Delayed Consequences, Part Ii

...He poured over this fact for weeks, asked others looking for a ‘why,’ pressed by new reports flooding in, more news of women who had died. Four months brought no explanation, and the deaths kept piling up, the news reported on it now, things were getting more and more rough. Middle-aged women lived in fear, and their families felt the same, the panic became more widespread that it put Covid fear to shame. His hospital gave him more time, other doctors were brought in quick, but they found the same as he did, nothing they tried would do the trick. Others found the one connection, the abortions far back in the past, but none would speak out publicly, that would end their careers quite fast. Six months in Alex was watching cam footage from a woman’s home, she’d been found dead by her front door, same cause, same connection was known. It was peering at the footage, rubbing his dry and bloodshot eyes, that he saw a tiny blur of light, shoot for the woman from one side. It was the shortest of moments, but clear on the old woman’s face, was a look of abject terror, then she just slumped down in her place. Again, on the slightest of whims, he went back through the files and sought out footage of their last moments, on three videos death was caught. Peering close, he saw on each one, the small light blur, coming for them, it was no video artifact, he had them checked again and again. Others thought that he was crazy, they said he’d been working too hard, the CDC told him to rest, but he’d already come too far. He sought for an explanation, even when he was taken off, no science seemed to explain it, never had Alex felt so lost. But one night when the TV was on just to provide background noise, he heard something that caught his ear, from a junk show they called Ghost Boys. It was some man talking about how ghosts screw with electronics, they can even be caught on camera, those strange words just made it all click. He couldn’t believe he thought this, all his training said he was mad, but folks kept dying, so he felt he must check all ideas, even bad. He tracked down people who proclaimed they investigated such stuff, they saw the film, and called it ‘ghost,’ though they didn’t impress him much. Most came across as amateurs, and he almost stopped searching then, his colleagues would think him insane… but Alex went back out again... CONTINUES IN PART III.