Virus (24 page)

Eze was a man of providence. He came
just when I needed him. years ago he stumbled on this cave, shocked
to see my shrunken form lying dormant. His ran his hands admiringly
over my crypt blotting out one of the words of the spell that had
been cut into the crypt to seal me in.

And you all know that once the hedge
is broken by even the slightest margin, the snake will bite. A bit
of my essence was able to enter him and he instantly became mad. He
wandered all over Oraromi as a mad man. No one knew of the poison
running through his veins. He fought my total control for years but
eventually I prevailed and I escaped.

“Nothing you do can keep me hidden.
I will always burst out__”

The last few words were barked out
in a screech shaking the cave very badly. The EVONSO spirit rose up
once again and raised its fist, pausing when he saw the pulse
beginning to rise.

Its eyes narrowed and it turned to
face Anike with hostile intent. She gasped and tore to her right,
barely escaping the fist, which smashed, into where she had been
standing mere seconds ago.

Taiwo slowly came to, his eyes
widening when he saw Anike running around the circle of descendants
with the EVONSO spirit chasing. Baba Adora was motionless on the
orange rock covered floor.

He frowned reaching over to grab a
pump action shotgun that one of his men had dropped. Picking it up
and cocking it, he started towards the EVONSO spirit. A smirk came
on the thing’s face as its fingers reached for Anike’s blouse. It
had her now.

Yelling in anger, Taiwo raised the
gun and opened fire. The first shot blew off the things fingers
drawing it to a screeching halt. The EVONSO turned slowly, its
furious gaze fixed on Taiwo. A lump rose in Taiwo’s throat and he
backed away in fear. The thing’s lips widened becoming distended as
a roar burst from the stinking void of its mouth.

It lunged forward in fury as Taiwo
continued to squeeze the trigger in desperation. The shells of the
shotgun had little effect and in a thrice it had Taiwo in its grasp
raised about four feet above ground. Two of his men came to at that
instant, their eyes widening in shock and horror when they saw
their boss held in the EVONSO’S clutches.

Reaching for their guns, they
stepped forward and began to fire into its back. The other two
officers did not rise. Their necks were twisted and broken. They
would not be getting up again.

“___ for ever and ever. Until the
sun, forever sleeps. When the earth no longer is__ so shall you be
trapped in the permanent sleep, never to rise and see, the beauty
that is and forever will be.”

As soon as Anike and the descendants
finished saying the words, a bright burst of white light streaked
towards the EVONSO spirit piercing it in the back. The thing
screamed, levitated into the air, its body striking the top of the
cave.

Taiwo fell in a crumpled heap, as
the light wrapped itself around it, sealing it in a cocoon, which
lifted it towards the empty crypt.

“noooooooooooooooo!!!” The thing
roared. The light slammed it back into the crypt with a loud bang
and fiery red letters began to burn into the sides of the crypt as
if written by an invisible pen of fire.

Immediately the last letter was
written the EVONSO’s body became still. Its mouth and head however
were still moving.

“how can this be? After all my plans
and my plotting it still came to this___ I remembered everything,
planned for every eventuality. Even when the people became sick, I
came for them in spirit. Removed their bodies so no one will be on
to me till it was too late and still it came to this. What sort of
wretched and unfortunate creature am I to be bested twice by
insignificant mortals?”

It looked as if it was going to say
more, but froze as the spell took complete effect, trapping it in
the clutches of the permanent sleep.

The light from the descendants
continued for another couple of minutes before it faded away
completely. The five of them collapsed on the ground in crumpled
heaps. The roaring and growls that served as background music all
the while that the chaos in the cave was going on was replaced by
silence.

Chapter Thirty –
Seven

An hour later

Taiwo peered out of the cave with
his gun held at the ready. His two remaining officers followed at a
discrete distance. Scores of undead creatures lay still outside the
cave. Frowning Taiwo edged forward with his finger curled around
the trigger. Reaching the undead closest to him, he nudged it with
his foot and jumped back instantly. The thing remained still. He
did that with half a dozen others with the same result.

“You can come out now__” He yelled.
“It worked. They are truly dead.”

The others came out slowly, Collins
and Wole supported a weakened Baba Adora while Alaba carried his
wife in his arms. She was wan and pale but otherwise
unhurt.

Anike brought up the rear, relieved
to see that Baba Adora was gaining his strength back
slowly.

“You have nine lives Baba Adora.”
She said smiling.

“There must always be a seer
Anike__” He replied smiling back. “Until the gift is passed on, a
seer can never die.”

“Eerrr but you almost just
did__”

Having no answer to that, Baba Adora
simply shrugged and looked ahead towards the opposite horizon. The
wan smile on his face slowly faded. Anike surged forward noticing
instantly.

“What is it?” She asked giving him a
piercing look.

He swallowed turning around to face
her. The haunted look in his eyes drove a chill into her
heart.

“D.P.O. Taiwo__” He began slowly,
turning to face him.

“Yes?”

“We might need to commandeer a few
vehicles since the other trucks are out of commission.”

“That means a long walk back to
town__ unless__”

“Unless what?”

“One of my mobile units was posted
to search this area. They never reported so am guessing their
vehicles are still around here somewhere. We can use those to get
back into town.”

“I wasn’t talking of getting back
into town__” Baba Adora began slowly. “I meant using them to leave
Oraromi for good__”

“WHAT???!!!” The others gasped in
shock.

An eerie silence immediately
followed.

Elsewhere (beyond
Oraromi)

Two slurring shapes stumbled through
the bushes. Their skins were a bluish green color and red slime
dribbled from their lips. They walked with a swift determination,
their uncoordinated bodies fixed on their destination.

A few minutes later, they burst out
of the bushes stepping onto a wide two lane express road. Since it
was the dead of the night no cars zoomed by. They shuffled towards
their right, heading up the sloping road that went uphill. Five
minutes of walking brought them in front of a large
signpost.

They paused looking at it with
unfocused red gazes. The words written on it made no sense to them
so they proceeded, quickly disappearing into the
distance.

Thirty minutes later, a car zoomed
past the signboard, its bright light lighting up the words written
on it. These words said

Welcome to the city of
Lagos

The End

Epilogue

The door of the cafeteria seemed
blacker than usual, dimly lit by a small sixty-watt bulb, which
swung drunkenly on a thin electric wire. The entire corridor
shrouded by an eerie silence. This silence did not remain for
long.

Loud slurring growls erupted,
shattering the quiet of the corridor. The growls came from behind
the cafeteria door. A loud pounding of several fists rang out
immediately afterwards, hitting the wooden door with dull thuds.
These thuds grew louder and more insistent until the door shattered
caving out onto the corridor it opened into.

Two dozen rabid shapes burst out a
few moments later; most, covered by the long white lab coats worn
by doctors. Several answering growls rang out from down the long
corridor and this mob slowly made their way towards the
sound.