At the clinic gate, a 7-year-old collapsed, crying, “Mommy has been sleeping for three days, please save them.” The doctor rushed to help the newborn twins, but as he lifted them, his hands shook. Underneath the babies was a handwritten note from the mother that made the doctor freeze in terror…

It was a fortress of glass and white concrete. But my body was shutting down. The gray fuzz at the edge of my vision was encroaching on the center. The shrieking of the wheel sounded muffled, like it was underwater.

I took one step onto the asphalt. Then another. The heat radiating from the blacktop burned the soles of my bleeding feet.

Suddenly, my continue reading …