Hainan Dao

Book III Chapter 03

HAINAN DAO BOOK III

CHAPTER 03

The rain did not stop.

It continued throughout the night, and then all through the next morning and still it showed no signs of letting up. Because of the dike work that had been done a few years ago further upstream from us, the men and women of Sanjia village were doing just fine. Neighbouring communities, however, had not been so fortunate. By about lunchtime, we began getting word that the surrounding areas were having a hard time keeping up with all the rain and the landslides and the flooding.

We were sitting in the living area, a bunch of us, watching the rain come down through the main doors when Fuguang came bursting through them.

“Come quickly!” he cried.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Please! Come quickly! All of you! The banks of the river have been overrun. They need to move everything off the first floor!”

“What are you talking about?” asked one of the others. “The dams are in place. The water will never reach us here.”

“Not here! The hospital!” Spinning around, Fuguang bolted past the doors again.

Most of us dashed off after him. Others raced away for more help.

The trek to the hospital was muddy and dangerous, but we made good time, keeping to the high ground and staying on the grassy areas. We ran the whole way there. Fifteen minutes later, we crested over the last rise before the clearing, and the hospital came into full view below us.

My jaw dropped. Much of the courtyard in front of the hospital was now under water. The valley on the far side of the clearing had become a conduit and was carrying the deluge from the swollen rivers onto the hospital grounds. Men and women were now fighting against this, wading through knee-deep muck, working to set up a barrier with sandbags to divert the flow from this source. From what I could see though, the work wasn’t going very well.

Fuguang tugged me on the shoulder. “Come on!”

Together, we flew down the slope to join this group. Fuguang got in line right away and began helping out with the sandbagging.

I clapped him on the shoulder and shouted into his ear. “I’m going to check inside the hospital!”

He nodded.

I swam my way across the front grounds and into the hospital itself. Wading through the pool that was the lobby, I made it over to the stairs. I lined up with the other men and women there and hurried to the third floor as fast as I could. The stairway was crammed with people going up and down, transporting patients and everything that was still salvageable from the first floor to one of the others above.

Arriving on the top floor, I raced over to the closest treatment room and threw aside the doors. Inside, I saw Dr. Croft. He turned away from the patient he had been attending and smiled at my arrival. “Well, it’s about time!”

“How bad is it?” I took a quick glance around. The room was filled to capacity with people—patients and the men and women looking after them.

“We managed to get the really sick ones up first,” said Dr. Croft. “More are coming.”

“But…”

“I’ll explain as we go.”

The doctor directed me to a patient nearby. The man had a bandage wrapped around his shin, but as we approached, helpers were already removing it, peeling it away from the patient’s leg. The gauze had become soaked from being drenched in the water before the man could be moved to the third floor. The wound beneath had re-opened and started to bleed. Inserting myself between the two women, I began to ready a new bandage while Dr. Croft went to stop the bleeding.