Part 3/9:
The next day offers no respite. Susan encounters Michael outside a restaurant as she takes a smoke break. Their interaction is playful yet shift registers as they share insights about the peculiar illness, grounded in a disturbing realization: it is spreading.
The Grief Epidemic
The city soon finds itself under the grip of a profound, unexplainable grief that hits residents seemingly at random. To coincide with the emotional blow, they lose their sense of smell—an event that coincides with desperate attempts by authorities to reassure the public that this phenomenon is neither contagious nor dangerous. However, the widespread psychological panic leads to changes in collective behavior; people retreat into their homes, masked and uncertain of their surroundings.