Plague Doctor

Chapter 284: Video on the Internet

After the rumor of the epidemic at Eastern State surfaced online, despite the admin’s quick reaction, the news travelled too fast among the netizens to be stopped. That night itself, the government came out with an official statement to stamp the rumors, ‘there is no epidemic case at Eastern State! The group of people in cotton outfits are not suspected patients but members from the disease control centre. The quarantine cars were there for normal protocol investigation. Please do not worry and spread untrue rumors.’

However, with the possible severity of the situation, the government statement was practically useless. The citizens at Eastern State were like leaves in fall, collapsible at any moment. It was not until 3 days later when there was no official lockdown and no upgrade in security measures that the tension eased. Then the citizens started to turn their attention to complaints. Why were the members of disease control dressed so strangely? What were they up to?

In the past 3 days, Chen Jiahwa cooped up at home with anxiety. With nothing else to do, he turned his mind to the future and second doubt started to settle in regarding his medical study... But other than the pain of re-examination, there was his stubbornness of youth, he refused to lose face among his parents and friends. The epidemic was everything people would talk about these days, so his friends knew he had been accepted by a medical university. If he bowed out now, how was he going to show his face among his friends again?

Would he dare to rush into the outbreak as a frontline worker? He had no answer. Chen Jiahwa was conflicted and he rejected invitations from his friends to go out for they would only mess up his mind further. So he spent all 3 days at home. He sat before the computer and refreshed the browser constantly for updates online. He used firewall to go through the government limitation and used google translate to obtain international news.

Bill Thompson, an American posted on reddit, “The people back at my hometown have all died, this is so surreal. They are all good people, some go to church daily. If God is real, why would he do this to us?” Deena Boulder offered a conspiracy, “Is this epidemic as simple as it looks? Why did the fatality rate during the first 2 days be maintained at 100 percent but it dropped so steeply after that? The markers are too unrealistic, this does not follow any medical logic! Until now, no one has responded to this anomaly, it’s like the government does not think this is an issue. What are they hiding? We need an answer!” Brandy Joyce pointed towards another problem, “The President has not openly apologized after such a big epidemic, is he serious? And what is this nonsense about a new strain of bacteria, are we living in the Middle Ages? The whole Ministry of Health should be fired!”

Chen Jiahwa scrolled through many threads. The netizens, media and political mouthpiece were hounding their government for an official statement. Facing these charges, many government officials had come out to face the media to give their explanation but most were just government talk. This angered the public further and it threatened the political stability of some countries. There were videos of Americans organizing street demonstrations but there was a link to another video that caught Chen Jiahwa’s attention.

“Huh?” He clicked on it. “For real?!” The video was taken at London, the international city bequeathed with the name, City of Fog. London was not affected by the epidemic. There was a strange similarity regarding the places that were hit by the epidemic, it only affected smaller cities with limited population. No one understood why.

But now...”Oh my God!” Chaotic screams came from the video of London Streets. As the camera panned, there was billowing dark black fog everywhere, it blurred everything in sight. The cameraman gasped in shock. “The fog arrived less than 10 minutes ago. It’s everywhere now!”

Fog? Industrial pollution? Chen Jiahwa frowned, his heart skipped nervously for some reason... He did not know London that well but he knew industrial pollution ended after the industrial era, so this should not happen now. Most factories had been moved to 3rd world countries, so why would there be a sudden black fog that descended over London? Was there even a natural fog that was black in color? What was its nature? Poison? Atomic waste? What did this mean for London?

Even through the screen, Chen Jiahwa’s heart palpitated with fear. It must have been worse for the citizens of London. In the video, some were screaming, others praying. Silhouettes of the London police appeared in the fog. The cars could not move due to low visibility. The traffic jammed. In the comment sections, the global netizens exploded but no one could come up with a valid theory. Was this the start of another epidemic or was this a different mutation of the legionella pneumonia?

“Is there really a hidden conspiracy behind this epidemic?” Many netizens opened up discussion about this and naturally it crossed Chen Jiahwa’s mind as well. This kind of speculation had appeared earlier. Could it be the work of some unknown power like alien intervention? Conspiracy theories filled the web but none had actual evidence. But evidence was staring them in the face? What could be the explanation behind this?

Suddenly, there was a wave of new video uploads from another big city. This time it was happening at New York, another international city, which was also spared from the legionella pneumonia. In the videos, endless birds covered the sky of New York city. There were so many of them that they blotted out the sun. They cawed eerily. The birds died in mid air and landed on skyscrapers, streets and people. Rigor mortis set in before they even hit the floor.

Birds could be contagion carriers, so that was another thing to worry about. But... this whole thing was certainly not normal.

The people of New York were running frantically for cover. Watching the video, Chen Jiahwa was lost. What was happening to this world...

“Jiahwa, this is big news!” His phone vibrated, it was a message from his friend. “Look at the videos shared in our group!”

He opened the chat group. The videos were those of London and New York. Looks like he was not the only one surfing the forbidden internet. His friends were all discussing this new development.

“That has to be a special effect! Probably a promotion for some new movie.”

“But what about those people? Will they spend so much on extras for a promo?”

“There are international news articles on these incidents, they are both real.”

“...Aliens are invading Earth?”

...

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