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Tartahyuga t1_it711h6 wrote

It wasn't real. I refused to believe that. No 5 year old should have blood on their fingers, and i refused to believe my daughter could have killed anyone. And yet, no matter how much i didn't want ut, the number was still there, floating above her forehead as if it was mocking me, daring me to do something about it.

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I was devastated. I had left for just 3 days and THIS is what i found? What could have possibly?

"James!"

My wife's voice shook me back to reality.

"Are you ok?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's just... She looked different somehow. Can't quite understand... Did you cut her hair?" I looked at Sarah, my sister-in-law, who took care of my daughter for the past few days.

"Absolutely not. How could i ruin those lovely curls?"

I looked at my daughter again, hoping the number would have returned to zero. To my dismay, it was now an 18. I could feel shivers down my spine. Was i stating at a serial killer? How? "A light sunburn maybe? What did you during the weekend?"

"Well, friday we stayed in house and watched cartoons, yesterday we went to visit grandma and played at the park, and today rained so we stayed inside, played with dolls and made some homemade pasta for dinner."

"I see." Nothing weird, maybe she did something at the park? No, Sarah would have noticed.

"James, you're worrying over nothing. She looks perfectly fine to me."

I had to concede. Insisting more than that would only make me look like a madman. I thanked Sarah for her help and unpacked the bag before getting to bed. It took me forever to fall asleep, the image of my precious daughter smiling atop a mountain of corpses haunted me every tine i closed my eyes.

The following morning i looked like a zombie. I stumbled in the kitchen and made myself a coffee. Then another one. Then a third.

"Don't you think that's enough?" My wife kissed me on the cheek. "Bad dream?"

I chuckled. "You can say that."

She sighed and handed me the newspaper. "Take a day off. I'll call Bob and tell him you're sick."

"Thanks honey." I sat down and grabbed the news.

"You were right yesterday." I looked at her quizically. "Dana caught the flu. She's in bed with a fever."

I nodded. It wasn't exactly what i was referring to, bit at the very least i didn't look like a paranoid father in front of my sister-in-law. I opened up the newspaper and almost choked on the coffee.

Pneumonia outbreak at St. Jonathan's retirement home. 18 dead over the weekend

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relddir123 t1_it77cww wrote

Pandemics should be interesting for our narrator here

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Tartahyuga t1_it7bhdh wrote

If i was the patient 0 i'll feel a little bit guilty, ngl

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pvaa t1_it7fkvv wrote

I think COVID has shown me that I need to be careful when I'm ill; people die of flu and similar quite often and its of course considered normal

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atelopuslimosus t1_it7qm2x wrote

I never used to get my flu shot. The first time I got it was during the swine flu outbreak that was hitting younger people harder. After that, the thing that really solidified me as an annual flu shot person was that I worked with kids every day and my work provided flu shots for free. I thought, "How selfish do I have to be to refuse a free shot on my lunch break that could protect these kids I work with from a potentially deadly disease?".

Over the years, I've taken a harder and harder line with anti-vaxxers. I have landed on the opinion that an otherwise healthy person that refuses to fully vaccinate themselves or their children is a selfish conspiratorial freeloader. I treat them nicely in person, but otherwise avoid them like the plagues they carry.

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julianradish t1_ita5i6u wrote

The worst vaccine I've had to get, ever, is the covid stuff, it makes my arm so sore and it makes me tired. That's it though. I can sacrifice 1 day of productivity to help the people around me

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ballrus_walsack t1_itafnnf wrote

Clearly you have not gotten the shingrix (shingles) vaccine. It’s bad but only for a day. And actually getting shingles is 100x worse.

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AdamantineCreature t1_itb6zq1 wrote

I had the shingles shot the same day I had my tetanus booster. If there was any side effect to shingrix it was lost under the fun of TDaP. Still better than covid.

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julianradish t1_itam0e3 wrote

Omg, I don't remember if I've gotten it but im not even 25, might have when I was a baby.. I would just try to sleep through it lol. Worked for the covid booster

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ballrus_walsack t1_itamxla wrote

If you are 25 you won’t have gotten the shingles vax shot. It’s primarily for older people.

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atelopuslimosus t1_itblb80 wrote

Actually, if they're 25, they may never need the shingles vaccine. Depends if they had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine.

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AdamantineCreature t1_itb6va5 wrote

The covid shot makes me want to die for a couple of days. Still worth it to lower the risk of infecting my older relatives.

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oscarcp t1_it7j40u wrote

That gave an idea to give a twist to this, how about, patient zero of COVID was the kid, and the full count of COVID deaths would be there? (not stating it's their fault, but it's interesting as a fictional take on it). Can you imagine? You see your kid and the number is rising hundreds of thousands by the second. That'd scare the shit out of me.

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TreecrafterW t1_it7qbuh wrote

At that point I’d realize it was that sort of situation and I wouldn’t hold the kid responsible for that. It’s not her fault she’s not got a fully developed immune system yet, after all.

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pvaa t1_it8jnc7 wrote

It does allow her to murder people without her father noticing though

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TreecrafterW t1_it8m6t4 wrote

Very few people actually want to commit murder

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pvaa t1_it90vmb wrote

Have you met his daughter though?

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sonbarington t1_it7q9g8 wrote

Does the large number get so obtrusive that it’s annoying? Can we turn off the number? I can only imagine a person with a very very large hat.

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alexanderpas t1_it9p91o wrote

IMHO, patient 0 should not get all the deaths accounted to them, but only the deaths that happen within the local community.

Anyone who introduces the disease in a new community gets all the deaths for that community.

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My3rstAccount t1_ita4s4e wrote

What if they were invited in? But why should patient 0 be blamed for a disease she didn't consciously make anyways? Seems to me like we need more information to make sure she actually made the disease. Maybe she's a future victim and she dies when the counter reaches her number.

But you know what, nobody ever stops to think about why that dude can see numbers nobody else can.

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Burakku-Ren t1_it7gqh4 wrote

Wow, that was a twist for sure, I got thrills while reading it. The newspaper was obviously gonna reveal what happened, but that was quite unexpected, it’s also well tied together with the kid being sick.

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arawagco t1_it8zrhy wrote

I mean.... Pneumonia wouldn't kill that fast, but it's a neater ending than the dad going nuts for weeks before the outbreak made the news.

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lindsaychild t1_it7zctq wrote

I suspected as soon as I read Grandma but great writing, enjoyable read.

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Tartahyuga t1_it80azo wrote

i honestly tough it was obvious. not much else that can get that amount of people killed that fast coming from a 5y old (unless i were to supernatural but didn't feel like doing it)

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TheGeckomancer t1_it9ewx8 wrote

I love the moral. Ignorantly killing people with a disease you didn't take precautions to avoid spreading IS still killing people.

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MrRedoot55 t1_it8bkdi wrote

Well… at least she didn’t intend to kill so many people.

Good story.

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baelrog t1_ita2mmj wrote

Haha, I knew it when the wife said they visited grandma.

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