No clue what to call this...

In the 7th grade, my entire class was required to read “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston. I couldn’t resist smiling when many of my friends because nauseous due to the graphic descriptions of the effects of the Ebola virus on the human body. These in-depth descriptions are one of the many reasons that Richard Preston is my favorite writer. He has the ability to seamlessly mesh real events with events that could have been to result in a truly chilling, but realistic story line.

To fit with the recent “swine flu panic,” I thought it would be fun to question…what if there was a real pandemic….?

Within 5 days of being exposed to the virus, fever sets in, accompanied by sharp headaches. On the fifth day after his arrival in Mexico City, Jackson Shelby awoke with a fever of 100.1, but was determined to enjoy his short stay in the city. He packed his backpack and set off for his guided tour. Shelby was a tall man with bronzed skin and a bright white smile, which he often used to get certain favors from his lady friends. However, this particular day, his skin was covered in a thin layer of sweat, even in the air conditioned tour bus, and his smile was dimmed. As the day progressed, his fever grew worse, and he developed a cough. That night, after retiring to his hotel room, he called the airport and booked the quickest flight back home to Chicago.
The next morning he boarded Flight 474, not knowing that within his body he carried a microscopic stowaway.

Bwahaha.