Answering a question Claire was too worried to voice out loud

The rumors always spread through the crowd at a rate that would baffle theoretical physics, moving faster than one would believe it to be possible. 

A process that required two people to talk to each other, and pass the news before turning around and repeating the whole thing with the person next in line… somehow led to the news of the drama spreading faster than the two of us could leave the place where the drama took place. 

But while the spreading rate of the rumors about what just happened was much faster than we could walk… it also meant that with every iteration of a person repeating the news, the truth about it would deteriorate just a little bit more. 

That's why, while the rumors moved faster than the two of us could, by the time we reached the main crossroads of the district and took the turn for the road I formerly believed to be the main one, no one was paying us any mind anymore.