Jericho by Rachel Mumaw

Author:Rachel Mumaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: [978-1-63730-275-0]
Publisher: Rachel Mumaw
Published: 2021-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The next afternoon Riley found themself torn away from doing inventory with the Reverend and instead setting the leg of a four-year-old boy named Jack. The little boy had screamed at the top of his lungs the entire time, leaving his dad Ben frazzled and heartbroken. Kate, the medical contact for Delta, had escorted Riley and the Reverend there and had led the way out of the house once everything was done.

“Thanks for dropping everything to come help. I’ve splinted enough bones in my lifetime, but that leg was something else,” Kate said as she closed the door to the small townhouse. She’d been an EMT before the Collapse, went by “Peppermint” over the radio, and was the only person the Reverend trusted to provide medical care and distribute medication in Delta. As a tall, heavy-set woman with fierce blue eyes, flyaway gray hair and soft wrinkles, she looked as if she’d either scare the sickness out of you or laugh it away.

“Keep a close eye on it. I’m worried about infection,” Riley said as the small group hurried down the steps to the dirt below. “He’ll never regain use of that leg, not if it’s broken in two places, but I don’t want to risk amputation unless we have to.”

“I’ll check on them every day,” Kate said. “Maybe round up a couple of the teens to watch after the kid so Ben can get work.”

“Make sure they’re trustworthy,” the Reverend said, scanning up and down the road. It was mostly empty in the heat of the day with people lounging in open doors or other patches of shade as they kept an eye on their stands.

“Now, Rev, you know I always do,” Kate replied, folding her arms. “Everything’s been quiet on the whole anyways.”

“Mark hasn’t been snooping around?” the Reverend asked.

“Not lately, hasn’t been harassing the stall owners either.”

“Maybe he found a better stream of revenue.”

Kate laughed, low and husky, as she walked out to the middle of the street. “Well, I’m going to go check on the Bennetts. See how the dad’s doing. Look after yourselves. All right?”

The Reverend and Riley waved as she set off deeper into Delta district.

“Come on, we need to get you home before the sun goes down,” the Reverend said, setting off in the opposite direction.

Riley followed him. “You want to just give me the antibiotic for today? That way you don’t have to double back right before curfew?”

“No, no, I’ll go with you.”

Did he really not trust them with just one pill? Riley was about to argue when the Delta-Echo checkpoint came in sight. The soldier guarding it barely glanced at their IDs before waving them through.

“Really, really wish I could store more medical supplies here,” the Reverend said as soon as the checkpoint had disappeared behind the horizon. “The soldiers really don’t give a shit.”

“Why can’t you, then?”

“Mark and his cronies. They’ve got a tight control on Delta, keep taking ‘taxes’ from stalls in order to ‘protect’ them, the whole deal.

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