Waiting to Die The Coming Unstoppable Pandemic

A short story
Since the 1918-1919 influenza that killed over 50 million people, humankind has feared return of the pandemic, an extraordinarily mutated virus.
It’s here.
As before, with the Spanish Flu, mostly healthy young adults are dying, so many that hospitals can no longer provide for them. Derek Whitfield, retired 25-year Army veteran, has volunteered for end-of-life hospice care. End of life usually lasts just one day, sometimes only hours. The signal of the end is the beginning of a lowering blood-pressure and a slight rise in body temperature: "shallow respirations," officially.
Derek sees nothing but darkness waiting on The Other Side, until he meets Susannah Brite, his forty-second client.