Virus (18 page)

The race to the other end of the
corridor took about a minute and a half. They skidded to a halt
about a foot away from it. Tunrayo stepped forward peering around
the edge of the wall. There was nothing to her left, except for a
white concrete wall. To her right, about five feet away was another
corridor. To the left, fifteen feet away from that, several dark
shapes moved aimlessly.

Wole’s eyes drifted left and right,
his gaze instantly frozen on the dark, moving, human sized shapes.
He stepped forward slowly, motioning for Tunrayo to follow him. She
shook her head fiercely, pointing at the shapes loitering just
beyond the next corridor.

Wole’s gestures became more
insistent. Glancing at the shapes one more time, she stepped into
the corridor. From all indications, whatever was standing ahead
seemed oblivious to their presence.

Sweat streamed down their bodies as
they tiptoed to the next corridor. Reaching it, Wole pushed Tunrayo
into it and waited poised at the turning.

“HELLO__” He called. “Are you guys
alright?”

The shapes jerked at the sound of
his voice and sprinted towards him with slurring growls coming from
their distended mouths.

Screaming they both raced down the
corridor, heading towards another Tee-junction with two signs stuck
to the wall on either side. The arrow pointing right said surgical
ward. The one pointing left said Obstetrics and
Gynecology.

“RIGHT!!!” He screeched at Tunrayo
who was racing ahead. She shot him a fiery glare.

“You are no different from Chike.
What in the world made you call out to them?”

“I felt they were__” He paused
unsure of how to continue. “_people.” He finished, as they tore
towards the surgical ward with whatever was chasing them hot on
their heels.

Neither of them dared risk a
backward glance. The door to the surgical ward loomed up ahead.
Tunrayo slammed into them pushing with all her strength. They flew
open smashing against the walls behind with a crash.

Their eyes grew wide in horror when
almost two dozen dead looking slurring creatures rose from their
crouched positions on the floor of the surgical ward. Wole did a
quick sweep of the room. There was another door to their left. He
tore towards that pulling Tunrayo with him. The creatures in front
raced to intercept them. Wole’s heart thundered in his chest. It
was going to be close. He started to pray that the door would
open.

Fortunately it did. A flight of
stairs lay just beyond the door. The creatures chasing them were
for some reason not as quick up the stairs as they were on the
ground.

Taking the stairs two at a time,
they soon left them behind. There was another door on top of the
stairs. It opened with a single touch and they raced down another
corridor. This corridor ended at another door. Pulling and kicking
at it, they were alarmed to realize that the door refused to open.
To their right was another flight of stairs. A sign above it said
roof. Loud slurring sounds reached their ears at that instant and
they spun around in panic.

Some of the creature’s heads were
just rising over the top of the stairs. They exchanged frightened
looks and started up the stairs going to the roof. Thundering up
them for almost three minutes, they eventually reached another
door. Wole tried to open it but it did not budge.

“On three__” He gasped facing
Tunrayo. She nodded as he began to count.

“ONE__TWO__THREE!!!”

They kicked the door as hard as they
could and it opened bringing them to the grey concrete surface of
the roof. It was flat like a tableau, with several rusty pipes
running around the edge of it.

On the far right hand corner was
what looked like a small shed built entirely out of concrete. A
metal door marked its entrance. It was exactly like the door that
they had just kicked open.

With loud gasps, they ran onto the
roof and Wole slammed the door shut after them. He started towards
the other door with a very frightened Tunrayo following. Neither of
them saw the dark shadow come out from behind the shed like
structure they exited. It followed them at a discrete distance, its
footsteps making no sound on the concrete floor of the
roof.

Wole reached the door first and
tried the handle. Surprisingly it turned and the door opened.
Turning, he smiled at Tunrayo, his smile fading almost immediately
when he saw the man standing two feet behind her.

He wore a tattered and dirty looking
blue long sleeved shirt with the words Geowich security sewn on the
breast pocket. His skin was a horrid blackish green color, his lips
bloodless and pale, and his eyes emitting a scary neon red glow.
His long arms were stretched forward reaching for Tunrayo’s
neck.

“Look out!!” Wole barked leaping
forward and tackling her sideways.

The man’s long arms grabbed empty
air as he and Tunrayo crashed to the ground. They rolled twice
coming to a halt an inch from the edge of the roof. The only thing
separating them from a four-story fall was a bit of concrete rising
about half a foot off the ground.

The man lunged forward as they rose
to their feet. A slurring growl burst from his distended mouth.
Wole pushed Tunrayo out of the way, but was not quick enough to
escape himself. The man slammed into him so hard that he became
breathless. As if his lungs were no longer taking in
oxygen.

Time seemed to slow as the man’s
momentum swept both of them off the edge of the roof where they
plummeted into the mist-covered darkness below with Tunrayo’s
terrified screams ringing out like a mantra above them.

Wole’s dream came back to him as his
body fell. Was this what the dream meant?

Thick mist seemed to come out of
nowhere and cover his falling body. He had only been falling for a
few short seconds when his back struck something hard. A sharp pain
spliced through his insides; he hit the side of his head a second
later and darkness came and he knew no more.

Chapter Twenty –
Nine

“WOLE!!!” Tunrayo screamed racing to
the edge. Thick grey mist swirled upwards reaching a point just a
foot below where she stood. She could see nothing beneath
it.

“WOLE!!” She screamed again as tears
streamed down her cheeks.

She opened her mouth to cry out
again when loud growls coming from the door to her left stopped
her. The door she and Wole had come through three minutes earlier
burst open and a rabid mob of men and women poured out slurring and
growling in loud voices. Their red eyes appeared to become much
redder when they spotted her.

She gave the mist beneath her one
final sweep before she raced to the open door on her right.
Streaking through it, she slammed it shut and slid a long bolt into
the lock.

A flight of stairs led down into the
hospital. She gave the door one last tearful look before starting
down the stairs.

Austin Okorocha mashed his foot down
hard on the car’s accelerator. The Camry leaped forward churning
out a cloud of smoke from its screeching tires, which disappeared
into the mist around it.

His face was grim and sweat streamed
down his cheeks soaking his pristine white shirt. Scowling he
reached down and turned the air-conditioning to a cooler setting.
He drove on the main road leading out of Oraromi. A sense of relief
filled him. It had been a mistake to come here at all. Perhaps his
superiors had been right all along. He realized now that he should
just have left things be.

His eyes grew sad at that thought.
So many people were going to die in that town, maybe even all of
them. Most would perish in the next couple of hours. It saddened
him that he could nothing about it.

The mist around the car grew thicker
making his frown deepen. What manner of mist is this? He turned on
the car’s headlights, putting it on the brightest setting. It made
little difference. Visibility was still close to zero. He could
barely keep the car on the road as it was.

He drove on for several minutes
carefully reducing the car’s speed. Suddenly the car shook as the
ground beneath it lurched and shuddered. He yanked the steering
wheel to the left and right as he struggled to keep the car under
control. He eventually managed it but only just barely.

What happened? Since he had no
answer to that he sighed, something strange was afoot. He barely
finished thinking this when he caught something dark and huge
streaking towards him at breakneck speeds from the corner of one
eye.

The thing slammed into the right
side of the car so hard that it lifted it almost nine feet in the
air where it flipped five times before crashing into the thick
bushes around it. Austin had a fleeting view of massive blue-black
limbs, reddish eyes and long fangs before everything went black as
the Camry exploded engulfing a huge communications tower, which
served as the main conduit for all telephone communication within
Oraromi.

Collins and Judith watched with
terrified glances as the policemen fired into the rabid mob in
front of them. From the panicked looks on their faces and the way
some of the policemen waved their guns hysterically, they could see
they were running out of ammunition.

Some of the police officers were
already running towards the high gates of the hospital complex,
while those still firing were slowly backing towards the gate. The
hospital it appeared was where they planned to make their last
stand.

“Do you think there is a back
entrance?” Collins asked turning to face Judith.

She did not respond. Her eyes wide,
fixed on the gun battle in front of her. This was wrong she could
not help thinking. SO WRONG!!! She was afraid, but for the first
time since the horror started, the fear she felt was not for her
own safety. It was for the safety of her family.

Her dad’s office was empty. His
entire business premises deserted. The shop where her mother sold
provisions locked up. There was nothing to suggest that she had
even been there that day.

Collins had fared no better with his
family. At both places they visited, his parents had been nowhere
to be found. Their faces grew more grim as they watched some of the
police officers begin to climb the gate.

“I know where the back entrance
is__” Judith murmured beginning to rise from her crouched
position.

“You do? How come?”

“Never mind ___ can we go already?”
She snapped.

He nodded, his eyes hardening for
the briefest of seconds. He was on the verge of giving her a
stinging retort when a sharp crack behind, made them spin around in
alarm.

One of the creatures stood three
feet behind with its mouth opened in a slurring growl. Rivers of
spittle dribbled from both sides of its mouth. A piercing scream
burst from Judith’s mouth at the sight of it. Collins pushed her
backwards, stepping in front of her as the creature surged
forward.

A dull thud rang out a half second
later and blackish green blood splattered from the back of its
head. Its flaming red eyes grew dull as it collapsed on the
floor.

Baba Adora stood over it wielding a
large club. He had a furious, somewhat frightened look in his eyes.
The creature began to writhe on the ground. His eyes hardened and
he smashed the club into the back of the creature’s head. He
continued to do this until the head became a red pulpy
mass.

He looked up at the two of them with
his heart racing. A look of puzzlement came on his face when he saw
the fear in their eyes as they watched him.

“Find the back entrance.” He
murmured. “You don’t have much time.”

Judith nodded and started to race
away. Collins did not move, he kept his eyes fixed on Baba
Adora.

“What about you? Come with
us__”

“I cannot.” Baba Adora replied
looking sad.

“But if you remain out here, those
creatures will get you.” Collins insisted.

“Do not worry about me. They cannot
hurt me.” He paused, continuing when he saw Collins puzzled
look.

“__ they cannot hurt one of the
seers.”

“Seers?”

“No time __ go now __.”

Collins gave him one last befuddled
look and tore after Judith leaving Baba Adora staring after
them.

Chapter Thirty

There was blackness, nothing but the
cold all consuming darkness, no wind, no sound intruding upon the
grim gloom. It was in a sick way quite peaceful, a tad restless but
peaceful nonetheless.

Then a sound intruded on the
unsettled quiet; a whistling sound, barely dissimilar from the
sound of the wind in the trees. It started low __ then it got
louder. It became so loud that he almost could not bear it, and
then in what seemed like a few moments later, his eyes opened of
their own volition.

A loud groan burst from Wole’s lips
as he tried without succeeding to sit up. Turning his head slowly,
he gasped as a sharp pain spliced through it. He was barely able to
hold a scream in. The pain slowly reduced to a dull throbbing at
the back of his skull. Taking a deep breath, he sat up
slowly.