The Homecoming: Countdown to Armageddon: Book 5 by Darrell Maloney

Author:Darrell Maloney [Maloney, Darrell]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2015-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

-25-

After having met all the residents of Baker Street, Sara broke free long enough to reconnect with Scott.

“Hey, Sunshine. Is Scarlett taking good care of you? Are you having fun?”

“Yes, and she brought me an apple turnover she said they made over a campfire, in a cast iron thing she called a Dutch oven. I took one bite and thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”

“Yeah, they’ve really refined the art of cooking and baking under primitive conditions. They’ve come a long way since dried beans and out of date canned goods.”

“Two things, Scott. First, I haven’t met the love of your life and my new step-mother, Becky. She’s the one I was looking forward to meeting the most, other than maybe Scarlett. Is she hiding from me, or am I just missing her?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. She had to split a second shift at the hospital. Her replacement fell on her way in to work and hit her head. They say she’ll be okay, but they made her one of their patients temporarily and put her in a bed for observation. Becky’s working four hours longer to cover for her, and the third shift nurse will be coming in four hours early to relieve her.”

“Oh, that’s nice of them.”

“It’s kinda the way they have to run things in a hospital where they only have a third as many nurses as they need.”

“Wow. How come they’re so short-handed?”

“It was just the way the numbers played out. Very few trained nurses survived the chaos of the blackout. Then they were on the front lines during the plague, and their numbers dwindled even further. Many of them hadn’t even heard of the pandemic until after they were already infected, because communications were so spotty back then.

“Now, the few nurses left are so overworked that many of them are running themselves into the ground. Becky has worked seven days a week for fifty-something days now, sometimes pulling double shifts or covering for a co-worker who has a bad back or an illness.”

“Oh, my goodness. I didn’t realize it was that bad.”

“Yes. But do me a big favor, sweetheart, and don’t mention anything about the nursing shortage to Becky. She already feels horrible because she’s moving up to the compound with me next Wednesday. She deserves the chance to relax and start a new life and enjoy herself after all she’s gone through for the last two years. None of her coworkers or friends begrudge her for getting a chance to get away from it all. But she’s been beating herself up about it. She feels terrible for leaving, thinking she’s abandoning her friends and fellow nurses at a time when they need every qualified person they can muster.”

“That’s crazy. She lost her husband and children. She’s sacrificed at least as much as anyone. She should rejoice in knowing she’s paid her dues and deserves to retire.”

“Thank you for recognizing that. She doesn’t see it that way, though. She’s worked some kind of deal with the state licensing agency to contribute in another way.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.