Degeneration

It was just a regular day; bright and sunny, leaves rustling in a cool breeze outside. I was walking home from the grocery store with a couple of paper bags filled with groceries for dinner. There were a few people here and there, but the usual bustle of a busy afternoon with people scurrying to get to back to work after their lunch break was absent during this time of day. There was a calmness brought by families enjoying the nice weather and relaxing in the small patch of nature that a park provided a busy city.
 Passing people on the sidewalk made me suspect there was a cold going around. People would begin to cough so fiercely that they would have to stop dead in their tracks to maintain their balance. For some the cough would turn into a sickly wheeze as if breathing had become a struggle.
 There was a family celebrating the birthday of a woman who looked to be in her late 70's. They were separated into small groups determined by age. The youngest of the group were running around giggling and playing some modern version of chase, while others stood around chatting or eating cake. The gray-haired woman had just rose from her seat when she started coughing. She hunched over with one hand on the table in an attempt to keep her balance and her other hand over her mouth. Her family turned to see what was happening and asked if she was ok. She didn't respond. She just kept coughing. I caught a glimpse of some blood dripping between her fingers before she collapsed. Everyone rushed to her aid to see if they could help in any way while a woman dug her phone out of her purse to call an ambulance.
 I stopped and watched for a minute, battling over the urge to help and the primal instincts of self-preservation. I continued walking.
 For the rest of the walk I couldn't seem to shake the nagging feeling that I had just walked away. Not that there was much I could have done, and they seemed to have it covered anyway. As I was approaching my front door, fidgeting with my bags of groceries trying to find my keys I finally heard the siren of the ambulance.
 Then I heard another
                     …and another
                                    ….and another.