The Wünchen Tribe

All airports and seaports are closed. Wait for further announcements until the Wünchen virus has dissipated.

Give the deadly virus time to disappear. All outbound and inbound travel are inhibited as of this time. Please wait for details tomorrow. 

323 more people dead from the Wünchen. It's invisible. It's floating somewhere near you. You'll never know. Stay put wherever you are. 

Sales of robot air purifiers are at an all time high. This is because the Wünchen virus is airborne. But nobody knows if robot air purifiers are effective. But then, people keep buying them. Keep safe everyone! 

Monstrosities in the air. To avoid sickness, please refrain from further travel. Stay at home.

Home? Where is home? I'm not even home. But I want to go home.

Gavin has been very sentimental since the virus struck and killed tens of thousands. The 323 people who recently died were just the tip of the iceberg. Many more are still to come.

And Gavin can't go home because all roads, airports and seaports are closed. Everyone is afraid. He's in a different state now because 2 weeks ago, as a company structural engineer, he was sent off to check their project at the neighboring state. 

Wow, perfect time, Gavin was mulling. He was just supposed to stay 3 days, but then disaster struck.

On the day he departed for the airport, there were already reports of a virus killing people in its invisible path. They called it Wünchen because the first fatalities came from a village in the Appalachians called Wünchen. 

It seems to thrive in cold weather. And there's no cure yet because it's so new.

Gavin walked to and fro in his hotel room which was given for free by his company. HR has assured him that he could still stay 2 weeks more, charged to the company. After that, they don't know. I will be on my own.

He missed his wife and 2 kids terribly. All he could do was just to do video calls with them. He was alternating from Zoom to Skype to Facebook Messenger to FaceTime - whatever had good resolution. And whatever can give him the chance to talk to them.

If only I could send to you your favorite avocado icebox cake, his wife Amanda keeps saying. It's his comfort food. What he keeps coming back to in the fridge whenever there's lots of pressure from company work. 

What can I do, Sweetheart? Nothing's available. The moment I go out, I'm at risk for the virus. If only there's a time machine wherein I just evaporate and appear right there next to you.

Amanda assures him that they're ok and he just stay put. 

Robot Air Purifiers are everywhere. It's in the hotel room where Gavin is right now. It goes from one corner to another where it perceives poison in the air.

It's in every room in the family home where Amanda holds sway. They don't even know if it's effective, but people keep on buying them.

For now, how do people get their groceries and medicine? Their prices have risen considerably because they're being delivered in trucks wherein the crew doing the tasks are all covered in astronaut like protective gear, with oxygen tanks at their backs.

Everyone who goes out is at risk for the deadly disease, so everyone who is at the outdoors should be in this astronaut protective gear with oxygen tanks. 

This means, economic activity is almost at a standstill. All things are done indoors, except for delivery tasks. Tsk, Tsk... Is this the end of the world?

Gavin is miserable. He's homesick. Even though it's freezing cold inside the hotel room, he's sweating...

It floats. It looks like a human male sperm, but it also looks like a floating ghost. It sways and swerved, then goes straight. Then others follow it around. They all look the same. White coated ghosts looking to find somewhere to stay for the night.

They feed on oxygen. That's why they have to go out into the open air to find space to consume their favorite food which is oxygen. They can't have enough of it, that's why they keep moving. They keep moving... 

Gavin is all wet. He changes into dry clothes. He keeps on drinking water to keep hydrated. He then thinks of his family, of the fact that he can't protect them now and do things for them. He calls them on Skype.

Hi there, hi there Guys! I miss you so much! Don't every try to go out eh? Ben, Suzy ok? This stupid virus is going to grab you by the legs and drag you down. You don't want that do you? You don't want Mom to be sad?

Yes Dad, yes Dad, they both recite in chorus with Amanda at their backs smiling back, but with a evidently worried look on her face.

Has the food and medicine delivery given you what you need? But really, are you guys ok?

Then the connection dropped. Stupid stupid internet! The screen went blank.

But Gavin is sweating again. He doesn't know why...

The Wünchen tribe is accelerating like crazy in the air. They spot an elderly couple on the street, scrounging for food in the garbage cans. These viruses are just like kids. They like to roam around freely. The world is their playground.

They'll test on a window sill for 30 minutes. Then when they're restless, just like children, they will go to another place again.

6 of the Wünchen tribe dive deep deep down to the senior couple. They separate in threes and then they target the open mouths of the man and the woman which are both giving out frozen air because it is so cold during this time of year. 

They enter the mouths and they go down the esophagus and into the internal organs.

In the chill of the afternoon, the couple suddenly started sweating profusely...

The Wünchen devils depart from the two old people and find somewhere else to play. They go up up up until they find the 14th floor of the Western Hotel. They have this habit of entering AC systems in homes and offices and this one was no different...

Gavin was not only sweating profusely. He was also bleeding through the nose. His eyes were bulging. He was trying to contact his family through Zoom. No internet still. Damn.

He was choking. He can't breathe well. Then all he saw was black.