Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Astoria

Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
Administrator
Mentor
Nexus GM
as written by Calcos

The orange blaze of the receding sun burned across the horizon, half-covered by the curvature of the planet as it continued to sink down, lower and lower to greet the other side of Isolt, soon to be greeting the western hemisphere with another day's morning light. The day had been long, and there were only a precious few hours of daylight left, illuminating the streets of Astroia in its dying glow, casting long shadows as it began sailing beneath the skyline.

She huffed a heavy sigh as she descended the short flight of stairs that led into the hospital, her eyes darting ahead as she witnessed the construction crews packing up for the night, watching as the hospital's night shift began to encroach upon the premises. When her eyes settled upon the military personnel stationed about the medical facility, she felt a chill crawl up her spine. As she walked away, she didn't turn around to look back at her workplace; she'd seen the progress of the reconstruction effort a hundred times before, and each glance was only a cruel reminder of what had happened, and what could have happened to her.

She had worked tirelessly during and after the attack, trying to save as many people as she could, risking her very safety to ensure the survival of as many patients as possible. It was a nightmarish task, to be sure, but it was her duty as a nurse to carry it out; hearing the screams of the injured and frail, the resigned moans of the mortally wounded and dying, the panicked cries of the children...

That had been the worst of it --it was all she could do to keep from breaking down and sobbing right there alongside the little ones, desperately scanning, hoping against everything that their mothers and fathers would come to save them, and the sheer terror in their voices when the realization dawned upon them that they wouldn't be able to. She had witnessed fire and collapsed infrastructure claim the lives of many, but none of these deaths scarred her as badly as when she glimpsed the tear-stained faces of the little boys and girls in the pediatric ward, their lives snuffed out by the cruelty of a band of brigands who dared call themselves "freedom fighters." It made her sick to her stomach.

Nurse Jacqueline Roberts was ending her day's work at the hospital, having recently returned after being on medical leave; not because she had suffered any serious physical injury, no, but because she needed to be evaluated for mental and emotional scarring. Unsurprisingly, she seemed to have handled the whole ordeal rather well. She had always been a strong woman in the face of any danger, and now was no different, even if this incident were the most disturbing occurrence she had ever experienced in her entire life. But she was a nurse, dammit. And she had a duty to her patients, a responsibility to see them back on their feet and well, so that they could go on living.

Even if that meant sacrificing her own well-being.

She continued down the sidewalk leading to the main roads, finally making her way off of the hospital grounds. She sat, waiting for a bus to drive by and pick her up. She couldn't wait to go home, to strip down and take a much-needed shower before climbing into bed just to restart this whole routine again tomorrow. She checked the weather forecast on her holoband, the holographic display dancing across her forearm in a rectangular shape, illuminating her visage in the glow. Tomorrow called for a seventy-two percent chance of heavy rain, a prediction that caused Jacqueline to scoff. She never trusted weather reports, as they were typically wrong. Meteorology had come a long way in the past few centuries, but it seems they still couldn't fully pin down the science behind acquiring an accurate forecast.

Knowing her luck, however, she'd ignore the forecast, leave her raincoat at home, and be consumed by the unrelenting tide of rain that the weather station was warning her about. With a puff of hot air blowing the bangs out of her eyes, she resigned to be safe instead of sorry, leaving a reminder for herself on the holoband to absolutely not forget her coat tomorrow.

Looking up, she saw the bus rounding the corner, and was relieved to finally be making her way back home. She stood, ready to leave the day behind her and attempt to get the rest she so deserved.

Even if she knew it wouldn't come.
 
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