Rose went to the downstairs bathroom and checked herself for any sign of transformation, she breathed a slight sigh of release when she didn’t find anything. That didn’t mean she wasn’t changing already on the inside, her organs could be shifting inside her without her even noticing or new muscles could be growing. She got dressed again and walked into the living room and turned on the TV to see breaking news.
“The President will address the nation at 3 PM Eastern Standard time, 12 noon Pacific time.” Said the news anchor who only two weeks ago had been an older man in his sixty but now was an elvish woman who looked only in her early twenties. “We have reports of unrest across the nation with major outbreaks in 10 major cities under military material law with more likely to follow.”
“So when is the nurse coming?” inquired Taylor as she walked into the room.
“Any sign with you?” inquired Rose as Taylor put her hand behind her head and looked away. “Taylor?”
“No…but my legs hurt more then normal but I did run 10 miles yesterday instead of my normal 7 on leg day.” Stated Taylor “Not sure if it is a sign of the virus or that I pushed myself a little too much.”
“Hard to say.” Confirmed Rose “I didn’t find anything…however I called the CDC and they don’t have a nurse coming any time soon.”
“Really? They must be swamped with people trying to get tested.” stated Taylor
“Yes, but it is worse than that…” said Rose as she paused for a moment. “Will you get everyone, and I’ll tell them all at once.”
“Alright.” said Taylor as she went off to gather everyone. It took a while to get Lisa out of bed, but they did, her eyes where red and puffy from tears but everyone was in the living room.
“The nurse isn’t coming.” Announced Rose as everyone looked at each other.
“I called Professor Smith and she told me something that…well…the virus has changed.” announced Rose as she looked at everyone in the room, her roommates, her friends. “The infection rate has gone up?”
“How bad?” inquired Stacy
“It was at 23% so just under one in every four people would get transformed but now the infection rate is now 94%.” Announced Rose as everyone eyes widened, Amanda even cried a little bit. They all knew that there was almost no chance of not becoming a monster now.
“The town has a population of around 20,000 with another 36,000 students in the school so 56,000 total, with a 94% infection rate means that the entire human population will be just around 4,000 with a monster population of 52,000.” Said Stacy as the straight A engineering student did the math in her head.
“How do you know the population of the city?” inquired Taylor not wanting to focus on her likely monster hood future.
“One of my professors used it all the time for statics questions. You don’t want to know the odds of us being in one of those 4,000 humans.”
Answered Stacy before pointing at the TV “So is that is what the President is going to announce?”
“Yes.” confirmed Rose wondering what her own future will hold for her, her friends and her family. “And the transformations are getting worse, Professor Smith said a person under her care became a Ghost and other even stranger changes are happening across the nation.”
“Did anyone else find any signs of a change?” inquired Lisa through tears as all the girls looked at each other and then….