[ WP ] `` How much of a hero are you , if all you 've managed to save is yourself ? ''

The small village was built on the banks of a stream. It had just returned to the confines of the banks after the spring swell. The orphanage was a ways off near the small spring that fed the stream. A civil war had fed the orphanage to capacity. 
 
 The normally active grounds of the orphanage were empty in the early summer. Even the townsfolk knew there must be something wrong. Normally the children were too eager to swim in the spring to wait for it to warm up. 
 
 The villagers only understood when one of the younger maids at the orphanage showed up to use the only phone. She said she must call the doctor, the children were very ill. One had died. Nearly all of them were weak with fever including many matrons. 
 
 The doctor was set to arrive in a week. He could be there no sooner. 
 
 The maid, Maude, returned to find two children and a matron were dead. The villagers were too frightened to go up to the orphanage, so Maude tried to care for everyone she could. 
 
 She spent three hours fetching water enough to run cold baths for the fevers of the young ones. After that she gathered all the blankets she could and tightly wrapped the ones with cold shivers. After that she tried to make soup but found herself helping an older matron to the bathroom for she could barely stand. 
 
 She did n't sleep a wink and when the doctor arrived a week later he found Maude tending the dead. She had a silent babe cradled to her chest, unaware it no longer shivered. The doctor had to drag her out of the house. 
 
 She was a hero, but she only managed to save herself.
