The Savage Horde

Chapter 53

Jacob Steel, she thought, was perhaps a talented minister. He was not so talented as a doctor.

"Here—I'll tie that," she told him.

Steel looked up from the dressing he had attempted twice to secure, his gray hair falling across his forehead, his glasses smudged on the lenses. He smiled.

"You've realized I'm a klutz, Mrs. Rourke. The only reason I learned anything about medicine in the first place was because when I was drafted, I was a conscientious objector. Had to find something to do with me—I couldn't type. I was starting to worry about you. Most people who've worked as my nurse have discovered my ineptitudes far sooner."

She felt herself smile as she secured the dressing. "I was just too polite, I guess, Reverend."

"Hmm—but I see you can do that quite well. Your husband's a doctor, is he?"

She looked up, but Steel hadn't waited for an answer. He had already moved to the next patient. She arranged the covers of the man on the ground by her feet, then stood, following Steel.

"Yes," she answered belatedly.

"Yes, what?"

"He's a doctor," she said.

Steel looked away, then back to the patient. The woman's burns were not healing.

"Are those sheets sterile?"

Steel looked up at her.

She smiled. "That was a silly question, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Mrs. Rourke—it was a silly question. Nothing here is sterile. Except me—I caught the mumps from my daughter five years ago," and he laughed.

"How old is she—" She caught herself.

"Now? She's dead. My wife's dead. My two sons are dead. Our house is gone—wasn't really our house. Belonged to the church. Church is gone, too. I was away.

Chattanooga was neutron bombed."

"I know," she answered quietly.

"Realize how many fires start in a given day—just your regular ordinary fires? I don't know how many myself, but I bet plenty. Fire started in the garage of the house across the street from the church—don't know why, but it looked like it started there. Spread across the street somehow—must've been the wind. Burned the church, the house. My wife and the children—woulda been dead by then anyway."

"I'm—"

"You're sorry," he interrupted. "I know you are. Pretty soon we're gonna run out of enough sorry to go around."

Reverend Steel pulled the blanket up over the woman's face. "So much for sterile sheets, huh?"

Sarah Rourke pulled the blanket down, closing the eyelids with her thumbs.