Nothing happens...yet.

Knock Knock Knock

Carl's eyes shot open.

Someone was pounding on his door, the noise making his continued sleep difficult. But wasn't he...? Carl could have sworn he had been standing, very definitely concerned that he was about to be barraged with cosmic rays and that he'd grow a second head or something. Only now he was on the floor, having been out cold but (thankfully) very definitely not having grown said head. It was weird, but a manageable weird; he'd take it over the second head. Stop thinking about heads he thought to himself.

Knock Knock Knock

"Open up, Carl! No one has seen you for four days, so I know you're in there! You better not be dead, but even if you are dead, you still better be taking care of Evelyn!"

Carl nodded to himself in acknowledgement, as he pulled himself off the floor: the identity of the person at the door was unmistakable. It was Aundrea, his ex-girlfriend. She was a pretty brunette, with a cute face and a fit - if not particularly curvy - body. She was smart, and caring, and genuinely a good person, with the most lovable giggle - how she ever ended up with him, a boring man with a boring everyman appearance - was a subject of much debate between their friends and family. They had parted amicably, and it seemed she still cared about Carl on some level...at least enough to see if he was still alive. So that was something. While he was dwelling on the past, Carl barely registered that the knocking had stopped. Instead, the lock was turning.

"I still have my key, and I gave you ample warning Carl. If you're in there masturbating or something, I'm out of here..."

Aundrea opened the door, creeping in on her tip-toes like a stereotypical intruder. Looking to the side, she spotted Evelyn intact and smiled appreciatively...but she was too focused on the plant to notice Carl standing there. Her forward progression was abruptly stopped as she bumped into him.

"Oof! Sorry, Carl, didn't see you there. You...uh...you good?"
"It's okay, Aundrea. It's good to see you. And yeah, I'm fine."
"Good. That's...good."

Awkwardness creeping in at their close proximity, Aundrea took a pointed step backward toward the door.

"Where have you been? Your mother was so frightened by your disappearance that she called me. Apparently she was worried The Cloud had gotten you."
Carl shuffled his feet, arm reflexively moving to scratch the back of his head. "...the what-now?"
Aundrea's face tilted slightly, giving him "the look" he had seen a thousand times. "The Cloud? That's what people are calling it. You couldn't have been so oblivious as-to not notice the sky turning purple for two days. People were terrified, we all hid inside, and it seems anyone caught outside became ill."

Carl frowned at this. Maybe he wasn't getting superpowers after all: if exposure to The Cloud had made people sick, his (frankly stupid) decision-making paradigm might have led him into trouble. But he needed more information.

"What happened to the people who got sick?"
"Well I didn't see it happen myself, but I heard they just keeled over and blacked out. Like, instantly in a coma. Afterward they would start running a fever, sweating, and so on. Doctors won't know the full effects for a while, maybe even years, but - wait, were you exposed to The Cloud?!"

Uh oh.