Beginning Of The End

                            The Beginning of the End

The sky looked like an old woman’s face, teeming with the smoke of several bombs. It was for the petty conflicts and politics because of which led to World War 3. Buildings came down like dust, a few entire countries had been wiped out, and plants now grew in only some select places.

The temperature of the Arctic was always very cold. It seemed to Ruth as if the temperature just never changed and hung on negative 50 degrees Celsius. It never occurred to her that one could actually differentiate between summers and winters. But with global warming going on one could actually distinguish the heat clear enough.

But coming back to Ruth, now, she was an avid genetic scientist cum photographer, come rain or shine or even the huge chunk of ice which was just a few minutes away for collapsing and cracking the thin and frail layer of ice on which she lay on her stomach, she would never lose a moment to click a few photos as if her life depended on it. Though her life was actually at stake here, she didn’t care.

She worked for ARCUS or Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. Now, my dear readers before going in to delve deeper into the story let me give you some background info about ARCUS.

The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) has been connecting Arctic research since 1988. Because of its regional nature, Arctic research often cuts across multiple disciplines, organizations, nations, and populations.

 ARCUS provides an intangible infrastructure to support the formation and enhancement of connections across these boundaries, working toward a more holistic understanding of the Arctic. Supported by government agencies, foundations, and others who share a desire to advance Arctic knowledge, ARCUS maintains a portfolio of programs to communicate, educate, coordinate, and collaborate to advance Arctic understanding.

ARCUS members advance understanding of the Arctic through science, technology, Indigenous knowledge, and education. Members promote the application of this knowledge to Arctic and global challenges and address questions that require the collaborative skills and resources of scientists, engineers, educators, Indigenous knowledge holders, and others.

 ARCUS works closely with other organizations with Arctic interests, such as the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC), the Polar Research Board (PRB), the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the University of the Arctic, the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA), the European Polar Board, the Arctic Council, and its scientific working groups, the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), and Polar Educators International (PEI).

So coming back to Ruth, she was clicking her tenth picture when Dana called her on her cell. Ruth, with a sigh, answered the call,’ What?’

‘Are you even coming or what? That freaking chunk of ice is gonna collapse any second now!’ Dana said anxiously.

Ruth who was visibly very disturbed on being interrupted during her photo session picked up a Brit accent and answered cordially,’ I’m sorry dear you have the wrong number,’ and hung the phone immediately.

Although Dana knew Ruth’s passion for photography she was pretty anxious because she lost one of her right-hand team men two months ago, and she didn’t want to lose anyone else as she considered her team more like a family, being from an orphan background she always longed for a family of her own.

Ruth was just 3 seconds away from putting her phone back to her pocket when she heard another crack in the chunk of ice; it was clear to her that another crack and this chunk of ice would give away.

Just as she got up she saw under her hands something which she didn’t expect to happen. Small hairline cracks on the thin ice sheet. She slowly crawled and inched away from that sheet of ice where she was sitting earlier with her camera.

But to no avail, the ice was cracking right under her knees. Seeing that she had at least 78 meters to cover to reach the snow-camouflage- colored ARCUS. Checking how much time she would need to cover the water part, she measured exactly 30 seconds to run before the ice gives away which would result in Ruth’s drowning.

Quickly without having any second thoughts she took to her heels as fast as she could go.

She was almost near to the ARCUS base when she hit a stone and sprained her left ankle; she crawled as much as she could and then called out to the guard standing outside for security.

The guard helped her up and called the rest of Ruth’s team which included a worried-sick Dana who had sisterly affection toward Ruth. They quickly took her in and assisted her to the nearest sofa, unloaded her bag from her backpack while Lex ( a 19-year-old boy who had been selected from an interning program) fetched an ice pack from the nearby mini-fridge in the room.

Ruth found herself sprawled on the sofa with Dana at her side with a cup of creamy coffee and a slice of bread and butter.

‘You okay?’ Asked Dana.

Ruth could only groan in reply.

‘I want you nowhere near the water or the ice, I just found something which could’ve killed, but luckily you were wearing all safety gear so it couldn’t infect you.’

Ruth just couldn’t process this statement, going out there meant the whole world to her, her photography. ‘Why?’ She asked in an effort.

‘I’ll show you. The reports just came in today early morning.’ Dana said. With that Ruth got up and took Dana’s hand in hers, unable to control her curiosity and they towards the sanitation tunnel which then led them to the laboratory.

Dana gestured her towards the nearest microscope. Ruth left Dana’s arm and hobbled towards it. Within a few seconds, she muttered, ‘Holy shit.’

One could guess something terrible might’ve happened.

‘We thought that you might be able to give us some more info on this, I mean you being a genetic scientist.’ Dana said as a matter of factly to Ruth, whose face had turned pale white.

Ruth whispered with a serious look on her face and went over to the whiteboard hung in the laboratory to explain, ‘ We know that as biologic weapons only three bacterial diseases and one viral disease can be considered the most fatal, they are the Marburg virus, Anthrax, Botulism, and Plague.’

She drew four circles which intersected at the same point and labeled the circles with the four diseases she had earlier told them about and where those diseases originated from.

‘Marburg virus comes from the virus MARV, Anthrax comes from the bacteria bacillus anthracis while plague originates from the bacteria yersinia pestis and botulism comes from Clostridium botulinum. Now all these biological weapons got mixed with the water in the Arctic and got frozen into a chunk of ice, this massive mixture of diseases was contained thanks to the freezing of the water which rendered them immovable. But now global warming is taking its toll which is why temperatures are rising and ice in the Arctic is melting. And presently as you can see the mega-disease is now spreading with the Arctic waters at 0.2m/s speed. Can you even wonder if these highly fatal diseases joined hands what kind of symptoms could occur? According to my calculations when I saw the single carrier organism I saw that its DNA’s double helix structure was a complex of the four diseases combined. And if I’m correct if people are to get infected by this it will eradicate typical human behavior and their skin would get highly sensitive to the ultraviolet rays of the sun.’

‘What do we do?’ Asked Dana, scared of all that was going on.

‘I...I...don't know yet.’ Stammered Ruth.

‘Ok first off I think we should warn the government about this maybe they’ll issue a total shutdown.’ Dana said concerned. And she was right the very next day.

A well-slept Ruth was supervising the junior scientists in the ARCUS laboratory. Dana came up to her put her hand on Ruth’s shoulder, she hadn’t slept a wink last night to ensure the safety of her team by fumigating the premises, providing everyone with masks and PPE suits, and sterilizing all laboratory equipment which had been used in studying the mega bacteriophage-type disease. The ARCUS team was doing its last-minute packing because the American government had issued full shut down in the States and all other American research stations located in other places.

But that was just the beginning of bigger problems; even animals got affected by the disease and spread it to their owners. People were turning into what the children called as zombies when they got infected.

Albeit the given circumstances, people found hope and didn’t give up so easily and found a way acclimatize with the disease as they didn’t have any cure to prevent it and it didn’t seem likely that a vaccine would make a breakthrough in the near future.

Ruth was walking up to the docks to catch the next ferry to return home. She asked Dana, ‘Aren’t you coming?’

Dana replied with a reserved air like that of a mother,’ You know you’ve been like a daughter to me because I could never conceive one so I would do anything to prevent this shit from coming to you. This is ground zero, I’m the one who has to stay and ensure everyone else’s safety because our team is the only family I ever had and I will always cherish every memory I had with it and especially you.’

Ruth felt that her eyes were welling up with tears, she gave Dana one last smile and went up the ferry unable to control her tears and left Dana standing alone on the docks.