[Serialized Novel] "Lute of the North Wind" Episode 26

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Episode 26: Scattered Anomalies (2)
[June 1st, Late Night, Kagamihara Central Hospital]
I've reached my limit.
Nagi Asakura, a third-year nurse at Kagamihara Central Hospital, drags her body, which feels as heavy as lead, and walks unsteadily through the hospital corridor at night. The downlights stretch her small shadow across the dim linoleum floor. The light from the nurse station looks like a bug zapper.
Wee-woo, wee-woo.
It's happening again. The siren approaches from across the river like a ripple.
Is it another patient being transported for respiratory distress?
They are being brought in incessantly, day after day. I cannot get the image out of my head of the paramedic who collapsed right after dropping off a patient from an ambulance that arrived just past noon. I might be next. It is common for me to be unable to leave even after my night shift ends, and before I know it, it is already evening. Both my physical and mental strength are near their limits.
Emergency transports began to increase around Golden Week. My colleagues and I sighed, saying it was just the usual convenience store visits common during the holidays. We talked about how the increase in elderly patients being transported for respiratory distress was likely due to heatstroke from failing to acclimate to the heat. But even after the holidays ended, the numbers continued to surge. There are even cases where discharged patients are brought back in with respiratory distress. The respiratory ward beds are not enough, so we have started borrowing beds from cardiology and other departments, and even those are nearly full. Doctors, nurses, and medical staff alike are all exhausted, with no energy left even for idle chatter.
I just wanted someone to know about this situation. That was all.
Senior nurse Mizuta has not returned from her rounds yet. I open my personal smartphone screen in the empty nurse station. The darkness of the corridor feels like a bottomless swamp. The day before yesterday, Head Nurse Arita fainted, causing a stir among everyone. She told us, "I'm fine, it will pass soon, everyone get back to work," and collapsed into the nap room, but she was back and giving orders in less than thirty minutes. There was no color in her skin beneath her foundation.
Not enough staff. Frustration and anxiety that have nowhere to go.
Surely it's okay to tweet from a burner account.

I post, "Medical care in Kagamihara is on the verge of collapse due to a sudden surge in patients with mysterious respiratory distress," and add the hashtags "#MysteriousDiseaseInKagamihara" and "#MedicalCollapse." At that moment, the nurse call on the wall flashes. Is it Mr. Yamane in room 603? Nagi pushes herself up from the desk with both hands and drags her leaden body toward the dark corridor.
Even though the next day was Sunday with no outpatient clinics, it was past noon by the time I finished my shift.
As I slowly changed clothes in the locker room, I turned on my smartphone and was stunned.
The number of retweets had reached a digit I had never seen before. The spread did not stop even while I stared at the screen in a daze.
Terrified, Nagi deleted the post and closed the account. She turned off the phone and shoved it into the bottom of her bag.

To be continued