DISCLAIMER: "Newsies", and all characters of the movie sadly belong to Disney, not me. The Stand is property of Stephen King or whatever company publishes his books. Once again, nice things I do not own. I do, however, own myself (The Nameless Wonder) and Pidgeon. My buddy Revy owns Cobalt.

EARLY SHOUTOUTS!: Yay to m-e lee12 and Brownie/Melody because they fuel my Newsies-verse!!! And support my writing and artistic "talents"! Also yay to my dad for letting me secretly rent Stephen King movies while my mom is out and letting me steal his SK books!!! (However, yay to KK for getting me the particular copy of The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition which I own!!)

Walking With Captain Trips

Prologue

All I've heard is rumors. They say the disease came out of the west. Some even pinpoint it, say it came from California or New Mexico or whatever other state they choose. I don't think anybody really knows what happened.

That doesn't mean we don't have a pretty good idea.

Most people point fingers at their government. Or what used to be their government. Not too many people left up on Capitol Hill now. Five days ago they were all there, pointing fingers back, denying the lot of it. Not answering our questions. Seizing the radio stations and newspapers and television signals of the people who dared to say they created the superflu, to say that their scientists dreamed up Captain Trips, the most deadly and contagious disease ever known to man.

Running around around barking at each other like paranoid little chihuahuas.

They did it, all right... or at least knew something we didn't. Whatever that was, it must not have helped them much, because people were still dying left and right, no matter how rich or poor or their job or position in society.

How's that for leveling the playing field?

It was kind of awe-inspiring, really, until people went crazy. Mugging, looting, gang wars and prositition and greed and desperation and panic and depression unlike anything I've ever seen, even in New York. Lucky for those of us waiting around for our time to die, that didn't last long. 'Cause eventually their time ran out. Time usually ran only from a few hours to a few days at most once you knew you had Trips.

And then everything was just quiet.

You don't know what it's like to be in this city when it's quiet.