Natalie is taking a walk around the city, with the possibility of Rick working overtime, she might as well keep herself occupied by venturing through town. Markson is a great place to live, which is why Natalie and Rick moved here after they got married. She and Rick know plenty of people in the city, and they're all nice.
Natalie figures she should stop for lunch, and lucky for her, Bob's Diner is up ahead, the perfect place to eat. She enters the restaurant, walking up to the stools where Bob is giving a customer some fried eggs and sausage.
"Natalie, good afternoon!" he greets with a smile.
"Hello, Bob! I'll have a turkey club sandwich please." Natalie says.
"Coming right up!" Bob replies as he enters the kitchen in the back.
As Natalie sits on her stool, brushing her hazel hair, she notices a woman and her children sitting in a booth eating a breakfast meal. Her son has sausage on his fork but is waving it through the air and making plane noises, much to his sister's amusement. Natalie recently thought of having a child with Rick, but he hasn't given her a clear answer so far. Having a kid should be wonderful, they're so sweet and innocent. Watching the boy entertain his sister gives Natalie a pleasant feeling that a baby will make her marriage better.
"Here you go, Natalie." says Bob, as he places her sandwich in front of her.
"Thank you." Natalie says.
She begins eating her food, delicious as always.
—-
Rick is standing in the hallway with a cup of water in his hand, taken from the cooler next to him. He takes a sip, nervous about the hospital's biggest concern today. The number of patients that become sick from the strange mushroom are filling up most of the rooms in the hospital, Rick and his coworkers have never dealt with a situation this big before. Not only does he feel terrible for having other doctors take over for him, but he won't be seeing Natalie until later at night, and he's still anticipating his decision of not having children.
He sees Michael Cabot coming, who has returned from gathering samples from that mushroom, since he's the leading expert on fungi out of all the doctors at this hospital.
"Hey, Michael." Rick says, grabbing his attention.
"Rick. How do you do?" Michael asks.
"Fine, for the most part. These past hours have been such a pain in the ass." Rick replies, before deciding to ask Michael about the mushroom. "Say, have you studied that mushroom that's been infecting everyone?"
"I analyzed a few of those mushrooms from the forest. It seems they aren't any known species of fungi, but a newly discovered species. I call it Matango."
"A brand-new species? That's pretty groundbreaking if you ask me."
"I have yet to inform Tobias."
Rick's conversation is interrupted by a scream coming from down the hall. It sounds like George, causing him to run towards whatever room it may have come from. Rick finds George collapsing out of Frank Jooby's room, with a scratch on his right arm. Michael arrives with two other doctors, as they start escorting George to another room. Did Frank assault him? Rick enters the room, and is horrified by Frank, who now has mushrooms growing all over his body. This must be the deadly result of the Matango, once someone eats it, they become deformed. Frank moans at Rick, as if he's trying to say something, but he can't utter a single word. Rick wants to say something to the poor man, only for the door to be shut by Tobias.
"I don't know what's happening, but the other patients that ate the mushroom are going through the same changes as Mr. Jooby. Do not speak of this to patients not associated with this problem, we don't want to cause a panic." Tobias explains before leaving.
A question races through Rick's mind; What the fuck is this Matango?