Alright, guys. I thought that maybe the presentation last week was going to sort of be a one-and-done type event. But as it turns out, those men in the suits stayed in town. I saw them around still. Some hanging out at the local diner. Some at various shops around town. And yes, even hanging out at our school still. They had wires on their ears and talked into their inner wrists on occasion. I think it went without saying that these were some kind of government agents. I mean, that’s my best guess based on all my knowledge from movies.

The thing that bothered me the most about them was how much they seemed to stare at everyone all the time. Always watching. They were staring at Mr. Richards eating his sandwich and minding his own business as if he were a painting they were trying to figure out.

I was watching them as I passed the deli on my way to school. Just when I least expected it, one of the agents turned to face me. Talk about a jumpscare. The guy kept his dark sunglasses facing me now the entire time as I continued to walk away down the street.

“Weirdos.” I muttered more to myself than Phil.

But he heard me and decided to comment anyway, “Says the guy who is staring at them first.”

“You really don’t find any of this unsettling?” I fished for some kind of validation. Although at this point, I knew it was a lost cause.

“I do.” He actually surprised me with that. Until he finished it off with, “I’ve never seen you act so weird before.”

“Me?” I raised my eyebrows before I remembered the odds I was up against. There really was no point in responding to anything he would have said. I was in my own world, apparently.

At school, it was another very average day. At least, that was how it started. Until lunchtime. That’s when things got weird. Well, weirder. A couple of men came in to formally escort a student out of the cafeteria. Their wrist whispering and secretive behavior ever present.

The student appeared scared, and it looked like they were crying as they were led from the room. Whispers from other students went around the room like a wave of water. Some people speculating about what the issue could have been. High schoolers. Ever the gossipers. One piece of information stood out to me the most. I caught wind through the ever-growing grapevine that Martin, the poor soul to be walked out, had caught a bird.

Now, this piqued my interest.

What did that mean?

Was he infected now or something?

Or just in some kind of trouble?

“Next will be you.” Phil joked from across the table from me.

“Oh yeah?” I wasn’t even insulted by his insinuation. “What do you think they’ll do to him?”

“I’m not trying to find out.” Phil spoke around a mouthful of food. I could only strive to be so unbothered by life. This whole town seemed to be that way. All except Martin. He and I never really spoke, but we had a few classes together. What would have possessed him to actually touch the birds? Sure, I was curious, but not that curious. Not enough to potentially put myself in danger. If it was a danger. I still didn’t know what to think.

After lunch, we went outside to get our few minutes of fresh air. Everyone did their usual. Sat around with their group of friends talking about whatever interested them. I had my eye on the skies. Narrowing my eyes in suspicion in every direction.

We were being watched. There were at least four men sitting around the perimeter of the grounds. Their presence more annoyed me than scared me.

“You’ve got to loosen up.” Phil told me. “You worry too much. The birds aren’t going to get you.”

“It’s not the birds I am concerned with.”

At home, mom and dad were ever so nonchalant. I told them about the incident at school. Mom just covered her mouth for a moment with a simple, “My word.”

My dad, on the other hand, just shook his head and said, “Kids.”

Suddenly, there was a power surge. The whole house went dark for a full ten seconds before everything came back on again. Now, this did surprise me. It wasn’t as if we would get surges very often. There wasn’t a storm brewing or anything. It was a cool and crisp day. No reason it would go off like that.

“These things have a way of sorting themselves out.” My father said with a shrug. Surely, he was just glad that it wasn’t due to a check bouncing from his payment.

My mother continued her crocheting. I had nothing better to do but go up to my room to work on homework.

The next day at school, there was another presentation. This one took place in the auditorium where the whole school was gathered. The men in their fancy suits reiterated how very, very important it was for us to stay away from the birds. That they didn’t expect Martin to be returning. And that they had a watchful eye on all of us for our own good.

I went home with Phil that day so that we could work on homework together. It would be a few hours before either of our parents were home. Might as well spend the time doing something productive.

As I flipped through the papers, I came across one of the extra papers the school handed out. It had a variety of questions on it for us to fill out. Things like, “Have you touched a bird in the last twenty-four hours?” “Do you know someone who has touched a bird in the last twenty-four hours?” “Are you showing any symptoms similar to a cold or flu?” “Have you come into contact with any bird feces in the last twenty-four hours?”

“What in the world is this?” I asked Phil.

“Looks like some kind of questionnaire.” He answered in the same casual tone he always had.

“About birds.” I pointed out the obvious.

“Yup.” He started to fill his out as if it wasn’t the weirdest thing to have been found in our bags.

“Phil.” I shook my paper in front of his face, “Do you not see something wrong with the birds now?”

“You wanna marry the birds, I swear.” He rolled his eyes. “Get some binoculars. Go nuts.”

“I don’t care about the birds!” I yelled, “I care about all the weirdness surrounding them!”

“Daddy, chill.” He held up his hand again. “They are just birds.”

“We have government agents in our small town investigating our birds!”

“Don’t get jealous. Plenty of birds to go around.”

“I could choke you out, Phil!” I was steaming. “How are you not getting what I am saying right now?”

“I hear you.”

“I don’t think that you do!”

“Nah, your voice is pretty high right now. I hear you just fine.”

“Phil!”

He shook his head as he finished filling out his paperwork. Then muttered something about being obsessed with birds. This was the dumbest thing I had ever experienced. I couldn’t even physically put into words how much I never cared about birds until all this started. I couldn’t even tell you how many birds I had noticed throughout the day until this started. Now, I was noticing every single bird every single time. Every bird was an omen to something. I just didn’t know what.

Now, normally, I am not the nosy type. I am too lazy for that. I am not even the inquisitive type. I am a more go-with-the-flow type of guy. But this was a bit too much for me to not notice. And then the added bonus of everyone in town acting so casual. I really felt like I was the butt of some huge joke. That cameras would come rolling out to gauge my reaction to everything that had been going on. That all my family and fellow students would laugh and laugh about how wild this whole thing was. We’d all share a good warm moment, and then things would return to normal.

Yet, I doubted that was the case.

This would be a very elaborate prank. This town was too small to fund such expansive shenanigans. To be played on just one teenager? Wasted.

I had half a mind to just go up to one of the men in black to flat out ask them what all of this was about. But I had a mild to severe case of doubt that they would be any amount of forthcoming. If I couldn’t get answers out of my parents or the teachers, it wasn’t likely that anyone else would have any answers for me either. If I wanted to know anything, I would need to uncover it for myself.

The obvious go-to was to try to catch a bird. Which I did not want to do. Come on, guys, if they were escorting people out in tears, then it was not an experience I wanted for myself. But if they were diseased, you’d think they would have told everyone so they would be more inclined to avoid them. Yet, they gave us nothing. If they were sick, shouldn’t we be wearing masks or something? Wearing some kind of protective gear? Birds were everywhere. They could infect anyone. What was going to happen to Martin? I was full of questions and concerns, and yet there was no one I could voice them to. Even Phil had let me down.

I spent the next couple of mornings over the weekend just staring out my bedroom window. I watched the birds flit around and chirp. A couple were fighting over a gum wrapper that had blown into our yard. I watched them flap around each other and wrestle for a good two minutes. Their tiny feet hopped, kicked, and bounced about. During the scuffle, I noticed a feather fall from one of their wings. My eyes widened. It was just sitting there in the yard. Maybe I could…?

The birds took off, leaving the feather behind. I looked around my room and around on the street as if I had just exposed a deep dark secret and was worried someone else had heard. No one was there. Just me.

I grabbed my hoodie and went out the back door. The wind was crisp and whipped my shaggy blonde hair about my face. I pulled up my hood and made my way to where I had seen the feather drop.

There it was.

Just sitting there.

Ominously.

I went back into the house and came back with a small Ziplock bag. Carefully, as if I was working to defuse a bomb, I eased to feather into the bag without touching it against my bare skin. I had never been so weary of birds or their feathers before. While cautious, I couldn’t help but feel ridiculous. It was just a feather, yet here I was holding the bag out at an arm’s length like it was radioactive.

I brought it up to my room and sat it on my desk. I checked the surroundings again. As if this was the worst thing that could be raided in a teenager’s room. The coast was clear. Now, maybe, just maybe, I could get to the bottom of this. Or become horribly infected and die. One of the two.