Virus (17 page)

His gaze locked with his terrified
wife’s face. Raising a finger to his tightly pursed lips, he
mouthed a shushing sound. She nodded, her eyes becoming so wide
that she was terrified that her pupils were going to explode out of
her skull.

Motioning to his right, he pointed
at the corner of the room where her clothes were packed into three
large traveling bags. Nodding again, she edged towards the bags,
being very careful not to make a sound. Sinking down slowly, she
rested her back against the pile of clothes. She was now
half-sitting and half-lying on the bag.

When Alaba was certain she was
comfortable, he edged away from the door and headed towards her.
The slurring growls grew louder, intermingled with a dull clanking
sound. The sound puzzled him for a minute, and then it hit him.
Whoever was walking outside had heels on. Go figure!

Loud sniffing followed these growls,
loud over exaggerated sniffing. As if someone or something was
trying to catch a scent. A chill ran down his spine. His eyes
scoured the room desperately until he found what he was looking
for. A can of Joke’s perfume lay beside the mattress. The label was
faded but he could just make out the name, Malizia Oumo.

Crossing the room in three long
strides, he grabbed it off the floor releasing a long burst into
the air, timing the release with the growls coming from outside the
room.

The growls stopped suddenly and he
froze petrified. An eerie silence ensured, stretching on for so
long that he and Joke were sorely convinced that the apartment door
would come crashing down at any second.

Fortunately, it did not. The
sniffing continued this time right outside the door. Several
disgusted snorts came after the first couple of sniffs. It was
almost as if the scent of the perfume was abhorrent to them. The
clunking footsteps continued down the hall much to their relief.
Their relief was short lived however as the handle of the door
began to turn.

Joke barely managed to keep a scream
in. A half second later, came the grating sound of the front door
of the building being opened. A whistling sound filled the
corridor. The growls turned to roars followed immediately by the
lumbering thud of sprinting feet, which hurtled past their door
heading towards the front door.

The sound of a man’s scream rang out
at the entrance of the building, quickly followed by the slam of
the front door. The front door opened once more and the sprinting
feet faded away with the door slamming after them.

The corridor was now quiet. Alaba
and Joke remained motionless for almost ten minutes. Summoning
courage, Alaba tiptoed to the door. Taking three deep breaths, he
unlocked it slowly and carefully. He turned to face Joke, holding
her gaze for several seconds, before turning back to the door.
Taking another breath, he opened the door. To his immense relief
the corridor behind it was empty.

“Come__” He barked turning to face
his wife. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Out? To go where? Why don’t we just
stay here?”

“What if they come back? You saw
them try to force the door open. Trust me; this is the first place
they will look if they come back.”

Seeing the wisdom in Alaba’s words,
she rose to her feet. Alaba stepped into the corridor; his muscles
tense and every cell in his body ready to dive back into the room
at the slightest sign of a threat. There was no sound and no one
appeared.

He waved at Joke to let her know
that it was now safe to come out. She swallowed taking several deep
breaths before joining him in the corridor. The baby kicked at that
instant. Not now__ she thought to herself. Baby not now.

The front door lay to their left,
but Alaba had his eyes fixed on the right. There was another exit.
That was through the back door. He turned to face her and she
nodded slowly. With hurried footsteps, they made their way to the
backdoor.

A thought suddenly occurred to Alaba
as they walked. He did not have anything to defend either his wife
or himself. A frown hardened his face at that thought.

They turned right at a tee junction;
a faint light illuminated the narrow corridor. This light came from
the backdoor that was ajar.

There was another door, two feet to
their left. This door was wide open. They crept past it slowly,
shocked to see that it was scattered, its furniture damaged like
the room Alaba had seen upstairs. A wooden stick lay in the center
of the room. Where it came from, he did not know. The stick was
long and quite fat. He realized a few seconds later that it was all
that remained of a large clothes hanger.

Stepping into the room carefully, he
grabbed the stick and continued towards the backdoor. Opening it,
he peered into the yard, relieved to see that it was empty. Their
apartment building had no fence. Straight ahead, lay a footpath,
which led to the main road about a kilometer away.

He stepped out of the house, turning
to help Joke when he felt rather than saw movement to his right.
Pushing Joke back into the house, he swung the stick like a bat, at
a speed that astounded him.

The stick connected with the face of
a strange creature. The force of the blow broke the stick into a
million pieces, throwing the creature backwards where its head
smashed into the house’s concrete wall. Its body hit the ground
with a dull thud, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.

Joke stepped out of the house a
moment later, her terrified eyes fixed on the strange creature
lying prone five and a half feet away.

“What is that thing?” Her words came
out in a gasp.

“I don’t know.” Alaba replied
looking just as shocked and surprised as she was.

“We best get a move on.”

He grabbed her arm and hurried
towards the footpath. The slight movement behind, told him the vile
creature was coming to. He lengthened his strides and within
minutes, he and joke vanished into the trees.

Chapter Twenty –
Eight

Collins slipped into comfortable
looking loafers. The look on his face was grim as he watched Judith
tighten the belt around her body hugging dress. The terrified look
on her face mirrored his.

He woke her up as the strange
creatures he had seen walking into town marched past his open
window. So she had seen them. When she was done, she crouched down
beside him. Their frightened gazes locked for a minute before
anyone spoke.

“What do we do?”

“We have to get into town, to warn
people__” Collins started slowly.

“Warn people? Are you crazy? Did you
not see those things? We should run and get away while we have a
chance.”

“We can’t just run and get away__
you wanna know why we can’t? Because our parents are still in town,
or have you forgotten?”

Shamed, she lowered her gaze, fixing
it on a spot on the floor. “Why don’t we call them?” She asked
quietly.

She hurriedly continued at Collins
disgusted look. “We will still go into town, but calling them will
make them leave immediately.”

“What pray, are we going to tell
them? Something we cannot describe is heading into town to kill and
plunder?”

“Don’t sound so sarcastic. Let’s
call them first.”

Looking unconvinced, Collins brought
out his phone and dialed his father’s number. A recorded voice told
him the number was switched off. The same thing happened when he
tried to call his mother. Judith fared no better, they started for
the backdoor without another word and raced into the bushes,
heading towards a secondary road leading into the center of
town.

Taiwo betiku’s eyes were grim as the
black Hilux truck he was in sped down half a dozen narrow streets.
The gunfire, which had been so faint a couple of minutes ago, was
now a series of earth shaking bangs and booms.

“It’s just down the next street
sir.” The officer in the driver’s seat barked turning sideways to
talk to him. Taiwo nodded tightening his grip on his rusty AK 47
rifle.

“Get ready men__” were his only
words, the men seated behind him nodded slowly.

The driver mashed his foot down on
the accelerator making the truck leap forward. A meter later, the
driver made a hard right and drove his foot down hard on the brake.
There was a sickening squeal of brakes and the scent of burning
rubber before the truck ground to a shaky halt. The harsh scream of
brakes behind them made Taiwo and his men cringe as they waited for
the collision they felt was imminent. Fortunately, the second
truck’s bumper stopped a hair’s breath from theirs.

No one uttered a single word. They
watched the wildly chaotic scene play out before them. Hundreds of
sick dead looking creatures battled with what remained of Vector 5.
Vector 5 was being driven back towards the gates of the hospital
firing wildly into the rabid mob inching towards them.

More than three dozen bodies lay in
the street bleeding onto the concrete. Most of the bodies were his
men. Their uniforms ripped off and blood seeped out of holes gotten
from what looked like bites.

Taiwo’s eyes were drawn to one
specifically, a corporal in the Oraromi police force. He lay on his
back with his face pointing to the heavens. His throat was a red
pulpy mass resembling hammered meat. His upper torso was bare. Only
his trousers were untouched.

Taiwo continued his examination when
he noticed something else. On either side of his body along his
abdomen were a couple of holes, before he could piece together what
was wrong with what he was seeing, his sergeant spoke
up.

“Why are the holes on the sides of
that man’s body moving like gills and seeping that greenish
liquid?”

Not having an answer to that
question, Taiwo opened the door of the truck and leaped out raising
his gun to his shoulder and taking aim. His men exchanged wary
looks. Most were unwilling to leave the relative safety of the
car.

Taiwo did not spare a backward
glance to see if they were following. He just rushed towards the
horde opening fire as he went. His men exchanged more troubled
looks before getting out of the truck and following their superior
officer giving covering fire as they went.

The creatures ahead turned with
cries of pain and anger as bullets slammed into their bodies
shaking them like ragdolls. A few collapsed becoming still, their
bodies seeping a red and green colored liquid, those that remained
standing began to edge forward with loud slurring growls emanating
from their distended mouths.

Taiwo’s eyes narrowed as he
scrutinized the five who led the pack. There was something very
familiar about them, before he could analyze that fact more deeply,
loud shouts of ‘look out’ rang out behind him.

He spun around squeezing a long
burst from his AK 47. His eyes grew wide in shock and horror when
he saw the pale looking corporal hurrying his way with a red
murderous glint in his eyes. He moved exactly like the creatures
engaging his men.

His hands by now were, wrapped
around Taiwo’s shoulders and he was squeezing hard. Taking a deep
breath Taiwo raised the AK 47 rifle’s barrel to the man’s jaw and
squeezed thrice closing his eyes slightly as the bullets ripped
apart his skull. Red paste filled the air and sadness greater than
anything Taiwo had ever felt flooded his insides, even as gunshots
continued to explode around him.

Wole kicked the side door as hard as
he could. The lock shattered throwing the door backwards so fast
that it smashed into the wall behind it with a loud crash. The door
opened into a wide room filled with beds, drip stands, a huge stack
of medicines piled into a large cabinet at the far right; syringes,
needles, bits, and pieces of paper strewn across the floor. The
room however was empty, devoid of any human presence.

He wiped the sweat off his brow, his
tired gaze drifting to the sign directly over the door. The sign
said casualty. He turned, facing Tunrayo who stood a few feet
behind him. She nodded slowly but did not speak.

He stepped into the casualty
department very slowly as weariness flooded his insides. Kicking
down the door had taken a lot out of him. It had taken more than
two dozen kicks to get the door opened. Tunrayo had not been of
much help. Her body shook so much that she barely had enough energy
to stand much less help to kick a door down.

On his far right was another door,
almost hidden by two beds, which had five cartons piled on top of
it. Motioning for Tunrayo to follow, he started for the door
reaching it about a minute later. It was slightly ajar.

Reaching forward, he pulled it open.
This door led into a narrow corridor, which went on for so long
that it appeared to reach the opposite end of the hospital. There
was a junction at its other end. Faint snarls reached his ears as
he and Tunrayo stood poised at the door.

“Did you hear that?” he asked as he
faced her.

“They might be people__” She replied
in a shaky voice, darting forward before he could stop
her.”

“Tunrayo stop!” He whispered
fiercely tearing after her. If she heard him, she paid him no
mind.