2 Chapter 2: The world is about to fall into a disaster

In the Austin area, tall buildings stand majestically. The roads on both sides are crowded with people and traffic, but there is nothing on the road. From time to time, ambulances pass by quickly. Even though the surroundings are extremely noisy, some people can hear the cars. The patient screams in agony.

"Are you sure you chose this place?"

Looking at the large shopping mall in front of him where people were going in and out, Brian asked Sarah beside him with some uncertainty, knowing that the things in there were not cheap.

"Certainly."

Sarah took 50 US dollars from her pocket and said with some pride:

"I have been saving money for this day for a long time. My father has been complaining that his watch is broken. I just want to buy him a new watch."

"Well..."

Brian looked at Sarah's 50 US dollars with a very strange expression. At this point, wanting to buy a small-point watch is a bit of a dream.

"Sarah, your little money is like..."

"ah--!"

Just when Brian wanted to remind the other party that he didn't have enough money, there was a sudden noise on the opposite street. Both of them were attracted by the noise and turned their heads to look at the man, who made the sound.

I saw a big black man kneeling weakly on the roadside, his chest heaving violently and constantly gasping for air, his whole body shaking, the blood vessels hidden under the skin bulging, his eye sockets were black, and bright red bloodshot eyes overflowing from the inner periphery of his eyes. A series of symptoms made him look extremely terrifying.

Everyone standing around him knew that this man had a new type of infectious disease that suddenly appeared recently, so they all covered their mouths and noses and stayed away from the area.

"Call the headquarters, discover the symptoms of the patient, and request the dispatch of an ambulance."

The violence that happened here attracted the police patrolling nearby. He was seen running and calling for an ambulance through the intercom. When he ran next to the big black man, he couldn't help but take out the handcuffs and put his hands behind his back. Handcuffed behind his back.

This action of the police aroused strong dissatisfaction among the black people around. The grumpier ones were persuading the police to release the handcuffs quickly, while the less grumpy ones were cursing at the side. Some even had weapons in their hands, as if they were ready to rush out at any time. The crowd rescues its countrymen.

The policeman looked at the crowd around him coldly, took out his pistol indifferently, and silently warned the people around him not to do anything extreme.

After a while, the ambulance's beep-beep-beep came closer and stopped next to the police. At this time, the big black man seemed to have lost his mind, twisting his body crazily and screaming. The doctor spent a lot of effort to fasten him to the hospital bed and stuff him into the car.

As the ambulance left, the crowd of onlookers saw no excitement and gradually dispersed. The street returned to its usual scene as if nothing had happened just now.

Witnessing this process, Brian suddenly became very frightened. There was a voice in his ear that seemed to tell him that something terrible was about to happen. He murmured:

"Why do I always have an ominous premonition?"

On the other side, Sarah saw the crowd of onlookers disperse and withdrew her gaze. This kind of thing happened every day, and everyone was used to it. She took Brian's hand next to her and headed towards the shopping mall. She walked over and said with a sly smile, "Let's go in quickly. Fortunately, you are here; otherwise, I wouldn't dare come here to buy anything."

"Um?"

Brian, who was still surrounded by uneasiness, immediately forgot all about his insecurities after listening to Sarah's words and looked at the girl in disbelief.

"I'll go; you asked me here for the money, right?"

"bingo."

Snapping her fingers vigorously, ignoring the surprised looks of others, Sarah put her hands around Brian's right arm, rested her head on his shoulder, looked at him expectantly, and said:

"You won't let me down, right?"

Looking down at that cute little face and those eyes full of expectancy, Brian covered his forehead with his palms and sighed helplessly.

"Oh my God! My poor change."

.....

It was already 2:30 when we returned to school, and school was about to end. All the students in the classroom were packing their school bags. Brian and Sarah sneaked into the classroom while no one was paying attention.

Returning to his seat, Brian glanced at Sarah, who was holding a watch box and a greeting card with a cartoon dinosaur cover in her hand. Brian couldn't help but curl up his lips. This was his spare money for a few weeks.

When Teacher Judy returned to the classroom, everyone packed up their things, followed her to the school gate, and boarded the school bus.

At 3 o'clock, the two returned to the suburbs, played with Jimmy's puppy a few times, and Sarah invited Brian to her home.

Brian thought for a moment that he had nothing to do when he went home anyway, so he readily agreed. When he entered Sarah's house, he found that, well, the interior was very neat and clean. To be honest, he thought that a single father's house would be a mess.

"You sit down for a while, and I'll go upstairs to change clothes."

Watching Sarah disappear on the stairs, Brian wandered around the room boredly. On the table was a photo of Sarah and his father, Joel, and in the corner was a football with Sarah's team's signature.

"This is...."

On the refrigerator in the kitchen, Brian read a note that Joel left for Sarah. He glanced at the content on it:

I'll go home late tonight. You can order takeout. See you in the morning.

dad

"Kick-kick-"

Hearing the footsteps on the stairs, Brian knew that it was Sarah coming down, so he pointed at the note and said to her on the stairs, "Sarah, it seems that your birthday gift cannot be delivered today."

"ah?"

Sarah, who had just come down from upstairs, was stunned for a moment when she heard Brian's words. Then she looked at the note pointed out by the other party. As if she realized something, she walked forward quickly and looked at the content on it.

Within a few minutes, Sarah was like a deflated rubber ball. She sat down on the sofa in the living room with a sad face, completely missing the happy smile she had a few hours ago.

"So, what about the gift?"

Brian looked at this scene with a wry smile, and he didn't know how to comfort her.

"If you give it tomorrow, it shouldn't be too late."

"No."

As soon as Brian finished speaking, Sarah immediately stood up from the sofa, puffed out her cheeks, and said angrily, "There's no way a gift can be given the next day. I'll be here waiting for him to come back."

"..."

Seeing the determined look on the other party's face, Brian shrugged and didn't say anything. After all, this matter had nothing to do with him in the first place.

"Have you thought about how to solve the problem for dinner?"

Sarah pointed to the paper left by Joel and said, "Didn't he write everything down? Let's order takeout."

"You also had takeout yesterday, right?"

Brian scratched his head, went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, looked at the ingredients, and said, "Forget it; let me cook it for you. Eating takeout all the time is not good for your health."

"Can you cook?"

"Certainly!"

Night falls.

Brian lingered in front of the room's floor-to-ceiling window, and the moonlight shone through the window on his slightly uneasy face. The nanny, Josie, had left long ago and would not come until tomorrow morning.

Staring at the night outside the window and recalling the illness of the big black man he saw, he couldn't sleep peacefully even though it was close to noon.

He looked at Sarah's house next door. There was light in the living room. He saw Joel returning home just now, so he thought the gifts should have been given out by now.

Thinking about this, Brian couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth slightly. He picked up the remote control on the bedside and turned on the TV. Since he couldn't sleep and didn't have a mobile phone, watching TV was a good way to spend time.

"drop--!"

The sudden ringing of the phone woke up Brian from his deep sleep. He slowly opened his eyes and sat up on the bed. The display of the landline phone next to him kept flashing. He was watching TV and fell asleep unknowingly. He looked at the time on the clock and saw that it was already 2 a.m. It's time.

"Who's calling so late?"

Mumbling in his mouth, Brian reached out sleepily to pick up the phone on the bedside, put it in his ear, and said:

"Hello?"

As soon as he said a word, a woman's voice, crying with joy, came from the other end of the phone.

"Oh my god, it finally got through."

As soon as he heard the voice on the other end of the phone, Brian's head, which was still a little confused, suddenly woke up. This voice was all too familiar to him. It came from this body.

Just as he was deciding how to speak, the voice on the other end of the phone rang again: "Brian, you must listen to what I say next."

"The world is about to fall into a disaster. Infectious diseases are completely out of control. These madmen are constantly hurting others. There is a black box in the closet in our room with a pistol inside. Your father and I can't get there in Washington. You go find...dip...dip."

But before the other party finished speaking, the phone was suddenly hung up. Seeing this, Brian quickly put down his phone and called back, but there were only bursts of blind tones coming from the phone.

The ominous premonition in his heart surged out uncontrollably. He looked blankly at the lights that kept lighting up in the night outside the window. He knew that an unknown storm was about to sweep the entire world.