The headlights of the two borrowed vans cut twin swaths through the pre-dawn gloom, illuminating the winding dirt road back to Riverside. Inside the lead vehicle, Reuben sat in the passenger seat, his body thrumming with a fatigue so deep it felt like a separate entity. Yet, his mind was painfully, acutely clear, tethered to the relentless countdown in his vision: 18:22:17. Beside him, Anna drove with a focused calm, her hands steady on the wheel. In the back, the three volunteer nurses from Harbor City General dozed fitfully, their medical kits clutched like lifelines.
They weren’t just transporting people; they were transporting hope. The second van, driven by the veteran nurse, Carol, carried coolers filled with the miraculously procured MMR vaccines. The System’s “neutral location” de
