“Take her,” Vera handed her off to Eli, who raced back inside.
Vera slumped next to Lynn on the bank, clutching her wet arms to her sides. “It was the only thing I could think of,” she said. “Once the fever gets past a hundred and five there can be serious brain damage. I had to cool her, fast.”
“Did it work?” Stebbs asked.
“She stopped seizing, but it will spike again.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Lynn asked.
“I’m guessing it’s a bacterial infection, though it could be viral. Her medical history makes me think the former; she’s always been susceptible to the bacterial kind.”
“Neva said Lucy’s fevers always went real high,” Stebbs said.
“Some people’s bodies burn higher than others.” Vera rose to her feet, looking at the ice crystals re-forming where she’d broken through with Lucy’s frail body. “It’ll spike again, and I’ll have to dunk her.”
“I have some medicine,” Lynn said. “It’s mostly expired, but there is some aspirin. That can bring down a fever, can’t it?”
“It can, but if it’s old it can’t do much against what she’s facing. It’s probably too much to hope that you have some antibiotics?”
Lynn shook her head and followed Vera as she started back to the house and her patient, wet arms clutched against the rising wind. The older woman kicked in anger at a frozen clod of dirt. “I smuggled some medicine out of the city when I went, but I hid my pack when I ran into those men on the road.”
“Is it far?”
“Too far on foot to do Lucy much good. They picked me up in their truck and we drove a while before we got to their camp.”
“How long?”
Vera gave a shudder that had nothing to do with the temperature. “Long time.”
“Did you have a general sense of direction? Could you find it again?”
Lynn opened the door for Vera and they descended into the basement together. Eli had wrapped Lucy in the extra blankets and had her lying in the cot near the fire. Vera put her hand on her forehead, frowning. “I had a compass on me, and a map. They took them both. I know we traveled east to get here, and I could recognize the area again. By the time we found the meds and came back though, it would be too late.”
“I have a truck,” Lynn said. “I’ll drive you.”
Vera tucked the blankets tightly around her granddaughter, her decision made the second she put her hand against Lucy’s burning flesh. “We leave now. Eli—stay close to Lucy. If she seizes again, you’ll have to dunk her. I know it’s ugly, but it’s the only way to keep her temp down. Let me see those aspirin.”
Lynn handed the coveted bottle over to Vera, ashamed at the rattling of so few pills inside.
“These are years past effectiveness,” Vera said critically. “Usually I’d say the drug is broken down past any use, but we don’t have a lot of options.” She handed the bottle to Eli. “Crush up two of these and mix it with some water, try to get Lucy to drink it. You—” She pointed to Stebbs. “Strip the other cot and start some water boiling so there will be clean bedding ready. And keep the water boiling to sterilize the dirty. If this fever breaks, she’ll be covered in sweat, and vomiting will probably follow. That’s the best-case scenario.”
“What’s the worst case?” Stebbs asked.
“It doesn’t break.”
The truck started without a problem, and Lynn let out a sigh of relief.
“You were worried?” Vera asked.
“Don’t drive much, except for emergencies,” she answered. “Truck doesn’t always want to start up, and that’s the kind of day it’s been.”
“Right.”
Lynn headed straight west, her hands drumming against the wheel in an effort to channel her energy. Words bubbled up from her chest, looking for an outlet. “We’re lucky they didn’t come until after the melt. Even in this truck we couldn’t have managed the roads in all that snow.” The idea that something as simple as a snowmelt could dictate whether Lucy lived or died left her feeling shaky and unanchored.
“They talked about coming sooner,” Vera said calmly. “But Roger—the one who did all the talking—”
“Gap Tooth?” Vera gave her a blank look. “The one missing teeth?”
“Yes—that’s Roger. He said they should wait. They wanted Neva, but they knew they would have to take you by surprise. If they used the trucks, you’d hear the engine and be on the roof in a second, and they couldn’t make the walk until the snow melted a little. Roger said from what they knew of you they had no guarantee you wouldn’t shoot us all, including me.”
“A couple of months ago, I might’ve,” Lynn admitted.
“How did Lucy end up with you?”
Lynn was quiet for a moment, weighing her words. Vera still didn’t know Neva was dead, and it would fall to her to tell her.