Read Online The Journal: Raging Tide: (The Journal Book 4) by Deborah D. Moore - Free Book Online

poisoning will kill
you or it would have already, but the dehydration might. You need
to start drinking fluids. I’m going to give you a shot of
antibiotics and that should help combat the gut infection.” I
swabbed his arm down with an alcohol pad and injected the
antibiotics like Mark had taught me. “I’ll help Annie mix up some
rehydration fluids that will bring your electrolytes back in line.”
I stood up and moved toward the door, motioning for Annie to follow
me.
    “He’s sick, but he’s not going to die,
Annie. We need to stop the dehydration though, and soon. Do you
have any kaopectate? And we’ll need some baking soda for the
electrolyte solution.”
    “I… I… don’t know,” she stammered.
    “Let’s go into the kitchen and see what we
can find.” Once in the other room, I turned her toward me. “Annie,
where are your parents?” I could see Jim had followed us and was
leaning against the door jamb listening.
    “Out back,” she repeated with her lip
quivering. “We buried them in the backyard under the apple
tree.”
    “What happened, Annie?”
    “About a month or so after the big
earthquake some men came around. They were very mean and they
wanted all of our food. My dad had to shoot one that was trying to
come in the house. That’s when everyone starting shooting, even my
mom. First she made me take the twins into the basement to hide.
When everything was quiet for maybe a half hour, I came upstairs.”
Her mouth scrunched up and the tears slid down her cheeks. “They
were lying on the floor, all bloody. The men were dead too, but dad
made sure they never came in.” She lifted her chin and
swallowed.
    “Did you bury them by yourself, Annie?” I
asked softly. This poor girl had been through a great deal.
    “No, Glenn heard all the gunfire and came
over. His place is down the road a bit. He helped me move them out
of the house so Jared and Jodi wouldn’t see them. Then I mopped the
floor before I would let them out of the basement.” Annie looked up
at me with pale, spiky wet lashes.
    “You did real good,” I said and gave her a
hug, catching Jim’s eye as I did so. “Now we need to make Glenn
better. Where did your mother keep the medicines?”
    “There’s some in the bathroom cabinet, but
there’s not much,” she said, leading me to a different bathroom
than the one Glenn was using. I opened the mirrored door and found
a bottle of aspirin, a box of Band-Aids, some Neosporin, and some
toothpaste.
    “Any place else she may have kept things,
Annie?” I asked. She looked down at her feet. “Annie?” I
repeated.
    “Mom said we should never tell anyone about
what she had saved for us. She said most everyone would try to take
it from us.”
    “Let’s go back to the kitchen for now and
mix up something for Glenn to drink,” I wasn’t going to push her,
not yet. “We need some baking soda, sugar, salt, some powdered
juice drink and water.”
    “We ran out of bottled water a few days ago.
I’ve been bringing some up from the creek, but it’s dirty and the
twins won’t drink it unless it sits for a couple of days,” she
said.
    “Jim, would you get that gallon of water
from the cooler and bring in the Berkey Traveler, please?” I turned
back to Annie. “Okay, so do you have the rest?”
    “Oh, sure,” she said, opening cupboard doors
and setting things on the counter.
    With the water Jim brought in, I mixed one
pint with one teaspoon of salt, and one quarter teaspoon of baking
soda, and stirred it. “Here, give this to Glenn and make sure he
drinks all of it,” I said, handing it to Jim, then I set the water
filtration unit on the counter. “Where is the creek water?”
    Annie’s eyes widened. “What’s this?”
    “This makes any water drinkable by filtering
it.”
    “We have one of those!” She reached for a
door off the kitchen and stopped. “You’re not going to take our
stuff, are you?”
    “No, Annie, we are not. We have our own and
don’t need