Chatter

Text copyright 2013 by Anthony James.

Cover design by The Oracle.

Formally titled Infectious Incursion.

All characters and names are purely fictional and in no way represent any living persons 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

ATTENTION

All United States Citizens

Mandate F5 has been voted on and put into law. Effective immediately all people living in, and visiting the United States of America must go to one of the dedicated mobile labs or your health professional to get an F5 flu vaccination. This vaccine protects humans from all 90 flu variations plaguing the public these last several years.

Thank you all, 

United States President 

Glenn Danielson

Now

1:00:00

Cade Mellor sits staring out the window on his long flight home. His third changeover and his last, Houston to Indianapolis is the home stretch. Cade had spent the last few weeks in Tokyo, Japan at an electronics and video games convention. These airliners had become a second home, as he runs a website that has him traveling to various shows and meetings to see the next big thing.

"My name is Keiko would you like a drink," said the flight attendant.

He looked past the empty seat next to him and smiled, "Just a Coke please." 

She got a can of Coke out and Cade saw just how gorgeous she was. Tall for a woman, slender, jet black hair just past her shoulders, Keiko was stunning, 

"Here you go sir, let me know if you need anything," she said. He smiled and cocked the can in a 'cheers' salute and she went on her way. Cade returned his gaze out the window and sipped his Coke, thinking about the other passengers on the plane.

"What a peculiar bunch we are," he said to no one in particular.

The plane was rather small, but it was a short distance flight. It held maybe forty people if at full capacity. This flight carried no more than half that. Houston to Indianapolis must not be a popular flight.

Behind Cade by two rows were a man and young girl probably fewer than thirteen years old. He had heard them talking earlier and decided they must be father and daughter. Honestly they looked like famers; very out of place. Autumn as he heard the girl called, was actually wearing what looked like farm clothes he had noticed when they boarded. The father dressed a little more formal, with button up shirt and slacks. He did have a hard look about him however, like he had lived a hard, rough life.

A young African American woman who looked like she was in her mid-twenties sat across the aisle from Cade. She did not look out of the ordinary, most likely a college girl and had not spoken at all. The young woman had kept her nose in a book since boarding the plane. He checked her out for a minute to see if they'd have eye contact, but no.

The strangest fellow Cade had noticed was three aisles in front and on the other side of the plane from him. The man was huge, nearly taking two seats by himself. He had to be close to seven feet tall and pushing 300lbs. The huge man had been slamming drinks since the jet took off. He kept to himself though, and all Cade could see was the back of him and the long blonde hair. The guy looked pretty familiar for some reason, maybe a movie star.