viscus Morbus: prologue

Viscus Morbus Prologue
Location: Simei, Singapore
Date: 23/2/2013
Local Time: 0615

There had been several news reports on viral outbreaks. The experts had said that it was a new strain of virus, which they called Viscus Morbus. However, the government had acted fast, putting in place travel restrictions and quarantine measures. The populace had been assured that the situation was under control. However, no system is foolproof. Eventually, unknown to the authorities, a few carriers made it through and entered the country, and the rest is history. It was SARS all over again.

It was like any other school day. There may be a virus outbreak, but without word from the Ministry of Education, education must continue.  

Cursing and swearing at my phone, whose incessant ringing had woken me up, I dragged myself out of my bed, and looked at the clock. I cursed again. I had overslept, and may be late for school. I hurriedly put on my uniform and rushed to the train station. My head felt a bit off balance, but I dismissed it, as the consequence of sleeping at 1am the previous night.

Location: Anderson Junior college, Singapore
Local time: 0715

I had made it in time to school, and was not late. I ran into the compound just as the first bell rang. And hurriedly made my way to where my class had lined up to sing the national anthem*. As the national anthem blared from the school's ageing PA system, my head started to throb. My headache had gotten worse. I decided to have a nap during the break after the one hour lecture which was the first lesson of the day, although I doubted if my wakefulness would last through the entire hour.

The one hour of lesson was the worst hour in my school life. My headache had gotten steadily worse during the lesson, and I had not been able to concentrate. After we had been dismissed, I made my way to the student lounge, only to find that all the sofas had already been taken. It was indeed a bad day, I thought, as I lay down in a corner with my bag as my pillow. All the time, my head felt as if someone was mining for gold inside, with dynamite.

As soon as I closed my eyes, I fell not into sleep, but into unconsciousness.

As I began to come to, I heard voices around me, together with the wailing of an ambulance siren. I opened my eyes to see that I was no longer in the lounge. For that matter, I was no longer in school. I stared up at the white ceiling of an ambulance, which was promptly blocked by the face of a paramedic. Everything was blurred, as I had kept my spectacles in my pocket when I went to sleep.


' He has come to!' the paramedic exclaimed, her voice saturated with relief.

'Wh-what happened?' I stammered, as I tried to reach for my pocket to take my spectacles. Before the paramedic could respond, I screamed, as liquid pain lanced through every vein of my body. It felt as if pain coursed through my veins, rather than blood. My spectacles dropped to the floor, as my hand was jarred with pain.

'he is in great pain! Quick, give him a jab of morphine!' the paramedic shouted, as her assistant passed her a syringe.  She also placed my spectacles into my bag, which I noticed in a corner.  I heard the engine rev into a higher gear. The driver must have heard my screams.

As the pain subsided, thanks to the painkiller, I was able to think clearly again. I was connected to a saline drip, in an ambulance doubtless, bound for the hospital. I must have blacked out in school. I glanced at the instruments, and was shocked to see that I was running an extremely high fever of 40 degrees centigrade. Just one more degree, and I knew that I would be done for, as brain damage would occur.

Soon, the ambulance screeched to a halt.  We had arrived. I was wheeled out, and as I was rushed into the accident and emergency area, I noticed that I was in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Something was not right. This is one of the furthest hospitals from the school. Then the news report that I had watched the previous day replayed in my mind. It mentioned that this hospital had been converted the quarantine center for those infected with the new virus. My thoughts were then cut short, as I once again fell into unconsciousness.