The Green Paranoia (open)

[Deleted]

Coughing, hacking, sneezing, wheezing... all around camp the sounds of sickness could be heard. The medicine cat's den was starting to look as if the entire clan had moved in with all the nests being made, and Mothcloud had been sure to steer as clear away from the entrance as she possibly could to avoid catching the growing contagion. The greencough outbreak seemed nearly inescapable; what started as a few cats had grown to many, seeming to spread quicker and quicker. Was there any way to avoid it? The dark tortoiseshell she-cat almost felt as if there was a blanket of sickness covering the camp, filling the air with the foul stench of disease. Everywhere, it was everywhere! She could wash her pelt a million times and not escape the feeling.

The medicine cats den was a frenzy, but while more cats were being escorted there, less cats were available to patrol and hunt. It was leafbare, and prey was hard to find with even a full patrol out searching every inch of the territory. They would run out of food, which meant cats would starve. Ill cats were already suffering without that strength to heal, it would cripple their recovery. Cats who weren't already sick would fall ill simply from not having any strength to fight off the sickness. In this sense, it seemed that Midnightclan was taking a plunge for the worst. Something had to be done to stop the sickness. There had to precautions of some sort! "So much... sickness..." The she-cat muttered to herself with a nervous gaze raking across the camp.

[Babylonranger]

Dark copper eyes glared balefully at the bustling activity around the medicine cats' den. The noise from the ill and afraid was getting on the black and orange tom's nerves, as well as giving him a headache. Baring his teeth in a silent snarl, the irritable warrior stalked off to a quieter corner of Midnightclan's camp. Unfortunately, in his hurry to find someplace to rest in peace after an early morning patroling, Newtleap almost ran into a nervous, twitchy-looking tortoiseshell.

"Mothcloud," the normally observant tom acknowledged, flicking his notched ears and black-ringed tail as he stared at the former deputy. "I didn't think I'd see you so close to a den-full of cats infected with greencough."

[Deleted]

The sound of the voice and the realization of the statement made the she-cat jump, then back nervously away from the den. It was as if the realization made the cloud of sickness even closer to her and choking her. Oh how her paws twitched and itched to just avoid the camp entirely and therefore avoid the sickness. She couldn't do that, however, and even if she could the sickness would not just leave on its own. The best she could do is have hope for the medicine cat and to assist as much as she could in the other areas of the camp. She would, however, stay away from that den as much as possible for her own sake.

"No, I won't be going inside," She stated to the tom, then her ears flicked back in anxiety as she continued, "And please make sure that you or any other healthy cat doesn't either! The sickness... the sickness is spreading faster than a wildfire in the pines. We don't have as many cats now. The prey is low, the dens are hardly able to be kept cleaned, their is work to be done, and I can't feed and clean the whole clan on my own paws!" She faced the tom with seriousness and anxiety clear in her rounded eyes. She wouldn't hide it. "We need hunters, we need able bodies, and Starclan forbid if we were ever attacked right now..." her words cut off as she froze her gaze back to the stinking den full of the echoes of coughs and moanings of their clanmates. The fur on her neck bristled and her ears flattened against her head as she seemed to be lost in her own worried imaginings once more.