Luckily, or not, my colleague lived down the street from my boss, but he still had no idea of what was this strong infection ...
For a moment, I had a dead stare, wondering the effect of that infection inside the head of a human being, after seeing that arm lying on the sidewalk.
I returned my gaze to the television, that would continue to broadcast news about the phenomenon.
I would not work, and my only commitment now was now stay tuned for news, waiting for more information to be revealed and the infection be contained ...
By early afternoon, things got worse, and even the channels that were not broadcast news, were interrupted to show that desperation.
Soon it was also informed of lack of vacancies in hospitals, but no one informed right what happened.
The government should have been behind it, trying not to spread panic.
"Infection, parasites, allergy, infestation, condition," they had many different names for the event, but not a definitive explanation.
The guidance was that no one came out of their homes, avoid panic and not to worry about contagion when with anyone with sudden symptoms of skin patches and debilitation, it was not contagious.
I did not understand at first, because it was not contagious, they knew the specific symptoms and signs, then what reason to advise everyone to stay in their homes?
And if they knew so much, why not say as soon what disease was that?
The day passed like the wind... Through the window, I saw the empty streets, occupied only by air and fear.
In the early evening, they finally spoke and explained the thing correctly:
The city had been infected with a type of parasite, which came through the air like spore, entered the body of the population by the skin and could develop into specific parts of the body.
They never seen anything like it, there was no name and very little information.
The parasite's life cycle was mysterious, it developed to discard the body part it lived in, resulting in tissue death and the parasite's death itself.
They did not disclose, but I was sure that it came on the last afternoon of the phenomenon, with those little shooting stars and the dust they brought.
The worst was announced: the likelihood of almost all the inhabitants of the city had contact with the spores, and those who expressed no reaction, "could" be immune to it.
This meant that, luckily, we all wouldn't be killed or wounded by these things, but also meant that we could not leave the city.
At that time the authorities were pronounced, the city would be surrounded by the army, with all the streets and avenues closed to anyone who would move between towns.
Our clothes, our floor, food, everything could have large amount of spores, and it would be disastrous if it out of here.
At that time there was still an unsolved problem:
People who had barely affected in the legs or arms, were already stable and even without risk of losing limbs.
Those who developed the disease in the skull, unfortunately, had already died or were about to, what was the sad reality of my boss, that I could not know for a long time.
But those who were affected from the neck down, involving the whole body, were still fighting for stabilization.
They did not give details, but these still had the "thing" developing within them.
Avoiding parasite growth, doctors began trying to locate the source of the problem and remove the evil through surgery.
We, ordinary people, who watched the news without being inside the details, were told late that the first attempts to remove the parasite had "complications" and it was not possible to remove ...
I did not sleep well that night, and I think no one slept.
It was an invasion of an unknown disease, but in the air, hung a intoxicating fear.
I do not know exactly when I fell asleep, but my whole street awoke to the sound of sirens.
I got up and went to the window, I saw it was the police and fire departments ...
I turned on the television, knowing that the number of cars could be something in the hospital ... The apex of madness.
There was the hospital's image, in the morning, almost covered by a white smoke.
A journalist explained that, inside, there were patients in need of help, but they still did not know where was the focus of the fire.
The image changed to the camera helicopter, and I had that wide and distressing sight of another mystery blurring in the air.
The "smoke" rising was too white and thin, and not normally propagated in the air.
It was not smoke ... It was some finer thing, like a gas, a cloud leaking out of the building.
The police and firefighters arrived, but the fire fighters entered first.
We have seen, even on television, that group of people coming with speed, and I waited trying to figure out how much time was needed to reach the affected floors.
I wanted to not be right, and that all that was just a smoke... Non - chemical... Nothing evil ...
The suspense was broken when journalists heard screams, and the screams increased, on one side, then another, more deeply.
The horror began to be heard clearly.
Something was thrown out of a window, smearing the wall of the building on the descent.
It was a human head ... I could see clearly, but the camera turned, still trying not to terrorize the viewer.
There was movement in the building and people outside the hospital.
Patients who fled before the "fire" came.
A police posse entered in sequence, facing the sound of something approaching.
I could not watch it sitting, and it wasn't for being fragile, but for the close distance to my own house.
The station threatened to cut off the transmission, preventing people from seeing violence, but in seconds the transmission came back to show the front of the hospital.
It seemed that things had calmed down, but the journalist granted there were shots.
Soon the smoke began to take also the lower floors, and suddenly a policeman walked out the front door, screaming at the top of his lungs.
In his right hand, he dragged a wounded doctor, and he had deep cuts and other smaller skin wounds.
He ran to one of the police cars, requested reinforcements in desperate tone and then went to the sidewalk, where he laid the doctor and began to tear his clothes to stanch the wounds.
The doctor was bloody, wounded and visibly broken, his legs and an arm abnormally crooked.
The press cut the transmission for a moment, as the wounded were now too close to the lens and would not be allowed, at that hour of the morning, to show such strong scenes.
Anguished, standing up and instinctively, I went to the window where I saw the street and surprised myself with the amount of people at the doors, windows, wide - eyed, frightened, talking and even preparing for the short walk to the hospital where everything was happening.
I would not have had the courage to walk there alone, but if I went back to my room and pretended that nothing was happening, it would inundate me in distress.
I trusted the number of people and stepped out of the house, asking my neighbors if they were going to see the case.
With the certainty of being in a group, we have made the walk to the hospital around the corner from where we would observe from afar.
There were police cars, empty, with the hospital covered by a macabre cloud, whitest, almost motionless, without being dissolved by the wind.
The surviving officer explained to journalists what he had found there, but, by despair gestures, he was impatient for the arrival of reinforcements and prevented anyone from entering the building.
In a few minutes, an ambulance arrived, shy, with few rescue workers to save the police and the doctor.
Something that rescuers said was capable of causing despair and confusion among all.
> Technical team personnel rushing to pick up their phones, journalists making calls, others contacting the station.
We saw the tension in their faces and got closer, but still far enough to not face the hospital.
Instinctively, we seek the journalist, the same girl who informed us through the television screen.
Interrupting her contact with the station, she showed no discomfort, and revealed what she knew, seeing that we were adults, including people concerned about families living in the vicinity.
In the face of madness, she was carrying a note with the combination of the police report and the doctor's, only survivors of the hospital.
They said the police came with all staff, and went straight to the fourth floor, where supposedly had firefighters, patients and part of the hospital staff.
From stairs to corridor, everyting was filled by that substance in the air, it was not smoke and nor was there a sign of fire.
The bodies of the firefighters, said the police, were "scattered everywhere, but in pieces."
The team continued opening the doors of the rooms, looking for survivors.
None but a single doctor was found. And he only survived for hiding among the dead, revealing after police went to rescue.
He warned weakly, telling they