Rant

hear I was infected and they’d hunt me out. The rest of us, we called them “spittoons,” they was after spit so bad.
    Shot Dunyun: Every bullshit little Daytimer who says Rant Casey kissed them, they called themselves “purebloods.” Talk about pathetic. Like they were racehorses or vampires—it was beyond pathetic.
    Hudson Baker: Gregg Denney is a totally, no-kidding predator.
    From the Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms: As with the Tooth Fairy, every culture has its own version of the “bogeyman,” a mysterious figure who exists, not to reward children, but to punish them. For example, the Dutch figure of Zwarte Piet, who assists St. Nick by whipping children who misbehave. In Spain, El Coco is a shapeless, hairy monster who eats children who refuse to go to bed. In Italy, L’Uomo Nero is a man wearing a black coat who kidnaps those who refuse to finish a meal. Similar to Santa Claus is the Homem do Saco of the Portuguese, the Torbalan of Bulgaria, and the Persian Lulu-Khorkhore, who carries a huge sack, not to bring gifts to good children, but to spirit away unruly ones.
    Hudson Baker: Amber and me had a promise: We’d never get in a car without the other. If a Party Crash team only had room for one of us, we’d wave them off and wait for another car. Both or neither, that had always and forever been our true promise.
    Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D. ( Epidemiologist ): Modern society has struggled with the issue of superspreaders since Mary Mallon refused to modify her behavior. Because “Typhoid Mary” insisted on working as a cook, she spent the last twenty-three years of her life quarantined on New York’s North Brother Island. More recently, in 1999, The New England Journal ofMedicine reported a nineyear-old boy in North Dakota whose lungs held unusually deep pockets of tubercule bacilli, infecting his family and fifty-six schoolmates while the boy himself appeared to be in perfect health. In a similar case from 1996, the Annals ofInternal Medicine documented the post-surgical intensive-care unit of a hospital where an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant staph infections was traced to colonies of Staphylococcus aureus deep in the sinuses of a seemingly healthy medical student.
    Neddy Nelson ( Party Crasher ): You ever heard of the Emergency Health Powers Act? It was put in place by that president, right after the September 11 fiasco, remember? Did you know that act allows the government to brand anyone as a public-health menace, then lock them up for the rest of their life? You ever hear of due process? You think you’re going to get a trial by a jury? Are you kidding?
    Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: In rural China, the social stigma associated with leprosy prompted many of the infected to hide their condition. In response, the government offered a cash bounty to anyone who could report a leper, thus forcing the infected into treatment and eliminating the disease from the country.
    In India, where a more democratic form of administration prevents such a program, cases of leprosy remain common.
    The Emergency Health Powers Act simply enables the federal government to suspend all state and local powers, seize property, and quarantine populations in order to effectively deal with any infectious agent.
    Hudson Baker: Amber saw getting infected as the ultimate commitment. Like her and the guy would be doomed to be with each other. Looking back, she figured a brush with death would make her really enjoy her life. Like she would feel more alive. Regular people would feel sorry for her, or some might be afraid or grossed out, but Amber just saw that all as added attention.
    Amber said it would stop her from boosting peaks. She really wanted to live a real, alive life. I mean, it’s really hard to explain.
    From the Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms: The term “bogeyman” is derived from “Boney,” the British derogatory nickname for Napoleon Bonaparte. Over time, the name evolved into “boneyman” and later “bogeyman,” but it was always used as a threat by the British in order to keep their children obedient.
    Hudson Baker: Amber and me, she wanted us to double-team Gregg Denney. That’s the night I didn’t get in his car. I let her go alone.
    Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: As was most likely the case with Buster Casey, an asymptomatic, infectious carrier tends to be immunocompromised by a previous illness. For example, one massive superspreader of Coronavirus, commonly known as SARS, suffered from a pre-existing