June 8, 2020

10:00 PM

I-10, Crescent City Suspension Bridge

Carter Li

_______________________________

"I told you we should've just dropped Jomari back at her place," A boy shouts over the deafening car honks. "She just threw up on my new pants, and damn does it reek."

The suspension bridge traffic on a Friday night normally didn't get too ridiculous. Tonight, however, it was at a complete halt. And had been that way for a solid half-hour.

The group of about ten high school graduates had split up into two cars, each containing five passengers. They had made it downtown, but due to the alarming conditions that people were in, they had decided to turn back and head home for the night. As disappointing as that was, getting everybody home was the best option.

Or attempting to, at least.

"What's going on up there?" The girl in the passenger seat groans. Not from pain, but from annoyance. "We haven't moved in ages. You'd think someone had died or something."

"Probably just a crash, Lu." Carter sighed, trying to stay alert at the wheel. "I'm sure they'll have it cleared up in no time, just be patient."

"Patience has been wearing off for a while. Unfortunately, the smell back there hasn't done the same." Lu frowns and her attention returns right back to her phone. Luciana Ortega. She'd been part of their friend group for ages. Valedictorian, volleyball captain. Social media "influencer"; whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

And...Carter's ex.

Somehow the other car filled up too quickly for her to reserve a spot before they set off for the night, and she got stuck sitting passenger in his vehicle. Which made for quite the awkward ride.

"Well, I can't speed this up any more than you can," Carter taps his hands nervously on the steering wheel. He fiddles with the radio, changing stations every couple of seconds. Most of them are still playing music or hosting talk shows, but some have gone silent.

"Here let me do it," Lu smacks his hand away, "You're being too hard on it, you'll break the knob and we'll be stuck listening to political commentary or something equally as unbearable."

"Why don't you just plug your phone into the aux if you have such a problem with it?"

"My phone is about to die," Lu huffs, the mounting bad luck of the night making her more irritable. "And I'd rather not waste my playlists in this rattle-trap ass car."

"Should've brought a charger," A boy in the back chimes in. Lu turns around and flips him off, and the boy fakes an expression of fear. "Aw shit, you're not going to call me a dick in the group chat are you?"

A car next to the left of them gets rear-ended and jolts forward, causing Carter to instinctively move the car to the right. Jomari begins coughing aggressively, and the two others sitting in the back row try their best to comfort her. Carter scans the area around them. He glances up at the rearview mirror. A car on the opposite side of the bridge where the traffic wasn't as congested gets smashed into by a pickup truck. The car's debris collides with a few other vehicles, and begin a chain crash.

"What the-," Carter turns to Lu and motions back with his head. "Did you see that?"

Lu looks up from her phone and puts a hand over her mouth, eyes widening a bit.

"That looks bad. Thank God we're not on that side of traffic. Things are going to shit out here." She throws her head back onto her seat's headrest and sighs. "Of all the nights for everything to go wrong, it just had to be tonight. I was so looking forward to going downtown."

Jomari continues coughing in the back, becoming more uncontrollable. The passengers on either side of her give up on trying to get her to drink water through breaks, as there doesn't appear to be anymore. Carter turns around, and almost immediately the coughing stops.

"How's she holding up back there?" He asks. One of the boys hands her the water bottle, and she finally takes it.

"A little better," Jomari wheezes, sounding not at all fine. "Stomach isn't great, but I think the coughing is gone for a bit."

"Just hang in there a little longer," Carter says gently, looking back up to the front. "Hey, it seems like we're finally moving forward. We'll be off this bridge and get you home in no time."

"Thanks, doc," she smiles, sweat beading on her forehead.

All of their phones vibrate simultaneously.

______________________________

Adam Foster

10:10 P.M.

They took off into the trees surrounding the strip mall, praying that no one would get an idea and pursue them.

"People act irrationally in circumstances like this," Angie had told him before they fled the parking lot. "Our neighborhood isn't too far from here, we can make it on foot."

She was so ridiculously calm. As they had previously weaved their way through the strip mall, staying almost shoulder to shoulder, they had witnessed multiple thefts and assaults. Only a few minutes after the situation had been made public people already started to lose it, fearing the absolute worst and trying to secure whatever they thought would be necessary for survival.

The two had opted to ditch the heavier supplies, only taking two containers of water which Adam held onto like the last water sources on earth. Angie held onto a hand-crank radio, two flashlights, a package of protein bars, and the medicine. At least they had gotten what they had come for. Even if the car was totaled.

"How far out are we?" Adam spits out through shaky breathing.

"Not much more," Angie responds. Checking her phone for distance. Adam glances at her device and almost laughs.

"Angie, why the hell are you using Snap Map?"

"Google Maps was being spotty. Besides, this one works better anyways." She puts her phone back into her pocket. "We only have around two more miles to go. Chances are we're not going to run into any trouble if we just keep moving. We'll be fine."

"Yeah, don't worry," Adam tells himself.

"We'll be fine."

_____________________________

Carter Li

10:25 P.M.

They finally descend the bridge to street level after what feels like an eternity.

Seconds after the alert had come through and people had time to process it, drivers started to think that they'd just been teleported into a new dimension that was the love child of a vehicular hunger games and "The Purge".

After a few minutes though, things died down as most people somehow realized that their actions weren't getting them off the bridge any faster.

"What did the text say again?" Carter asks, gripping the wheel. They had made it a ways from the bridge when he finally felt himself breathe a little easier. He couldn't allow himself to relax fully though, as there was something slightly terrifying about the government declaring a state of emergency."

"'Possible airborne illness present in atmosphere.'" Lu reads. Her annoyed, snobby tone replaced by one with underlying fear. "'Lethality not confirmed. Remain indoors if option is available. Await further instruction.'"

"I feel fine though," Carter states, turning into a neighborhood. "How's everyone else in here doing?"

The other two in the back are doing fine. Lu nods in affirmation.

"I don't feel anything different." She looks back to Jomari and frowns. The girl is resting. She crashed pretty hard. "But it looks like whatever she's got is no joke. Why is she the only one? We've all had the same level of exposure near her and if it's airborne shouldn't we all be coming down with something by now?"

"I don't know if it works like that. Probably would take more time," Carter offers, "But yeah, it seems weird. How about we just focus on getting everyone home for now and we can play detective tomorrow? I've had enough stress tonight to last me a lifetime."

____________________________

Adam Foster

10:50 P.M.

"Well, that took a little longer than it should have."

Angie keys in the code to their front door and the familiar chime goes off as it unlocks. They definitely lived in one of the nicer neighborhoods in the area, thanks to their parents' income. Adam always wished he could trade that wealth for parents who were more involved.

"Can't have everything in life," Adam would tell himself.

They had to take a detour when they came out of the woods about a mile from their house. There was a hold-up situation happening at the main gate, and they had to backtrack and find a way to get through the community's security fence. Lucky enough, a large tree possessed a thick branch that hung over the fence in one area. They were able to climb up and drop down pretty easy, the only downside being the time spent trying to find it.

Angie opens the door and immediately shuts it once Adam is inside, reactivating the alarm for security. They find their parents in the main lounge. Their mother resting on a large couch, a damp washcloth on her head, while their father paces back and forth. He clearly wasn't holding up so well either.

"What took you both so long?" Their father demands. Angie tosses him the medicine they picked up.

"A simple 'thank you' would be cool," she retorts. "My car got demolished out there. We had to improvise on our way back."

"Well," he looks at the boxes of medicine. "Thank you. We appreciate it. We'll figure out a replacement for your car in the morning."

Adam doesn't know how to respond. That 'thank you' was a first.

Angie seems just as taken aback as her brother.

"Um... no problem," she responds, turning to walk away. "I'm going to get some rest. Gotta try and figure out my car situation now that my old one was murdered."

Their father grunts in acknowledgment and turns back to their mother to tend to her. Adam walks into the kitchen as Angie goes upstairs. He starts sifting around the refrigerator and eventually makes himself a wicked-looking sub sandwich with whatever ingredients he could find.

He checks the group chat to see that everyone had made it home safely. That was a relief. Hopefully, this whole situation would return to normal in the morning. Illnesses sometimes had a tendency to act out at random, and nothing will be different in this scenario. He takes a bite of the sandwich and scrolls through one of his social media feeds, finally letting himself relax for the night.

Nothing will be different.