But I couldn''t speak it yet. If I was going to live here for a while, I had to try tomunicate with them.


    I knelt, reaching out to a little girl, but she flinched and pulled her hand back.


    "I''m here to help you."


    I didn''t know what I could do to help, but I knew I had to earn their trust first.


    They all exchanged uncertain nces before scattering, their bare feet moving quickly.


    The people here didn''t even have shoes.


    I asked the boatman, "Is there anywhere to buy shoes and socks around here? Do people not wear them?"


    The boatman looked down at his own bare feet. "If we had shoes, who wouldn''t wear them? There are no shoes for sale here."


    With that, he poled his raft away, a solitary figure on the vast Saltmere River, like a ferryman for hire.


    There was a single bridge, but the toll to cross it was about two hundred dors. The people here might not even earn that much in a year, so everyone relied on the rafts.


    Just as I was wondering where to even begin, feeling foolish for my impulsive decision, I realized that in this world, changing anything was next to impossible.


    The gate on the other side of the bridge opened. A convoy of cars drove across and stopped right beside me.


    Lily stepped out, dressed in ck leather from head to toe, her eyes hidden behind sunsses. I quickly ducked behind a low-lying house, hoping she hadn''t seen me.


    She had her people go door-to-door, handing out goods.


    But the residents only stared at the items Lily''s people offered, too hesitant to take them.


    Lily scanned the crowd, then got back in her car without saying a word, carrying herself with the air of a queen demanding fealty.


    She was just like Princess Harriet.


    After they left, the muddy road was scarred with deep tire tracks.


    Suddenly, the mother of the little girl from earlier screamed, "Adele! No!"


    The little girl was chasing after the cars, pleading with them to stop. "Give us back our food! We don''t want candy!"


    I looked back at the supplies. They were nothing but sugary snacks,pletely useless for staving off hunger.


    But the only answer the little girl received was a bullet that struck her in the chest. I watched as she copsed in a pool of her own blood.


    No one in the crowd dared to move.


    Everyone just watched as the girl''s mother cradled her daughter, who was coughing up blood, and cried out ave my child! Can someone Please save my child?"


    I rushed forward and pressed down on the wound, then calmly took out my surgical


    kit. "Trust me, I''m a doctor."


    I looked firmly into the mother''s eyes.


    She sped her hands together and fell to her knees before me. "Oh, God, please save my child."


    Fighting back tears, I worked to stop the bleeding. Thankfully, the bullet had missed the main artery. After a quick makeshift effort to stop the bleeding asked, is there a hospital here?"


    The girl''s mother shook her head.


    I froze. This sprawling city had no hospital? Did that mean these people were just left to die?


    Even though I had performed the surgery, she could still get an infection or suffer from any number ofplications Without a hospital, there was no way to keep her stable.


    "The raft. Can it take us to the hospital on the other side?"


    The mother nodded, a glimmer of hope in her eyes, but it vanished in the next instant as she shook her head again. “No, I don''t have any money."


    I realized then that a person''s lowest point truly is having no money.


    The greatest pain is watching someone you love suffer because you can''t afford to save them.


    "I have money. Just get her to the hospital!"


    I picked her up and started running. We had to get to a hospital as fast as possible if


    she was going to have any chance of survival.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!