Chapter 54

• The relief from finding the potassium iodide was a fragile, fleeting feeling. A single candle flame in a hurricane.
• We watched in silence, a huddled group of ghosts in a dead hospital, praying to a god we no longer believed in. After an hour of tense, agonizing waiting, Anna checked Eli’s temperature again. She pulled the cheap plastic thermometer away and stared at it, her face a mask of grim, professional focus that couldn't quite hide the mother's terror beneath.
• She shook her head, a single, sharp, and utterly defeated motion.