his hand and gives it to me.
"Eat and drink."
I do, and I realise that it is tea he gave me. Finally not some cà phê đá, but proper tea. It tastes like English breakfast tea and it reminds me of home. All of a sudden, I miss the tea, the rain, the wind, and the grey stones that glitter in the sun. I bite into the sandwich, but I can't swallow.
"Drink," the man reminds me, and I drink. I am still shaking. I gulp down more tea and it trickles down my chin.
"What were you doing up north in the middle of the night?" I manage to ask.
"I was visiting the temple."
"At 3 a.m.?"
"I don't like other people to disturb me."
I look at him. His dark hair is short and combed back, his eyes seem keen and interested. He stands up when he notices me eyeballing him. "I'm going to have a look who else needs my help." I watch him walk away. After the bánh mì I slowly feel my strength returning and head back to the tents. The afternoon passes rather quickly. The most severe cases were brought to the hospital in the nearest town. The military is packing the corpses onto their trucks. They have been in and out of the camp, taking away the dead and delivering food and supplies for the living.
It is already dark when I make my last round around the outside camp. Since many injured have died during the day, nearly everyone is lying on a camp bed now and not on the ground. They have also provided our own camp beds, so I have no idea where I am going to sleep tonight.
Suddenly I hear my name being called. I rush over to Bùi who has been waving at me. In his broken English he explains, "up north a hostel has been destroyed. There are many foreigners injured. I want you to join the team to attend on site." I nod. Secretly I had hoped to get some rest but now I am hopping into a military truck with five soldiers, two doctors, Hằng, and two other nurses whose names it took me ages to pronounce correctly. It's a twenty minute ride on terrible streets. I wish we had inertial dampeners like in Star Trek. When we arrive, I feel like I need to be treated for a concussion as well. It's dark but there are barrel fires and bonfires here and there. They probably lost electricity. We get out and I see what I had until now only ever seen on the news: A town reduced completely to a pile of rubble. They guide us through tiny streets which are full of… stuff. I can't even begin to describe everything that is lying around because it feels like a waste dump, and it is so dark that I have no idea what I am stepping in. We see the collapsed hostel among all the collapsed buildings. Soldiers with torchlights are searching the entire area for survivors.
One of the soldiers explains something and Hằng translates for me: "They want us to spread out and deliver first aid whenever the soldiers dig out a survivor."
I nod and leave the others in a direction towards the edge of the town. It isn't long until one of the soldiers shouts at me. I rush over and watch them dig out a young girl. She is covered completely in dust, and I have to apply half a bottle of ethanol to get her wounds sufficiently cleansed for applying patches. She appears to be in shock so I talk to her in my broken Vietnamese. She responds slowly but her stares are besides me. Once I am done, I instruct one of the soldiers to take her back to the truck which is gathering people to be transported back to the medical camp.
I advance further towards the outside of the city. In the not so far distance I see two torches flickering. That must be the temple the English tourist had been visiting. Suddenly I hear a noise behind me. I nearly shriek but it is only a soldier. I apologise and want to walk on, but he grabs my arm. He mutters something in a terrible dialect. "I am a nurse, I am here to provide medical attention," I explain. He shakes me. "Let go," I say fiercely. When he tries to grab my other arm and pull me closer, I step on his feet. The surprising pain makes him loose his grip, and I run away. I hear him stumbling after me, so I increase my speed.
I am running out of the town centre now and towards the light of the temple. Halfway there I realise that I should have run towards where there are more people, but that soldier had been blocking the way. When I turn around to see whether he is still following me, I trip and fall. My hands feel hot all of sudden, I must have cut them on something on the ground. The soldier is still behind me, but he is not shouting. He does not want to attract the attention of his comrades.
Shortly before I reach the temple, the torchlights begin to flicker green. That's odd, I'm thinking, wondering which element causes the change to colour. I am pushed to the floor. The soldier has caught up with me. I have no time to think about the torchlights. He turns me around and starts fumbling my trousers. I try to push him away and scream. But we are probably too far away from anyone to hear us. Suddenly, a green cloud of mist enters the soldier and he bents upwards. The green vapour enters his body and suddenly his eyes began to glimmer green, too. I can't even scream as shocked as I am.
Then suddenly I hear a calming voice in a foreign language behind me. It's the English tourist! He is holding some sort of ancient artefact and directing it at the soldier. He is repeating the same words over and over again. Suddenly, the soldier begins to shake and the green mist is leaving his body again and entering into this artefact. It's like a hollow sceptre which the English tourist now screws closed. The soldier collapses forwards and onto me. I feel him push the air out of my lungs. The English tourist rushes forwards and pushes him away from me. He offers me a hand and helps me up.
"Are you okay?" he asks me.
I nod. I am not okay.
"What…?" I stammer.
"That green cloud you saw was a Trizeene."
"A…what?"
"An alien life form. They travel the galaxy in non-physical form and settle down in places of worship on different planets. They thrive on the thought of praise of normal people."
I am too baffled to respond. "Who are you?"
"Well, I just happened to pass by."
"By the temple? You said that."
"No, by the planet. Well, to be honest, I have been on Earth quite often and it is quite an intriguing planet of yours. It gets better with time, but first worse though."
"Are you… an alien?"
"Yes."
I blink. Twice.
"What's your name, young lady?"
"Annika. Annika Smith."
"Nice to meet you, Annika Smith."
"What is your name?"
"Oh, it's difficult to pronounce. My people's language is basically impossible to learn for off-worlders. On Earth I have been using the name John Smith." He chuckles at the thought of us having the same last name.
"So…you're what… just travelling the galaxy, hunting non-physical aliens? A space-tourist?"
"The Trizeene would have started eating its worshippers in a few centuries."
"In a few centuries?"
"A blink of an eye for a Timelord."
"A… Timelord?"
"My people. That's what we call ourselves. Because, you see, we don't only travel through space but also through time."
"And you have a spaceship? Here?"
He nods. "Would you like to see it?"
I laugh. Too many science fiction stories and a Katy Perry song warning me against this. "Of course," I say.
We start walking into the other direction, away from the town. "So what are you doing here, Annika Smith?"
"I just finished my nursing studies. But I needed a change of scenery before settling down to do the same job for the rest of my life."
"Is another country a change of scenery enough or would you prefer another planet at all?"
"Seriously?"
"I can take you anywhere you want. Any time you want."
We stop walking. "Where's your spaceship?"
"It's right there."
"That's your spaceship?"
"Go on, go inside."
"Oh my god, it's bigger…"
