Arkdays [Pre-load]

Prologue 1

"Doctor!" a young woman shouts, waving her hand in the air emphatically. "I finally found you!"

She begins running over to a man who stands on a solid, unbroken patch of the road the two are currently standing on. He stares off at the collapsed building in front of him.

"Nice job today Doctor!" she shouts again, this time capturing the man's attention.

He turns to look at her, his face hidden behind the large mask on top of his head.

"You need help?" he responds, watching her struggle to lift her foot from the debris she just caught her leg in.

"I-I'm fine!" she replies in a slightly panicked voice, tugging on her leg.

Eventually, after freeing herself from the asphalt rubble around her feet, she runs over to the Doctor's side with a wide smile.

Her glistening light blue eyes sparkle with adoration, which try to tear through the Doctor's near-completely reflective face mask to see the man inside.

"The area is clean, Doctor!"

"Better late than never, I suppose..." The Doctor mumbles dejectedly, staring off at the mostly destroyed hospital in front of him.

She waits a little while before responding to him. The sparkle from her eyes fade as she turns to face the "building"

"Even if we came a bit earlier, we couldn't have saved them. Our medicine only suppresses the disease, not destroys it."

"I know that. It's just, how am I supposed to look at this and not feel guilty? We started this job to change the world, and so far we've changed jack-!" the Doctor begins, clenching his fist tightly at his side.

"Calm down, Doctor," she interjects with a slightly choked voice of her own. "I know the world hasn't changed yet, but we've certainly changed other's worlds. We've possibly saved many people today, and that's all that matters. The world is only going to change if people are around to change it, and we are the reason that it'll happen someday."

Shia reaches out to the Doctor's hand and grabs it softly, smiling up at him with empathetic glances. "Everything takes time. But we're giving people the time they need. We just have to wait a bit longer."

"Waiting for the long term has never been my strongest suit."

"Well, you've got plenty of time to practice waiting with me."

The Doctor goes silent for a moment, taking a deep breath before turning again to the girl.

"Thank you, Shia."

"You're welcome, Doctor."

The Doctor and Shia then take off the two satchels they were carrying and lay them on the ground next to each other. Inside the bags lies seventeen syringes altogether, all of which are filled with a bright green liquid.

"We shouldn't have had this many extra," Shia replies, a bit of a puzzled look on her face. She starts counting with her fingers at her sides.

"Well... we had some prepared for the hospital folk, but." The Doctor starts before trailing off.

"R-right," Shia responds uncomfortably, fiddling with her hands, hoping the Doctor didn't notice her counting with them.

The two both recall the moment they arrived on the scene, an optimistic smile displayed on both their faces at the time. Granted, nobody could see those smiles as the Doctor was wearing a full face mask, similar to that of a motorcycle helmet, and Shia a small breathing mask which covered her nose and mouth. But their optimism soon vanished as they figured out the cause of all the dusty smoke in the air.