#glad y'all getting somethng positive from my trauma 😅😅😅

[adjryonicusd]

sicks on a plane (contagion scene)

A, a germaphobe snzfkr, sits in the middle seat and dons headphones. A few minutes later, B arrives at the aisle and stows luggage, all the while coughing and sniffling thickly. "Oh Jesus please don't be in this aisle," thinks A. But B gives a weak smile, still sniffling - no, snuffling - and settles in right at A's side. A completely healthy A is frozen, panicking, and in denial. If B were 10 or more aisles behind, they would have been the in-flight entertainment. But at this distance - no distance at all - the germaphobia flatly overrides the snezfuckery. Also A does not find B especially attractive. A would bail and pay for another ticket, but the doors are closed and it's too late. The only way out is through. At least B isn't sneezing, thinks A, while B rummages in a bag.

For a tissue. As if in a hurry. B presses a crumpled tissue against their nose and mouth just in time to partially cover a big, loud, snotty sneeze. Giving a quiet moan, B keeps it pressed for several seconds as if it will help contain things. A is now more pressed than the tissue. This is a six hour flight with six hours to go. "That was just a one off sneeze they'd been holding back," A copes just as B draws in a deep breath and explodes again into the same tissue. B turns to A looking unhappy and offers a heartfelt apology, "I apologize in advance. I'm sick and I'm going to be sneezing like this the whole time. I can't help it."

"Fuckmefuckmefuckme," A is trying to parry a panic attack with closed eyes. A turns the music up to full volume. B is true to their word, sneezing at the same volume and level of drenching desperation every time. Twice per minute, without a break. A has already made themselves as small in their seat and in their head as they can. A sneaks an occassional peek to see B reusing the same tissue to total saturation. Before B digs for a new one, they've already been sneezing into a soaked tissue. A realizes B probably has no choice. Their bag is not big enough to contain a six hour supply at this rate. "Everytime I'm sure this can't get worse," A cries silently, wondering what happens when B runs out of tissues.

Which B inevitably does, still two hours from landing. But B's continuous sickness-laden sneezing has garnered as much sympathy from this half of the plane, as it has loathing from the seat to B's left. Several people in turn walk up to donate their tissues to the cause of keeping B from infecting 260 people single-handedly. Not that tissues could actually contain the fallout from someone this sick sneezing this much. The air in this part of the plane already hangs with a generous concentration of B's cold. A thin layer of droplets already draped over every inanimate, as well as living skin surface.

(based on true events that captured the imagination of a nation for a generation)