Noah and Brian made their way to their own dorm, sticking to the side of the thoroughfare and doing their best not to spew black dust everywhere. They couldn’t help but cough a few times as they walked along, and though Noah hoped they did a sufficient job of smothering the resulting clouds, he couldn’t help but feel that they were putting everyone they passed at risk. He imagined a black streak forming in the air behind them wherever they stepped, creating a hazardous line through the center of campus like a tripwire awaiting unsuspecting victims.
They finally arrived at their dorm, only a few buildings down from May and Leahs’. Far from feeling relieved at getting off the sidewalk, Noah only felt his worry grow as he opened the door and stepped inside. After all, now that they were in an enclosed space, any dust that got into the air would hang there indefinitely. Each person that walked near where they had passed would be in danger.
“Should we even be in here?” Noah asked quietly after a kid walked by them obliviously.
Brian shrugged helplessly. “Probably not, but I want a shower, man. Let’s just make it quick and get back outside as soon as possible.”
They passed another couple of students on the stairs, recognizing most of them. Noah felt more and more guilty as he climbed to the fourth floor and walked quickly to his room. They had no idea how contagious the dust was, but Noah didn’t want to find out by waking up to the entire campus being infected. They could be carrying a deadly sickness, and here they were walking around their dorm like nothing was wrong. Were they being selfish?
Probably, Noah thought glumly as he unlocked his door. He held it open for Brian and followed his friend inside.
“Oh, hey, Paul,” Brian said.
Paul was working studiously on his laptop with headphones on at his desk. He didn’t seem to hear Brian, so Noah walked over and put a hand on the desk, being very careful not to exhale whatsoever as he stood over the small blond-haired kid.
Paul startled and paused his music, pulling his headphones down to rest around his neck. He stared at Noah and Brian in surprise. “Don’t you guys have class right now? What’s up?”
“We’ve got something of a… of a cold. We’re not going to class today,” Noah said. “Don’t mind us.” He turned and put his milk in the mini fridge at the base of his bed.
Paul glanced uncertainly between them before shrugging and popping his headphones back on.
Noah and Brian quickly changed out of their clothes and grabbed a towel and bottle of soap each before leaving Paul once more alone and stepping out of the room.
Noah was thankful to see that the hallway was clear of students, and let out a few raspy coughs while he felt comfortable that no one was around. He was just starting to relax a little when they arrived at the dormitory showers and walked in to find the room chock full of students busily washing themselves.
“Is it always this busy at this hour?” Noah asked Brian, dumbfounded. He usually showered before bed and had never seen so many of the showers being used at the same time. They were lucky to find two empty stalls next to each other.
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Brian shrugged nervously and cleared his throat. “I don’t know. Steam supposedly makes you have to cough less, so we might be fine.” He waved a hand through the misty air. “And if not, hopefully the air is so foggy anyways that nobody will even notice.”
Noah scowled at his friend and responded in a low voice, “The goal isn’t to hide that we’re sick from everyone, it’s to keep them safe.”
“I guess so.” Brian glanced sideways at him. “It’s hard to care about that right now though, when we don’t even know if it’s harmful or not.”
Noah felt differently, but he didn’t press the matter. “Hey, is it just me, or is there absolutely no hot water right now?” He’d never had to put the shower knob to the highest setting, but right now he had it cranked all the way and the water was barely luke-warm.
“It’s probably ‘cause half the building decided to shower at once,” Brian said. “I’m not getting any hot water either.”
The kid in the stall next to them overheard their conversation and looked over in surprise. He seemed to hesitate before saying, “Are you guys trying to prove something, or what? You look like you’re standing in a blasted steamer! I can feel the heat from here!”
Noah blinked in surprise as he realized the guy was right. Him and Brian were single-handedly steaming up the showers to the point he could barely see his friend despite standing just a few feet in front of him. It was probably a good thing, to, because it sounded like Brian was having a bit of a coughing fit, darkening the steam around him.
“Oh, no,” Noah said to himself. “This has got to be another symptom. We’re completely numb.”
Out of curiosity, he turned the shower knob all the way to the other side and waited a few seconds. He couldn’t discern any change whatsoever in the water temperature, so he turned to the random guy showering next to him.
“Hey, is this cold?” He stepped back and gestured to his shower.
The guy gave him a very strange look, but he narrowed his eyes and stepped over to stick his whole arm under the showerhead. He backed away with a shiver and a scowl. “Yeah, it’s cold, dumbass. What are you playing at?”
Noah frowned. “Nothing at all. I guess I’m having some issues sensing temperature at the moment.”
The guy snorted. “Sure, man.”
Noah usually found showering to be a relaxing activity, but without being able to feel the heat of the water he found himself disappointed. He finished his shower with the temperature at the coldest setting and dried himself off unhappily.
“I hope all these symptoms don’t hang around for long,” he said to Brian as they wrapped their towels around themselves and stepped out of the showers.
“Tell me about it. I was looking forward to a nice warm shower, but it felt like nothing. Like standing in the rain. Not even that. I could barely feel the water at all.”
They passed two students in the hallway but Noah barely noticed them. He glanced down and suddenly pinched his arm as hard as he could. There was no sensation of pain whatsoever.
“This is dangerous,” he said after a moment. “Anything that has this strong of an effect on us has got to be directly impacting our nervous system. We could end up paralyzed.”
Brian shot him a startled look.
Noah continued, “And even if that doesn’t happen, if we can’t feel anything, then we have to be really careful that we’re not damaging ourselves. All sorts of normal activities are balanced by our awareness of when something is starting to hurt. Without that we can get injured way too easily.”
He coughed and waved aside the dust.
Brian looked contemplative. “So far our lungs, circulation, and now our nervous system has been impacted. What the heck was in that mausoleum?”