Ethan came to the bus and pounded on the door, so Devora opened it and he climbed the steps. “Les wants everybody out to help unload and sort what we want to take with us,” he said. “We can’t take it all and a lot of it is spoiled but there’s stuff we can use.”
“Did you see any cargo for the pharmacy?” Devora asked anxiously. “Or soup or?—”
“No telling what all’s in there,” Ethan replied. “Les wants you to come keep a tally and keep your eyes peeled for what the kid needs, okay?”
“I can’t leave her here alone in the bus,” Devora protested.
“There’s shade on the side of the truck. She can sit there.” He hopped off the steps and the other passengers filed out.
Sandy, the girl who’d been helping her in the hot springs kitchen, paused beside the seat where Jenny was resting. “I can keep an eye on her out there, if Les will let me,” she offered.
“You’re not afraid she’ll turn and bite you?” Devora asked a little bitterly because Sandy hadn’t spoken up to support her earlier.
The girl blushed and averted her eyes. “We all have to do what we think is best or we ain’t going to survive this.”
Deciding she needed not to bear a grudge against someone offering to help, Devora left the driver’s seat. “I’ll carry her if you can take her backpack and the towel we’re using for a blanket.”
Les met them halfway to the truck. “Good call on your part to make me stop,” he said to Devora. “There’ll be a lot of stuff in there we can use. I don’t know yet if there’ll be anything to help Jenny though but I’m hopeful.”
She nodded and continued on her way to the shade, where she made Jenny as comfortable as she could and left the toddler with Sandy reading her a book.
“How’s she doing?” Les asked as he walked with her to the tail of the truck. “Still burning up?”
“Yes. I’m really worried so I hope we strike it lucky with this hauler and find meds, or at the very least juice or soup.”
“He had a packed trailer. I’m not unloading all of it because we can only carry so much in the bus. We’ll leave it closed up and maybe in the future we can come back and use the rest. Or someone else will come along and be happy.”
The unloading was organized chaos. Devora got out her handheld and recorded what supplies the truck contained and she and Les made quick decisions what to take to the bus and what would go back in the truck. The passengers were working enthusiastically and there were small piles of snack foods and soft drinks on the edge of the road. Devora gave Les a look, eyebrows raised and he shrugged.
“There’s so much here I didn’t see the harm in letting them take what they wanted, after I made sure it shouldn’t go to Jenny.”
“People will eat themselves sick,” she said tartly.
Ethan emerged from the truck carrying a container. “Oh hey, Devora, just the person I needed to see. Found a whole case of sports drinks. Good for replenishing electrolytes,” he reminded her when she must have had a blank look on her face. Sports weren’t her thing, not even when she’d been a cheerleader in school.
Excited now, she waited impatiently while Les and Ethan opened the crate to reveal a wide variety of flavors. She’d never tried any of the stuff herself but when she took a bottle to examine, she found details printed on the side about how restorative the fluid was, even better than water. She grabbed a passing man by the sleeve and handed him a fruit flavored bottle. “Take this to Sandy over in the shade. Tell her to get Jenny to drink as much as she’s willing to force down.”
He gave her a frown but did as she’d ordered.
“We’ll take all of this,” Les said.
“Hey, boss,” called a refugee from inside the trailer. “Come check this out.”
Les climbed into the truck and disappeared from Devora’s view into the shadows at the back. She worked fast, making her list of inventory, thanking the Lords of Space for putting this windfall into their path. Chances were the small towns on the road ahead had been picked clean by other refugees already. At least she could keep Jenny hydrated now, which would help with the fever even if no meds could be found.
“This is your lucky day,” Les called as he came into sight, lugging a crate marked with the standard red cross on a white background, labelled ‘High Priority’ and ‘Meds’. “This was going to the pharmacy in the town ahead. Keep your fingers crossed for fluban.”
Nerves on edge, thrumming with tension, Devora stood by as Ethan shot out the lock with his blaster and Les opened the container.. The interior was packed with neatly stacked meds of all types which Les carefully removed and placed on the pavement. “Figure we’ll take all of this with us to Glastine. Might buy us extra goodwill if we arrive bearing gifts.” He whistled and held up a box of twelve fluban medinjects. “This what we’ve been hoping for?”
Devora grabbed the box from his hand and read the instructions hastily. “Oh my goodness, yes. The dose is adjustable for kids.” She clawed at the flap and extracted a sealed medinject. “I’m going to give it to Jenny right now.”
“Good idea. We’ll seal this up and stow it in the cargo compartment,” Les said.
He was talking to her back as she ran to where she’d left Sandy and Jenny, who was now drowsing.
“Did she drink any of the sports stuff?” she asked as she worked to open the packaging and then to fine tune the dose for a small child.
”Nearly the whole bottle and it didn’t upset her stomach, at least not so far,” the woman reported proudly. “What have you got there?”
