Outfox Stories: stories to read and AI adventures to play, no account needed
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Chapter by
EzraWritesThings · 14 Feb 2023 -
A small family in California jump into a lake, a common hobby for them. However, today, something different lurks in the water. The family find themselves the patient zero clan for a new pandemic.
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The sun is setting just perfectly over Oakdale, California. The moon is peaking out over the horizon now as the sun disappears flawlessly, casting shades of red, purple, and a dark blue over the waters. Life, however, is about to take a strong left turn.
When people think about pandemics, or epidemics, they mostly think of ebola. COVID19 has become almost an after thought in this world now. One could argue this is a good thing. One could also argue that this signifies how society would react in regards to something much, much bigger going on.
Insanely bigger.
The family is enjoying a vacation. This is where everything is going to begin for not only them, but the world. That lake shimmers with the sun as it falls down over the horizon. Little does this family know, or understand, that being in the lake is the entire issue. Had they never come into contact with the water, the events of their patient zero tale would have never fallen like dominoes into this path. Maybe they could have skirted by without an infection.
Mateo, twenty years old, is the last one to get out of the water. He likes being it water, likes the way it mats down his curly black hair. He just likes being wet, honestly. Swimming is something he loves doing, which may be why became a firefighter. It’s not just fighting fires. He’s jumping into rivers and lakes and pools to save people.
He’d swallowed a lot of water, he’d absorbed a lot into his skin, giving him a rather pruny appearance. His lightly olive skin glistens in the low light of the setting son as he exits the water, cracking his neck to the side.
Jesus, the forty seven year old father of the children and the patriarch of the family, is not such a strong swimmer. Not a fan of being wet for too long, Jesus got the least exposure to the water today. But still enough for him to now become one of the infected without knowing it. Without even knowing that people were infected at all.
It’s all really flying under the radar for now.
It seems like a paradise of a vacation for Serilla and Brandi. Brandi, the mother, Serilla, the daughter, spent time dipping in and out of the lake while suntanning. It’s been fun, they’ve enjoyed themselves significantly.
Once Jesse …
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Colm's party splits one silver a month. So when he overhears about a dungeon nobody's logged yet, he doesn't wait for the rest of his crew. He grabs the party healer, Agnes, burns their emergency teleport scroll, and goes in.
They come out with more gold than any of them have ever seen. Agnes comes out a little different.
She cooks better now. She's friendlier, too. Much friendlier. And there's something purple living in her that's been sealed in a box for a thousand years and is very, very bored.
Aldous was an alchemist once. And after relentless experiments he's now a colony of slugs who can wear anyone he likes, and he's decided Colm is the closest thing he has to a friend. He's promised to let his hosts keep control most of the time.
He's lying.
The clerk counted my pay out one coin at a time, slowly, like each one hurt her personally.
“Eleven copper,” she said.
“The posting said fifteen.”
“The farmer docked you four. For the hat.”
“The goat ate my hat.”
“He says it gave her a stomachache.”
The farmer told us she was a very special goat. He made us walk ten steps behind her the whole way so she wouldn't get nervous. She was not nervous. She ate my hat, and then, apparently, she charged me for it.
I scooped the coin…
They come out with more gold than any of them have ever seen. Agnes comes out a little different.
She cooks better now. She's friendlier, too. Much friendlier. And there's something purple living in her that's been sealed in a box for a thousand years and is very, very bored.
Aldous was an alchemist once. And after relentless experiments he's now a colony of slugs who can wear anyone he likes, and he's decided Colm is the closest thing he has to a friend. He's promised to let his hosts keep control most of the time.
He's lying.
The clerk counted my pay out one coin at a time, slowly, like each one hurt her personally.
“Eleven copper,” she said.
“The posting said fifteen.”
“The farmer docked you four. For the hat.”
“The goat ate my hat.”
“He says it gave her a stomachache.”
The farmer told us she was a very special goat. He made us walk ten steps behind her the whole way so she wouldn't get nervous. She was not nervous. She ate my hat, and then, apparently, she charged me for it.
I scooped the coin…