22 Chapter 21 : Broadcast
It was daylight, and Brian and Sarah got up early to prepare to set off. Osborne also planned to see if he could contact his old friends to report the matter, but the RV could not be left unattended, so he asked Kelly to stay and watch.
Leaving the abandoned factory and walking to the street, although it was not yet 7 o'clock, the street was already overcrowded. All the survivors living in tents in the city left their homes and headed towards the central block. To collect their meager supplies.
Looking at the dense flow of people, Brian sighed with emotion, held Sarah's hand to prevent the two from getting separated, recalled the route Antoine said yesterday, and headed towards the opposite side of the crowd.
"We want freedom! We want democracy! We want human rights! We want the economy!"
"Freedom is fundamental!"
"Quarantine is worse than the virus!"
"Fear is the only contagious disease!"
"..."
Just after Brian and Sarah crossed a long street, a group of demonstrators holding opposition signs suddenly appeared in front of the road ahead. They held their opposition signs high and shouted impassioned slogans.
There were dozens of people on this street. They knelt on the ground with their hands clasped together, muttering something in their mouths. Among them, a woman was holding a board that read, This disaster is that the devil inflicts punishment on humans. Belief in God can help you avoid Punishment.
The pedestrians and policemen around them just looked at everything in front of them indifferently. No one paid special attention to it, as if they were no longer surprised by this kind of thing.
"Ridiculous." Brian felt that the scene in front of him was extremely ridiculous, and it reminded him of a sentence he had heard in his previous life.
Compared with defeating the virus, defeating stupidity is the most urgent priority!
After the parade had gone away, they crossed the road and asked for directions from pedestrians along the road. After waiting for nearly an hour, they found the address Arman had left for them.
It was a four-story residential building. The two of them walked up the stairs to the third floor. Brian confirmed the room number, walked to the door, and knocked three times.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
But after waiting for a long time, no one answered inside, so he raised his hand and knocked three more times. Only then did a female, nervous voice come from inside.
"Who?"
"Hello, does Grandpa Arman live here?" Seeing someone inside answer, Brian asked politely.
Hearing the name, there was a moment of silence inside, and then Brian saw that the peephole on the door had turned black. Someone was watching them through the peephole.
After a while, the door was opened, but because there was still a door chain hanging in the middle, only a small gap was exposed. A thin, middle-aged woman appeared in the gap and looked in front of her in confusion.
"Why are you looking for him?"
Looking at the woman in the crack of the door, Brian guessed that the woman was Arman's daughter June, the person who wrote the message in the lake house.
He handed the piece of paper with the address in his hand to the crack in the door and said, "This is the address Grandpa Arman left for us. We met when we were in Austin. We just came to Dallas yesterday, so I want him to know something about this place; is he here?"
After taking the note, the woman looked at the words written on it, turned around, and called to the house: "Dad, two children are looking for you. Come and take a look."
"children?"
As soon as the woman finished speaking, a confused voice came from the room, followed by a burst of rapid footsteps. Not long after, an old man with white hair appeared through the crack in the door. It was Arman whom Brian and Sarah had met before.
"Brian! Sarah!"
Arman looked at the two children outside the door in surprise, quickly untied the door chain, and called to you, "Quick, come in."
Brian and Sarah looked around the house. It was a typical three-bedroom apartment, and the house was empty. It looked like they were not living a very good life.
Arman enthusiastically invited the two of them to the living room and then began to ask when they arrived and if there was a place they could live. If not, they could live here first.
Brian was keenly aware that when Arman said he wanted them to live here, his daughter June frowned slightly. She was dissatisfied with her father's decision, but she didn't say anything. What could she say? She just stood aside quietly.
Knowing that everyone was having a hard time, Brian shook his head and rejected the other party's kindness. The purpose of their coming here was not to trouble him. He told Arman what he wanted to know, hoping to get some useful information from him.
Arman also knew that his decision just now was a bit impulsive. After knowing Brian's purpose, he thought about it, sorted out his thoughts, and said:
"Because of this epidemic, the country is now in a very tense state. Many cities seem to have begun to refuse to accept outsiders. If Dallas were not the closest to the infected area, it would not need to accept survivors. Otherwise, I am afraid that it would be the same." The city has entered a state of lockdown.
"But I heard that Dallas is almost no longer able to accommodate survivors. The army may use trucks to send the survivors to other cities. If you want to leave here, that may be the only chance. Otherwise, you should wait until this epidemic is over."
Is the epidemic over?
Seeing that Arman still hoped that this disaster would end, Brian sighed slightly in his heart. The other party did not understand what he had gone through, so he still hoped that the government could develop a vaccine to deal with the fungus. However, knowing that the army had launched the "indiscriminate purge," he knew that the government might no longer be able to control the epidemic.
Brian listened to Arman's description of the information in Dallas, combined with what the old man, Antoine, said last night, and generally had a basic understanding of the situation here.
But the last thing Arman said made him very happy: after the army took over Dallas, they circled all the industrial areas in the west of the city, took over all the factories, and began building a high wall there. Although it was unclear what the government was going to do, it also aroused speculation among the people of Dallas.
Even if this disaster is inevitable, the national government will never choose to sit still and wait for death. They will make preparations, and taking over basic industrial areas will most likely be the first step in making changes.
After getting the information they wanted, Arman also agreed to help them inquire about leaving Dallas. Brian stopped disturbing them, got up, and left with Sarah.
On the way back, he passed a hospital and casually took the leaflet handed over by a nurse at the door. He found that it was about the cordyceps fungus. This immediately aroused his interest, and he began to read its Content:
...
The Centers for Disease Control have developed a brochure to increase awareness and prevent cordyceps brain infection (CBI).
Background information:
Cordyceps is a parasitic fungus that takes over the host's mind and changes its behavior. Until recently, this fungus could only infect the arthropods of insects. Recently, new species have emerged that can infect the human body.
Mode of infection:
The two known routes of CBI infection are:
1. Absorb the spores released by the Cordyceps fungus.
2. contact with the body fluids of CBI-infected persons, usually due to bites.
Incubation period:
After being infected, the parasite will move to the host's brain within one to two days. The Cordyceps fungus controls all the host's major body functions, and the incubation period is over.
disease:
1. Patients in the first stage of CBI will have abnormal behaviors, become violent, and will attack people around them.
2. The fungus will eventually break through the host's body tissues and release spores that float in the air.
treatment:
There is no vaccine to treat CBI, and there are no existing methods to extend the incubation period.
diagnosis:
CBI can be diagnosed through blood and microscopic imaging tests (usually done on the ear), and a positive test can occur within minutes of diagnosing the infection.
...
Brian looked at the contents of the flyer in his hand. What was written on it gave him a new understanding of the fungus raging outside.
But when he raised his head, he suddenly found that, for some reason, the pedestrians on the street had taken steps and started running. Even those who were still marching did not continue to shout slogans but chose to disband on the spot and ran into the surrounding residential buildings, apparently intending to return to their home.
Such an abnormal scene made Brian feel a little nervous, and he didn't dare to stay there any longer, so he ran with Sarha to the abandoned factory.
Returning to the abandoned factory, he was somewhat surprised to find that the survivors around him wanted to crowd in front of a TV to watch. Everyone was yelling and swearing, with extremely angry and panicky expressions.
Seeing this, Brian quickly ran back to the camp and found that Osborne and Kelly were both sitting next to the RV and watching what was being broadcast on a TV. That day, the TV set was occupied by their neighbor, Mr. Antoine Inside the RV.
He walked forward quickly, without saying hello to the two people beside him, and turned to watch the TV, where a female host was broadcasting the news.
Listening to what was being broadcast inside, Brian realized that this country was already finished and that the end of mankind was inevitable.
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