Chapter 1

Feverish heat radiates off of his skin as I gently undo the bandage on his leg and see the wound is even more infected than before, pus oozes out of it and the flesh is red and swollen. "Daddy"I call out, "yes Beth"he replies back, "you need to come look at Zach, his leg is worse"i say. He comes quickly, moving me aside a bit as I try to keep it together. "Zach, you with me"he asks gently, "yeah"he barely murmurs, "ok, shh, Beth go get my bag ok, we need to get the wound cleaned out"he says quickly, I do as he asks and come back to find the wound completely exposed. I give him the bag and daddy takes the stuff that he needs out. He takes his temperature first, and it's not good, 104 degrees. "ok, I need you to help me clean this wound so we can get him cooled down, Beth hand me the wet cloth"he says, "ok"I say trying not to sound scared even though I am .

I give him the cloth and he wipes down his upper thigh getting rid of blood and pus, then he probes the wound a bit. Zach screams in pain grabbing my hand tightly, as daddy proceeds to clean it with rubbing alcohol and then stitches it up. After we're done daddy leaves to go find some water and I sit on the bed beside him. He lays his head in my lap and I hold him, as the memory of how this all started comes back to me.

Flash back

The sound of tires coming up the gravel driveway causes me to go outside,daddy following, knowing that someone is hurt from what i've heard over the radio. The car comes to a stop and daddy goes and opens the back door of it. I go to help him get the figure out of the backseat, and when I get close I realize the figure is Zach. I take in a breath but I help them very gently get Zach out of the backseat without hurting him and onto a makeshift stretcher. I walk by the stretcher as we take him inside and at one point he grabs my hand, "Beth"he questions, "shh baby it's me, we're going to take good care of you ok"I say quietly, "ok,god it hurts"he says, "I know"I say. We get him inisde and we transfer him to a bed. Daddy starts to examine him, making us move back in the process, but I can see a little bit and the damage done looks bad. He has a cut , that looks like it was made by a knife, running across his upper thigh, and it's really bleeding. Daddy has me come forward and I hold pressure on the wound as he finds some medicine to help stop the bleeding. He pours the powder over the wound and the bleeding stops almost instantly.

But then something happens, "Beth I'm going to be sick"he says quietly, we help him sit up and he throws up into a bucket we provide very quickly. We lay him down after that and after daddy cleans the wound he falls asleep as an iv is put in his arm. After this we leave to let him rest and I realize i'm terrified as I don't know what morning will bring.