Virus (16 page)

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.”

He shut it off turning around to
face the men gathered around him. Austin Okorocha shifted
restlessly six feet behind.

“Twenty five of you will remain
here. The remaining fifteen will come with me. Some of our men are
under attack.”

“
What sort of attack
sir?”

“If I knew that, don’t you think I
will tell you?” Taiwo snapped glaring at the man, who practically
wilted under his gaze.

“Let’s move out.”

He raced to the Hilux trucks parked
twenty feet away with fifteen of his men following. They were off a
few seconds later disappearing into the thick smoke surrounding
them.

Tunrayo and Wole stood crouched
behind a large truck their eyes wide with fright as gunshots boomed
all around them. They were on a wide stretch of road, which led to
the general hospital two hundred feet away.

The truck was parked on the right
side of the road. Houses loomed around them on either side. The
gates of the general hospital lay to their left and further down
the street to their right, a great battle was going on. About
twenty-three police officers were firing into a rabid mob of three
hundred.

They looked like people dressed in
rags with blackish green skin, but their movements and the slurring
growls bursting from their distended mouths said
otherwise.

“We have to go now!” Wole said
yelling to be heard over the booming gunshots.

Tunrayo nodded, her wide and
terrified eyes rolling around in their sockets. Wole took two deep
breaths and leaped out from behind the truck, racing towards the
general hospital complex. Tunrayo was two steps behind with sweat
pouring down her face. Their uniforms were torn and dirty and their
backpacks rattled as they ran. So much had happened in the last two
and a half hours that neither of them remembered they still carried
them.

They reached the gate two minutes
later to discover that it had been locked from inside. Without
breaking strides, they shimmied up the gate, leaping down into the
hospital compound. The sound of gunfire slowly faded away the
further they got.

Alaba had his ear to the door with a
terrified Joke crouched behind him. He could not remember a time he
had ever been as frightened as he was now. What were those things?
And why did they chase him?

His greatest concern now was not his
safety. He did not want to die, but impending death was something
he could live with as long as the woman he loved and the child
growing in her belly were safe.

If she were not pregnant, he would
have suggested they make a run for it. Looking at her big belly, he
sincerely doubted she could make it far on foot. His racing heart
began to thunder as the slurring growls reverberated down the
narrow corridor outside their door. The fiends were coming. Oh NO!!
He turned around slowly, being very careful not to make a
sound.