The
first reported case of the virus was just another blip on the local
news. It was reported as a simple case of assault. A man attacked
another man outside of the Piggly Wiggly, viciously clawing and
biting him as he was putting his cart in the return. The attacker was
arrested and later transferred to a hospital for psychological
evaluation.
Rosemarie
and Georgiana didn’t really pay any attention to this report. They
had more important things going on. Mainly, preparing for their
finals. The best friends were working on finishing their junior year
in Landscape Architecture. To say they were too exhausted to care
about a brawl in a grocery store parking lot, would have been an
understatement.
It
wasn’t until a few days later that either of them noticed the
series of attacks mounting up. Well, technically it wasn’t one
of them,
it was Georgina’s husband.
He
read about the first attack with some interest. Immediately he
started pestering Georgi about there being an outbreak. She ignored
him as she usually did when he started spouting off his paranoid
conspiracy theories.
The
two friends went on with life without a second thought to Randall’s
increasing apocalypse warnings. Georgi said that as long as he
didn’t upset their daughter with his nonsense, she didn’t care
about his hoarding supplies for the "end times”. Doomsday
preparedness was just as effective for tornadoes and power outages.
So Randy went on telling anyone who would listen that the end
was nigh and
Rosemarie and Georgi went on with ignoring him.
When
the mayor issued a mandatory curfew, they all did a double take.
After
Rosemarie heard the news she immediately called Georgi.
“Hey,”
Georgi said as soon as she picked up.
“Did
you hear?” asked Rosemarie.
“Yep,
Randy’s been packin’ the car for the last half hour.”
“And
you didn’t call me?”
“I’ve
been at the pool with Alex. We got back and found him loadin’ the
car. I didn’t believe him when he told me that the
plague was
gettin’ worse. I was just lookin’ at the city web page when you
called.”
“Shit,
Georgi, what are you gonna do? Are you leaving with him?”
“I--I
think we need to,” Georgi said hesitantly. There was worry in her
voice despite her attempt to sound like she was calm.
“He’s
got a folder of newspaper clippings.” Georgi said.
Rosemarie
massaged her temples. “Please don’t tell me he’s been keeping a
folder of this shit.”
“Yeah,”
Georgi answered. “He had the papers spread out on the kitchen table
so I could see them when we got back.”
“For
fuck sake!”
“Listen,
I was about to let him pack his shit and go, but what he’s sayin’
is makin’ sense. There have been over a dozen reported attacks,”
she said. “Half of them are at the hospital and the other half seem
to be connected to the victim.”
“And
now the curfew.”
“Yeah.”
There
was silence on the line as Rosemarie let the information process.
“Pack
your car with what you think you’ll need. We’re headed to the
cabin on Blue Creek.” Georgi said, using her mom-voice.
"I’m
on it.” Rosemarie answered
before hanging up.
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