The Endgame

The stadiums are full. Each and every college campus too.

Dr. Adarsh is in the bubble at the College of Engineering. He monitors the situation from there.

He is the only doctor within the bubbles in the country. There are four nurses and three semi-skilled volunteers in his bubble. The other bubbles have similar support staff. The not-so-critical patients help. Each bubble has two thousand to three thousand patients. The bubbles are in touch with each other via video calls.

Adarsh designed the layout of the bubbles, positioned the critical and the yet-so-hopeful. He was the one who suggested that one doctor would do at first and that he would be the one. He admitted that it might seem unfair to the support staff. He left it unsaid that matters would even out given time.

The first week was bad. Too many patients in the critical state. From the third to the fifth week, situation got better. The death rate reduced from the initial high to a still-uncomfortable plateau.

"Adarsh, how are you?" his department-chief asked at the start of the daily video-conference. Morning somewhere, evening somewhere, darkness everywhere.

"The same. Fever. Nausea. Early stage pneumonia. Erratic blood pressure, but...that was there."

"Do you want to come out?"

Adarsh laughed.

"Sorry," his chief said to no one in particular. The others in the call kept quiet.

"We have tried the AIDS drugs," that was the doctor in Belgium. "No luck."

"What about the tests for a vaccine?" the South African doctor asked.

The American, the Japanese, the Chinese shook their heads.

"We tried our old Chinese medicine," the Chinese said, "sorry...but I had to try it out."

"Don't apologize...I might try euthanasia." That was the Dutch doctor. No one responded. "Sorry for the gallows' humour," she added.

Adarsh's head drooped.

"Adarsh...?" his chief said.

A nurse came into the picture, shook Adarsh's shoulder.

He stared blankly at the screen for a while.

"Thuh..." He took a sip of water. "The virus is a fast learner," his words came out thick. He took another sip. "Unlike us," he smiled to himself.

"I have observed that it attacks...viciously...and the attacks are correlated to the drugs we give. When we treat the patient for liver or kidney failure, it goes into overdrive in those organs. It reacts even to paracetamol."

"Whatever we do, it will do worse," he added. "Its reaction is deadly compared to our action."

"What the fu..." the collective exclaimed.

"Yes. We are." Adrash paused.

"I am trying...on some patients...nothing...including myself..." His eyes closed, breathing more laboured.

"Not even paracetamol?" Was it the Dutch lady?

"Nnuhh..." Adarsh said. The nurse helped him drink water. "No improvement...but not getting worse either...eighth day."

"Are we supposed to live with it?" It was the Dutch lady. "Accept it?"

Adarsh shrugged weakly.

"Bluddy...yelien." Was it the Russian in the Siberian bubble?

"Gudd..." Adarsh slurred "...ppuynt."