Virus

by Ifedayo Akintomide

  “Something Joke, is very WRONG HERE!!” He gasped sliding down into a sitting position on the cold floor.

  Chapter Twenty – Five

  Elsewhere

  Taiwo stood with arms akimbo watching as fifty of his men and over a hundred of the Oraromi town’s people battled the fire raging from more than a dozen homes. His eyes were grim as he watched the battle between man and fire play out. A battle it appeared the men were losing.

  Austin Okorocha stood a few feet behind him. The expression on his face was unreadable. Taiwo watched the depressing scene for three minutes before he turned, facing Austin. Sensing his gaze on him, Austin turned and their gazes locked and held.

  “What?”

  Taiwo sighed turning back to the flames burning in front of him.

  “You don’t think that your mega virus has something to do with this fire do you?”

  “I don’t see how it could.” Austin replied with a hard frown on his face.

  There was a pause.

  “Ok___ Mr. Scientist, why don’t you explain to me what exactly we are up against.”

  “I have already told you what we are up against__” Austin began with an impatient snort.

  “__ though I wonder why I even bothered to come here, because you don’t seem to be taking my concerns seriously.”

  “Who says I am not taking it seriously? Would I be asking otherwise?”

  He continued before Austin could respond.

  “That is beside the point. I want you to tell me about this strange virus. I want to know what we are up against.”

  “But I have already__”

  “TELL ME AGAIN!!” Taiwo interjected forcefully.

  Austin sighed and began to speak.

  “I guess I will have to start at the beginning for more clarity and perhaps speak slower__”

  The implication of that did not escape Taiwo, his face hardened slightly at Austin’s jib but he said nothing. Taking a deep breath Austin continued slowly.

  “Let me start by explaining what a virus is__ a virus in the simplest of terms is a very small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of other organisms. That means it needs a living host to survive. Viruses can be found in almost all ecosystems on the earth.

  “I won’t bore you with the details of virons and the genetic make up of viruses, but what I will tell you a bit about are how they are spread. In plants viruses are transmitted by insects that feed on plant’s sap, one of such examples are the aphids. In animals, they are sometimes carried by blood sucking insects.

  “Whatever organism carries the virus is called a vector. The vector in this particular scenario if I am to understand correctly is the mad man Eze. It was after Eze bit Chike Chidozie that he developed these strange symptoms am I right?”

  Taiwo nodded but did not speak. Sighing Austin continued.

  “I don’t have much to go on, so I do not know whether there were not other extenuating circumstances that could have caused the reaction in Chike which eventually led to his death.”

  “The doctor treating Chike also had the same reaction Chike did before he died.”

  “Was the doctor bitten?”

  “According to his wife he was__ Chike bit him when he was trying to give him an injection.”

  “Hmnnnn___ where is the doctor’s wife now? I want to speak to her.”

  “No one knows where she is. Haven’t you been listening? The Oraromi people have been disappearing by the hundreds.”

  “Where are the bodies of Chike and the doctor?”

  “Are you listening to me at all?” Taiwo demanded impatiently. “Both bodies are gone. They were bitten, became ill and died a couple of days later. When their families came to claim the bodies the day after their deaths, the bodies were gone.”

  “Gone as in disappeared?” Austin asked puzzled struggling to understand.

  The look Taiwo gave him spoke volumes. A long silence followed.

  “Do you think the people that disappeared were also bitten?” Taiwo asked quietly.

  There was another pause.

  “I am beginning to think so__ I think people get bitten, become sick and then die. The big question now is what happened to their bodies?”

  The silence that followed was heavy and all consuming.

  Wole and Tunrayo stood in front of the smoldering remains of his house. There was shock on both of their faces. Chaos ensued all around them as the police and the town’s people battled to save the surrounding homes from being destroyed by the hungry flames.

  A police officer racing by with a bucket of water slid to a halt when he saw the forlorn expressions on their faces as they stood in front of the smoky house. He set the bucket he was holding down and rushed to their side.

  “What are you two doing here?” He barked startling them quite badly.

  “This is my house.” Wole murmured, his voice shaking slightly. The hard look on the police officer’s face slowly softened.

  “Was there anyone in the house when the fire started?” Wole asked as his eyes filled with tears.

  The police officer shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. We arrived forty five minutes after the fire started.”

  At Wole’s crestfallen look, he continued speaking. “Some people have been taken to the hospital for treatment. You could start your search for your parents there.”

  He left without another word. Tunrayo and Wole exchanged troubled glances and broke into a run, heading in an eastward direction.

  “Baba Adora did say we should go to the hospital didn’t he?” Tunrayo asked as she ran.

  Wole nodded grimly but did not speak.

  Collins groaned and became still, collapsing on Judith’s still trembling body. Their groans and heavy breathing slowly subsided. He sighed and slid off her, lying on his back and staring at the white asbestos ceiling.

  The expression on his face remained neutral for a couple of seconds before a small smile slowly lifted the corners of his lips ever so slightly. Damn he was one lucky sod. He turned facing her, the smile on his face fading, instantly replaced by a wan somewhat pensive look.

  Judith had her eyes closed and her breathing became slower and more even. That meant she was about to fall asleep. His pensive look immediately became a hard frown. He usually would not give a damn whether she slept off immediately after sex or not. For some strange reason now however, he found that it bothered him. She was doing it a lot nowadays. Every time they had sex, she would immediately go to sleep afterwards.

  A quiet voice in his head quickly reminded him how many times he had done the exact same thing. So it was what you sow you reap kind of thing. The frown on his face grew harder at that thought.

  That was bull crap. A man was supposed to behave like that. He was the hunter, the predator. A woman was the prey. When a woman started acting like the hunter, something was very wrong.

  He looked at her exquisite features now peaceful in sleep and a lump came into his throat. She was gorgeous. It was sad that the tides seemed to have changed and she was only using him for sex.

  A faint shout from outside his window roused him from his reverie. Rising to his feet slowly, he wrapped his naked body in a rumpled white sheet and strode to the window. Pulling the deep blue curtain apart, a faint gasp burst from his lips.

  His house had not concrete fence around it. His dad kept promising to build one but had never gotten around to it. That was just one in a string of broken promises. Go figure!

  The open space of his house’s compound overlooked the wide two-lane road leading deep into the more ancient part of Oraromi. Few people stayed in this part of town.

  A bright red glow lit up the skies on the southeastern axis of Oraromi. There was another glow coming from his far right, at a point further than he could see, hidden behind a thick cluster of houses.

  It was not these glows however, that made him gasp. The cause of his gasp was something else, hundreds of something else. The two-lane road in front of him w
as straight, stretching to a point on the horizon. Several hundred shapes walked from that point heading towards the town. His eyes narrowed as he leaned forward to get a better look.

  Were they people? He could not be sure from where he stood. Sometimes they looked like people, at other times not so much. There was something weird about the way they moved.

  A faint sound reached his ears. He leaned forward more still, his nose pressing against the cold glass. His ears cocked as he strived to hear even the faintest sound.

  For a while, he could make no sense of the sounds that reached his ears. A couple of minutes later however, the sounds became clearer. It was growling. A slurring sort of growling, the sound drove a chill into his heart. His heartbeat, which had only increased slightly, now began to race.

  Chapter Twenty – Six

  The race to the hospital seemed to take forever. Wole’s heart thundered in his chest as he willed his body to run faster. Tunrayo’s loud pants rang out a few steps behind him. She struggled to keep up the pace. They had been running flat out for almost twenty minutes. The backbreaking pace was already beginning to take its toll.

  In a normal situation, they would have gotten an Okada (commercial motor cycle) to take them to the hospital. But there were no bikes around. Tunrayo’s pants became louder. He knew he would have to stop to let her rest soon; otherwise, she was liable to collapse. Reaching a decision, he pulled to a screeching halt.

  “Let’s r__” He began stopping when he saw her sprawled on the ground beside him. Her face was ashen and sweat streamed down her face in torrents.

  “I am sorry I pushed you so hard__,” He murmured, as he struggled to catch his breath.

  Unable to think of an appropriate response and too tired to try, she simply nodded. It occurred to her that she ought to be more worried about her own family’s safety, and doing all she could to find out whether they were safe instead of racing after her friend to ensure the safety of his own family.

  A sense of calm filled her spirit as soon as she thought this. Something told her that they were fine. She did not know how exactly she knew this, but she just did. It came from a place deep inside her. The only snag was, in light of all that was happening around them, her family was probably worried sick about her. She reached the decision to go look for them as soon as she was sure that Wole’s family was safe. Her decision made, she rose to her feet slowly as she and Wole prepared to run again.

  Corporal Seun Adeniyi stood still, his eyes scouring the greenery around him. The half dozen men coming behind him stopped walking and froze, with their weapons cocked and held at the ready. Many of them had puzzled looks on their faces as they wondered what had spooked their senior officer.

  Seun’s eyes narrowed. He could not hear it any longer. A frown replaced the wary look on his face. This was the third day of searching and they had found nothing. Only God knew when the D.P.O would deem it fit to call the damn search off.

  Asides from the strange growling sounds he thought he heard a few moments ago, this area had been as quiet as a tomb. That was beside the usual scurrying and fluttering you’d usually find in any bush.

  He stood still for another minute before he relaxed, resting the barrel of his semi automatic rifle on his shoulder. The men standing behind him relaxed also, they waited poised to receive instructions from him. A short pause followed before he spoke.

  “Men let’s fall back to the road. There is nothing here.”

  Loud sighs and pleased murmurs of agreement greeted his order. They turned quickly, weaving through the thick bushes that surrounded them and slowly made their way back to the road, which was about a kilometer away. The road they approached was a dirt road, one of the secondary roads linking this area with the primary road, which went through the center of Oraromi.

  Seun could not help feeling relieved that they were heading back. He and his men had not had anything to eat since morning and it was almost five pm. He could use some food and a cold drink. His men probably had the same thing on their minds.

  He froze again when the faint growling sound he heard earlier reached his ears. He turned around slowly with the grip on his rifle tightening. Since he was bringing up the rear, it took a couple of minutes for his men to realize that he had stopped.

  “Is something wrong sir?” some of them piped up holding their guns at the ready.

  He did not answer. He listened intently, his eyes scouring the gloom darkness around him for any trace of a threatsthreat. Hearing nothing, he turned around slowly, facing his men once more.

  “It’s nothing __ I just thought I heard something is all.”

  His men gave him long puzzled looks. Turning their attention back to the bushes and the narrow path they walked on, they marched at a brisk pace back to the road.

  Seun gave the bushes behind him one last sweep before starting after them. Great unease filled his insides as he walked. Something here was not right.

  Five more minutes of walking brought them to the dirt road. There were two battered hilux trucks parked four feet to their left. They all moved towards them when a loud roar shattered the quiet stillness, followed almost instantaneously by a series of loud slurring growls. The sounds came from their right, about a mile away.

  They spun around, quickly taking defensive positions in front of their trucks. Their eyes widened when they saw more than three dozen people heading their way. Seun’s eyes narrowed. The way they moved__ there was something off about it.

  They slurred and dragged themselves forward with the body coordination of stroke victims. There was also the most awful growling sound emanating from mouths that seemed somewhat distended.

  They had clothes on __ or what appeared to be clothes anyway. They were more of rags. Most of them wore no shoes, and there was an eerie red glow coming from their eyes.

  Only then did Seun and his men notice the stench. It was a cross between rotting meat and decaying vegetables, the sick stench was already making some of Seun’s men gag.

  “YOU PEOPLE___ WHOEVER YOU ARE, I COMMAND YOU TO HALT!” Seun barked out at the approaching horde.

  None of the creatures responded. They just kept dragging themselves forward in that sick uncoordinated way.

  “IF YOU DO NOT HALT, YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON!”

  They kept coming not appearing to have heard him. They were now forty feet away and closing. Seun opened his mouth to shout out one last warning when the creatures suddenly lunged forward, racing towards him and his men at full sprint. The dragging and staggering movements of a few seconds before had miraculously vanished. They were running at speeds to rival the best Olympic sprinters.

  The police officers opened fire, the loud explosion of gunfire shattering the quiet stillness around them.

  Chapter Twenty – Seven

  Taiwo Betiku prided himself on his excellent hearing. It had stood him in great stead in the past. Numerous sounds rang out all around him, which would have put most people off their guard. He on the other hand wasn’t.

  Another sound intruded on the loud shouts and bangs echoing all around him. He cocked his ears trying to catch what it was. Five seconds later he began very certain that the sound he heard were gunshots. However, because of how faint it was, he could not make out the direction it was coming from.

  “Sergeant!” He barked, facing the tiny group of police officers standing six feet to his right clad in combat gear.

  “Yes!!” The burly man in front barked back instantly snapping to attention.

  “Toss me a walkie talkie.”

  “Right away sir__” The man answered hurrying to his side and handing him the walkie talkie which was strapped to his belt.

  “Thank you officer.” He snapped. He was tempted to remind him that he had been asked to toss and not bring, but he held his tongue as he raised the walkie talkie to his lips.

  “Vector three __ come in __ over!”

  There was no response.

  “Vector three ___ come in __ over” He repeated in
a louder voice.

  A crackle of sound emitted from the walkie talkie followed almost instantly by a burst of static __ before__

  “This is Vector three __ over.”

  “I am hearing gunshots in the vicinity __ what is your status __ over?”

  “Status remains the same ___ putting out fires sir.”

  “Ok, report in every now and then__ over.”

  “Yes sir __ over.”

  Taiwo waited another couple of seconds and tried again.

  “Vector five __ this is Vector one __ what is your status __ over?”

  There was a long silence before a loud burst static erupted from the walkie talkie. It was so loud that Taiwo gasped holding the device away from his face. Sounds burst out of the speaker about a minute later.

  “THIS IS VECTOR FIVE ___ N..E…E..D BACKU..P!” Another burst of static intruded shutting off the terrified man’s words.

  “……… WE ARE UNDER A..TT..ACK!!”

  The connection cut a half second later leaving a cold silence in its wake. Taiwo and his men exchanged troubled glances before he spoke.

  “Isn’t five stationed in the center of Oraromi? About two streets away from the general hospital?”

  The man who had tossed him the walkie talkie nodded slowly but did not speak. Taiwo gave the surrounding area a careful sweep. Fires were still raging in some houses, but overall, it seemed to be under a semblance of control. Sighing deeply, he reached a decision.

  “Vector three.” He barked raising the walkie talkie to his lips once again.

  “Yes sir__”

  “How are the fires at your end __ over?”

  “Under control sir__ over”

  “I need you to send twenty of your men to assist Vector five__”

  “Assist sir? Over __”

  “They are under attack __ since you are closer to their position___ you go and give them backup__ I am headed there now__ over and out.”