Eve

Chapter 11

If anyone told Damian, I'd deny it, but I spent the best part of Tuesday looking up everything I could about the Philly Flu.

Not on those clickbait shitholes; Buzzfeed or any of those over-the-top sites. I mean actual, reliable sources. Like Wikipedia.

Apparently there had been quite a few deaths, already. Ten infected had passed in their sleep after developing the early stages of the virus, which included rage and what appeared to be the uncontrollable will to eat people and scare the shit out of everyone.

Most shocking, however, were the cases of non-infected dying. Turns out that janitor was not the first one to be attacked at all, merely the first official report. After that, several cases had come forth. Patients being treated at home attacking their relatives, friends, pets. Anything that moved. People were keeping their infected loved ones chained to beds. Tied up.

Some people were claiming to have been able to 'contain' the disease, but it was clear no one was taking that seriously. This elderly woman went on record with MSNBC claiming that her husband talked to her through their computer, writing that he was still himself. That he didn't want to eat her.

MSNBC reported her death the following morning. Eaten.

There was even a guy who murdered his neighbor, allegedly in self-defense, with a baseball bat. There was a whole online commotion, with petitions and everything, to release him from prison.

And if the media really was over blowing this out of proportion, they were doing a good enough job to get even the government scared. Some leaked footage had surfaced during the night, showing military vehicles patrolling the entrance of the Presbyterian Hospital, as well as some other streets west of the Schuylkill River.

The official report was that the sudden appearance of army men and military grade vehicles all over Philly had nothing to do with the flu.

Then again, the official report in 1969 is that men stepped on the moon.

(Just kidding. I'm paranoid, but not one of those people.)

Mom seemed to have been following the news just as obsessively as I was, though we didn't really talk about it. She wasn't talking to me since the call from Mr. Rosenfield, explaining exactly why her precious little daughter was not welcomed anymore at his High School. Whenever I went by the living room, though, I'd catch the back of her head framed against news of Philadelphia on TV.

"Anyone say anything about the hospital?" I asked, in the tenth time I went down for a glass of water. "You know, the one Damian's father is gonna be working at."

"No," mom replied, without turning her head.

I mean, the world was falling apart. Was this really the time to be mad at your daughter because she was expelled from school for punching a girl in the nose?

I stopped by the stairs. "Just... let me know if Damian stops by, ok? He said he'd –"

"I will."

The back of mom's face didn't move an inch, still watching aerial footage of Philadelphia on TV. I sighed, making way up the stairs with yet another glass of water I didn't need.