BABY FEVER

Another pleasant summer afternoon, Jodi thought as she was lying in bed, idly scrolling through Pictagram. She must’ve doom-scrolled past at least 30 videos in as many seconds. A high-pitched giggle made her look up. Her 8-month-old baby was locked in mock mortal combat with his father, wrestling to see who would gain control of a badly-mangled pack of wet-wipes.

”Boys, stop it!’ she chuckled, and quickly snapped a picture of the two most important people in her life. She thought it might be worth putting up the adorable moment on Picta later.

And then the doom scrolling resumed. Kale and chicken stock smoothies. A dog playing on a violin. A male TV anchor suffering from an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction. Cat videos… so many cat videos. She blitzed past it all. An old woman driving a speedboat. A horse that slept like a human. Two babies playing together. Now that was cute. She stayed on that a bit longer. But the more she watched it, the more unsettling it got. 

Quickly glancing at her small family, she watched the video again, but with the sound on this time. Her eyes widened, first with bewilderment, and then abject terror, as she heard what the BBC News reel had to say.

“New disease… Totsvirus spreads.. Babies.. Bite.. turn into babies.”

Panicking, Jodi tossed her phone aside and screamed at her husband.

“Mark! Get away from him, don’t let him bite you! Don’t….”

It was too late. Two babies now crawled towards her, giggling. Their eyes were full of mischief, and raw hunger.