Still preoccupied with his conversation with his father, and now his texting conversations with Nate and Serena, Chuck barely caught the tentativeness in Blair's voice as she spoke. He was still inwardly kicking himself for letting that word slip to his father, particularly in front of Blair, so he tried his best to maintain a facade of relative aloofness to make up for his mistake at betraying his capacity for emotional intimacy. It felt wrong, as if he'd just let Blair in on some deep, dark secret he'd been protecting for his whole life.
"He didn't really say. He suggested rabies but..." he risked a glance over at the bloody corpse and shuddered. "That doesn't look like rabies. I guess it's no wonder that people were sick at school, though." He tried not to think about how many of their former classmates might now be wondering around dead-eyed and hungry for flesh.
He frowned as his phone buzzed. "Serena and Nate say that they're stuck on the roof of the school. I'll get my dad on it."
He paused for a moment, then looked up at her, his tone softening for just a moment from it's previously businesslike demeanor. "It's gonna be okay, Blair."