Cough: Genre Undetermined

[penthius]

It begins with a cough. I know--who's going to notice a cough, right? We're all coughing, all the time. I mean, our breathing and ingestion tubes are crossed (bad design, I'll complain when I meet the entity-in-charge), and then there are allergies, summer colds, dust. A million and one reasons to cough! It's just too bad that that million-and-first reason is a real killer, and not even of the person coughing. Unless a mob forms up to get the person coughing. It's happened several times. Once, I think the person even had the syndrome. Once they had strep. Four times they just had a cold. Once I heard they weren't even coughing, just sneezing. Me, I wear a face mask. Trend-follower, that's me. Not because it actually keeps any of the pathogens away, not because it reduces sneezing or infection, but because it makes it very difficult to tell *who* sneezed. Safety in concealment.


Inspiration: Baby coughed.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Not a story on its own, but has the right sort of paranoia-inducing fear.