Would you like a chicken sandwich?

Tonight as I was going to outside to get a bite to eat, I drove past a small bunch of people crowding around something, looking and pointing. My first thought was - “Damn it, another accident, and all these ignoramuses can do is stand by and watch.”
As I drove closer, I felt in my mind that there was something wrong about the size of the crowd. It seemed too close packed to have surrounded anything larger than a small object of some kind.

As I approached the crowd, I saw what looked like a fully healthy white pigeon lying dead on the ground.
No marks of a death by any form of violent impact, nor any skid marks.

“Old age”, I guessed, obviously unimpressed. Losing interest exponentially, I just veered off to my intended destination : my favorite 24/7 fast food joint near the Railway station.

Every other morning I drowsily read through yet another purported instance of the dreaded avian flu in the newspaper: “Bird Flu incidence here, another 50,000 birds culled there!”
The newspaper stand at the joint had that same news even today.

“How utterly and completely boring. Nothing like this will ever reach good old Pune, can it?”

“Can it?”

Going inside the joint, I barked “One chicken sandwich” at the waiter.

“Would you like some H5N1 with that chicken sandwich?” said the waiter with a smile that I could have better lived without seeing..

And on the broadcast came the chilling announcement:
“Welcome to death central. Passengers may now begin to board the one way train to oblivion.”