I don't own any of this Paranorman belongs to Laika, all other characters belong to their respectful companies. And The Stand belongs to Stephen King.
June 21
"Can't get out huh?" Lili told her boyfriend in anger. Around the two the facility seemed to be as frantic as ever, since the superflu is out in pandemic proportions. On what they heard hospitals were being filled, soldiers were burning bodies in waste plants,or dumped in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
"Ok, I admit that I was wrong, very wrong." Raz admitted as he felt rather small under Lili's gaze.
"You think!" She shouted at him. Boy Lili was angry, not only from this whole predicament, but she is also angry because she was right about the higher ups covering this whole mess up. They denied any existence of the superflu, which was really stupid in Lili's opinion as it was too clear that people were becoming aware of something going around.
The government was really trying to cover their own skins no matter what. Although she is angry with them, Lili is also a bit afraid for she didn't know how far the government would go to cover up their mess.
Turns out quite far.
TV and radio stations had been taken hostage by soldiers and were forced to tell stories that they had written up. Internet posts that talked about the superflu were quickly blocked, Youtube posts had their channels deleted under claims of inappropriate content.
Reporters who had taken videos or pictures of the troops dumping bodies in the oceans or setting them on fire. Were swiftly taken care of, with all that implies.
The government had done all they can do to cover up the situation and while a lot of people knew that the government was lying through its teeth. There were some who are none of the wiser until they like others caught the superflu. As they died under the disease, they realized that the government lied about everything.
Some however had no idea what was going on and felt really scared as the superflu ravaged the insides of their bodies.
June 22
Today was a day for celebration in Gravity Falls, for today is Summerween the spookiest day of the summer.
For those who don't know, since everyone in Gravity Falls loved Halloween so much. They celebrate it twice a year once in June before celebrating it in October. The children loved this set up, as hey you get to have two nights where you can get free candy.
However for this Summerween the children were disappointed as this year's trick-or-treating had been cancelled because of the recent flu outbreak that's been raging through town like a unstoppable fire.
The disappointed children, (despite having the flu themselves), felt that they should still be able to go, as they didn't want to miss a night of getting free candy.
Like the other kids; Mabel felt very disappointed. It just wasn't fair! She is feeling just fine and so is her brother, why should it be cancelled just because of a nasty germ. It disappointed her even more because she had picked out great costumes for herself and Dipper.
For this year's Summerween, they were going to go out as Tom and Jerry; Mabel was going to go as Jerry and Dipper as Tom. It stinks as they had this whole stick of acting out one of their favorite moments, but now they couldn't do it.
Mabel sadly looked out the kitchen window, she sighed fogging up the glass which she used her finger to draw a smiley face that quickly disappeared.
Dipper came into the kitchen and looked at his sister sympathetically. He to was little bummed out of the cancellation of trick-or-treating, but he can clearly tell that out of the two of them, Mabel took it the hardest.
Dipper pulls up on the chair across from her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey come on Mabel. We still have the official Halloween in October."
Mabel looked to him sadly. "I know, but I was really looking forward to have another Summerween. But because of some germ, I can't now."
"Hey, we can still celebrate Summerween." He reassured her.
"How?"
Dipper thought. "We could watch corny scary movies." Mabel looked away from her brother. "No thanks." She sighs again making another puff of fog on the window.
Dipper thought some more, then an idea came to him that will surely cheer his sister up. "Or we could make a craft."
Mabel looked at him in great interest, but swiftly looked back to the window. Dipper saw that look in her eyes however. "What was that?"
"Nothing" Mabel replied quickly.
"I swear that I saw something there."
"No, must've been swamp gas." Mabel insisted.
Dipper shook his head as he narrowed his eyes playfully. "No, not swamp gas."
"Then it must be a hallucination." Mabel pointed out. Dipper shook his head again. "No, I think it's my hyperactive sister who got interested on my idea."
Mabel looked away from him with her arms crossed as she looked at various things in the kitchen. "No, you saw wrong. Sorry about that, please try again in order to play the next game."
Dipper leaned over and poked her cheek. "That's too bad as I was thinking of having glitter and sparkles."
Mabel instantly turned to him. "Glitter and sparkles?"
"But your clearly not interested in it, so I'll just leave you to pout." Dipper got up from the chair, he had just gotten to the doorway when Mabel's voice stopped him. "Wait!"
Dipper smiled to himself for he knew that it would work. He turns to face her. "What is it Mabel?"
"Don't start without me! We're going to need my crafting kit!" Mabel jumps off of her seat and rushes past a smiling Dipper to go get her kit.
"Well this should make her feel better." Dipper told himself feeling rather proud for making his sister feel better. However in the back of his mind, he thought about how this flu seemed to be infecting everyone in town: Soos and Wendy had called in sick, Candy and Grenda were stuck in bed, Pacifica and her family were stuck in the cabin they had to live in after loosing their mansion, even Gideon had caught it.
It scared him as this new flu strand had killed some people, he didn't understand how he and Mabel weren't sick with it, as this flu can infect someone so easily and quickly. After all they were exposed to Stan who clearly had it, yet he and certainly Mabel were hundred percent healthy.
Rather strange, perhaps even stranger than anything in Gravity Falls, for he didn't know why? But felt that this went beyond Gravity Falls.
Mabel's voice called out to him from the den. "Dipper! I got my kit!"
"Alright, I'll be right there!" Dipper put these thoughts of the flu and this immunity that he and his twin sister seemed to have towards this thing in the back of his mind for the time being.
Dipper goes off to join Mabel in whatever craft they were going to make.
As the twins made a watermelon mummy. Down below; Stanford coughed hard into a handkerchief as he walked in his lab. He had caught the flu that his brother had caught, he felt very bad as his brain seemed to be cooking, but he looked better than Stan who's sweaty face, very sick eyes which were surrounded by red on his eyeholes haunted him.
Ford suspected that this wasn't some swine flu like the government had been saying, instead he suspected that the government had made some kind of lethal version of the flu, and he also suspected that it wasn't meant to be let out into the country.
How it happened is anyone's guess, but now he needed to study it closely in order to find a cure for this. If he doesn't, then he and the rest of his family's lives could be lost.
Ford coughs again as he got to a microscope, looking through it he stares at the flu samples that he had gotten from his own body. They were bigger than any normal flu germ, Ford injects a blue liquid and to his astonishment they mutated into a new form upon contact of the blue liquid, they fought off the blue liquid and appeared stronger.
"Fascinating." Ford suddenly turned back as he went into a violent coughing fit. After the fit, Ford grabbed his chest as that fit hurt badly, it also served as a reminder that he needed to stay focus on his task.
Ford goes to his chemistry set, perhaps he can make some short of cure with these. After suffering from another coughing fit that spit up a great deal of mucus from his nose, Ford really hoped that he could.
June 23
Martial Law has been declared through out the entire country; in places that were quarantine, troops guard the entrances and exits fiercely. Though in all honesty it is too late for any quarantine, as the superflu is out of any control, but the government is insisted on them.
Raz and Lili watched a body cam of a soldier. They watched as his squad had stopped a reporter and her crew who had tapped another troop squad burning bodies. The major wanted the footage, but the reporter refused, after an argument gunfire was heard, ending the dispute quickly.
Raz and Lili were horrified on what they had just saw, civilians were mowed down like an enemy. They couldn't believe it had even happen, their own government is so desperate on still covering up their own mess, that they killed whoever had the dirt on them. The two even heard rumors that the government unleashed the superflu into other countries.
"This is unreal! Have they lost their minds!" Raz exclaimed as he held his head in disbelief.
"They haven't lost their minds." Lili corrected as she still looked at the monitor. "Their just too prideful to admit anything." Lili shook her head in frustration. This was going to get worse, she knew that it was, the government can deny it all they want, but it was going to get worse and they were going to get dragged down when it happen.
Through her ears, Lili heard the faint sound of someone coughing. Not from the video, but from within the facility.
Norman's dad was dead, and now his mother and sister were sick with the bug that killed him.
It was definitely a big blow to the Babcock's as it looked like he had beaten the sickness three days ago, he looked better with only a stuffy nose. Then later that night it came back violently, Perry coughed and hacked until he died of suffocation.
Norman had never seen anything like it, his dad's neck had expanded out due to the insides closing up, and his face was covered in a large amount of mucus that had spread to the bed sheets.
It devastated all of them, they couldn't believe that Perry who had been alive and well just last week is now dead. Norman had watch his mother and sister cry, he also saw his grandma who floated above the bed, having her head lowered with ghostly tears going down her cheeks.
It was harder for Norman for although he had a rocky relationship with his dad, as he didn't believe on what Norman can do at first. It wasn't until after the events of Aggie's curse that he and his dad's relationship was starting to improve for the better. What is worse? Norman couldn't talk to his ghost because he wasn't there.
He knew from what his grandma had told him, that not everyone comes back as a ghost, but he figured from how he died from a horrible sickness, his dad would stick around, but looks like it wasn't enough.
Today he could hear his mother and sister coughing from their rooms, his grandmother who was once talkative has become silent as she sat on the couch staring into nothingness.
Norman sat on his bed thinking about all this. His dad was dead and buried in the backyard. They couldn't go to the cemetery as they couldn't find a way to bring him there, so they had a nice little ceremony in the backyard with him wrapped in a blanket.
The strange dream with that woman and the scary man in the corn, barely crossed his mind during those past few horrible days.
Now looking out his window, Norman couldn't see anyone outside, come to think about it, he had heard only a few cars, but no planes. He hadn't heard any planes for the past few days after his dad got sick.
Something was going on and it was definitely connected to this sickness. Outside on top of a telephone pole, the crow that watched Coraline is now watching Norman as well as the rest of the dying town.
June 24
From the Pink Palace garden; Coraline could hear alarms, shouting, and even more alarming gunfire, that came from town.
From the garden; Coraline sees smoke rising up from the town. Coraline could imagine the crazy riot that's happening over there, people running around like cockroaches, raiding the stores, fights with authorities and each other, and of course from the gunshots the many deaths that came with it.
It made her glad that she was far enough away from town, though here wasn't much better either as her parents were sick and she had witness Mr. Bobinsky under delusion from his own sickness, fall off from the roof and twisted his neck when he landed on the stone path. That twisted image of his head looking at her despite his body facing forward had frighten her completely.
That had happened yesterday and Bobinsky's body still laid there, collecting flies and buzzards. Coraline went out through the backdoor in order to avoid looking at him and now here she was, walking around in the garden where the flowers bloomed peacefully, despite the chaos miles away.
Coraline can see weeds already growing with the flowers. She would have to work on pulling them with her parents once they felt better. Coraline then sat herself on a bench that looked over the garden, the Pink Palace stood in the background like some castle. Thankfully from here, she couldn't see Bobinsky taking his eternal nap with his new vision of the world.
"Meow"
Coraline looked down surprised, an all to familiar black cat sat next to her feet, looking up at her with his blue eyes. She smiled down at him as at least he doesn't look sick, looks like the flu doesn't affect cats.
She leaned down and petted the back of his head which he liked very much. "Hey you." Cat purred loudly, then jumped up onto the bench, where he sat down beside her.
More gunshots rang out behind them, Coraline utterly cringes under each bang. Coraline looked back to the rising smoke with Cat looking with her, "Man, people have utterly lost their minds."
Cat just looks on without saying anything, Coraline looks over to him with small relief. "It makes me glad that the Pink Palace is a good distance away from town." Cat blinks in response, Coraline then suddenly looked uneasy. "You don't think they'll make their way down here do you?" Cat blinks again. "You know, sometimes I wish you can talk here, like you can in the Other World." She quipped.
Cat blinks again with a hint of a roll of his eyes. Suddenly he perked up as he had sensed something. Coraline took noticed of his sudden sense of alert, she watched him sniff the air then look in the direction of the Pink Palace.
"What's wrong?"
Cat jumps off the bench, he races towards the Pink Palace fallowed quickly by Coraline all the way to the backdoor where he paws at it, wanting to be let in. Coraline opened the door for him, she lets Cat lead her to her parents room where he stopped and looked up at her in the best sympathy a cat could muster.
Coraline now felt fear, Cat had sensed something and it was from her sick parents room. Slowly Coraline opened up the door and what see saw made her heart swell, her parents who were both sweaty with red all around their eyes laid in bed breathing weakly.
"Mom? Dad?" She hesitantly called out.
Her mother coughed, then looked over to her very weakly. "Coraline. Coraline you need to get ready for the zoo, we're leaving very shortly." She muttered in delusion.
Coraline rushes over to the kitchen, her parents needed medical help badly, she picks up the phone and dialed for 911. But all she got is a answering machine, she tries again, but received another answering machine. Coraline slammed the phone on the receiver in a panic outrage. "What kind of emergency service goes over to a answering machines?!"
"Coraline!" Her mother yelled.
Coraline now rushes over to the freezer, Cat sympathetically watches her take out ice in a plastic bag, then rushed past him and went into her parents room.
Coraline rushes over to her mom's side and places the bag of ice on her burning head. "Alright just keep this on your forehead, I'll be right back as I need to get you and dad medicine."
Coraline races to the upstairs bathroom, she frantically searched the medicine cabinet for anything that would help her parents, she eventually picked out what she thought would help them best.
She rushes back to her parents, poured each of them a glass of medicine and went up to her dad first. "Alright just drink this dad." Coraline puts it in his mouth and helped him swallow it, she then did the same for her mother.
Her mom coughs it up a bit, she slightly opened her eyes to look at her daughter. "Coraline." She calls out weakly.
Coraline leans forward in concern and fear. "Mom?"
"The dark man is coming for you." Her mother told her weakly. Coraline looked at her in surprise for how could her mother know about Mrs. Spink's fortune. "What did you say?"
Her mother doesn't respond, she just closes her eyes, breathing very weakly leaving Coraline speechless.
"Mom? Dad?"
Outside in the hallway; Cat looked down sadly as he knew that Coraline's parents were reaching the end of the line.
In Gravity Falls; the crow is perched on top of a telephone pole, watching the chaos unfold throughout the streets. Wendy's dad feeling angered over the death of his kids and infected by the superflu himself, ran through the streets and destroyed a mailbox with his muscular arms.
Others ran around like chickens, raiding stores in the progress. Some attempted to drive out of town, only to succumb to the superflu and crash throughout the roads.
Some of the buildings like the diner, the Northwest's old mansion, and the haunted convenience store is on fire. Overall deaths were mounting from not just the superflu, but also from people killing each other during the raids.
The army also served with the deaths as they fired at people attempting to leave their quarantine zones. The army also killed newscasters that rebelled against them and told the country the truth of what's really happening.
Some troops couldn't take it anymore and went AWOL on their squads.
June 25
Ford had worked hard in his lab, and despite getting weaker and weaker from the superflu each day, he wasn't going to give up.
Ford is sure that he is close on making a cure, he's very positive on that. Ford then let's out a loud cough that nearly brought him to his knees. Ford breathed weakly, his vision gets blurry, and his neck hurts.
Ford shook his head to get himself together, "Come on Ford! You faced various monsters, traveled through various dimensions, and defeated Bill! You can handle this flu!"
Very steadily he went up to his microscope where the superflu virus had absorbed and mutated under everything Ford had thrown at it. What he is going to use now is a fluid from one of his travels in the other dimensions.
Carefully, but shakily Ford injects the fluid. Ford watched as the fluid slowly went around the virus, he expected the virus to absorb it and mutate like the rest of them. To his pleasure however, the fluid had killed it completely.
Ford felt happy beyond relief. He had done it! He had found a cure for this thing, if he was healthy right now, Ford would be jumping up and down in happiness.
"This is great! All I need to do is put these in needles, inject my family and the rest of the citizens with this, and we'll be cured from whatever the government did."
"Hey now pal, we can't have you do that." A voice called out from behind him.
Surprised Ford turned around to see a man in the shadows of his lab. Ford couldn't see the top half, but he could see him wearing jeans and cowboy boots.
Ford could also feel a very dark aurora around this man, if he was a man that is. "Who are you? How did you get in here?!"
"Oh, I come to wherever I please Ford." The man spoke.
"You know my name?" Ford asked suspiciously, then let's out another series of coughs.
"I know many things, and I know that you found something that I can't possibly allow you to fulfill."
"You can't stop me!" Ford shouted, if he was fast enough he can grab a weapon and get this evil creature out of here.
"But I can Ford, just watch this." The man lifted his hand to his chest, he squeezes his hand shut.
Ford suddenly felt a pain his heart as it completely stopped, he clutches his chest and falls to the floor deader than a doorknob. The dark man stood in the darkness with his eyes glowing red and a sinister smile as now nothing can stop his plans.
June 26
Wybie came into his grandmother's room with a bowl of chicken noodle soup. His grandmother had caught a cold two days ago and she had looked terrible, he feared that she was going to die yesterday from how much she was coughing and how hot her head was.
Today to Wybie's relief, his grandma looked better, she is still coughing but overall she looked way better than yesterday. "Here you go grandma, a nice warm bowl of chicken soup." He places the bowl on her night stand, Wybie's grandma looked at him with a smile. "Thanks hon, did you get Dr. Trent?"
Wybie shook his head. "I got an answering machine. I tried to call another hospital, but I got a answering machine from there to."
"That's just not professional." His grandmother complained.
"You know this flu seems to be everywhere. It's actually quite scary." Wybie stated.
"How do you feel?" She asked, she would hate to have her grandson experience what she had for the past days.
"I feel fine, great in fact." Wybie replied.
"That's good to hear." She says in relief as at least he was fine. She took a glance at her alarm clock, it was 12:00pm. "Time for my show. Wybie can you turn on the television for me?"
"Of course grandma." Wybie picked up the remote and turned on the portable TV that he had brought in for her yesterday.
The TV turns on to the Daily Show, his grandma's favorite program. Today the two had noticed something strange, the host of the show, David Bangor didn't look the least bit professional which is really unusual as he looked to be a man that always wanted to be good looking in front of the camera.
His blue shirt is unbutton with no tie, sweat stains filled the front of his shirt, his hair is uncombed, and he looked very frantic. "Hello folks. This is David Bangor here in the Daily Show. Your going have to excuse my appearance and the way the show's running today as everyone has called in sick."
David Bangor leaned forward and picked up some papers. "I guess the only thing to talk about is the superflu or Captain Trips, or tube neck, it has different names but it means the same thing. The government has been lying to you, this isn't some swine flu but a very lethal flu. They've been giving us scripted news to cover their own tracks, but no more! I'm giving all of you the rightful truth."
David switches his papers quickly. "From what I gathered here hospitals are turning into morgues, once thriving towns are now towns for the dead, and US troops have been firing on civilians."
Wybie and his grandmother weren't believing on what they are hearing. This surly had to be a twisted joke, Wybie's grandmother then let's out a very hard cough which made both of them widen their eyes.
Back on the TV; the sound of doors bursting open came through. David looked up terrified, but bravely stayed put as a rough man's voice addressed him. "In order of The United States Army shut this whole place down! Right now!"
Despite being terrified David looked determine. "I won't! I'm through telling your lies, people need to know your screw up!"
"Shut it down now! This is your final warning!" The man barked.
"Have you forgotten that your supposed to be defending are freedom of speech! You know from the Bill Of Rights!" David looks back to the camera. "Folks, I've just been ordered by my rude guests to shut down and I've refused. In other news I got reports that government agents released the superflu onto other countries! Now ain't that American."
"That's it, FIRE!" gunshots rang out, holes appear on David's torso before he fell backwards. Seconds later the camera shuts off leaving the TV to play static.
Wybie and his grandmother were godsmack in shock. "What's happening grandma? What's happening?" Wybie exclaimed.
His grandmother could only shake her head. "The government screwed up, that's what happening." She coughs a good lungful, as her head is starting to heat up once again, she looked at her grandson in worry, she knew that she wasn't going to make it out. "Wybie"
Wybie turned to face his grandmother, fear is ever so present on his face. "Yes grandma?"
His grandmother sighed, she didn't want to tell him this, but she knew she had to. "Your going have to learn how to take care of yourself."
Baffled Wybie looked at her in surprise. "What?" He said quietly.
"I'm not going to make it, I can already feel it coming back at full force."
"But we gotta find something that can beat this thing." Wybie tries to think of whatever he can do to save his grandmother; maybe some sort of medicine or maybe a doctor can find a cure for her.
He suddenly felt a warm, loving hand on his cheek. Looking at her, all he can see is her warm smile. "Wybie your smart and I raised you well. Far better than your so called parents. If anyone can survive this it's you. As for me, at least I'll be able to finally reunite with my sister."
A couple more coughs came out from her. Wybie began to tear up, his grandmother continued to hold her hand on his cheek with that warm smile. It was a shame that she wasn't going to be able to watch him grow into a man, and she was scared of him being out on his own.
But as her sickness got worse, she knew that it wasn't going to be much of a choice. Wybie is going to be alone and would have to figure out how to be on his own if he wanted to survive.
They stayed with each other for the whole day, this was going to be the last time they'll be with each other and they wanted it to last as long as possible.
