Societal collapse

Who was it that said Redstar would stand until the end?

Juan laments over the insidious -- a certain complacence that had rotted the hearts of people.

Being the last somewhat-functioning nation in the world is not as impressive as he thought it to be.

The people who would gloat over this deserve a thousand deaths or so.

Yes, the hostiles are dead.

But no man is an island. The bell that tolls for another is a bell that tolls for all.

All platitudes, but Juan cannot deny that he had lost something through this process.

It is a bizarre thing.

On more practical terms, Juan has been exhausted ten times over.

He doesn't know what is the critical threshold for the dragon pandemic, but he knows that he's seeing things unfold before his eyes.

The troubles that he had assumed to be something the people in charge would take care of away from prying eyes has come knocking on his doors.

Perhaps Juan could have turned away from the call of duty, but then what for were those years of studying and training?

On the other hand, there sinks a sense of meaninglessness.

Exhaust oneself into competence to exhaust oneself to death.

Juan finishes his very short break, only enough to take a few nice and deep breaths and drink about half a bottle.

The infirmary had been more than full.

The newly built care wards have just filled up.

These people are just sleeping -- Juan knows that they aren't just, but it does seem very much so -- why don't they just go home?

Monitoring...

Sustaining...

Moving...

Analyzing...

Even with these many subjects of research, there is no sign of a breakthrough.

Juan isn't involved in the deeper subjects but he's heard of stories of the higher-ups crying in frustration.

It can only mean that the guesses regarding the nature of the pandemic had been wrong.

Why can't anyone catch the tail of beast?

It took the end of spring for the patients to stop coming in.

There was great temptation to throw out the people who have been practically dead despite having no sign of trauma anywhere in the body.

Juan, like many people, doesn't truly believe in the supernatural.

Science dictates that there must be an explanation for what's happening, and that natural mysteries simply lay beyond the current body of knowledge.

The answer is research, research, and research.

However, it is the first time in his life has he faced something truly bizarre.

The dragon pandemic is actually pretty simple to understand compared to other mysteries of the world. There are features and phenomena that are easily observable and analyzed.

Most people can personally experience its effects.

It is a phenomenon that people have become intimately familiar with, more than even known facts about the moon, and perhaps even more than the known facts about the human body.

Some people even get so familiar with the pandemic that they can use their infection to gain effective superhuman abilities.

Juan himself can even accelerate his thoughts through delusion.

It shouldn't happen but imagining the world slowing down can make it so from the subject's perspective, thus achieve the effect of accelerated thinking.

Of course, the most confusing mystery is the question of how hallucinations seem to affect reality.

Some people have accepted the interpretation that the hallucinations are actually real, in a way. Even if they cannot be detected by devices.

From this angle, it can be said that human haven't become mentally ill, or deluded. They have become enlightened to a new dimension of reality.

However, this is an interpretation for the uneducated.

Accepting this reality means throwing everything humans have known to jump into the darkness.

Some things cannot be proven, and they shouldn't be used as basis for future research, but there are practical applications.

People can get hurt from hallucinated attacks, and so it must be the case that people can defend themselves by accepting the hallucinations as if they are real.

Some people have seen success through this method.

However, there is a great problem that has no apparent solution.

The dragon's roar--

Only people who haven't seen the dragon have never heard of the roars.

About a thousand people were registered to have such a special condition, in a nation of almost one billion people.

More than half of the unaffected people got the skydragon syndrome between the first survey at the end of the rainy season last year and the most recent survey in the middle of dry season this year.

Another three hundred or so have died in that period.

This is something that Juan didn't considered until he witnessed it himself -- no one has said that he's a thoughtful nurse--

Life had its difficulties before the dragon happened.

Life continues to have its difficulties even after the dragon started killing people.

It is easy to forget because of how grave of a matter the dragon is.

Juan himself might actually just die before the dragon kills him, and yet he pities the medical heroes working on cases unrelated to the dragon.

Moving on--

Juan logs one of the sleeping dead as having truly died. He has seen this enough times that he can sometimes predict when it happens even without checking with the necessary equipment.

The morgues had also long been full.

Juan doesn't envy whoever has to deal with that problem -- he didn't even bother to learn who's doing it.

Out of sight, out of mind--

Juan stopped scolding himself for being callous over this matter. He's accepted that he will have his anti-social thoughts, and keep them to himself.

The corpse was involved in real estate development.

Juan only remembers because the patient was taken in with unusual bruises. Someone had beaten him up before hallucinatory death came for him.

Another man who must have been his son had raised quite the stink then.

The guy must have been quite the parasite, like his spawn.

Juan he knows the type. Of course, stereotypes be damn, but he knows the type.

Juan goes through the metrics for yet another patient, a sturdy-looking woman -- she must have been a laborer.

There is a bit of a fuss somewhere in the ward. One of the drivers has been admitted.

That's another item on the long long list.

Juan hopes somewhere in his cold heart that the dragon takes no one working in the ward, or that if it does, it will at least take him.

That's the other key to societal collapse.

Some people are more important than others.

Some people would have to produce food for all. And some other people would have to get the food to everyone from all over the country.

That is the bare necessity.

Juan has an acquaintance who's enrolled in a program to train replacements for essential workers.

Juan doesn't know if programs like this would actually help in the future, though it is easy to imagine that they would.

The notion doesn't leave much of an impression to Juan, but it does instill even a sliver of confidence. Results aside, the act proves that whoever is in charge is trying to guide everyone into the future.

It's something that must have made a difference.

The fall of Turtlesand is a subject for discussion that Juan didn't like to think about.

Juan simply couldn't accept the idea that their people are somehow just susceptible to the dragon's influence.

There must be a difference somewhere.

The next unit Juan enters prove to be empty.

"Hey, where is the patient in unit 232?"

Juan grabs an assistant nurse by the arm. The assistant nurse looks over, then looks through his papers.

"I don't know, not on record"

"Take a look at this"

Juan pushes his own record to the assistant nurse.

"Well, the patient should be in unit 232"

Juan doesn't feel heat rising to his head. It isn't anger that possesses him.

He sighs.

"I'll figure it out"

Juan takes his record back. The assistant nurse moves on with a face as cold as Juan's.

Juan writes down a relevant note about the unit and moves on.

Two things could have happened:

One -- the dead patient walked out -- a potential significant breakthrough;

Two -- Juan has lost his grasp of reality somehow.

This is the other complication caused by the pandemic. Even if people don't die from it, it pulls their sense away from reality. Working becomes difficult in this state.

Juan cannot identify what exact error him made.

On the other hand, people make mistakes even without hallucinating.

Everyone is simply very tired.

Juan sits down even though he still feels energy coursing through his body.

He watches the dragon slithering around the high ceiling of the ward.

He noticed that one of the tendrils coming from the dragon's body had entered the top of his head.

Juan can touch the cold and soft appendage, and get a firm grip on it.

What if he just pulls it out like that? Would he have a good look at his brain?

Juan releases the dragon tendrils.

Juan gets back to work.