Football singularity

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[Date: 28 April 2020 | Lockdown Week 5 | Time: 12:44 AM | Location: Freud & Croft Private Memorial Hospital ]

In the left wing of the 10th floor, a soft humming could be heard coming from one of the quarantined rooms of the private wings. See-through curtains were used to cordain off the entryways instead of door handles, which were deemed an even bigger germ hazard than shaking hands. Outside, doctors in white hazmat suits could be seen moving from room to room, treating the most afflicted patients.

Despite the controlled panic outside, a peach-blond woman dressed in a hospital gown could be seen within room 1023. Unlike others who acted like vampires meeting the sun at the slightest contact with another human being, she actively held the hand of the unconscious figure on the bed. She was probably the only person in the hospital who dared to do so without worry, given that she had been in the bed next to him, suffering the same as he did just a day ago.

"You know what this is no longer funny, Babe," She whispered, half choked, doing her best to hold back another bout of tears. "If you wanted to get my attention, this is a shitty way to do it."

"Whom am I kidding, when have you ever struggled in getting my attention?" She reproached herself, whipping off a tear that had just escaped her eyes. "You know, you probably don't know this, but I beffed with quite a few girls because of you."

"What don't believe me, just ask yourself what happened to that little vixen, one day she was throwing herself at you and the next she found god." She chuckled lightly as if remembering something funny. "No, I did not fight her, I simply reminded her, staunchly Christian grandma, that her granddaughter might be a hoe. Honestly, she would have found out on her own down the road."

"Yeah, I know I should apologise to her, and I will. No one deserves to be shipped off to an all-girls school over." She said as if the unconscious Rakim had just chided her. "A girl will get jealous if her man keeps talking about another girl, you know."

"It doesn't matter if I brought her, just stop thinking about her," she complained with a light point, adjusting the clear mask in front of her face.

"On another note, your mom called again today, you, of course, were still having your beauty nap, but she wanted me to say hello and she loves you." She half whispered, her tone noticeably dropping as she gazed at his serene figure. His muscular chest rose up and down in a steady rhythm, looking as healthy as ever, if one ignored the constant beat of the heart monitor. "They're still unable to travel, and I think that fact is driving her worries crazy."

"You probably don't want to hear this, but your dad, I mean your biological one, has been a heaven-sent." She explained with a light smile. "Not sure how, but when we woke up, we had been moved from the Cologne public hospital to this place."

~~~

What she said was true, as the two had barely been conscious when the paramedics had found them at their home. They had fallen sick in succession a week ago on the 14th, with May showing symptoms first. Rakim showed fever-like symptoms a day later, and to be safe, they had isolated themselves in different rooms, maintaining distance from one another, even at dinner.

Being alone in the house made things easy as they could just keep far enough apart during the day. It worked well as they didn't get bored since their daily activity didn't change much, except for the cutback on their exercises. However, on Day Three, May started to feel increasingly unwell, unable to keep even a little food down.

Rakim, for the most part, felt fine, only showing fever-like symptoms at that point. That all changed on the night of day 4 as he awoke to a throbbing headache and, upon exiting his room to get water, he passed out, May in the hallway. In all his 15 years of life, Rakim had never been panicked, and with the throbbing headache, he quickly felt lightheaded.

He somehow managed to set her into a recovery position as he called the police, mistakenly dialling the numbers. His hands were too sweaty for precision work that a smartphone requires, and unlike in an old-fashioned phone, the numbers didn't bulge out. Luckily, the operator managed to help him contact the right people and talk him through CPR.

(Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive) It was the only thing he could remember as his world spun and he tried to recall the CPR training from when they did their swimming badges. The operator on the phone, as sweet as she was, tried to talk him through it, offering her support in a calm and reassuring manner. However, if one were to ask Rakim what he felt in that moment, he would have told her to please be silent in a less polite manner.

May remembered waking up in a haze, her chest in pain with bruised ribs as she gasped for air. A sweaty Rakim slumped over her, his half-dyed hair that had grown out into a little afro looking oily as he himself seemed drained entirely. He sent her a weak but relieved smile when her eyes finally managed to lock on to his, only to lose consciousness, falling over her.

If her cracked ribs made it hard for her to breathe, then his 80kg didn't help matters. After struggling in shock to get him off her, she only remembered thinking how hot he was. He was quite literally a living furnace, making her wonder how a person's body temperature could reach such a high level.

Luckily, she didn't have to worry for long, as a group of paramedics burst through the front door, along with a police officer. She remembered being glad that help had arrived, but he relief had come too soon. They had been brought to an overcrowded hospital, and while she was left somewhat stable in one of the corridors, Rakim received treatment.

Granted, she had been slipping in and out of consciousness, unsuccessfully trying to flag down a nurse or doctor each time. When she regained some of her strength the next day, it was already too late. She managed to stumble past the doctors dressed in what she could only describe as an amungus costume to find Raki's room.

To her horror, the doctors had put him in their intensive care area, which was just a room with their worst COVID-19 cases. She was sure that he only had fever-like symptoms, nothing like what some of the severe cases were showing. Panicked, she tried to get him, only to be stopped by two nurses in protective suits.

One of the nurses, a tall man with kind eyes behind a fogged-up face shield, gently but firmly caught her arms. "Miss, you can't be in here."

"You don't understand, I need to see him! You put him in with the criticals—he's not like them!" May gasped, her throat hoarse from dehydration and emotion.

"Miss, calm down, it's going to be ok. They were taking good care of him," The lady next to him said, trying to placate her, but May wasn't having any of it. "The patient came in with a 40°C fever, qualifying him as critical. Don't worry, we really are doing everything to treat him."

"I don't wanna hear that he only had a fever, none of the other fever symptoms, no Sore throat, no Muscle or body aches, not even a cough," She responded in agitation, half wondering if she was remembering the right symptoms. But she was feeling wobbly and was already on a roll, unable to apply the brakes to assess the situation. "Him being in this room is likely making him sicker than that fever."

The two looked startled at her words, but were unwilling to believe her, after all, they had been treating hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 patients. "Look, miss, I know you're worried, but this is really the best place for him." The man tried to explain, immediately going on the defensive as his malpractice senses started tingling.

While he wouldn't be directly implicated since he was a nurse, he knew that the higher-ups would rather blame a nurse than the doctors. After all, who would side with an easily replaceable sheepdog over a shepherd that generated millions in product sales each year? Do you think doctors are expensive? Well, so are CEOs and executives in those big institutions and you don't see them getting fired until it's absolutely necessary.

They would rather lay off millions of workers if they incure losses than the people running the business. That same logic applies in every industry, and worst of all, in the medical industry. Paul, the male nurse, knew this very well, and for this reason, he was unwilling to take a risk, even if they had made a mistake. Ana, despite being a little slow, was quick to reach the same conclusion and prepared to placate the girl in front of her.

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To Be Continued...