It had been sixteen hours since the suspension order was issued.
On the control room's main board,the word "STANDBY" stared back without expression.
Below it, numbers kept scrolling.
Unanswered deployment requests: 27Delayed transports: 14Estimated deaths: 3
None of them were "confirmed" yet.Until confirmation,they weren't reports.
Kang Doyun's phone vibrated.An unknown number.
He didn't need to answerto know who it was.
"Is it still… not possible to deploy?"
It was the child's father.His voice was already breaking.
"My kid can't breathe.Right now— even now— is it still not allowed?"
Doyun couldn't answer.
The moment he spoke,he felt he would stop being a personand become an automated voice of the system.
The call ended.
Seven minutes later, another message arrived.
[3 missed calls]
In that same span of time,another call rang in the control room.
"Elderly patient. Fell down the stairs. Semi-conscious.""Deployment denied."
"Industrial accident. Arm caught in machinery.""Deployment denied."
"Traffic collision. Vehicle rollover—""Deployment denied."
The words grew shorter.The voices lost emotion.
As people kept dying,the system became more stable.
That was when it happened.
Inside Doctor Truck No. 2,an alarm sounded.
The child's vitals were being transmitted directly,bypassing the control center.
"Cardiac arrest imminent."
Song Jaemin stood up.
He had been sitting far too long already.
"This isn't standby,"he said, staring at the control screen.
"This is abandonment."
The controller shouted,
"If you violate the order,your license will be revoked!"
Song Jaemin smiled.
It wasn't really a smile—more like breath escaping.
"My license?"
He turned off the screenand walked toward the child.
"Should I show my licenseto the kid?"
At that moment,someone spoke from the back of the room.
"The camera… it's back on."
No one ever found out who pressed it.
The live broadcast resumed.
This time, it was more brutal.
The moment the child stopped breathing.The oxygen saturation dropping.The parents' cries—
everything was live.
The chat exploded.
— "Are you just watching this?"— "What is the government doing?"— "A person is dying!"— "Deploy! Please!"
Song Jaemin didn't ask for permission again.
Kang Doyun didn't answer either.
The truck moved.
This time,there was no warning siren.
The system had already given up.
The image of the Doctor Truck racing down the roadwas captured by a drone.
For the first time,people in front of TVs and phonescheered for a truck—not the state.
"Go.""Go.""Go."
The child's heart stopped.
More precisely,it stopped—
and then started again.
When Song Jaemin's hands finally stilled,the inside of the truck was silent.
"Recovered."
That single wordtook over every broadcast.
Hours later, the administration issued a statement.
"This deployment constituteda clear violation of orders,and severe disciplinary action is under review."
The moment those words were released,the square in front of the National Assemblywas flooded with people.
One million.
Someone wrote on a placard:
"Today, the child. Tomorrow, me."
That night,Kang Doyun said to Song Jaemin,
"There's no going back now, is there?"
Song Jaemin nodded.
"There never was a way backto begin with."
The final shot lingerson a new number postedon the control room wall.
Unanswered deployment requests: 0
That number meant only one thing.
The order had collapsed.
In the next episode:the President's emergency address,the Constitutional Court begins to move,and the entire nation fractures over one question—
Can the words "deployment suspended"be erased from the law itself?