Virus
Page 17
“___ enter into a sleep so deep, that you will forever vanish into darkness keep. Bound and trod for millenniums with no relief, till the world around us is put to sleep__”
The creature roared in fury and attacked the circle of descendants once again and the pulse drove it back more fiercely, smashing its body against the rock wall so hard that it mashed a hole into it.
“___ as the descendants continue to speak, your doom is released. Never again will you trouble Oraromi’s peace. You are bound like this__”
“Do you for one second think I will be bound and locked away for eternity? I escaped once and that means I will escape again.
Eze was a man of providence. He came just when I needed him. years ago he stumbled on this cave, shocked to see my shrunken form lying dormant. His ran his hands admiringly over my crypt blotting out one of the words of the spell that had been cut into the crypt to seal me in.
And you all know that once the hedge is broken by even the slightest margin, the snake will bite. A bit of my essence was able to enter him and he instantly became mad. He wandered all over Oraromi as a mad man. No one knew of the poison running through his veins. He fought my total control for years but eventually I prevailed and I escaped.
“Nothing you do can keep me hidden. I will always burst out__”
The last few words were barked out in a screech shaking the cave very badly. The EVONSO spirit rose up once again and raised its fist, pausing when he saw the pulse beginning to rise.
Its eyes narrowed and it turned to face Anike with hostile intent. She gasped and tore to her right, barely escaping the fist, which smashed, into where she had been standing mere seconds ago.
Taiwo slowly came to, his eyes widening when he saw Anike running around the circle of descendants with the EVONSO spirit chasing. Baba Adora was motionless on the orange rock covered floor.
He frowned reaching over to grab a pump action shotgun that one of his men had dropped. Picking it up and cocking it, he started towards the EVONSO spirit. A smirk came on the thing’s face as its fingers reached for Anike’s blouse. It had her now.
Yelling in anger, Taiwo raised the gun and opened fire. The first shot blew off the things fingers drawing it to a screeching halt. The EVONSO turned slowly, its furious gaze fixed on Taiwo. A lump rose in Taiwo’s throat and he backed away in fear. The thing’s lips widened becoming distended as a roar burst from the stinking void of its mouth.
It lunged forward in fury as Taiwo continued to squeeze the trigger in desperation. The shells of the shotgun had little effect and in a thrice it had Taiwo in its grasp raised about four feet above ground. Two of his men came to at that instant, their eyes widening in shock and horror when they saw their boss held in the EVONSO’S clutches.
Reaching for their guns, they stepped forward and began to fire into its back. The other two officers did not rise. Their necks were twisted and broken. They would not be getting up again.
“___ for ever and ever. Until the sun, forever sleeps. When the earth no longer is__ so shall you be trapped in the permanent sleep, never to rise and see, the beauty that is and forever will be.”
As soon as Anike and the descendants finished saying the words, a bright burst of white light streaked towards the EVONSO spirit piercing it in the back. The thing screamed, levitated into the air, its body striking the top of the cave.
Taiwo fell in a crumpled heap, as the light wrapped itself around it, sealing it in a cocoon, which lifted it towards the empty crypt.
“noooooooooooooooo!!!” The thing roared. The light slammed it back into the crypt with a loud bang and fiery red letters began to burn into the sides of the crypt as if written by an invisible pen of fire.
Immediately the last letter was written the EVONSO’s body became still. Its mouth and head however were still moving.
“how can this be? After all my plans and my plotting it still came to this___ I remembered everything, planned for every eventuality. Even when the people became sick, I came for them in spirit. Removed their bodies so no one will be on to me till it was too late and still it came to this. What sort of wretched and unfortunate creature am I to be bested twice by insignificant mortals?”
It looked as if it was going to say more, but froze as the spell took complete effect, trapping it in the clutches of the permanent sleep.
The light from the descendants continued for another couple of minutes before it faded away completely. The five of them collapsed on the ground in crumpled heaps. The roaring and growls that served as background music all the while that the chaos in the cave was going on was replaced by silence.
Chapter Thirty – Seven
An hour later
Taiwo peered out of the cave with his gun held at the ready. His two remaining officers followed at a discrete distance. Scores of undead creatures lay still outside the cave. Frowning Taiwo edged forward with his finger curled around the trigger. Reaching the undead closest to him, he nudged it with his foot and jumped back instantly. The thing remained still. He did that with half a dozen others with the same result.
“You can come out now__” He yelled. “It worked. They are truly dead.”
The others came out slowly, Collins and Wole supported a weakened Baba Adora while Alaba carried his wife in his arms. She was wan and pale but otherwise unhurt.
Anike brought up the rear, relieved to see that Baba Adora was gaining his strength back slowly.
“You have nine lives Baba Adora.” She said smiling.
“There must always be a seer Anike__” He replied smiling back. “Until the gift is passed on, a seer can never die.”
“Eerrr but you almost just did__”
Having no answer to that, Baba Adora simply shrugged and looked ahead towards the opposite horizon. The wan smile on his face slowly faded. Anike surged forward noticing instantly.
“What is it?” She asked giving him a piercing look.
He swallowed turning around to face her. The haunted look in his eyes drove a chill into her heart.
“D.P.O. Taiwo__” He began slowly, turning to face him.
“Yes?”
“We might need to commandeer a few vehicles since the other trucks are out of commission.”
“That means a long walk back to town__ unless__”
“Unless what?”
“One of my mobile units was posted to search this area. They never reported so am guessing their vehicles are still around here somewhere. We can use those to get back into town.”
“I wasn’t talking of getting back into town__” Baba Adora began slowly. “I meant using them to leave Oraromi for good__”
“WHAT???!!!” The others gasped in shock.
An eerie silence immediately followed.
Elsewhere (beyond Oraromi)
Two slurring shapes stumbled through the bushes. Their skins were a bluish green color and red slime dribbled from their lips. They walked with a swift determination, their uncoordinated bodies fixed on their destination.
A few minutes later, they burst out of the bushes stepping onto a wide two lane express road. Since it was the dead of the night no cars zoomed by. They shuffled towards their right, heading up the sloping road that went uphill. Five minutes of walking brought them in front of a large signpost.
They paused looking at it with unfocused red gazes. The words written on it made no sense to them so they proceeded, quickly disappearing into the distance.
Thirty minutes later, a car zoomed past the signboard, its bright light lighting up the words written on it. These words said
Welcome to the city of Lagos
The End
Epilogue
The door of the cafeteria seemed blacker than usual, dimly lit by a small sixty-watt bulb, which swung drunkenly on a thin electric wire. The entire corridor shrouded by an eerie silence. This silence did not remain for long.
Loud slurring growls erupted, shattering the quiet of the corridor. The growls came from behind the cafeteria door. A loud pou
nding of several fists rang out immediately afterwards, hitting the wooden door with dull thuds. These thuds grew louder and more insistent until the door shattered caving out onto the corridor it opened into.
Two dozen rabid shapes burst out a few moments later; most, covered by the long white lab coats worn by doctors. Several answering growls rang out from down the long corridor and this mob slowly made their way towards the sound.