Of Fear

Ricky have never been sick as this before. He had never committed straight absences in the last semester, because if he did, he'll never have a home to return to yet he has been marked absent for four consecutive days now and nobody knows why, only that he was heard to have been suffering a fever. As a full-time school nerd, nobody would even dare to care about it, except only for his three friends, sitting inside the classroom with their pens and papers, ready to list the things that are needed to be kept, and writing heavy arguments about which fantasy classic is better- Narnia or the Lord of the Rings? And by the looks of it, Josh is losing the debate against the crazy fanatics of The Lord Of the Rings; Francis with the histories and facts, and Lhance with the ad hominem and heavy steroids.

"Narnia was published on 1950 while Lord of The Rings had its print on 1954. So maybe we can say that Tolkien read Lewis' work first, then amazed by the mythical creatures and the fantastical elements the book has, Tolkien then had the idea of writing his own lore of fantasy. Hence, maybe we can say that Lord Of The Rings is just merely a copy of Narnia." Josh said.

"Woah, careful dumbass" Lhance remarked. "LOTR is an original lore, and not some fucking copy of something that is i-don't-know ..." he paused. " ... a dead cliche" he added.

"I did not claim that it was a copy, that's why I said that "maybe" it was."

"Shut up, that's just the same shit" Lhance replied and started writing on his notebook.

Francis looked over his yellow notes and raised his pen. "So okay, it is undeniably correct that Narnia was first published than the Lord Of the Rings, but you cannot just put a conclusion on a person's work as a copy ..." Francis quoted. "by your personal presumptions. All works are entitled to the author's experiences and ideas, you can't just say something is a copy because the same genre had been first made. And to correct you, Tolkien and Lewis were friends, but Lewis was not part of the Inklings where each of the members share their legendariums. And before Tolkien met Lewis in the academy, Tolkien had been sharing his ideas and his own creations of the story to the club. Hence, I say that your argument is not enough to prove your point."

After Francis finished his remark, a man with a rainbow colored letters that says "Shut up and Learn from the Man" on his black shirt, and wearing a blue Levi's jeans entered the room. The whole room fell silent. The huge crack on the left lens of his eye glasses makes it uncomfortable to focus on him, and the repulsive twitching of his toes were unbearable to look at. He scrambled through his papers. His ID dangling with "Prof. Rodrigo Pales PhD" labeled on it, and that was enough to tell that this man is not the kind of person that you want to mess with. He started calling out names while the students responds with "present", and this went simultaneously.

"Flores, Ricky?" he called out.

Nobody answered. He continued on his list.

"That's five straight absences this week" Francis whispered. "What's tormenting Ricky now is I swear by God, not just a casual fever". His two seatmates nodded in return.

The Professor started discussing about Geometrical Patterns, The Golden Ration, Pi, Fractals, and the three friends seated at the back have felt burned. As if a fire have been devouring their inner parts as their body gets numb listening to the discussions. Listening to mathematics for the entire two hours was hell, but they have survived hell now for half the semester, and they will for the whole semester.

At the last twenty minutes of the discussion, almost half of the students have fallen asleep, by improvising resources for a disguise; either covering their face with a book or a notebook, or nodding with an eye-closed, just having such quick attempts of sleep. Some were trying hard not to sleep or trying to fake smile and nod at every words of the professor, fearing they might be called for a question or worse, to answer an equation. Nobody liked listening to mathematics, except for Ricky, who had been absent for five days now. All nerds love math.

The professor finished his class with all of the students losing their will and motivation to make it up until the last class of the morning, draining all their energy and souls. Most of them decided to cut the second class and have their naps on the library, and the three friends stayed, fully motivated to attend all the morning classes despite the two-hour soul-consuming discussion Professor Pales had just excitingly performed.

"So okay, here's the deal. We visit Ricky today or we visit him on his deathbed?" Francis suggested.

"Asshole" Lhance gave Francis a weak slap on the left shoulder. "We visit him today, and now".

"That's miles away. So you both suggests that we skip the afternoon classes then?" Josh asked.

"No, we'll visit Ricky and let our clones attend the afternoon classes." Lhance replied. An annoyed straight face was drawn all over Josh's innocent face.

"And that my friend is what friends are for. We'll spend the night at Ricky's since tomorrow is Friday. We will work on our Literary Research there tonight. He mentioned that they have a wifi and I hpe it is legit fast. Bring some food and don't be just a baby cuckoo. We'll meet at the seven eleven parkmall at 12. Be late, and dinner will be coming from your pocket tonight."

The gang nodded and just right after Prof. Villanueva finished story-telling about Jose Rizal's life in Madrid which somehow blessed the students with the energy to make it up to the last class as Prof. Villanueva went teen-mode telling Rizal's life by using the unusual below-the-belt terms like she was talking about her ex-boyfriend to her friends, the three friends hastened their way home.

Francis lives a mile away from the City and it takes him two jeepney rides from school to reach home. Josh and Lhance were neighbours and so they always go together, in and out. Despite their personality differences, they were still able to make a good friendship. It takes them a one ride jeep to reach their residence but they prefer walking, saving 14 pesos from their daily allowance, though most of these savings probably all goes to computer shops and arcade centers. Living in the center of the City is so complicated. Sometimes, you arrive early walking than riding jeepneys, due to random heavy traffics, and it's better to buy instant foods than raw foods- saves time and money. Sometimes when you're lost it's good to ask people for directions, and sometimes it is not for people would bribe you for directions or mislead you with evil intentions. That's just how a thrid-world country City works.

Coron street was the main street of the City. It has the largest intersection, and it is where most of the City malls and mass entrepreneurial businesses stood. The busiest part of the City, and where place is crowded with the busiest people, it becomes the dirtiest. Lhance and Josh have finished packing and are now waiting for a Jeep that takes the Parkmall route in Coron Street. Thirty minutes of waiting and they finally were able to take their ride, but though jeeps usually accommodate 26 passengers, the driver hesitated to and carried a horde of 25 persons. They were compressed and stocked like a corned beef on a can. Lhance have been cursing all the curses in his mind while Josh sat uncomfortably, like a ham on a sandwich - everyone were. It's either you carry on, enduring the back and butt pains you will have in the middle of the ride, and endure the loss of oxygen inside accompanied by the ammonic breathes and worse, the toxic fumes of armpits and be glad reaching your destination with the 8 peso fare, or wait for an another 30 minutes for a jeep, hoping it does not have a driver whose mindset is the same with the latter (which based on Lhance and Josh's experience, was impossible), or take a taxi and become poor. And for Lhance and Josh, the best option was patience.

They have suffered the tortures of Math awhile ago and now they are experiencing the economic struggle of the working class, and they're getting good at enduring those hells. It was hard for all the passengers to move even an inch, yet the person sitting beside Josh still had the balls to pull out his phone from the pocket as they all murmured and adjusted spaces for the spoiled nihilist. Josh had a hard time taking quick glances on the man's phone. He laughed rhetorically over the memes until the man paused on an article announcing an initial rise of a virus. The disease was still unnamed and is still on the process of study. Two had been confirmed confined with the disease, and scientist hasn't still identified enough information about the disease and that includes the symptoms, all that they know is that it has the capability to infect others through open air. Josh trembled upon the news, considering that his friend has been sick for five days and the fear of what's possible. He lost the energy to endure the pressure, and began exercising heavy inhales and exhales silently. He feared that the people responsible on studying the disease would be late to announce, and the day the symptoms will be known, it will also be the day the virus had taken over his friend's body- and this troubled him heavily.

After an hour of tormentuous riding, they reached Parkmall and as usual, waited for Francis inside the Seven Eleven store, who always comes late yet still has the guts to remind and warn the gang about coming late.

"Lhance, have you heard about the news?" Josh asked. "An article was just posted, warning the people about the rise of a virus, and I'm kind of worried about our friend. He has been sick for days now and although the article never mentioned about the symptoms as of now, I still fear that Ricky might have it." he continued.

"Hey,, what the fuck now? Stop planting your conspiracy shit on me you overthinking faggot. My phone's dead and I'll check the news later. Stop exaggerating everything, will you now buddy? That's what you get on watching Stranger things and Resident Evil and all those science fiction crap. Calm your balls, Ricky's fine." Lhance took a sip on his coffee.

"I hope it's just a fever"

"Shut up will you now?" Lhance remarked irritatingly.

Just as what the two have expected, Francis arrived exactly twenty minutes late from the call-time. He approached his two friends with a worry drawn over his face.

"Guys,have you already heard the news about Ricky?" he asked.

Josh's eyes started to fix in suspicion. His heart beat faster and the tapping of his fingers on the table went fast. The two nodded obliviously, but Lhance has the "why are you late?" expression on his face, staring at Francis.

"Ricky's been marked failed on Prof. Pales' midterm exams. He was supposed to be excused in all exams, we presented an excuse letter for that, but the old unconsidering soul of that tyrant marked him failed just like that. Not even a darn quarter." Francis continued.

Josh's tapping stopped and he threw out a disappointed glance on Francis. Lhance still had the face too.

"That's the first thing we've heard this morning you ass" Lhance scorned. "You're always late on updates, and that's because you always come late. The whole class already knew that. Now tell me why are you late?"

"You two didn't tell me about that? You bunch of traitors."

"We did, but you were busy watching Ivana's vlogs. Guess you're also a fan of Jamill and stream Yasmin songs too? What a class." Lhance replied

"I was not! I was watching videos and saving articles about our Literary Research dumbells, you're welcome."

The two continued on their argument about their Literary Research, and Francis still had not answered why he was late. The people occupying the store's seats overheard them and started walking outside the shop. Josh felt weird noticing how the people around them started avoiding them and so he reminded them of the time and suggested their time waiting for a bus than arguing about school projects.

The wait didn't lasted for an hour, which was earlier than they've thought. The bus wasn't so over packed with passengers thus they were able to pick their preferable seats. They sunk their bodies on the back seats of the bus. Francis reached out for his classic "Frankenstein", Lhance continued building his own Minas Tirith on Minecraft, while Josh was vibing his soul to the Lauv and LANY playlist. They were busy on their own businesses.

Josh stared at the open window, beholding different scenery of the City. Houses, big and small. Buildings with concrete walls or glassed walls. People by standing over gutters, smoking or scrolling through their phones. Trees, but mostly dead, and almost dead by the looks of its branches and leaves. He realized trees were not as much as big deal as money in Cities, and he won't reside in such environment in the near future. The traffic seems to slow them down, and Josh caught a sight of an ambulance on the other lane. His heart beat fast again, his tapping on his knees went crazy fast and he started to sweat. His whole world slowed by the sight of it. His fear of the virus played his thoughts again. The trauma over the disease took over his body and mind, weakening him as he reminisce upon the memory of his older brother. He fears that what happened to his brother might happen again, on his friend or worse, on him. His thoughts on Ricky having the virus disturbs him so much as he started portraying his friend turning into a feral creature, then suddenly turning into a pale cadaveer burned in an isolated place, beholding it from a huge glass window. The disturbing experience of his brother became a scandal, resulting to harmful xenophobic treatment his family got from the community. They were quarantined, isolated in an unknown forest for half a year and came back into their home as different upon the eyes of the people. Every member of the family was avoided and named "virus" by the community and was feared as the possible carriers of it. This, he kept secret from his friends. Josh was shaking by the dreary memoirs of the trauma. He turned the volume up on his phone, wiped the sweats on his forehead, and closed his eyes to rest.

Upon resting, a sudden loud noise woke Josh up. He looked over at his left and saw Lhance peeling an orange, and he threw one peel at Josh. The noise was an announcement.

"Good day people of Cebu! A breaking announcement have been issued from the Department of Health that a sudden rise of a virus has been confirmed. Citizens were therefore advised to wear masks and practice the use of hand-sanitizers always. The Department of Health is still investigating for further information about the disease. As of now, everyone is advicesed to comply on the instructions to avoid contamination. Good day and never forget to wash your hands always. Keep safe!" It said.

Francis continued reading his book. Lhance kept building his minecraft castle while eating his orange, and the people went back to their usual hobbies after the announcement. All were good, except Josh who found no rest upon the news. The same disturbance of emotions haunted him again. The tapping of his fingers went on, the sense of being burned inside was there, his heart beat fast again, the heavy breathes and the intense sweating then came on.

His fear of his friend just got worst.