Ed wandered along the sidewalk. Taking care to avoid others, he took in the sights of the new city. Tall buildings stacked along the road with poles for various cables and posts for lamps strewn about waited for a time when they would be useless. He stopped at the corner and waited for the light to signal safety for pedestrian crossing.
Across the street, someone looked at their cell phone, flexing their thumb to scroll along the screen. As their thumb lingered, laughter erupted. Someone nearby gestured to the screen. With some hesitation, the cell phone was handed off as they continued laughing. A few more cars passed on the road and then there were two laughing.
The light changed, signaling an image for safe pedestrian crossing. Ed started to cross the street with a few others in step to varying degrees. The others on the opposite side of the street with the cell phone had a small group around them, all laughing. Continuing midway through crossing the street to get to the other side, Ed saw the first one to laugh collapse.
A timer had started a countdown to indicate a decreasing amount of time remaining to be safe while crossing the street. Within the group crossing the street, someone ran forward.
"Is everything alright?"
Everyone in the group kept laughing. They moved to make room for a few others to collapse as the runner stopped to inspect the phone and began laughing with the group.
Others crossing the street ran forward, a few of them checking on those collapsed before failing to resist an urge to check the screen on the phone. The timer reached zero as Ed arrived on the street corner. He laughed, too, continuing to walk as he eyed the city around him with increasing suspicion. Others began laughing all around him. all staring at the screen on their phone. Ed continued to laugh along with them, unfamiliar with any such related traditions associated with the city. As the laughter faded around him, everyone else collapsed. He tried to stop his own laughter and collapsed with them.