[Intro]
[Clean guitar repeats the alarm motif in slow, unresolved notes.]

[Verse 1: Nurse]
The generator catches on the third exhausted turn,
Beneath the loading dock, the diesel cylinders burn.
The ceiling lights blink twice, then choose a weaker white,
Every nurse looks upward, every patient holds the night.
Bed twelve draws a narrow line that trembles on the screen,
A ventilator counts the gaps where steady breath had been.
I tape the chart against the rail; the terminals are down,
Then hear the backup engine shake its pulse beneath the ground.

[Chorus]
Backup heartbeat, count the seconds, count the load,
Backup heartbeat, diesel blood in copper roads.
Hold this room together till the morning learns our code,
Backup heartbeat—do not slow, do not go cold.
Backup heartbeat—do not go cold.

[Verse 2: Nurse]
The elevator stalls between the basement and the ward,
Two orderlies lift oxygen and carry it aboard.
The pharmacy has power, but the database is blind,
We check the printed labels, measure dose and time.
A fuel report says “full enough”; the manual gauge says low,
The depot says a tanker left three silent hours ago.
Mara calls by radio, her voice beneath the strain:
“Do not trust the level feed. I’m trying to break the chain.”

[Pre-Chorus]
One floor dims to feed the next,
One ward waits, one room connects.
The engine coughs, the needles start—
A metal lung, a borrowed heart.

[Chorus]
Backup heartbeat, count the seconds, count the load,
Backup heartbeat, diesel blood in copper roads.
Hold this room together till the morning learns our code,
Backup heartbeat—do not slow, do not go cold.
Backup heartbeat—do not go cold.

[Instrumental]
[Clean guitar and bass trade the three-note figure while the drums imitate the uneven generator cycle.]

[Bridge: Nurse]
The child in bed twelve wakes and asks
Why every hallway wears a mask.
I tell her dawn is coming soon,
Then watch the fuel gauge leave the room.

[Buildup]
Thirty percent.
Twenty-five.
Keep the weakest circuit alive.
Twenty percent.
No truck in sight.
Strip the building down to light.

[Final Chorus: Nurse + Mara]
Backup heartbeat, count the seconds, count the load,
Backup heartbeat, carry life through severed roads.
Mara says, “I found the route—I know where it must shut,”
Backup heartbeat, give her time before you go.
Every measured rhythm is a promise that we hold—
Backup heartbeat… do not go cold.

[Outro]
The engine misses once.
The whole ward holds its breath.
Then metal finds the rhythm—
And postpones another death.
