Virus (15 page)

That wasn’t the most disturbing
thing. The most disturbing thing was the two people lying on the
floor with blood gushing from their bodies from half a dozen cuts
and holes that looked like bites.

Their skins were a scary blackish
green color, and there were several gill like holes on both sides
of their bodies, along the abdomen which opened and closed
spasmodically, seeping a yellowish liquid as it did so.

“Oh my G__” Alaba began breaking off
when a slurring growl rang out from down the hall where he had come
from.

He swallowed, turning around slowly.
The hall seemed darker for some reason. He could not see a thing.
Swallowing again, he raised the phone in his hand. His heart
skipped a couple of beats when a pair of dull red eyes appeared
about seven feet away from him.

He leapt backwards almost dropping
the phone. His back struck the hard concrete wall behind him. The
eyes lunged forward, coming closer as if the person it belonged to
was leaping forward.

He ducked to his right as something
slammed into the wall he had been leaning against barely two
seconds earlier. A feral growl burst from the thing’s throat and he
caught a whiff of its fetid breath. Rising quickly he flung his
phone in the direction he hoped the thing’s head was.

A dull crack rang out a few seconds
later. The sound brought t him immense satisfaction. His phone had
hit its mark. The only trouble was, the corridor was now completely
dark. He could not see a thing, but he could hear the person’s
slurring growls and loud shuffling feet as it searched for him in
the darkness.

He ducked down, feeling his way back
to the staircase. His palms traced a path along the cold concrete
wall. He could hear the things shuffling after him making those
eerie growling sounds.

The seconds ticked by and panic
welled on his insides. He had no idea how far from the staircase he
was. Sweat streamed down his face soaking his white shirt. He had
to be close to the staircase, he just had to be.

The sounds that erupted about five
feet in front of him made his heart skip a couple of beats. It was
the same growling sound. His heart was now racing
violently.

Since the sounds behind him had not
stopped, it was only fair to assume that there were now two things
hunting him. His eyes grew wide in fright and sweat entered them.
He rubbed them vigorously, blinking at the stinging sensation. Now
was not the time to have his eyes blinded by sweat. He needed all
his senses if he was going to escape the merry pickle he found
himself in.

The growls behind grew louder,
followed by several answering growls in front; his eyes narrowed in
suspicion. Was it possible that the damn things were
communicating?

Since he did not have an answer to
that, he began to inch forward slowly, wincing when the leather
sandals he had on gave a loud squeak. The growl in front turned to
a roar and he felt something leap at him.

He broke left losing his balance
when two legs collided with his, bringing him down with a loud
crash. There was a sickening crunch as something crashed into the
opposite wall.

Another roar erupted from behind and
he knew what had been stalking him was heading his way and fast. He
began to crawl forward desperately, expecting something to leap on
his back.

His left hand suddenly clutched
empty space, his arm slamming onto the edge of the first stair. His
relief was so great he did not even feel the pain coursing through
his arm.

Using all the strength he had in his
arms, he pulled himself forward as hard and fast as he could. His
body slid over the edge of the staircase and tumbled down the
stairs, his back eventually slamming into the hard wall marking the
beginning to the second flight of stairs.

A loud whump above told him that
something had just smashed into the ground at the spot he had been
mere seconds ago. The slam into the wall almost knocked him
unconscious. Struggling to his feet with a gasp he tore down the
second flight of stairs in a thrice. Four long bounds took him to
the front of his apartment. He opened it in a flash and ducked in
slamming it shut after him. With two loud clicks, he locked the
door.

Joke screeched backing against the
wall.

“Shush, shush___” he barked in
desperation, whirling around with his eyes wide with
fright.

“Alaba____ what happened?” She
whispered in a shaky voice almost consumed with fear by the terror
she saw lurking in his eyes.

“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 was 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.