Hope Yáo's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Hope stood in front of the warehouse at dawn, counting what it would cost her. The building was three times larger than her clinic, with loading bays that could become intake rooms and offices that could hold real beds. A man she'd never met before had left her the address on a scrap of paper. The yellow shield was spray-painted across the entrance doors, still wet enough to catch the morning light. Valor territory. The gang didn't give things away — they made investments. Hope pulled out the paper again and found the second line she'd been avoiding all night: "Protection included. Your parents' old patient list in exchange." She folded the paper once, then again, making the crease sharp enough to hurt her thumb. The sanctuary she'd dreamed about was right here, real and possible, but the names in her mother's records would put fifty people in danger. She put the paper in her pocket and walked toward the doors anyway, because turning around would cost her more. Inside, the warehouse was hollow and cold. Her footsteps echoed against steel walls. There was enough space for twenty beds, maybe thirty if she used the second floor. She could see it already — the surgical bay near the loading dock, the pharmacy behind reinforced doors, the recovery room where people could sleep without fear. But the patient list sat in a locked drawer back at the clinic, and every name in it belonged to someone who had trusted her parents. Hope pressed her palm against the nearest wall and felt the chill of the metal. She would need three days to decide. Three days to choose between the sanctuary that could save hundreds and the fifty people whose safety her parents had died protecting. The warehouse waited, silent and patient, while she added the choice to her running tab.