"I can't wait to get the hell out of this place." Bea, the night shift nurse, has been chanting these words as she prepares to go home five minutes past midnight.

Bathed in the stench of vomit and body secretions from the toxic 16-hour shift in the emergency room, she kept walking. Her shift ended at 10 pm, but she had to endorse a lot of patients, adding two more hours to her already exasperating job.

She has become used to it. She smiled despite her droopy eyes and fatigued body as she walked to the jeepney station, squirming and doing her best to go home.

"One of the perks of going home this late is that there's no longer an ineffable line of passengers," she thought.

"One seat left, then it can go!"

She raised her head, and, as expected, a jeepney was already waiting for her. The station was empty. She studied the area and wondered where the barker she had heard was. But there was no one outside the jeepney, just the flickering light from a barely functional lamppost.

Bea was so tired.

She disregarded the cool breeze that stroked against her neck. She didn't pay attention as every hair on her body began to stand up as she stepped onto their transport. She lowered her head and searched for the next vacant area she could locate. Bea turned to face the lady in front of her, who was looking at the driver's seat.

She carefully sat down and gently squeezed herself to the tight spot. She pulled out a twenty-peso bill. "One passenger, going to Quiapo."

She waited with her arm extended. She kept trying to pay her fare, but the passengers in front of her were simply ignoring her. She sighed and returned her money to her bag. "I'll pass it over later. Everyone might be exhausted," she said quietly to herself. She closed her eyes, making the best of the one-hour travel time she had.

As their ride drove through the vacant streets, the breeze conveyed the aroma of everything it came across. In Bea's case, she started to notice how the individuals in front of her smelled. Her brow furrows. She began covering her nose.

"It smells like the dying foot of a diabetic patient." She despises the stench of diabetic patients whose feet have necrotized due to a lack of healing ability. Her job would expose her to the most repulsive situations. A dying human tissue smells much worse than a decaying rat. "Maybe I'm just too exhausted."

She kept her eyes closed, convinced that the stink from one of her patients in the emergency room had gotten on her clothes. She was ready to fall asleep when she felt an icy skin touched her forearm. She simply ignored it once more. "Must be from holding packs of ice near the burn unit this afternoon," she speculated.

She shut her eyes even more tightly. She nibbled the insides of her cheeks. She began to suspect something was wrong. But she tried to convince herself that she was simply overfatigued and that her body was playing a joke on her. Bea had run out of energy. She just needed to wait till she arrived at her stop. She reached back into her bag and pulled out a bill.

"Here's my fare, from Gil Puyat going to Quapo!" she shouted this time. Since no one was listening to her before, she made sure they'd pay her attention. Still, everyone just ignored her. She has had enough. "What's wrong with you peop—"

Bea froze when a passenger grabbed her hand that was holding the bill. It was dark inside the jeepney. But she learned from her years of experience as a nurse what a normal skin turgor should feel like. And the hand that held hers was far from normal. The skin was uneven. Bea could feel a flapping portion of the skin dangling from the person's wrist. She could sense the gooey pus flowing to her hand.

Did she feel disgusted? No. Disgust was not what awoke her senses. It was the sensation of dread. The crushing outburst of anxiety had clogged every pore in her body. What better method to awaken a person than a brain in desperate need of oxygen? Bea couldn't breathe right then.

As her gaze shifted to everyone within the vehicle, she did her best to scream. She gathered all of her courage to stand up. But her lips seemed sewn together. Her buttocks felt stuck to the seat. She could only move her neck.

"Help us," said the man in the back. His voice was croaky. A metal beam was pierced through the side of his chest and passed through the fourth person next to him like a barbecue stick. Their mouths were pouring with blood from their already smashed organs.

"Why won't you help us?" the lady on the front seat asked Bea. Half of her face was missing. It was as if it got shaved out from sliding down the concrete. Her right eye is dangling just above her nose.

"We called you." The boy in school uniform in front of Bea grabbed the hem of her uniform. "But you did nothing."

"I don't know you people!" Finally, words escaped Bea's bound lips. "Stop the jeepney! I just want to go home."

"We wanted to go home, too, nurse Bea," the woman clutching Bea's hand finally remarked. Between her knees is a bayong packed with meat and fish, as if she had just returned from the market. But they were rotten. Bea screamed as she saw the lady's small intestine dangling from her tummy to the bayong. The woman's stomach was completely exposed from what appeared to be an impact.

Everyone inside the vehicle looked unsightly. Five were covered in shards of glass. Some had their brains overflowing from their exposed skulls.

Even the driver had his head embedded in the broken windshield while driving. The driver's voice reached Bea's seat. "We also just wanted to go home. Why didn't you help us?"

"What are you talking about? I don't even know anyone of y—"

Bea was cut by a flashback. She scanned everyone inside the jeepney once more.Their conditions. Their injuries. The place they were in. Everything was familiar.

Then it hit her.

"We are at full capacity!" It was a phone call. She had to cover another person's shift, but she was so tired. "Go bring them to another hospital!"

Bea remembered one of her usual lies. It was another phone call about turning down a wave of casualties. On the other line were the paramedics, trying their best to find the nearest emergency room for all the victims of an automobile accident. Bea dropped the call even before the paramedics could respond.

She lied though. They were not at full capacity. They could still take in at least four new patients that time. But Bea was exhausted, so she lied.

"Help!" was the only thing she could scream inside the jeepney. "Someone, please help me!"

She looked outside, but everything seemed to be a huge void. She could feel it in her gut that she has to go down before their ride reaches its destination.

"Please!" she begged. She looked into each of the victim's eyes. "I never meant to. I was just so tired. I just wanted to give you a better chance in another hospital."

However, her workplace was the one closest to the crash site. The next hospital would take another hour to reach.

"You know you lied," the lady on her left finally said. Bea's eyes grew wider. Despite her bloodied appearance, her nursing cap and clothing were recognizable. She was also a nurse. This nurse worked for her hospital too. This nurse was also injured in the collision. She is well aware that their facility has never been in full capacity for years. "You know we could have had the best chance if we went there."

Tears started pouring out of Bea's eyes. She tried to call for help even more. But her voice started to fade. No matter how much she begged for help, her throat wouldn't make any sound.

No one could hear her.

Just like how she remained deaf when others needed her the most.