Naia teleported a few times to find someone lucid enough to ask. The two very ill people were in her space while she was doing this, freeing up her hands.
This town was not that big. It was just being developed as some sort of modern industrial area focusing on tech, but the process was still at the starting stage. It was not far away from Amber City, so the development until recently had been focused in that direction.
Basically, there was no big hospital in this town, just some clinics, because people could just be sent to Amber City. The nearest medical facility was a clinic located in one of the buildings.
Unfortunately, that building was highly unstable. It might give way after an aftershock or two, so Naia opted to choose another one.
After a few more jumps, she eventually ended up in a standalone clinic in the suburbs. It was the kind where there was only one doctor on duty at all times and did not have equipment better than an X-ray.
She entered the place, and unfortunately, the earthquake messed up its interiors, and the entire drop ceiling had already fallen down. If there was any consolation, she hadn’t seen a body so far. It was not a dense neighborhood, so it wasn’t surprising there were no patients.
"Urghh..."
Naia heard a groan from underneath and blinked. She used her ability to check for signs of life and saw one. She took all the debris in the room, especially those above the person, into her space.
Underneath was a pretty young girl, probably just in her early 20s. Fortunately, the bed rolled over her, catching most of the dry board ceilings, so she was relatively unharmed except for some scratches.
The girl flinched when she saw Naia, then realized that the surfaces that covered her were now gone. She entered a daze, puzzled.
"Are you a doctor?" Naia asked, bringing the girl back to reality. "Are you the resident doctor in this clinic?"
She shook her head. "Not yet," she said. "I...my cousin is the doctor here, but he’s...busy."
"I see...can you treat patients?"
She blinked. "I haven’t graduated yet..." but she paused, recalling the earthquake. There must’ve been a lot of injuries. "All I know is first aid and some basic procedures..."
"Good," Naia said, smiling, pulling her up and pointing at the bed and sofa. There was a seriously injured person on each surface. First aid was already done on them, so the bleeding had partially stopped already. The next step was to perform surgery on them because the bleeding was obviously internal.
The girl flinched. When did these people get here?
"Can you treat them?"
The girl, Liya, was pale and took a look. She shook her head after a few moments. She was not allowed to perform surgery either.
"You already graduated, haven’t you? You must have some experience in surgery, even as an assistant."
"I don’t have any equipment or a sterile room."
Naia looked at her, wondering whether to take her in the space or not. "Do you have family nearby? Where’s your cousin? Should we call him?"
The girl paused, and her expression darkened a bit. The shock of everything and the pain from her own wounds wasn’t good for her patience. "He’s probably frolicking with his girlfriend in some tourist spot somewhere. He hasn’t been in the clinic for weeks."
"What about other family members?"
"Only an aunt and an uncle, the cousin’s parents."
"I can...bring you to a place with basic facilities, but you can’t tell anyone about it."
"Huh?"
"Do you promise?"
"A-Ah..." Liya found herself nodding under her stare, and the next thing she knew she was facing some sort of open area with a group of 2-storey buildings!
The girl looked at her surroundings; she was definitely not inside the clinic anymore!
Liya touched her head. Did she have a bad concussion or something?
...
Naia set everyone up in the clinic, showing Liya where the items were before heading out. Naia returned to the laboratory an hour after she left, with everyone already ready to go.
They were already packed up and waiting outside the building. Kael gave her a sign, and Naia headed into the laboratory to take in all equipment and documents that the others couldn’t hold in their own bags.
Naia was introduced to the two new members of their team.
One of them was a 31-year-old man with the interesting name of Genius. His parents clearly manifested their wish when naming him, though he had a low EQ and had offended a lot of people, which allowed Kael to recruit him for an affordable price.
His parents died a few years ago. His father died first in a car accident, while his mother was unable to bear the loss and died of depression soon after that. He himself wasn’t very comforting to be with, so he was unable to keep his own mother from willingly dying ahead of him.
The other one, Errol, was far more sociable and was heading to the Capital with them. He actually had relatives in Amber City, but just the thought of spending time with that strict bastard stressed him out. Besides, his parents were in the capital.
"Are we traveling with them in the car?" Kael asked as he looked at the scientists, who just looked confused. If they weren’t getting taken in the car, how else would they be taken?
"Can we test out a few things?" Naia asked, and then looked at the other members of their team. By this time, only Gale and Glen were left outside. The scientists just thought the others had gone ahead elsewhere.
"Can you try to say where you have been all this time?" Naia asked the siblings. "You can be detailed."
Gale and Glen looked at each other, then at the scientists, before attempting to speak about the space.
Unexpectedly, no voice came out. It was like they would selectively lose their voices whenever they wanted to tell something about the space!
Similarly, trying to write or type it also felt similar. It was as if their fingers suddenly lost strength.
This made everyone’s eyebrows rise.
Instead of feeling offended, Glen and Gale were relieved. This way, they could be assured that no one but Naia could leak its existence through words or action.
The space was a life-saving device not just for Naia, but for all of them.
And so, the group took everyone into the space, and the scientists looked like they had short-circuited. After they escaped their daze, a barrage of questions followed, which was characteristic of a scientist’s curiosity about the unknown.
Naia and Kael were vague, telling them they’d learn more as they contributed to the team, making the two shut up and focus on their task at hand.
When they saw that they had a laboratory for their exclusive use—and it even included all the equipment they were familiar with—it suddenly felt like they had gone home.
"This will be your new laboratory," Naia said. "If you have requirements and other requests, do tell us. We’ll do our best to provide you with the best equipment we could gather."
Naia, as well as the others, smiled at the newcomers, who were admittedly a bit dazed by her beauty.
"Welcome to the family."
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