Friday, July 15, 2107
Scarborough, Pennsylvania
Eleanor Walters, age 43, carefully folds a lightweight, cream wool cardigan and places it atop the four blouses, three pairs of pants, two skirts, three underwear, two bras, three pairs of socks and favorite Birkenstocks she believes she will need for a weeklong visit with her twin sister in Portland, Oregon. She latches a burgundy hardside suitcase, slips on her favorite walking shoes, grabs a flask of water, and waits at a window that overlooks her street. Three minutes later, she enters the waiting shuttle and taps a device to lock up her home and schedule the vacation lights.
When the autocar offers a discount on her ticket price, should she opt to share the ride, Eleanor declines. Forty-eight minutes later, at 2:23 pm Eastern Time, she arrives at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, where she walks unmolested through screening and on to Gate 11. There, 24 other passengers wait to board American Airlines flight 1408 bound for Atlanta, Georgia.
At 5:57 pm, Eleanor is the first to deplane. She waits in line for a stall in a crowded restroom, freshens up, purchases a turkey sandwich and a pack of cinnamon chewing gum, and joins 63 other living, breathing human beings waiting for the five-hour flight to Portland.
Meanwhile, between 5:57 pm and 6:02 pm, the remaining 24 passengers of flight 1408 also deplane. The crew of three straightens the cabin for flight 5251, which will depart forty-two minutes later bound for Philadelphia with 27 people on board.
Eddie Garza, age 22, makes his way from Gate T10 to Gate T14, where he will take a short nap before boarding an airplane to Dallas, Texas with 49 other passengers. He will spend two days visiting friends and family before going on to Bogotá, Columbia.
Avril Moreau, age 34, who has overstayed her visa, is traveling to Paris, France for a family reunion.
Daisy Malinowski, age 17, Jacksonville, Florida. Daisy has just completed an intensive summer portfolio program, which is almost guaranteed to get her into a competitive, out-of-state art school.
Professor Nebil Khelifi, age 62, Oran, Algeria. His daughter is doing well after receiving a face and neck augment. Her fresh new bioskin is healing nicely, and her father’s help is no longer needed.
Aurora Greer, age three, Vancouver, British Columbia. At noon on Saturday, Aurora will celebrate her birthday along with extended family, her entire preschool class, their families, and her favorite teacher, Miss Stephanie.
Saturday, July 16
Portland, Oregon
At 11:48 am Pacific Time, Eleanor Walters and her sister sit at a wrought iron bistro table on the patio of a popular Portland cafe. Eleanor's late arrival and subsequent fitful night have caught up with her. Tylenol isn't touching her headache, which she describes to her sister as reaching down with red-hot pincers and grabbing hold of her spine. They agree it must be a migraine.
Eleanor yawns, takes a bite of farm fresh eggs over easy, and chokes a bit. Reaching for her water glass, she miscalculates the distance and swipes it off the table. It lands on the cool tile floor, where she thinks it makes the most beautiful wreck. She glances at her trembling hand, horrified to see a smattering of blood. When she looks to her sister and back again, the blood is gone.
That night, Eleanor hears her sister call out repeatedly. Eleanor stands, then stumbles to the door on electrified feet, gasping from the jarring pain in her toes. She reaches for the doorknob, but her fingers have gone numb and won't cooperate. As her sister's screams intensify, Eleanor panics but manages the door. She shuffles down the hall to find her sister lying peacefully in bed, sound asleep, her screams still resounding in Eleanor's ears.
Monday, July 18
At 8:31 am, Eleanor and her sister enter the waiting room of an emergency medical clinic in downtown Portland. Around them, humans of all ages, sizes, genders, nationalities, religions, augments, and political beliefs sit or lie in varying states of consciousness. Eleanor slumps to the floor. Beside her, a frothy-mouthed young boy convulses alone.
At 7:12 pm, Strategic Defense Officers in full body armor and pleximasks swarm the overflowing clinic. As medical personnel watch from behind a comforting but useless partition, the SDOs gather would-be patients into armored transports and drive them to the nearest Strategic Defense facility that houses an impromptu hospital.
In the gray, congested hallway, Eleanor hears a freight train barreling toward her, a sound she has not heard since childhood. She opens her mouth to call for someone, for anyone, and gurgles incoherently. Spongy blots of spittle form at the corners of her otherwise parched lips. She would like to wipe them away, but her lifeless arms dangle over the sides of the gurney.
Beside Eleanor, her twin sister, Melanie, age 43, watches in horror as a squirrel the size of a small corgi devours her left big toe. Earlier that day, she had lost sensation in her limbs, a welcome relief from the awful shooting pains. Now, blood trickles down her nibbled foot to her ankle, where it angles toward the stretcher and pools out of sight beneath her leg. She feels none of this, but she is certain she can smell the toe-blood and even taste it. In fact, she has chewed and swallowed the tip of her tongue.
Believing she will bleed out in that hellish hallway, Melanie closes her eyes and thinks of her son. But there is no blood on Melanie’s ankle. Her toes are intact. And of course, there is no squirrel.
Tuesday, July 19
At 8:57 pm, Melanie is placed on one of a dozen mobile ventilators in the building. Twenty minutes later, she is dead. An overwhelmed intern deposits her body on the growing pile, picks up another, barely breathing body, and hooks it up to ventilator #5. He rolls his head from side to side and groans; the Tylenol isn't touching his headache.
Eleanor Walters, age 43, having infected 337 humans, lies on the floor in a room next door and exhales. Time of death: 9:11 pm.
In France, Avril Moreau rests her head on the shoulder of a fellow Parisian in a hastily designated isolation ward beneath a hospital. Social butterfly Avril has infected 739 humans, including flight attendant Jay Agarwal and a family of four visiting Paris from a small town outside Yaan, China.
Eddie Garza, age 22, nearly misses his flight to Columbia after a rooftop pool party leaves him with what he believes is the worst hangover of his life. Eddie infects 547 humans.
Daisy Malinowski, 17, Florida. Daisy infects 181 humans, including her newborn sister, Elianne.
Nebil Khelifi, 62, Algeria. Nebil infects 451 humans, including three in the panicked mob that tramples him to death as he staggers from his home.
Aurora Greer, age four. Vancouver's very own patient zero. Aurora's birthday party is well attended. She receives a Real AI pony, complete with custom color-changing tack. Halfway through the party, the birthday girl lays her head on the remains of an Italian cream cake and promptly falls asleep.
Must be all the traveling, her mother says.