“The rest will arrive within a few minutes,” Phil entered the depressurised isolation chamber, “sorry for the waiting doctor Riley.”
“No problem I used to long waits,” doctor Riley replied, “I am very interested in the design of your depressurised isolation chamber: this is the first chamber that uses glass walls instead walls.
“Well,” Phil placed her hand on the transparent glass walls, “ these are military-grade bulletproof glass, they can stand 1000 grams of high explosives. You know, before the plague, Isolation Camp #3991 used to be a factory city that mainly manufactures glass items.”
“I see,” the Finale Doctor replied and studied the room with greater caution, “but why glass tho? Aren’t steel much cheaper and easy to handle?”
Phil turned away from the finale doctor’s gaze, “these isolation chambers are ultimately coffins for the carriers, right? At least in their last week, they can still see the outside world and their families can come and bid their farewells.”
“Is it that good for them to see all the things that they will lose for a whole week?” Riley said solemnly and quickly changed the subject, “By the way, that’s a cool mask you got there, correct me if I am wrong, but is that an N195 grade mask?”
“Glad that you noticed,” Phil turned back to face the bionic giant, “ our mask factory ran out of raw materials a year ago, and this is the last N195 mask in the city.”
Extract from section B, page 20 of ‘2072 United Nation Report’ published and distributed by the United Nation:
“…N195 masks are the only type of facial electrical mask that can effectively filter out 99.99% of all types of virus, including the “plasma gas” particles. However, each N195 costs approximately the time and effort needed to manufacture [deleted] [deleted] masks. That’s why the N195 should only be issued to any medical personal with a grade higher than class…”
“So, you are the highest-ranked doctor in the city?” asked the Finale Doctor, “I remembered that the N195s can only be issued to B class or A class doctors.”
Sadly, Phil sat down on the isolation chamber’s bed, “This mask is issued to me by the governor of #3991 after our only B class doctor got infected and eliminated in an isolation chamber.”
“That’s very unfortunate,” Riley noticed that a long line of people had formed outside the chamber, all of whom stared at it uneasily, “I remember a very ancient quote, ‘the greater your ability, the greater your reasonability’. Now, I shall begin my test.”
“Next!”
A young woman walked in wearing a standard black N420 mask, “My name is Flory Nightingale, nice to meet you doctor Riley.”
“Nice to meet you too,” the doctor ticked her name off the digital checklist (some isolation camps have citizen checklists and some do not), “now, please close your eyes while I conduct my examination.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
FLASH!
“Interesting,” the doctor muttered through its speaker, “oh, go ahead and open your eyes, you are…”
“Have I infected?!” the woman tensed her mussels.
“The good news is: you are not infected,” the doctor scrolled through the digital checklist and looked at one section in detail, “but the bad news is: you are the wrong person.”
“How rude!” the woman shrieked, “Are you assuming my…”
The Finale Doctor stood up suddenly, its gigantic status quickly silenced the patient, “you are not Flory Nightingale, aren’t you?”
“What…what…do you mean?”
“Take off your mask,” the Finale Doctor ordered.
The woman quickly took out a small rule book and flipped to a folded page, “according to…”
“If you read the next page,” the Finale Doctor drew out its attack first, “you will see that Class F Doctor can order any person to remove their masks.”
Nervously the woman unlocked her mask from the back, but right as she removed the mask, the F Doctor gigantic metal hand grabbed into ‘her’ face and ripped off a layer of skin.
“AAAAAA!” the person shrieked again in horror and put her hands over her actual, old face, “How the fuck did you?!”
“That’s some high-quality artificial skin,” the doctor chuckled, “where is the real Flory Nightingale…STAND HERE!”
Like a hare, the small man tried to reach for the isolation chamber’s door, but the doctor was much faster, its metal claws tightly grabbed onto her arm causing him to cry in pain. With the woman in its hand, the doctor exited the isolation chamber and faced the crowd, “who knows where is Flory Nightingale?”
Silence. The crowd stared at the giant then shifted their stare focus to the woman who shivered in fear.
“All of you know the truth isn’t it?!” the doctor stomped heavily with its metal boots and looked down at its prey, but after a few seconds the Finale Doctor let out a long sigh, “Fine, I really can’t force any words with force, but you have to understand that I am also a doctor, and I am here to put an end to the virus, if you all don’t want to collaborate, humanity will never see its day. Next patient in.” Doctor Riley dropped the woman heavily to the ground.
FLASH!
A long pause.
“I am very sorry,” the Finale Doctor took out a green pill and handed to the little boy about twelve years old, “but you’ll have to stay in this room for the rest of this week. You may eat that candy anytime you want, but you may not eat it after this week.”
The kid couldn’t fully grasp the weight of the doctor’s words, so he stared at the ‘candy’ in his hands blankly.
“I am sorry kid…”
“HOLD ON!” doctor Phil burst through the door, “Are you sure that…”
“Hey doctor Phil,” the Finale doctor said coldly in its usual robotic voice, “are you here for your examination too? Next time, don’t cut the line.”
“Wait, what?” Phil was caught by surprise of the Finale Doctor’s response.
FLASH!
Phil collapsed to the ground and she waited for the green pill to appear in front of her.
“Why did you do this? Doctor Flory Nightingale?” doctor Riley sat down and spoke calmly, “He is your son am I right?”
“I thought the mask should work…” doctor Flory Nightingale started to slowly remove her mask, then she ripped off her artificial skin and exposed her real face in the air. It was not a normal human face, it was a mixture of rotten flesh, gel-like skin, and oily secretion leaking out of the pentagon-shaped holes. Some of her cheekbones were exposed in the air and one of her eyeballs had turned into a blurry mixture of dark substances.
“I am B class doctor Flory Nightingale, that other woman who dressed up as me was C class doctor Phil,” doctor Flory explained, “ I was confirmed a few months ago, but I thought the N195 can keep me from spreading the virus, guess I am wrong.”
Doctor Riley squat down so that it was at the same eye level as doctor Flory, patiently it spoke, “and to continue treating the citizens, you choose to fake your identity so that…”
“NO!” Flory spoke up, “Everyone knew, the governor, the other medical workers, and all the people in the camp knew, but they wanted me to treat them. The only reason that I faked my identity is because of your arrival.”
The Finale Doctor sighed, “But, I must tell you that it is much more beneficial for you to stay isolated from the population. No matter how good the masks are, they are never 100% effective, unless they are full bodysuits, which disappeared long ago, and now, even your son is infected. You are lucky that until now, only your son is infected by you, but we’ll see about that. It is right for a doctor to treat all patients with all his or her might, but you have to keep in mind that the true goal of the doctors is to save lives, your actions may seem noble, but you are ultimately putting everyone’s life at risk. That’s all I have to say to you. Now, if you please, I have to leave this room immediately and fully disinfect myself in hydrochloric acid.”
Report: Isolation Camp #3991 proved very tricky to deal with since some of the citizenship information are alternated. Overall, there were 5 cases, and all are put into the depressurized isolation chambers. I have commanded that the city to go under code ‘RED’ emergency status and the roof-mounted disinfectant nozzles are to be utilized later in the day. Isolation Camp #3991 should be revisited within a month by me or other class F doctors, end of the report.