At the end of the Travens family anniversary celebration Amanda and her husband Brice say goodnight to her mother and father and spend the rest of the evening fighting with her two brothers Marcus and Thomas. Fussing with the two of them about their non-participation in the preparations for the party that they all agreed to throw for their parents, Amanda screams at them You two SHUT UP! while me and Brice were running around this past two weeks trying to prepare for this party that we all decided to put together for Ma and Da, You monkeys were no were to be found, and I had to wring Brice out while you were sitting on them big red spots behind you. The guys in the room try to stifle their laughter while Marcus and Thomas try to explain themselves.
Amanda interrupting their explanation whiles they start a poker game with a few of their friends, and inviting her husband Brice to stay for the game. Amanda wants the money they owe her, you will not rob Brice in one of your funky poker games, understand this, you chimps owe us and you will pay us $349.43 each.
The next morning Amanda and Brice wake up snuggling, Amanda’s hand begins to wander her husband’s body, and she reaches his crotch, very slowly she starts to panic, at the same time Brice is looking in Amanda’s’ eyes and he begins to panic as well. They both remove the covers violently and join each other in a continuous frantic scream. At the same time that morning Amanda’s parents are experiencing the same revelation and they day begins for the city of Wolcott, not just the Travens family.
Amanda’s parents, Bill and Tessa come to on the bathroom floor after fainting in disbelief from witnessing the phenomenon’s effect on Bill, after a few moments they realize that the emergency responders that Tessa called are just outside their home trying to access the emergency, and Bill has decided he does not want to share this unbelievable event.
At the Fire Department Thomas shows up late for work without calling in late, instead of getting dressed down as he expected, they’re too happy to see him and after a big welcome, they let him know about the phenomenon that has been occurring all morning with the fire houses. Fire emergency personnel not showing up, others calling in, his coworkers ask him, excited to see him after panicking this morning concerned about the shortage in personnel, what happen man? Why on earth didn’t you call? Why are you late? Looking for your pink slip? Thomas replies that he hit a snag this morning and forgot to call in, trying not to display how distressed he is and apologizing, sorry I didn’t call, I’m here now. Thomas is surprised and curious at the nervous mood his coworkers are in and he asks them, why are you so happy to see me? This is a surprise, I was expecting a different reception, what’s this weird shortage of personnel?
Thomas’s coworker is a conspiracy theorist and he continues on with his paranoid theories to Thomas and other employees, while Thomas is trying to contact his brother. Thomas is only there physically, while John is ranting about how this reminds him of horror movies when things slowly start to go wrong like in Salem’s Spot and Night of the Dead Walking , when you notice small things at first and think nothing of it, like people showing up at the same time for the same ailment like in Sheppard King’s, The Strand, he said yea man this is just like The Strand when large numbers of people thought they had the flue instead they started dying people not coming to work, and could barely get out of bed, thought it was going to get better but they all started dying. This could be a small part of a bigger crisis you just wait and see man. Thomas is on the phone waiting for his brother to pick up, listening to Johnathan and thinking, what if he’s right.
