Virus (12 page)

Taiwo’s eyes widened as he turned in
a half circle. The wall of the hut was covered with the stuff. He
kept turning gasping when his eyes settled on a crypt carved into
the wall on his right.

The crypt was not empty. A strange
creature lay strapped to the inside. It was man shaped, but the
head looked severely deformed. Caved in at several points as if
bashed in by something heavy, its jaw was long, too long. It poked
out like the beak of a bird and the waxen papery looking brown skin
stretched tightly over it.

It did not appear to have any lips.
But the skin surrounding the mouth area was jagged and serrated,
looking as if the lips had been cut off. The resulting effect was
that the white teeth were bared like fangs. The two incisors seemed
longer and sharper than any incisor had the right to be. The eye
sockets were empty making the face seem even more
grotesque.

“What in the name of heaven and
earth is that?” Taiwo gasped taking several steps back.

“We don’t know sir.” The large man
behind him replied.

“Is it dead?”

“We are pretty sure it is sir__
Matthew found the cave. It startled him so much that he fired a
couple of shots at it.”

Taiwo nodded only just noticing the
holes in the thing’s torso. Instead of blood, flakes of dust
trickled out of the holes. Emboldened by the sight Taiwo edged
closer until just a foot separated him from the crypt. This close
and with the dank stench coming from it, he got the sense that the
things had been here for ages.

He did not know much about
decomposition and such, but something told him that the rate of
decay was not commensurate to how long it had been there. It looked
as if it was decaying slowly__ too slowly.

He was so engrossed with his
examination of it that it took a while to realize that his bulky
subordinate was speaking to him.

“What did you say?” He asked turning
around.

“I asked what do we do
next?”

“We keep searching of course.” He
replied with a deep sigh as he strode for the entrance of the
hut.

“What do we do about this thing?”
The man asked pointing at the creature strapped into the crypt.
Taiwo paused with a thoughtful look on his face.for a few
moments.

“I will send someone to come and
pick it up later. It needs to be properly examined, let it stay
here for now. We move __ we have tons of missing people to
find.”

Without another word, they hurried
after him as he strode out of the hut.

Chapter Twenty

A day and a half later

The chief hematologist at the Kargo
teaching hospital stared at the blood sample he was examining under
a microscope with fear in his eyes. This was not possible, not by a
long shot.

To be certain that what he was
seeing was indeed the right thing, he had examined the screened
blood sample almost a dozen times and the results remained the
same.

A cold chill ran down his spine.
Could this be a trick? A sick joke? Planned for the specific
purpose of unnerving him, if it was a joke, which he doubted it
was, it was a damn cruel thing to do.

Raising his head, he caught the
frightened looks on the faces of three of his colleagues. The fear
and unease inside him grew. He knew now that it was no joke. The
result of the sample was as real as the microscope he had before
him.

“When did this sample come
in?”

“About two weeks ago.” The slim
gangly looking man on his right said, his frightened eyes gleamed
gleaming from behindind his horn-rimmed glasses.

“And you are just showing me now?”
He yelled in fury.

“We weren’t sure of what to make of
it. Plus we had so much work backed up that we didn’t get round to
examining it until four days ago.”

A long frightened pause immediately
followed. “Has the big guy been informed?”

“I showed it to him
yesterday.”

“And?”

“He doesn’t want to have anything to
do with it. He advised we destroy the sample and never mention a
word of it to anyone.”

There was another pause.

“Where did the sample come
from?”

“Oraromi___”

“You mean that small town between
here and isoko?

The man nodded in the affirmative.
There was more silence.

“Someone has to warn them__ let them
know what they are up against. The federal government should also
be informed.”

“Sir did you not hear what we just
said? The big guy does not want this thing linked to this hospital.
Not a word or else ___ those were the exact words he
used.”

“But don’t you block heads see? If
this thing gets out__ no one anywhere is safe. Not even
US!!”

“Sir according to the tests, its
mode of transmission is still somewhat limited. It must be injected
into the blood stream before it can do any harm. Its working is
barely dissimilar from the HIV virus.”

“And who is to say it won’t
eventually mutate and become how do we put this___
AIRBORNE!!!”

“If it does, then God help
them.”

“US___ GOD HELP US!!” The chief
hematologist screeched. An eerie silence followed.

7.45pm (Same day)

Collins strode down a narrow path
heading towards home. He was tired and almost totally worn out. The
reason for his weariness brought a sly grin to his face. He was
playing with fire, he knew that but he could not help himself.
After all, fire never felt this sweet. Judith was a fire that
seemed hell bent on consuming him.

He had slept with so many girls.
Some of them were wild cats in bed but none of them could hold a
candle to Judith. The girl could literarily screw a man’s brains
out. The smirk on his face slowly faded away at the reprimanding
voice in his head.

A hard frown replaced the smile. He
was not a total imbecile. He made sure he never slept with her
without protection, not to mention guilting her into taking birth
control pills.

The dumb broads! They were the ones
who had the most to lose and the nitwits would not take extra care
to ensure they did not get pregnant. It was tiresome having to
monitor them like children. The stupid bitches.

A rustle from the bushes to his
right snapped him out of his reverie. He stopped, examining the
bushes for several moments before walking off again. He did not
notice the red eyes that followed his progress as he headed
home.

A middle-aged man dressed in a blue
long sleeved shirt, tucked into long black trousers walked along
the main road that meandered through the center of Oraromi. His
large feet, encased in black boots, made a scrunching sound on the
cold hard road.

The Oraromi streets were deserted at
this time. However, voices filtered out of the houses on either
side of the road he walked on. He yawned glancing at a couple of
the homes he passed. A slanting shaft of light from one of the
houses he was passing shone on him illuminating the words on the
breast pocket of his shirt. The words read Geowith
security.

The company he worked for provided
security for the three banks and two micro finance houses in the
town. He raised his hand to his lips to stiffen a yawn. God he was
tired.

He could not help but feel relief
that he was on the afternoon shift and not the night shift. The
houses he passed grew fewer. He approached the outskirts of the
town and drew closer to home.

A sound to his left made all his
senses alert. He squinted into the darkness.darkness around him. A
shadowy shape stood beside a house he was just passing. He took a
step closer to it to get a better look with a deep look, frowning
deeply roughening his hard bro When that did not help, he took
three more steps closer.w. When he still could not make anything
out, he took three more steps closer.

“Who is there?” He called
out.

His voice to his annoyance sounded
high pitched and squeaky. It sounded like the voice of a man who
was very afraid. The shadowy form did not move. His face grew
grimmer. If this was someone’s idea of a joke, it was not funny
anymore.

“Is someone there?” His voice this
time sounded firm and authoritative. A feeling of satisfaction
surged on his insides.

When he received no response to his
query, he turned and continued walking towards home. Within minutes
the house and the shadow was out of sight to his immense
relief.

Twenty paces away from his house,
the same sounds he heard earlier reached his ears. He turned around
slowly discovering that the shadowy shape was standing fifteen feet
away.

The man and the shadow did not move
for about one and a half minutes. The man suddenly darted to his
right, tearing towards the two-story apartment building, which was
his home. He had barely taken five strides when he felt a searing
pain in both shoulders as what felt like cold slimy hands grabbed
him from behind pulling him to a halt.

He wriggled, struggling to free
himself from the hands that held him. The cold hands pulled him
closer until his back slammed into something hard and cold. He
opened his mouth to scream, but was instantly cut off when two
sharp fangs sank into his neck. His shout turned to a muffled
gagging as the thing dragged his body back into the darkness where
it quickly disappeared from view. The night was calm and peaceful
once more.

Chapter
Twenty-One

Wole jumped startled shielding his
eyes from the sun streaming through the classroom window. Some of
his classmates had their eyes fixed on him and they all had worried
looks on their faces. He knew what the looks meant. They probably
felt he was off his rocker.

Sighing he rose to his feet, heading
to the door. He followed half a dozen students who were also filing
out of the classroom. The shrill peal of the school bell continued.
That was the signal that it was time for break. His stomach rumbled
as he stepped out.

He patted his pockets to check
whether his lunch money was still there. Thankfully it was. The
food vendors sold their wares outside the school gates, so he had
quite some distance to walk. He knew he had to hurry if he wanted
to get there and be back in time for afternoon lessons.

He lengthened his strides, walking
more briskly. The heels of his sandals made dull clicks and clacks
on the tiled floor. A smile lifted the corners of his lips as he
approached the school gate. His eyes took in the large mass of
students walking out of the gates, most of them heading to the food
vendors. It seemed he was not the only one hankering for a
meal.

By the time he reached the woman
selling rice, there was a long line of students waiting to make
their orders. He frowned impatiently, debating whether to head back
to class or wait until it was his turn.

His stomach gave a loud rumble at
that instant and he decided to wait and get something to eat. Five
minutes passed as the long line slowly dwindled bringing him closer
to his goal.

“Grabbing a bite to eat I see?” A
sardonic voice barked. He turned, his frown turning to a broad grin
as he caught the amused and somewhat weary look in Tunrayo’s
eyes.

“Can I be blamed? I am very
hungry.”

“Didn’t you eat before you left the
house?”

“No I didn’t.”

“Why not?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t really feel
hungry at the time.” There was a pause.

“I am sure your mother had loads to
say about that.”

“Funny enough she didn’t__ she just
asked me what was wrong. When I said nothing, she gave me this
strange look before asking me to take my plate to the kitchen and
start heading to school.”

“I was kinda surprised when she
pushed a two hundred naira note into my pocket as I walked out of
the door.”

“Maybe she feels you are still
coming to terms with__” She paused unable to continue.

He sighed blinking back tears. There
was no need for her to finish her sentence. It had been more than
two weeks. Surely, the pain should have lessened by now. Not having
an answer to that, he turned, looking straight ahead, his eyes
fixed on the woman selling rice. He was relieved to see that it was
his turn to make his order.

“Would you care for some?” He asked
turning to face Tunrayo.

She nodded slowly. Smiling he bought
a hundred and fifty naira rice and fifty naira meat. Pulling two
spoons from the rack beside the woman’s food coolers, he walked
over to the shade under a large tree with Tunrayo following
closely. They quickly began to eat.

Four days later

A short beefy looking man whose name
was Austin Okorocha turned his 2008 Toyota Camry off the four lane
express road onto a narrow single lane road, which was the only
road that led into Oraromi.

Sweat streamed down his face
in-spite of the Camry’s powerful air-conditioning which was on the
highest setting. He kept glancing at the stack of papers on the
front passenger seat as he drove. Each time he looked at it, the
sweat seemed to pour down his face more. He loosened his tie and
sighed as a blast of cool air touched his heated skin.