When I'm on the night shift, all the department heads can't sleep.

The specially modified emergency rescue vehicle, designed for use in the emergency department, sped out of the underground parking garage, its tires screeching on the asphalt road as it raced along, straddling the double yellow lines.

In the passenger seat, Fang Rui gripped the overhead armrests tightly with both hands, his face pale from the excessive gravitational acceleration.

He was wearing a newly issued fluorescent yellow special rescue vest, and a heavy chemical protective positive pressure breathing apparatus was placed at his feet.

"Teacher Lin... We've never been to a scene like this before. I've only ever seen this kind of equipment in the PPT of infection control training."

Fang Rui swallowed.

Lin Ye sat at the control panel in the back row, quickly taking inventory of the equipment hanging on his tactical vest.

Portable ultrasound probes, bone marrow infusion guns, tactical tourniquets, tracheotomy kits, cricothyroid membrane puncture needles... everything is secured in a modular mesh bag within easy reach.

"Since the Emergency RRT is called a rapid response team, we can't just sit in an air-conditioned clinic waiting for people to come to us." Lin Ye tightened the Velcro straps on his tactical gloves, his voice calm and stern. "The cross-river tunnel is 4.5 kilometers long, with six lanes in both directions. If a tanker truck overturns in the middle section, accompanied by an explosion and toxic gas leak, it becomes a natural 'seal'. The injured can't get out, and ordinary ambulances can't get in. That's why we have to go forward."

Lin Ye patted the black breathing mask beside him and stared into Fang Rui's eyes.

"Remember these two ironclad rules. First, upon arriving at the scene, check the wind vane and gas detectors. Without confirmation from the fire department, do not take a single step forward. Second, a doctor dying at the scene is not considered a death in the line of duty, but rather hindering the rescue efforts. Understand?!"

"Understood!"

Fang Rui took a deep breath and nodded vigorously.

Ten minutes later, at the north entrance of the cross-river tunnel.

The sight before them made their hearts sink.

The ramps leading into and out of the tunnel were completely paralyzed, and hundreds of cars were stuck on the approach bridge.

Thick black smoke billowed out from the massive dome, filling the air with a pungent, acrid smell of sulfur and ammonia.

A regular ambulance was stuck 500 meters away and could not move an inch.

"Make way! RRT emergency vehicle!"

The driver turned on the high-pitched obstacle-clearing horn, and the special vehicle drove directly over the green median strip, roaring all the way to the closed tunnel entrance defense line.

The special operations fire commander, his face covered in soot, rushed up and roared.

"Who allowed you to get so close?! A tanker truck overturned and leaked phosphorus trichloride in the middle of the tunnel, and a bus rear-ended it. The temperature inside exceeded 60 degrees Celsius, and thick smoke sealed everything off!"

Lin Ye didn't waste any words, directly pulling out the black RRT authorization card with the special approval seals of the Municipal Emergency Management Committee and the General Office from his chest, and slamming it in front of the commander:

"Municipal First Hospital Emergency Critical Care Rapid Response Team, Commander Lin Ye! We are equipped with positive pressure protective gear and request permission to accompany your advance demolition team into the tunnel on four-wheeled off-road motorcycles! How many people are trapped in the bus?"

The commander glanced at the highest response level code on the access card, and his pupils contracted sharply.

He took another look at the young doctor in front of him, then gritted his teeth:

"A double-decker sleeper bus, carrying 42 people! The front of the bus crashed into the rear of the tanker truck and was completely crushed. The driver and the front-seat passengers are trapped inside the deformed frame and can't get out! The air inside is too toxic; the injured won't last more than 15 minutes!"

The commander waved his hand: "Change their breathing apparatus! Get them in the off-road vehicles, follow me!"

"Click!"

The heavy, fully enclosed gas mask was fastened to my face, and positive pressure airflow rushed into my mouth and nose through the air tube, blocking out the pungent smells from the outside world, leaving only the heavy, thunderous sound of my own heartbeat.

Lin Ye slung a 30-pound special first-aid kit over his shoulder, climbed onto the back of the all-terrain motorcycle, and grabbed Fang Rui's hand, shouting, "Hold on tight!"

"boom--!!"

Four heavy-duty four-wheeled off-road motorcycles roared like beasts, billowing thick smoke, and charged into the dark depths of the tunnel like a sharp knife piercing the darkness!

My vision was instantly taken away.

The two pale beams of light from the headlights could only illuminate two or three meters ahead in the thick smoke, and the broken hazard lights flickered an eerie red light in the smoke.

The tunnel was stuffy and hot like a steamer, and even through a mask, one could faintly smell a nauseatingly sweet and fishy odor.

After passing dozens of wrecked cars with their doors wide open from the collision, the motorcycle came to an abrupt stop 30 meters from the middle of the accident scene.

The scene before me was like a hellish battlefield.

A heavy tanker truck overturned and lay across the road. A gruesome gash was torn open at the back of the tank, and thick, yellowish-green smoke was gushing out with a hissing sound. Corrosive yellow liquid flowed on the ground, with dense white bubbles rising from it.

Directly behind the tanker truck, the front of a huge red long-distance bus was completely flattened, and the entire bus was compressed to half its original length like a soda can.

Behind the shattered windshield, chilling cries and pleas for help emanated.

"Help...help! My leg is broken!"

"Mommy...it's so dark, Mommy!"

"Fang Rui, immediately activate START triage!" Lin Ye jumped out of the car, his voice vibrating through the walkie-talkie. "Those who can walk out on their own should be labeled green and led to the ventilation shaft for evacuation by the fire department from the outside; those with weak moans, severe bleeding, or difficulty breathing should be labeled red and a bone marrow access line established on the spot to stop the bleeding! Act quickly!"

"yes!"

Fang Rui took a deep breath, grabbed a handful of red and green fluorescent triage wristbands, and rushed towards the escape route that had been pried open at the rear door of the bus.

Lin Ye, carrying his surgical kit, stepped over the broken glass and engine oil scattered on the ground and rushed straight to the driver's cab.

The cockpit was completely deformed, with the steering wheel and instrument panel shifted back nearly a meter, trapping a slightly overweight driver in his fifties firmly in the seat.

Lin Ye shone his powerful headlamp on him, and his pupils contracted sharply.

The driver had fallen into a deep sleep, his face turning a strange purplish-brown.

His right thigh was pierced by a broken I-beam anti-collision steel beam, and dark red blood flowed wildly down the seat like a tap turned on, accumulating into a large pool of blood at his feet.

"Ruptured femoral artery, massive bleeding!"

He quickly pulled out a tactical tourniquet, tightened it, and lay down in the cramped and deformed gap. Ignoring the sharp metal that tore through his white coat, he tightly tied the tourniquet five centimeters from the wound near his heart and forcefully rotated the wrench.

"Hang! Lock!"

The gushing blood was finally stopped, but Lin Ye's fingers were on the driver's carotid artery, and his heart sank straight down.

Due to prolonged direct inhalation of leaked corrosive chemical gases, the driver's neck swelled up like a bucket, and each inhalation was accompanied by a high-pitched and shrill "whoosh" sound—a sign of inspiratory retractions, indicating severe edema and necrosis of the airway mucosa and impending complete closure of the glottis!

"The oxygen saturation is only 48%!" Fang Rui, having just finished treating several passengers, scrambled to the front of the vehicle. "His glottis is completely swollen; a regular endotracheal tube simply can't be inserted!"

"He can't even lift his head in this position, making a routine tracheotomy impossible!"

Just then, a series of blinding sparks suddenly erupted from the wreckage of the tanker truck next to them!

Immediately afterwards, the multi-gas complex detector on the firefighter's body emitted an extremely piercing high-frequency alarm!

"Sizzle—Boom!"

The remaining wires ignited a blue flame in the leaking oil, which quickly spread along the chemical liquid on the ground!

"Retreat! Everyone retreat immediately!" the special operations captain roared desperately into the walkie-talkie. "The tanker truck's second explosion is imminent! Only three minutes left! If we don't evacuate now, the entire tunnel will be blown up! Retreat!!"

The bus's steel frame creaked and groaned under the intense heat.

Sparks flew as the firefighters used hydraulic spreaders to free the driver's right leg from the massive, jammed pillar within three minutes!

The faint "roar" sound from the driver's throat completely disappeared.

Suffocation, heartbeat about to stop.

Outside was a raging inferno of hazardous chemicals about to explode; inside were critically injured people trapped in the rubble, their lives hanging by a thread.

"Doctor! It's too late! Abandon him! We have to evacuate!!"

The special operations captain rushed up and grabbed Lin Ye's tactical vest tightly.

Lin Ye abruptly shook off the special operations captain's hand and ripped off the goggles that were covered in blood.

Amidst the flickering firelight and toxic smoke, Lin Ye suddenly pulled out a cold, specialized bone saw and a large cricothyroid membrane puncture cannula from the bottom of the first aid kit, and slammed the cannula hard into Fang Rui's chest!

"Fang Rui, hold his jaw down and blindly puncture the cricothyroid membrane with a cannula to provide oxygen!"

Lin Ye's roar exploded inside the mask, and the bone saw, gleaming with a chilling light, was aimed directly at the driver's groin, which was firmly stuck in the steel.

"If you want to live, saw off his leg within three minutes!!"