Estranged [Completed]

In Other News...

***

The light at the corner of the television blinked one, two... five times, then the black screen came to life with light and sound.

A dark-haired woman sat before a fake cityscape backdrop as she continued in mid-sentence, "...news coverage on this seventeenth anniversary of E-day. We just spoke with news correspondent Jim Neilly from the scene of the attack, and now we have Professor Laney Daskalov of the Alundai University joining us to help answer the question: what exactly does this mean to the people of Celan? Professor Daskalov, thank you for joining us."

The screen split so the newscaster's face could share the screen with another dark-haired woman. This newcomer occupied some sort of office, with shelves full of books and unidentifiable knick-knacks filling the wall behind her. The Professor smiled and replied, "Thank you for having me."

"So, Professor, let me ask you: now that we have witnessed what seems to be the first organized attack from the Estranged since E-day, what kind of implications does this have for further attacks, and how can those at home protect themselves?"

"These are questions I have been asked many times, even before this latest attack. As far as implications, I expect we will see a lot more activity from the Estranged. We now know they have the capacity to be organized, and this makes them even more dangerous than before. In light of this, my advice to your viewers is this: Lock your doors. Don't let anyone in without checking their nails first. This includes your friends, your cousins, even your family, because to be perfectly honest, anyone can become an Estranged. I cannot emphasize this enough: You cannot know who to trust until you have seen their nails."

Joanne-the-Newscaster replied in a light, incredulous tone, "You're saying we can't even trust our own children?"

Professor Daskalov answered, "That's right, not even our children. Because you see, the second someone is touched by an Estranged, they are gone. Whether they die or not, they are gone. The few people who survive to become Estranged are no longer the same innocent friends we once knew. Sweet little Suzy down the road will no longer be smiles and sunshine once her nails are black. If the Estranged-Suzy sees you, she will do everything in her power to kill you."

Joanne leaned forward and clasped her hands together. "What causes that?"

The Professor hesitated briefly. "What? The change, or the need to kill?"

Joanne paused, then shrugged. "Both, I suppose."

"Unfortunately, what little we know about Estranged is very complicated. We do not know whether it is a disease, a parasite, or something else entirely, but we do know for certain that it targets the limbic system in the brain. In layman's terms, the presiding theory is that every Estranged is occupied by something we call the darkness. Now, we don't know why, but we believe that the darkness, in a sense, embodies and enhances the negative emotion that resides within us: sadness, anger, destructive cravings... So when an Estranged touches another person, their darkness seeks out these emotional centers within the other body and immediately floods these areas of the brain. If the victim cannot withstand that initial rush, they die. But if they survive, they begin generating darkness on their own and become Estranged themselves. For the survivors, all thoughts of family, food— everything falls away in the face of a single-minded drive to obtain that limbic excitation they received when they were converted. In other words, a high."

"A high?"

"Yes. It was discovered in a recent test that when an Estranged touches another person— Estranged or Untouched; doesn't matter— they receive a high that we have found to be well beyond anything modern drugs have achieved. This is what the Estranged are after when they attack the community. To put it in perspective, several years ago, a pair of scientists named Olds and Milner performed an experiment in which rats received a controlled electrical impulse to excite the limbic system in the brain. If you recall, this is the same system that is targeted by the darkness in Estranged. Every time the rats pressed a lever, they received this limbic excitation, and it was found that the rats began ignoring food and sleep in preference to pressing this lever until, eventually, they died of exhaustion. However, the dose these rats received is minimal compared to the excitation Estranged are receiving from the darkness."

Joanne's hand was over her heart as fear and concern lightly played across her face. "I am glad we have SWORDE. Actually— does SWORDE really quarantine Estranged? Or do they—" Joanne stopped herself and looked at somebody behind the camera.

Daskalov finished the sentence for her. "Do they kill them? Honestly, I can't say what SWORDE does with the Estranged. As far as I know, nobody has definitively seen an Estranged leave Downtown, for good reason, of course. Perhaps that should be your next FactLine story? 'The Mystery behind the Fence.'" Daskalov laughed at her own cleverness.

Joanne responded with a laugh of her own and replied, "Perhaps you're right, but we'll leave it to our editors to decide. Well, thank you for joining us, Professor. Coming up..."

A hand closed around the remote and picked it up from the worn, wooden desk. An old fountain pen rolled to the side as it was knocked away by the rising controller. The thumb— with a black flower swaying gently within its nail— pressed the power button and the television went silent. 

***