A Life of Love and War

The Dan-lookalike walked near the barricade. He wore a calm and rather expressionless face as he turned to face the shocked Cara.

”Are you a doctor? ” the Dan-lookalike asked her.

Cara nodded, staring in disbelief at how similar he looked to Dan. The eyes, nose, mouth! The only thing Dan didn have was a scar across his left eyebrow that this person had. Cara winced a bit at how painful that cut must have been.

”I heard from my soldier that you claim to know the cure for the plague. ”

”Yes ” Cara replied slowly, wondering how she should pit her case across to him. ”I believe I have diagnosed the illness. ”

”And? ” He asked. ”So why are they still sick? ”

”Uhhh… the thing is, we need help to prepare the treatment. ” Cara slowly explained.

Dan-lookalike raised his eyebrow, but didn say anything. Cara took it as a sign to continue.

”We need a lot of water, but you know there is a lot of sick people and the amount of water in the infirmary well isn enough. As you know there is a river nearby but I can get to there because we can leave this area, ”Cara continued.

”So ya, it would be great if the soldiers around could get us water from the river nearby. And well also need 6 sacks of sugar and 1 sack of salt. ” she finished.

Unknown to her, Dan-lookalike was confused by the way she acted. This woman did not seem to know any basic respect — She didn bow when she met him, and she dared to look him in the eye when they spoke! Almost as if they were equal?

All his life, Dan-lookalike had people treating him with respect, because of his familys rank. He was so used to receiving bows and people lowering their eyes when they spoke to him. This situation baffled him. The way she looked into his eyes almost made him uncomfortable and he had to cough and look away to break eye contact.

But her request didn seem out of the world, and he was willing to overlook her actions if she really did have the cure. The Emperor had put him in charge of this mission and although the plan was to let those infected die, the merit of curing those patients would give in much leverage later on in court.

After contemplating for a bit, Dan-lookalike frowned but nodded. ”That sounds simple enough so we will try what you propose for a week and see if anything changes. ”

His tone changed as he spoke firmly, ”But don try any tricks to run away or get near when we open the gates, else we will burn down this infirmary. ”

Cara gulped and nodded. This was surely not the Dan she knew!

But true to his word, within an hour the soldiers had delivered over 50 buckets of water into the grassy area behind the infirmary for them to boil.

Cara started feeling like she was back in her element. She had control of the situation and enough resources to ensure the full recovery of every patient. She quickly got to work, arranging the resources and preparing the treatment.

More resources came in over the next few days which would allow Cara and Chang Ying to prepare more treatment water.

As patients started getting better, they also started to help prepare even more treatment for those still not better.

Cara even managed to get some recovered patients to help clean up and disinfect the shack with some alcohol she had found at a corner of the infirmary.

Seeing people recovering well, the atmosphere within the infirmary had also transformed as the patients went from resigned and depressed to now being full of positivity and hope.

Chang Ying also organised some game sessions for patients to lift their spirits in the midst of all the illness. The villagers had quickly banded together to support one another and even sang songs to cheer one another.

Cara started growing close to the patients who were grateful for her hard work and dedication. She had grown fond of every one of them.

That night, Cara slept with a smile. Even though life threw her a curveball, she managed to make the best out of the situation she was in.

She was proud of the way she had handled the response, and in her mind she wondered what the coronavirus situation was like back in the real world.

Would it be contained? Or would it spread throughout the whole human population?