Virus (13 page)

“Gotta show someone the report__” He
muttered, biting his lips nervously.

“__ someone has to listen. It’s too
dangerous to leave the situation uncontained.”

The memories of about half a dozen
meetings he had had over the last six days flashed before his eyes
and the frightened look on his face quickly became a thunderous
one.

Stupid bureaucrats! No one had taken
his warning seriously. Anyway, what had he been expecting? Why
should stuck up and important members of the hospital management
board listen to the mad ramblings of a teaching hospital’s chief
hematologist.

The frown on his face quickly became
harder. Stinking blood-sucking leaders. It was sad to say that
there were few concerns taken seriously in Nigeria. It was stupid
and naïve of him to think this one would be.

The look on his face grew even
grimmer as he deftly increased speed, mashing his foot down on the
accelerator. The Camry leaped forward as if it had been stung,
eating up the miles between it and Oraromi.

Taiwo’s face was thunderous. The
officer standing in front of him swallowed and took two careful
steps back.ck carefully. He could not help wishing he were miles
away while someone else delivered the report he had just dropped on
the D.P.O’s desk. A report he was certain tain had just dampened
his senior officer’s mood.

He could not remember the man ever
smiling much, everyone knew him to be quite a prickly character.
There were few times however that he had seen him look as angry as
this.

What the sergeant did not realize
was, it was not anger that nger that was made making the DD.P.O’s
l.P.O. look thunderous. It was worry mixed with something he would
never admit to anyone, least of all his men. That thing was
fear.

According to the report he held in
his hand, more people had gone missing. That in itself was weird,
especially since they had not been able to find any of them even
after weeks of searching.

The number of people missing was
close to three hundred. In a town with a population of four
thousand,usand people, that was a worrisome number. The second
disturbing thing was the strange creature they found in the crypt
in that shrine kind of hut deep in the forest had disappeared. When
his men went back to bring it in for observation, they found the
crypt empty and the creature gone.

He immediately ordered a thorough
twenty-kilometer search in all directions, searching for tracks, a
trail or anything that could lead him to the creature, or even the
missing town’s people. They came up with nothingthing. ing. All
that had been achieved was howaurs and hours of man-hours
wasted.sting tons of man hours.

A loud banging on the door of his
office made him and the officer standing before him
jump.

“Who is that?” He yelled unable to
stop a surge of anger on his insides. It was embarrassing that the
sudden banging had shaken him.

“It’s me sir__” A deep voice barked
from outside the door. He recognized it. It was one of his junior
officers.

“SO YOU WANT TO BREAK MY DOOR DOWN
BAH???” Taiwo roared.

There was silence on the other end
for a couple of seconds before a faint “No sir.” Filtered into the
room.

“Come in!” He barked rolling his
eyes in disgust. His officers could sometimes make a saint
swear.

The door opened slowly, too slowly
in his opinion. It opened as if the person coming in was afraid
that something lurking behind the door was preparing to attack
him.

A tall man walked into the room. He
was six foot five inches tall, his muscular body stuffed into the
black on black uniform of the police force.

“What is it?” Taiwo barked, his eyes
hardening in disapproval when he saw how scuffed the shoes the man
standing in front of him were.

“There is a man to see you
sir.”

“Who is he?”

“He said he is the chief
hematologist of the Kargo teaching hospital in the next
state.”

“Oh did he now__” Taiwo growled
preparing to launch a verbal assault on his junior worker about the
state of his shoes. The man’s next words stopped him.

“He said our general hospital sent
him some blood samples taken from Chike Chidozie.”

“Why didn’t you say so? Send him in
immediately.”

The man’s mouth in shock, his eyes
hardening as he prepared to defend himself, he closed his mouth
when he saw the hard look on Taiwo’s face. He stepped out of the
office with a hard frown on his face, returning a few moments later
with a beefy looking man wearing an ill-fitting grey
suit.

“Good afternoon D.P.O__” The man
began wiping the sweat off his face with a pristine looking white
hanky.

“Good afternoon __” Taiwo growled
scowling.

“My name is Austin Okorocha, chief
hematologist of Kargo teaching hospital. You have a serious problem
here sir.”

“When are you going to tell me
something I don’t know? People are getting sick, quite a few have
died and over three hundred are missing. So I think I am well aware
of the fact that we have a problem.”

Austin sighed taking in a deep
breath afterwards. “You are going to have to evacuate everyone in
Oraromi. Everyone that is not sick that is. Those that are sick
will have to remain here.”

A long silence followed his words,
and then Taiwo and three of his men that were in the room burst
into laughter. Thoroughly incensed, Austin surged forward smashing
his right fist into Taiwo’s desk. The four men jumped startled
instantly becoming quiet.

“Do you think this is a joke? The
results of the test I carried out on the blood sample your hospital
sent me reveal you are dealing with a deadly, yet unnamed Virus. It
is highly infectious and capable of killing a healthy human being
in less than thirty-six hours.

“The good news is it is transmitted
by the infection of a person’s blood, possibly through injection or
blood contact. That does not mean that it will not eventually
mutate and become air-borne or something, and something tells me
that is what the damn thing wants to do. You have to get everyone
out of town before that happens.”

“But__but__” Taiwo stammered. “What
happens to those left behind?” The look on Austin’s face grew
grimmer and a cold silence filled Taiwo’s office.

Elsewhere

(Tee –junction on the way into
Oraromi)

Wole and Tunrayo stood still, their
gazes locked on each other’s faces. Their houses lay in opposite
directions, but neither of them was ready to leave, not yet at
least.

“I should be getting home now.” Wole
said softly. His voice was so low she was barely able to hear what
he said.

“Me too__” She whispered.

A long silence followed. Neither of
them attempted to leave. Wole’s eyes narrowed when he saw a scared
and panicked look enter Tunrayo’s eyes.

“What is it?” He asked turning to
see what she was looking at. His eyes widened in shock when he saw
huge billowing flames burning on the northern axis of Oraromi, just
within their line of sight.

“What is that?” Tunrayo asked in a
shaky voice pointing at the flames. Wole stepped forward squinting
as he tried to get a better look.

“I think some houses are on
fire.”

“OH NO__” Tunrayo murmured. “ORAROMI
IS BURNING!!!”

“Come on___” Wole yelled grabbing
her arm. “Let’s go find out what is happening.”

He raced off dragging a reluctant
Tunrayo with him.

WHEN SPIRITS COME ALIVE

Chapter
Twenty-Two

The race back into Oraromi took them
less than ten minutes. The whole town had an orange hue to it due
to the brightness of the flames that engulfed more than three dozen
houses.

Scores of people ran wild in the
street. A few were trying to put the fires out, while the rest were
simply trying to escape from the hungry flames. Spinning around in
alarm at the chaotic scene, Wole was shocked to see a ragged, mad
looking Baba Adora walking towards them. From the vacant look in
his eyes, he looked like someone who was in a dream
state.

Wole took a deep breath and hurried
to his side.

“Baba Adora what is
happening?”

He did not respond. He kept walking
forward with a dazed look in his eyes. His body was stiffer than a
wooden post and little drops of spit gathered at the corners of his
mouth.

Wole exchanged puzzled glances with
Tunrayo, watching as Baba Adora slowly disappeared into the thick
smoke ahead. Taking his eyes off Baba Adora’s tragic looking
figure, Wole faced the direction of his house, which was just two
streets away from where they stood.

His eyes grew wide with horror when
he saw thick black smoke rising from his street. He released a deep
breath and was on the verge of sprinting away when a cold hand
seized his shoulder.

He jumped letting out a piercing
scream. Frightened by his scream, Tunrayo began to scream
too.

“Calm down.” Baba Adora slurred.
“Its me__ I am not going to hurt you.”

“You scared us.” They gasped giving
him accusing looks. “Why did you not answer us before?”

“Before?” He asked looking puzzled.
“Did you speak to me before?”

They exchanged troubled glances. Had
the old man lost his sanity?

“You mean__” Tunrayo began slowly.
“You mean you did not hear us before?”

“When you say before__ when was that
exactly?”

There was a troubled silence.
Tunrayo swallowed and took a couple of steps back. Wole on the
other hand kept looking at Baba Adora as if he was a particularly
nasty insect.

His wary look hardened, slowly
turning to a scowl. This was getting them nowhere.

“I am going to look for my parents.
I need to see if our house is still standing.”

Tunrayo nodded in agreement but did
not speak. Wole broke into a run leaving Tunrayo and Baba Adora
behind in a thick cloud of smoke. Tunrayo hesitated for three
seconds before she tore after him.

“AFTER YOU DO THAT, FIND YOUR WAY TO
THE HOSPITAL__ YOU__” Baba Adora yelled after them, his voice
fading away the further away the got.

They were now running side by side.
“Did you hear the last bit of what he said?” She panted glancing at
Wole as she ran.

“No I did not. It doesn’t matter
anyway__ I think Baba Adora has gone mad!”

They said no more as they vanished
into a cloud of thick black smoke.

Taiwo Betiku and five of him men
listened as Austin Okorocha explained what the virus was the
simplest way he knew how. As understanding came so did the
horror.

Taiwo raised his eyes from the
papers stacked on his desk. He scanned the faces of the men
standing in front of him. They all looked terrified. Something told
him that quite a few of them would bolt the instant they left his
office. He would have to keep a close watch over them.

A worried looking junior police
officer rushed into his office startling the six of
them.

“Sir we have received reports of
fires spreading across the northern part of Oraromi. Over twenty
houses have been burnt so far.”

“Where are the rest of the
men?”

“They are still combing the bushes
surrounding the hut we discovered three days ago.”

“Have them called in__ we have a
fire to put out. The rain has not fallen for months. Oraromi is as
dry as a tinderbox. If the fires are allowed to continue, the whole
town could be engulfed by the flames; only the gods know what
started the fire__ or rather who started the fire.”

He and his men began to hurry out of
the office when Austin’s loud shout stopped them in their
tracks.

“Wait D.P.O! What about the
virus?”

“The virus and the containment plan
will have to wait. This is a more pressing issue.”

Austin’s lightface grew beet red as
if he was on the verge of having a stroke. Taiwo glanced at him
worriedly for a few seconds before starting after his
men.

The main body of the police station
was a beehive of activity. Scores of men armed themselves slinging
lethal looking machine guns over their shoulders and stuffing their
cavernous pockets with shells.

There were sixty men in the police
station now, but there was only body armor for fifteen men. Taiwo
knew they would give him one automatically; but what about the rest
of them should the untoward happen?

He shook his head to clear it of his
thoughts. He could not bother himself about that now. There were
plenty other things to think about, like that virus for instance. A
shiver ran down his spine.

Suddenly the whole building
shuddered as if something heavy smashed into it. All the men
holding guns automatically raised them up, their bodies stiff and
at the ready. Dust, bits and pieces of plastic fluttered er
fllutter down from the roof. There was an uncomfortable silence for
about a minute before___