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black stuff in my eyes?”
    “No, there is no black stuff,” he says almost laughing. “You just look tired.”
    “That man dad,”
    “What man?”
    “The hairy man, he has this black stuff on his eyes, like veins, the woman too.”
    Paul turns his head around and immediately turns it back. “Oh my god,” he says. “Something is wrong with him.”
    I glance at the hairy man. Thick black veins are growing around his eyes down to his nose, and around his lips. He looks different from the last time I looked at his face. Paul is wearing that look he wears when he’s not getting something right.
    “Dad,” I call, but he doesn’t answer. “Dad.”
    “I counted twelve.” He says.
    “Twelve what?” I ask.
    “It’s a virus, and it’s spreading. Fast.”
    “What’s a virus?”
    “A virus is--”
    “Jesus dad! I know what a virus is. I mean what are you talking about?” I say.
    “The man, the woman, all twelve of them, they have a virus, a very deadly one.”
    “How do you know it’s a virus?”
    “The symptoms, I’ve seen it before. You’re right Steven, we need to get off this plane now.”
    I can’t help but want to laugh. “You do realize we’re about thirty thousand feet in the sky. How do you propose we get out?”
    “We jump!” He says, peering around. He is not kidding at all, and he’s beginning to make me nervous. “Listen to me Steven, I think the hairy man is a terrorist, and this plane is under attack. Everyone could be infected in minutes and since we are not infected yet, the best thing to do is to get out while we can, which is now.”
    “By jumping out of the plane?” I say. He nods.
    “There is a parachute hidden in the wall of the bathroom and there is an emergency exit somewhere in the back. We’re going to take that parachute and we’re going to jump out of this plane.”
    “The exit door, how will you get it open?"
    “Trust me I will.” He says and I believe him. Opening the emergency door while the cabin is pressurized is virtually impossible. But if he says he can, then he will.
    For a moment, I wonder how he knows where to find a parachute on a commercial plane, how he knows there’s an emergency exit door in the back––okay, maybe everyone knows that. How he figured this is a virus. He is not the type that jumps to conclusion, but he seems to know exactly what he is talking about.
    “So here is the plan,” he says. “I’m going to go first, get the parachute and in exactly one minute, you’re going to come meet me. You don’t look anyone in the eyes, just walk.”
    I nod. He gets up and walks to the back. As he enters the backroom, a scream fills the air. My heart pounds so hard I lost my breath for a second. I look around, trying to find the source of the scream. My eyes catch an old man with thick black veins on his face, his eyes blank black. He is standing above a chair, looking around. There is blood on his mouth and nose, but I don’t think the blood is his. I feel like my head just exploded! It is the old man the hairy man bumped into earlier. In his mouth is something that looks like–– oh my god! It is flesh!–– People are getting up to see what is happening. In a matter of seconds, the plane is filled with screams and blood. People with black eyes and faces full of black veins are brutally attacking people with no black eyes or black veins.
    I jump out of my seat and run to the back. The hairy man glaring at me, jumps out of his seat and charges toward me like a predator going after its prey. When he gets close enough, he dives at me, I step on the armrest of the chair beside me and spring over him. The hairy man hits his head to the chair so hard I hear his neck snaps as I fall hard on a chair. Paul comes out from the backroom with a black bag on his back. Another man with black eyes turns his body with so much force I hear his bones crack, he's only five rows away. He charges at me. I pull myself up and run. Paul reaches out for me,