It is ten thirty. There is no response on the walkie-talkie, nor has anyone come to meet me. I check the mobiles once again. No improvement. I open my dialler and dial my mother. The call doesn't go through. I ring in dads number. Same thing. Then I call my brother. He works in Bangalore. It is the same story. I know the calls won’t go through, but I still give it a try with the slim hope of a miracle happening and hearing a dial tone. I open up chrome and type in some random words to search. The no internet page appears immediately on my screen.

While coming back from her department I followed the route she would have taken if she had started walking back home to find me. I didn’t find any trace of her. Also, the possibility that she has left to find me without her mobile and bag seems odd to me. She would have taken her mobile no matter what. I am certain about this because whenever I go out to get milk or any other groceries from the nearest shop, she insists that I take my phone along. She points out that although nothing would happen or the need to call might not arise, it is always better to be prepared. Having a mobile in the pocket will not hamper anything. She preaches this and follows it. Knowing this implies that she never left her department. I want to go back and search for her once again. This time I will comb the whole breadth of the building as well as the adjacent ones. But something inside me tells me I would not find her. If I give it a rational thought then whatever I have witnessed till now clearly points at it. People have vanished into thin air, my wife included. I have to figure out what has happened.

I keep aside the emotional turmoil I am going through with a couple of deep breaths. Before it returns, I try to piece together all the facts I have in front of me.

People have disappeared all of a sudden. There is no one to be seen anywhere. These observations are currently restricted to the five-kilometer distance I have traveled from my home to the medical college. Even the police station is empty. Networks are down. This has crippled me from contacting anyone and calling out for help. Without a network, mobile internet has gone for a toss. I can’t send messages or even google for any hint of news. Even the radio channels used by the police are silent. There is no activity in that space too. I am not sure how far these radio signals are transmitted. I think it covers the whole city. If that is the case then there are no policemen in the city. A conclusion that I can draw from it is that whatever has happened has affected the whole city. Trivandrum has become a ghost town. I am the only one alive.

I can hope this is a local phenomenon. The lack of communication hinders me from contacting anyone outside this limit. Therefore one cannot conclude about the situation outside the city limits. I need to get in touch with someone. I hope that if anyone finds themselves in this situation, the idea of going to the police station and trying to use the walkie-talkie to communicate strikes them. As of now, it is the only mode of communication that seems to have survived and is functional.

I cycle through the channels once again. Silence. I hear a small gurgle from my stomach. It is telling me to feed it. That can wait.

I get back to thinking about Anna. Suppose something had happened, she would have tried to contact me for sure. If she had to get away from the hospital, she would have tried to come back home. There is no other place she would have gone. Even though her colleague's homes are nearby. She wouldn’t have gone there. She wouldn’t have sought shelter there. Except if it was her best friend. She is a Post Graduate student in her final year in another department. They have been friends from their undergrad days and share a strong bond. They come together often for coffee while at college. She does visit her house and goes out shopping, and movies from time to time. We have visited them a couple of times. They ended up becoming monopoly nights. I don't know if she was also having a night shift like her.

I will try calling her. I know it is futile but I don't want to lose the possibility of getting lucky. The call doesn't go through. I am thinking of going to her home and checking it out. It is another four kilometers from here.

Just then it struck me. My best friend's house was nearby. It is hardly a kilometer along my route. He is currently working in Bangalore. I know his parents. Maybe I can go and check on them. Once again I take out the phone to call him. The call gets dropped instantly. I take the scooter and drive towards his home.

Over four years, we became good friends. It continued after we were done with college. I remember how we all had plenty of friends back in those days. These were friends you met in college, your flatmates, your groupmates, etc. I thought these friendships would somehow sustain over time. Ten years later, I realize that only the ones who are bound to stick with you remain over time. Rest will fade away and become just friends, maybe even acquaintances. No one can be blamed for this. The times we live in are such.

After college, we went our separate ways. I got into my job while he went off to study business. During the two years of his master's, we had little contact with each other. We did connect through WhatsApp now and then. It was after he passed out and got into a job that the friendship was reignited. The formation of a WhatsApp group with a couple of my other close friends helped to cement the bond that we shared. Through this group, a plan was made to go on a trip. The one who made the plan had to chuck it out at the last moment due to some emergency assignment in his workplace. Normally in this kind of situation, the trip gets canceled. I thought it would. But he took the initiative and pushed the rest of us to go ahead with the plan without him. We were a bit apprehensive at first. He felt it. So he went ahead and booked our flight tickets. Now there was no way to cancel it. And so the trip happened.

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The trip helped to establish a strong bond between us. It forged our friendships. Soon we became very close to each other. The WhatsApp group survived. It still thrives to date. At times there will be a ton of messages being passed around in quick succession. Heated debates, random memes, and trolls would lead to discussions of great lengths. In between this, someone would pull the other leg and that will cascade into another round of bickering and laughter.

It is pretty interesting how a group forms. The group that sticks with you throughout your life wouldn’t be the one you had imagined. Maybe a member or two of it would have joined under some circumstances that one couldn’t have predicted. Many a time such people will come and go. In a few cases, some stick around and become an integral part of the group. We all came under the pretext of having a trip together. Eight years of having formed that WhatsApp group, we find ourselves tightly knit. Along the way three of us got hitched. One more will hit the dust soon. Our better halves also have become a part of the extended family. We also have a common friend who has become very close to us. She too joins us from time to time. We grew to become a family of sorts. I never gave much thought to when I heard Dominic Toretto say family is the only thing that matters. He was of course referring to his friends. Now, when I have one I can relate to him. They have become an integral part of my life.

Although distance and the current shitty situation have forced us to stay indoors and make plans for when the better days come in the future, we take every effort to be in touch and meet whenever possible. We all came together for my wedding last year. After that, we met in smaller groups from time to time. One of the things we emphasized was to have a trip at least once in a year. We were able to pull it off the second year. We did an overseas trip, the first trip in which the five of us were together. We learned a lot about each other through these trips. It was quite evident that we were five distinct individuals with our quirks and outlook. Some magical force was working to hold us and take us ahead together.

I first visited his home when I was in my final year of college. We were in the same group for our final year project. His house was selected as our hangout place. We would come together and discuss our project. The night before the deadline, we huddled up in his room, trying to fathom the huge task in front of us. We had barely started writing out the material. Plenty of pages were to be typed out manually. It had to be proofread once and submitted before noon. I didn't contribute much to it because I wasn’t fast enough in typing. The majority of it was done by him. Also, I slept off late into the night. He stayed up and finished it off somehow. I woke up in his bed fazed. I couldn’t recollect when I had fallen asleep. By then the others were up. He was still sleeping. I didn’t disturb him. I asked my friend what the status was. He said Vivek had finished typing it out. I felt so proud of him and probably wanted to give him a good bear hug. But I dared not to disturb him from his sleep. He would need every ounce of it when we go and submit it for scrutiny.

I thought this group would stick. We were four. One decided to do his masters after a year of teaching. He then went abroad for his doctorate. I saw him last when he came down for his wedding. The circumstances under which the wedding happened were something we had never imagined or even thought of in our wildest dreams. He had surely surprised us. We were stunned. It took us some time to accept it and appreciate what he had done. I remain in touch with him from time to time. We do video calls across the time zones whenever we find the time. He has found a great partner and is carving out a life for himself out there.

I reach Viveks home within minutes. His car is on the porch. I open the gate and go in. I did look at my surroundings while I was driving here. I could not see any activity anywhere. I ring the calling bell and wait. There is no reply. I ring it once again and press my ears against the door. I can’t hear any movement. I walk towards the porch and take a peek inside through the window. It is empty. I go back and ring the bell furiously. I was hoping at least someone would come from the adjacent house on hearing the furious ringing. No one came from anywhere. The house is empty. I remember him telling me that his mother was alone in the place. I know aunty prefers to be in her house. She doesn't stay over anywhere else. She prefers to come back and sleep in her bed. Without any response, I am not sure what to conclude. I walk out of the porch, close the gate and sit on the scooter. I take out my phone to check for the network. I open WhatsApp and drop him a message describing my visit to his house. The message doesn't go.

Aunty is a very jovial person. Whenever I have come here, we would sit and talk. She would make it a point to pull his leg. He wouldn’t give up and retort back in his scathing style. I would sit and see it through. It was fun. I saw her a couple of weeks ago when I had come to pick him up for our small get-together. It had been a long time since I had seen her. She asked me where we were staying, how Annas' course was going and all. She then told me to bring her one evening for dinner and made it clear that I had to tell her beforehand. It was essential for her to prepare something special for us. I told her we were happy to have whatever she made. She dismissed it saying something special had to be made for a couple coming in for the first time. I smiled at it and said I would surely let her know.

She has disappeared. I find it hard to digest. The anxiety slowly creeps in.