Virus (21 page)

“That is so not possible. We only
moved down to Oraromi fifteen years ago. Neither his father or I
are natives of this town. You better get your facts straight
fortune teller.” Anike snapped her eyes blazing with her
irritation.

Baba Adora sighed giving her a
exasperated look.

“How much do you know about your
ancestry? Or the ancestry of your husband?”

“Not much I admit. But I do know
none of his family members have ever lived here. They lived in the
east, in what is now known as Delta state. He was drafted to the
west for his national youth service. We moved here two years before
we had Wole.”

“What brought you here? Be
specific__”

“Not sure really__ its so long ago.
Wole’s father lost his job and a friend who had a farming business
here invited us to join him when he heard of our
plight.”

A long silence followed her sad
words.

“So you think its be mere chance
that you happened to be in this town at the time of the creatures
awakening?”

A heavy silence greeted his
question. Baba Adora waited five minutes for them to speak. When no
one did, he cleared his throat and continued talking.”

“Nothing in life is chance. The
universe does not believe in chance. We only have cause and effect.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that it was chance, do you not
think that that’s too big of a chance.

“Anyway what you believe or not
believe is irrelevant. What matters now is the truth. The words I
speak to you are truth and not lies. The way I see it, we have two
choices. We either stay here and keep debating about it until it’s
too late to save anyone, or we can go and begin the process of
putting the creature back into its prison. So what do you
choose?”

Silence greeted his grim words. He
was on the verge of speaking again when Anike piped up.

“Okay, let’s say for the sake of
argument that what you are saying is the truth. When you say lure
the creature with the descendants, what do you mean by
that?”

He sighed before he spoke. “Wole,
Tunrayo and the three others I spoke of will have to accompany me
to the shrine. The creature will sense our presence and come for
us. I can already sense its fury. It will do all to punish those
with the bloodline that imprisoned him. It knows only those with
the right bloodline can put him back into his prison. So his first
act of vengeance will be to destroy every single one of the
descendants so he will forever roam the earth free.”

The faces that surrounded him grew
pale at his words. Another long silence followed
before__

“But there is something I still
don’t get__” Tayo began swallowing. “If the spell that held it
bound for over a century was that powerful, what or who released
it?”

Another sigh burst from Baba Adora’s
lips. “That my dear friends, is what I do not know.”

The silence that followed was cold
and unnerving.

Chapter Thirty –
Three

Taiwo took a deep breath and peered
round the edge of the white concrete wall his back was pressed
against. His eyes scoured the entire length of the long corridor.
The shadows of several slurring shapes moved at the opposite end.
That part of the corridor was dim and gloomy, making it impossible
to make much out.

He swallowed and nodded at his men,
two of whom immediately stepped out with their weapons raised high.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped out after them with his weapon
held at the ready. Four others came out after him with their backs
facing his. Their own weapons were aimed at the corridor they were
just exiting.

It was slow going because of their
bid to be quiet. Taiwo desperately wanted to avoid a gun battle if
he could help it. They could not afford to waste ammunition. The
eyes of every man present including him were glazed with fright.
Their bodies were rigid and stiff like a tightly coiled spring,
ready to snap into action if released.

They kept moving forward, their
target another turning to their left. Unknown to them, this was the
same corridor Wole and Tunrayo had passed many hours before. They
eventually reached it, their eyes widening in shock when they saw
more creatures standing with their backs to them at the opposite
end.

Beyond these creatures was another
tee-junction. Terrified looks came upon all the men’s faces. How
were they gong to get past them using what remained of their
ammunition.

Swallowing Taiwo quickly did a head
count. There were five of them. Only God knew how many more might
be lurking in the next corridor. Several moments passed as Taiwo
and his men watched the creatures frozen in fright. Taiwo
eventually reached a decision.

Lowering his gun, he reached for the
baton he had strapped to his belt. His men’s eyes widened at
that.

“We can’t afford to waste our
ammunition.” He mouthed, with no sound coming from his mouth. He
repeated this several times until he was sure they all understood.
Still looking terrified, they holstered their weapons and crept
forward armed with knives, batons and whatever else they had. Just
before they struck, Taiwo raised his arm to halt them and
mouthed.

“Whatever you do, don’t get
bitten.”

They nodded and attacked. It was
over in about a minute. The five creatures lay dead and bleeding on
the terrazzo floor. Loud growls erupted from the corridor behind
making fear steal into their hearts. They had made too much noise.
Now the creatures behind were onto them.

Springing into action, Taiwo and his
men raced to the tee-junction. Reaching it they were alarmed to see
more of the creatures racing towards them from the left. They tore
towards the right.

A scream made Taiwo turn in alarm.
One of his men had been grabbed. The others, several paces in front
stopped to help him. Before their horrified eyes two of the
creatures sank their long fangs into his throat. In horror one of
Taiwo’s men hurried back to try and help him.

“LEAVE HIM!” Taiwo roared as he
turned to run. “There is nothing we can do for him.”

The man racing back to help
reluctantly stopped and followed his superior officer, his eyes
shining with unshed tears.

Directly ahead was another door,
opened, leading into a wide room. Five paces away from it, a
slurring hulk of a man burst out. He was clad in the light blue
uniform of the Geowich security.

Taiwo pulled out his sidearm with a
speed that astounded him and put two bullets in the man’s skull.
The man’s eyes grew vacant and his body fell backwards hitting the
ground with a dull thud.

Leaping over the man’s body, Taiwo’s
face fell when he came face to face with six more. He broke left
firing the three rounds he still had in the chamber. Two rounds hit
the one closest to him in the chest doing little harm. The last one
caught him right between the eyes dropping him like a sack of
meat.

A fusillade of bullets burst from
the corridor ripping into the six creatures bodies and shaking them
like ragdolls. Taiwo rolled on the floor and came up wielding his
rusty AK 47 rifle like a club since he had no more bullets for
it.

Several loud clicks rang out from
the hall as the chambers of his men’s guns emptied. Before they all
emptied however, the six of them were down. Faint roars still rang
out from down the corridor but there was not pursuit. Their
colleague had bought them some time with his life.

“Sir__ we are totally out of ammo.”
His tall bulky sergeant barked grimly.

‘Tell me something I don’t know__’
Taiwo thought as he headed to the staircase on his left.

Elsewhere

Tayo stood crouched in front of the
door ready to pull it open when the order came. A weary somewhat
fearful looking Baba Adora stood behind him waiting for Wole to
extricate himself from his mother’s clutches.

The rest of them were backed against
the opposite wall, their eyes glued to the still closed door. The
taste of fear hung heavy in the wide cafeteria. It was a tangible
thing that gave you the sense that if you reached out you would be
able to touch it.

Wole and Anike’s had their eyes
locked on each other. She held his hands in hers, gripping it so
tight that she threatened to cut off his blood
circulation.

“You don’t have to go__” She said
grimly. Her voice was dull and hollow. If he had not been watching
her lips move, he would seriously doubt she was the one speaking to
him.

“I have to go mum. Did you not hear
what Baba Adora said?” If we don’t put that creature back where it
belongs, none of us will survive.”

“How do we know he is telling the
truth? I have already lost your father; I cannot afford to lose you
too.”

He paused considering her words
before he spoke.

“Then come with us.”

She froze startled, searching his
eyes for any trace of jest. Seeing none, a cold stillness flooded
her insides.

“What if we fail? What if we don’t
come back?” She asked quietly. Her voice was so low he was barely
able to hear what she was saying.

“Then we will go and be with
dad.”

That very grown up statement made
the unshed tears brimming in her eyes stream down her face. She
reached forward and embraced her son, hugging him very tight. If
this was the last time she ever got to hold him, she was determined
to make it count.

She pulled away gently when he began
to move restlessly in her arms. Once he freed himself from her
clutches, he turned facing Baba Adora, nodding slowly as he did
so.

Baba Adora smiled and gave Tayo the
go ahead to open the door. The door opened a couple of seconds
later revealing the long dark corridor beyond it. Baba Adora raised
the staff like stick in his hand and a shinning white glow burst
from it lighting up the corridor.

Several loud gasps erupted behind
him at the strange sight. Not bothering to explain, he stepped into
the corridor holding the staff high above his head. Wole and
Tunrayo exchanged troubled glances and walked after him with Wole’s
mum bringing up the rear. The cafeteria door slammed after them
with loud clicks and clacks reverberating down the corridor as the
locks slid into place.

Baba Adora’s steps were brisk and
long. The three others had to jog to keep up. He led them down a
myriad of corridors, taking a much different route from the one
that brought them to the cafeteria. They walked for almost thirty
minutes before he spoke.

“Just one more corridor to go and we
will reach the exit.”

Wole was about to ask him how he
knew, when he remembered that he was a seer. A question niggled on
his insides, but since he did not know how to put it into words
yet, he decided to keep quiet. He could always ask later when it
became clear to him.

Another turning loomed up ahead. The
turning headed to the right, reaching it, they were relieved to see
it led into a wide waiting area. At the end of the waiting room was
the sliding door of the back exit.

They barely stepped into the waiting
room when the sound of several running feet reached their ears. The
sound came from a corridor on their right four paces ahead.
Tunrayo, Wole and Anike were about to race back into the corridor
they were coming from when Baba Adora’s amused voice stopped
them.

“Relax! The three others I spoke of
approach.”

Barely a second after he said this,
Collins, Judith, Alaba and Joke burst out of the corridor. Both
groups exchanged long wary glances.

“You aren’t___” Judith asked
searching for the word.

“Undead?” Baba Adora supplied with
one eyebrow raised.

“Yes.”

“No we aren’t.”

There was silence for a bit before
the sound of more running feet rang out, coming from the same
corridor Collins and the others just exited. They all moved towards
the opposing wall, their frightened eyes fixed on the entrance to
the corridor. Taiwo Betiku and five weary looking men burst out of
the corridor a couple of seconds later. Another long silence
ensured as both groups examined each other.

“You aren’t__” Taiwo began with his
eyes narrowed.

“No we aren’t undead.”

“What are you doing
here?”

“Waiting for you.” Baba Adora
replied staring unblinkingly at Taiwo’s face.

“Why are you waiting for
us?”

“We are going to need the protection
of you and your men if we are going to enter the shrine of the
EVONSO spirit.”

“The evo-what?” Taiwo asked surged
forward and grabbing a fistful of Baba Adora shirt. He pulled him
close until only a distance of six inches separated both of their
faces.

“Is that what the creature is
called?” Wole asked looking at Adora with eyes that were wide with
wonder.

“How come you are just telling us
what the creature is called?” Anike demanded, her eyes flashing
with fury. She looked ready to tear Baba Adora into pieces with her
bare hands.