Chapters
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Eric was only a few minutes late to work that morning. Who could blame him—he'd been in an accident the day before, leaving his torso covered with a blossoming bouquet of black bruises. Then instead of getting any rest, he'd stayed up to care for the animal he hit. He thought, anyway.Kent could blame him, as it turned out. He'd barely made it out onto the line, gloves and safety-goggles in place, before Kent came marching down from the breakroom steps, past the three other packaging lines. He ignored the…-
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Eric faced Adriana, frozen in place. Except for the tail, which swished nervously back and forth. His ears moved too, both entirely out of his control."Did someone let an animal in?" someone else asked. "What do we do, call animal control?"John stepped forward, lifting his safety glasses away from his eyes. "Sure is dressed like Eric. I thought I was losing my mind, watching him one line over. But I can see it. That purple thing on his face...""Help me," he pleaded, abandoning all semblance of imitating…
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133.2 K •
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The next few hours passed about how Elliot expected. After heat-treatment in the sacrificial toaster-oven, he went out to make purchases of supplies around town, always getting the maximum possible change for each transaction. If he had to spend some of the money anyway, he went shopping as though he was about to go on a long camping trip. Plenty of cans and non-perishables, a new camp stove, some fuel.Incidentally, many of the same things he might need if they were about to disappear into the Rockies for…-
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Elliot drove to the diner.He felt a lot better with a heroic dose of cold medicine in his system, reducing his temperature and banishing the sniffles and occasional coughs. He left a brief note to Ruby, explaining that she might have to wait until the end of his shift if she wanted the car.He felt better, but not so much better that he could endure the significant physical strain of a bike across town.Driving through Aurora felt... different, somehow. A strange dread followed him, like knowing he had left…
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When Elliot was a small child, he once contracted the stomach flu. Nothing quite equaled the misery he experienced in those weeks, living on the bathroom floor and ejecting his stomach every few hours, while his body ached and shook with constant pain. When it finally ended, he never imagined he would experience anything so horrible again.And he was right, until that 'cold.'Elliot couldn't say exactly what happened the next few days; sometimes he was awake, other times he slept. When he did wake, it was…
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Wait for Night for Rescue (58%)Elliot couldn't go right away, no matter how desperate his girlfriend's situation seemed. If he rushed right to campus in defiance of the order, he would only get himself caught, possibly imprisoned. He wasn't sure whether or not he would abandon the contract-tracing device. If the outbreak was related to his present experience, there wasn't a whole lot knowing where he went would benefit the CDC, or FEMA, or whoever else might be responsible for tracking such things.He had…
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Park somewhere safe and walk through the tunnel, (43%)Elliot could've barged straight through, just like Sam wanted. But whatever had torn through that police blockade could do far worse things to the two of them, half-transformed into who knew what impossible forms.He turned sharply back the way he'd come, then down an alley between a few darkened shops. The space was largely deserted, missing many of the cars he usually found parked there. "Pedestrian tunnel opens near the parking structure on 30th.…
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Flee Out the Window (50%)Whatever creature was making that noise, Elliot knew he didn't want to meet it. Those claws sounded like they were tearing through parts of the building with every step. Even the sturdy fire-doors separating each dorm would not likely survive for long under that assault."We can't stay here," Elliot whispered, as low as he could. "We have to make a break for it." He stood, leaving Ruby momentarily on the floor while he crept over to the window. These were huge, on a crank that…
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Go to the Bioinformatics Building (75%)Elliot swerved away from the edge of campus and the broken police checkpoint. It was tempting to speed away from school and not look back. Sam couldn’t know what they did; she still thought she had caught this infection at work.She didn’t know about Dr. Zalenka, she hadn’t seen the photos in his diary. But Ruby had.If we ever want to reverse this, we need to know what this disease is and how it works. That meant Dr. Zalenka’s notebook, but it also meant…
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Investigate the supercomputer lab on B3. (99%)Elliot had come this far, he wasn't going to just run away now. "Ruby thought there was something in the supercomputer lab, maybe something to do with the disease. We should check it out."Sam grunted noncommittally. "Kinda feels like we're running towards danger instead of away from it, Blue. I don't want anything to do with whatever is doing this to me."He held up one hand, flexing his stiff fingers. Elliot looked away from that too: they almost seemed…
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