Chapter 219 Dependent on Each Other for Life

Chapter 219 Dependent on Each Other for Life

Sloane's POV

He was gasping for air in heavy breaths, his emotions teetering on the edge between extreme agitation and complete breakdown.

"Come with me! You doctors looking down on everyone—what gives you the right to decide whether we live or die! I'll make you all go down with me!" He roared hysterically, dragging me toward the hallway.

The gun barrel pressed hard against my temple, painfully grinding against it.

I forced myself to calm down. At a moment like this, provoking a madman who'd lost his mind would be suicide.

"Let her go!"

A familiar, cold voice suddenly cut through the thick smoke.

I struggled to open my eyes, stinging from the smoke, and looked ahead in disbelief.

Harrison?!

What was he doing in Berlin?

He wore a trench coat stained with smoke and dust, gripping tightly what looked like a fire safety pipe he'd picked up somewhere.

Those eyes, usually so gentle and calm, now burned with unprecedented fury and anxiety. He stared hard at the criminal holding me hostage, advancing step by step, radiating a ruthlessness that even I found unfamiliar.

"Don't come closer! One more step and I'll shoot!" The criminal was shaken by Harrison's presence. His hand holding the gun trembled violently, and the arm around my neck suddenly tightened.

I was choked so hard I could barely breathe, my mind racing.

"Wait!" I squeezed the words from my throat, forcing down the suffocating pain, softening my tone to try to calm the criminal. "I'm a specially appointed neurosurgeon at Charité Hospital... I know you're very sick and in pain. But if you let me go, I can treat you for free. I can help you buy more time, even find new treatment options. You have family, don't you? Don't you want to spend more time with them?"

I appealed to his emotions and reason, trying to use my identity as a doctor to awaken whatever survival instinct remained in him.

What happened next caught me completely off guard.

The criminal's eyes flickered intensely. He stared hard at my face, something extremely complicated flashing in his eyes.

It wasn't the relief of being persuaded, but rather a strangely panicked look.

He didn't even make any demands or look at Harrison again. His grip on the gun suddenly loosened, and he roughly shoved me forward.

"Get lost!"

He shouted roughly, then turned and stumbled into the thick smoke.

I staggered forward and fell into a warm embrace that carried a faint medicinal scent.

"Sloane! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Harrison held me tightly, his voice trembling as he checked me over from head to toe.

"I'm fine..." I gulped in fresh air, looking with lingering fear toward where the criminal had disappeared, but a strong sense of wrongness welled up inside me.

Too easy.

How could a terminally ill patient determined to die, willing to blow up a hospital to get revenge on society, let me go so easily because of a few light words? The way he'd looked at me just now—it was as if he recognized me, or as if he was wary of something.

"It's not safe here, we have to leave now!"

Harrison didn't give me time to think. He grabbed my wrist and rushed toward the emergency exit, shielding me.

"Harrison, what are you doing here?" I asked while running.

"The Charité Hospital conference—I was invited too." Harrison's voice sounded broken amid the alarm. "I just arrived at the hospital when the explosion happened. I've been looking everywhere for you..."

Before he could finish.

"BOOM—!!!"

Another earth-shattering explosion!

This one was even more violent than before, and much closer to us.

It felt like all the building's support columns were completely destroyed in that instant.

The ground beneath us shook violently and split apart. Huge chunks of concrete mixed with steel beams from the ceiling came crashing down like a devastating force.

A scorching, powerful blast wave hit us from behind, instantly throwing us into the air.

"Sloane! Watch out!"

In the moment I lost balance, Harrison suddenly turned around.

He spread his arms wide, using his own body as a shield, protecting me beneath him.

The massive impact, accompanied by a deafening collapse, plunged everything around us into endless darkness.

Dust, rubble, despair—we were completely buried.

...

I don't know how much time passed.

The sound of water dripping onto concrete slabs was infinitely amplified in the deathly silent space.

I struggled to open my heavy eyelids. It was pitch black all around, with only the faintest light filtering through cracks overhead.

The air was thick with dust and the sharp smell of blood.

I tried moving my body. Fortunately, aside from some scrapes and pain from impacts, I could still move my arms and legs.

"Harrison..."

I called out hoarsely, memories flooding back.

When the explosion happened, he had shielded me.

"I'm here..."

An extremely weak, barely audible voice came from above me.

My heart tightened. In the dim light, I finally made out our situation.

We were trapped in a triangular space formed by two huge collapsed prefab slabs. This was the most solid survival passage in the rubble.

And Harrison was in an extremely twisted position, his hands braced on either side of my body, his back pressed hard against the precarious load-bearing wall above.

His face was deathly pale, his forehead covered in beads of cold sweat, blood continuously seeping from the corner of his mouth.

A sharp steel rod had pierced through near his right shoulder deep into the wall behind him, blood staining most of his trench coat.

"Harrison! You're hurt!" My eyes instantly reddened. My doctor's instinct made me want to get up and check his injuries.

"Don't move..." Harrison forced a smile, his voice so weak it seemed ready to break at any moment. "The structure above... is very unstable. If you move, it could collapse any second..."

He endured the piercing pain, his gentle eyes full of reassurance. "Sloane, don't be scared... I'm fine. Take deep breaths, conserve your strength. Outside... they must have started rescue operations. We'll get out soon..."

Watching him shake all over from pain yet still force a smile to comfort me, my tears finally spilled uncontrollably.

"Are you crazy? Why did you throw yourself over? Don't you know you could die doing this!" I bit my lip, not daring to make any large movements, only reaching out with trembling hands to try to cover the wound on his shoulder that kept bleeding.

"Because..." Harrison looked at me, his blood-stained face showing an extremely light, bitter smile. "I couldn't watch you get hurt. Sloane, as long as you're okay... that's enough."