Krisis (After the Cure Book 3) by Deirdre Gould Read Free Book Online

if she could help it. “You might want to shave their heads and find those heavy work gloves for their hands. They are pulling out their hair, see?” Ruth pointed to the large sores in Owen’s scalp and Juliana glanced up. “They are also biting their hands because it’s all they can reach. Charlie— my son, does it too. We keep his hands bandaged because those big gloves would just slide off his little fingers.” She watched as Juliana’s face became grim and then pitying. Ruth turned away for her scissors and gently cut the remaining tufts of hair around Owen’s scabs. Then she checked the rest of him while Juliana continued washing him. The whole thing only took a few minutes, but the women didn’t look at each other again. And then it was time for the next room.
    It went on for nearly five hours, but it felt more normal to Ruth than most of the rest of her life. For a while she could pretend she was making rounds at the hospital and that she would go home through the bustling, brightly lit city to Bill and a sleeping Charlie at the end. That she’d wake Charlie up for school in the morning and Bill would make her eggs and coffee. That everything would be back the way it was. But the restraints, the missing supplies, the silence without the whir of hundreds of machines in the background, all broke the illusion and bore down bit by bit.
    By the time they were nearing the end, Ruth was exhausted and even Juliana was flagging. The people they were treating had fallen asleep though, which made it easier and faster to get through. “You do this how many times?” asked Ruth.
    “Once a day most of the time. Sometimes baths are every other day if I need to spend extra time on someone’s bandages or something, but teeth get done every night and I try to at least wipe their faces.”
    “What about diapers?” asked Ruth.
    Juliana cringed. “Don’t think ill of me. I just have trouble fitting it around everything else. If I had help, maybe I could do it more often. Right now it’s twice a day for each. I know I should check more often, but I need to grow the food to feed them and prepare it and get them medicine when they need and—”
    Ruth put a hand on her arm to stop her. “Listen, I’m the last person to criticize. You’re doing your best for people that no one else cares for, dozens of them. I can barely muster my best for my only child every day. There should be a fleet of nurses for these people, not just one person. Who’s taking care of you ? When are you sleeping?”
    Juliana shook her head and waved Ruth off. “Never mind that, I get by. We just have one left and then we’ll be able to clean up and go to bed. He’s been coughing a lot and hasn’t eaten much. I found him on the road about a week ago. He was already sick, but I thought warm food and being out of the cold might fix it. He’s just gotten worse.” She opened the door and Ruth knelt down beside the sleeping man. He was damp with sweat, though the room was not hot. She could hear his breath catching in his chest and she touched the back of his neck. It was so hot that it hurt her fingertips. “Get out, Juliana,” she whispered.
    “What?” hissed Juliana, “ he’s passed out.”
    “Get out, and shut the door. I’ll be out in a moment. Don’t come back in here and go bleach or burn everything that has touched this man.”
    Juliana backed out slowly as she pushed a battery powered lantern toward Ruth with her foot, then shut the door behind her. Ruth pulled the stethoscope from her kit, already knowing what she would hear. The question was how to prevent it from spreading to the rest of them. She pressed the diaphragm against the man’s heaving back. The crackling she heard didn’t surprise her. She halfheartedly tapped a finger over his chest, almost ignoring the flat thuds through the stethoscope. She had no antibiotics. Even if she could find some, they’d probably be no good now. She didn’t even know if it was