I fumble with her phone as I pull it out of my pocket. I open the flip cover. It is her alarm. The excitement dies away instantly. I turn it off and slide the phone onto the table. I scratch my head in anger and get up. I walk to the open window and look outside. It is still as a painting. I walk back to the table, pocket her phone and exit the room. In hurried steps, I walk out into the main corridor.

I decide to go ahead and check her out in her ward. I haven’t been there though. She hasn’t taken me there. There was no need for it. Whenever I was with her, she would go and attend to her patient. I have a vague idea. It should be near the nurse's station. I have seen bystanders come out from there and seek her consultation.

The nurse's station is empty. The register is open and a pen lies on it. A box full of PPE kits lies right next to the wall. A dustbin lies filled with used kits. Medicines and drips are stacked at the other end of the room. I take the small corridor to the left. At the end lies the entrance to the ward. I enter it. She would wear a face shield while entering it during the peak of the second wave. The nurses who are on duty are mostly clad in a PPE kit. The doctors don them whenever needed. When she took her week-long Covid duty in the Covid ICU, she would come back and tell me how exhausting it is to be in one of them for hours. Once they are in the PPE kit, they stay in it at a stretch for some hours before they get out of it. She says it is an irritating experience. It boils you from within and makes you really uncomfortable. She joined her PG during the ongoing pandemic. Apart from her normal studies and duties concerning her department, she has to do Covid duties. This was applicable to all her batchmates. They took it in turns.

Whenever it was time for her to go for Covid duty, a small fear would grasp her. It was the fear of transmitting the virus to me. She would come home and rush to the bathroom, where she would wash her clothes separately and ensure that she became clean before she even talked to me. She is very considerate in these matters.

When I had to leave for another small city for my work last year, she bought a bunch of N95 masks and three-ply masks along with a steam inhaler. There were multivitamins, zinc, etc in the small bag she gave me to take along. I was dismissive and laughed at her. She expressed her concern quickly and got angry at me. I apologized and took it along. Only after having gone there and worked in that environment did I realize the importance of what she has done. The place was very rural. There weren’t any proper medical facilities available. I had thought that in such a place the presence of Covid would be the least. But the day I reached, I got to know that there were a couple of cases detected among the crew I was to work with. Appropriate measures were taken immediately. The threat was contained. A week later we came to know that one of our crew members, who had gone back home due to Covid had succumbed to it. It rattled us all to the core. He was a young chap who was fit and healthy. For him to pass away brought in a silent fear amongst us. Since work had to go on, we were extra careful with how we went along. Compared to others I was much safer due to the precautions she had taken for me. I thanked her when we did our video call one night and apologized for my short-sightedness and sniggering behavior.

I enter the ward. It is empty. Some beds were occupied, and some were not. There is no sign of life here. At the far end is the washroom. I walk towards it. Staying on the outside of it, I call out her name a couple of times. No response.

I walk back to the corridor. I take out both phones and check them once again. There is no network. I check the nurse's table for a landline. There isn't one.

It dawns upon me that she along with all the people in the hospital has vanished into thin air. There is no one to be found anywhere. It is not as if they are dead and lying around. I haven’t come across any dead people. I don't know what to make of it. I compose myself a bit. I need to get back to my scooter. I need to somehow communicate with someone, whoever and wherever they may be. I decided to take another exit from the building. This will take me to the opposite side of the building nearer to the multi-specialty block. I want to take this exit to see if I can find someone. I suddenly get the feeling that I won’t be able to see my wife again. I suppress it with gritted teeth and start running through the corridor.

I shoot past the entrance from which I came. The exit I am taking is a few steps ahead. I take it. I am in another corridor that connects the adjacent building. It leads me to the exit I need to take to reach outside. The ward on the right side of this corridor is empty too. Just like the previous one, a couple of cardboard and bedsheets can be seen strewn across the entrance to the ward. There isn’t any presence of anyone.

I take a left midway. I pass by a small store that serves biscuits, snacks, tea, water bottles, and some essentials. It is empty. I keep up my run. Soon I am at the parking lot. A couple of vehicles lie in the parking spaces designated for the various head of departments. Bikes and scooters occupy a third of their parking area. A medicine van lies to the left, an ambulance on the opposite side. All are empty. A horde of crows flies by cawing loudly. It fills the air. Apart from it, the sound of a generator can be heard.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I have to walk half a kilometer around a couple of buildings to reach where I have parked my scooter. I wanted this so as to assess the situation and make sense of it. So far all I know is that everyone has vanished into thin air. Is this a very bad dream or a simulation, I can’t make out. It is very real and terrifying. I am completely immersed in it. I can’t find a way to escape it. I pinch myself hard. I am awake.

I took this route hoping to find her walking back home. I walk out of the parking area and into the road. It takes a left turn after which it continues straight and joins the main road. A couple of stretchers are ready to take patients as and when they arrive in the multi-specialty emergency.

Honestly, I don't know what all departments are here and where they are. This is a huge complex. For a layman like me, it is very confusing. I know her department and its surroundings, nothing more than that. I see sign boards of the different departments along the way. It just gives me a vague idea of where they must be situated. If I had to come to one of these for some reason, I would probably have to ask the security guards or some hospital folks for help. It can be confusing the first time.

A couple of cars and an ambulance are parked alongside the road. A gate blocks the entry. They were manned by guards. Today no one stands in front of them. It is closed. I open it and exit it onto the main road. I have come back on the road I took to reach her department. If I had known I would be doing something of this kind, I would have taken pictures of the surrounding area and compared them to what I am seeing now. It would have helped me to look for any changes that could have occurred since I left.

I don't think there is any change at all. Although I don't have a reference it all seems how it was. I cannot be sure about this. I was in a hurry to reach her. But I feel nothing has changed.

I walk along the pathway to her department. I pass the point where I used to wait for her when I come to pick her up. I call her from here to let her know of my arrival. As soon as I see her come out of the department I would pull up to her. She would get on and I drive us back home. We take the main road out from the main entrance arch. I decide to take the same route. I get to my scooter and drive away. As I enter the road from the parking area I glance at the window once again.

I pass the casualty through which I entered the building. Everything is intact as it was before. Along the pavement, bikes are parked. I scout my surroundings as I ride on.

The thought of calling my parents or my friends came to me when I sat down in her room. Since there is no network and no other way to communicate with anyone, I dismissed it. Even then I had thought of giving my mother and father a call, to see if it was going through. I dismissed it knowing that it would be futile. I don't know how to get in touch with them. I pray they are safe and sound and nothing of this sort has happened to them.

I reach the arch. Towards the left is the Covid ward and testing center. It is deserted. Apart from the few ambulances that are always present here, there isn’t any movement at all. Towards the right is the dental college. It is closed. The parking lot has a couple of vehicles in it. A bike has fallen on top of the adjacent one, resulting in five bikes falling as dominoes. An auto rickshaw has collided with the side of the arch. Its front is badly damaged, the windshield broken and the wheel all mangled under it.

Following the entrance arch is a four-way junction. It is the main junction through which almost all vehicles enter the college. It is absolutely deserted. A couple of stray dogs start barking loudly on seeing me from the opposite end of the road. They don't make a move to approach me. Crows sitting on the overhead lines respond to their barks and fly away. The dogs give them a glance and get back to barking at me. I honk my horn. I honk it for almost a minute. I probably did it in the hope of getting a response from someone. The dogs bark louder the whole time I was honking. They settle down when I stop it. Another dog joins them from a narrow street opening. The signals are blinking yellow. I slowly turn to my left and take the road that leads back home.

All the shops are closed except for a couple of medical stores that function throughout the night. I slow down and look at them. I can see no movement in them. The lights are on. They are on the opposite end of the road. I turn back, cut the divider and drive on the wrong side of these shops. I get down after parking my scooter haphazardly on the side of the road and look inside. I call out loudly.

‘Hellloooooooo’

I get no response. I stretch myself and look at the counter. I see a mobile phone lying on it. I pick it up and switch it on. There is no network in it. A couple of WhatsApp notifications can be seen on the lock screen. I take out my mobile phone and check it once again. Same story there. I leave the mobile on the counter and walk out.

The sun is up and shining brightly. I realize I am the only human living here. I don't know about any other place. Without communication, I cannot contact anyone too. I have no way in which I can gather any kind of information that would shed some light on what is happening here. Without mobile networks, there is no mobile internet. I am not sure if any broadband service would be operational. I tried the one at her department. It wasn’t functioning. I am left to the use of vehicles to explore and find a human. I hope there is someone out there, waiting to be discovered. I hope my wife is somewhere safe and sound.