Virus (23 page)

“They better hurry up__” Baba Adora
said in a grim voice.

“Why?” Wole asked turning to face
him.

Adora did not respond for several
minutes. By which time Taiwo and his men burst out of the station
holding more guns and plenty of ammunition. As soon as Taiwo was
inside the truck and the door slammed shut behind him. Adora
repeated his earlier statement.

“D.P.O we have to
hurry__”

“I know, I know__ we are on our
way.” Taiwo growled glaring at Baba Adora.

“You do not understand__ he is
coming.”

“Who is coming?” Taiwo asked looking
faint.

“The EVONSO SPIRIT!” Baba Adora
replied, his voice a terrified screech.

Both truck drivers quickly gunned
the engines even as a loud earth-shaking roar rang out a few
moments later. Tall trees, fifteen kilometers from where the trucks
were parked, deep within the thick foliage in front of the station
fell down with loud crashes. It seemed as if the trees were pushed
by something, something huge.

Not waiting to see more, the drivers
sped away from the police station leaving thick clouds of white
smoke and the sharp stench of burning rubber in their wake. All had
terrified looks on their faces.

A thick mist poured out of the
bushes flooding the road with white blindness. The policemen turned
on the lights of the trucks and mashed their feet down hard on the
accelerator.

The trucks leaped forward keeping
ahead of the blinding white mist by a hair’s breath. A tee-junction
loomed up ahead. With screeching tires, the trucks turned left
speeding down the primary road leading out of Oraromi, heading to
the outskirts where the hills were.

Another roar rang out. It sounded
much closer now. The men on the back of the truck stood up and
raised their weapons, prepared to fire if need be. However, they
could still see nothing. The bulky sergeant eyes grew wide as what
he thought were two large horns and flaming red eyes suddenly rose
out of the top of the thick cloud of mist. It stayed visible for
the briefest of seconds before disappearing once again.

“Did you see that?” He barked
turning to the man standing beside him.

“No I did not. What did you
see?”

The sergeant shrugged keeping quiet.
He kept his eyes fixed on the white mist behind them.

“Look!” Wole cried
pointing.

They turned to see what he was
pointing at. Their eyes widened in shock when they saw the mangled
bits of metal and communication equipment with the burnt shell of
the Camry lying in the center of it.

“So that’s why we can get no cell
signal__” Taiwo murmured. He frowned taking a closer look at the
Camry.

“Wait, that looks like__”

“Yes it is__” Baba Adora growled
grimly. “That is what remains of your hematologist’s
car.”

“So you were right__” Anike gasped.
“It did kill him.”

Before anyone could respond to that,
loud bursts of gunfire erupted behind them. Taiwo whipped his head
back shocked to see his sergeant and two other men firing into the
thick mist racing after the Hilux trucks. He leaned out, on the
verge of yelling at them to stop firing when he saw it.

It was a giant of a creature, more
than nine feet tall with huge bluish black limbs, reddish eyes and
two long horns on its head. It was visible for the briefest of
seconds before it disappeared into the mist once again.

“GO FASTER!!!” He yelled at the
driver beside him with wild panic in his eyes.

The truck leaped forward again as
the driver drove the pedal down to the floor. The bushes around
them began to shiver and shake. A few seconds’ later scores of
undead creatures burst out sprinting after the trucks.

“EIEEEEIEEIIEEEIEEIEIIEIEIEEIEIEEEEEEEIIEEEEIIIEIEEEE!!!!!!”
Tunrayo screamed as she saw them, her voice reverberating through
the darkness.

The EVONSO spirit gave an answering
roar from the cover of the mist behind. Its head became visible
once more and the boom of the policemen’s guns rang out
again.

“There__” Baba Adora gasped pointing
at a small hill ten kilometers into the thick foliage on their
right.

Taiwo gulped. This was the point
where they parked the trucks the first time they came here
proceeding on foot. He glanced back at the mist. The undead were
still racing after them. In seconds, he came to a
decision.

“Plough through!” He yelled at the
driver.

“But sir, the landscape is rough. We
don’t know whether the trucks will reach the hill.”

“Plough through you FOOL!! Even if
they do not, the trucks will carry us as far in as they can. Or do
you want to DIE???”

The driver shook his head and turned
the wheel violently. The truck burst into the thick foliage, its
entire frame shuddering. The second truck was only three feet
behind.

The ground beneath it was rough and
uneven, shaking everyone inside very badly. They got about half of
the way before the suspension of both trucks gave out and they
ground to a smoky halt.

Everyone leaped out of the trucks
instantly and began racing to the shrine. Two policemen lifted Joke
on their shoulders as they did in the hospital and raced after the
others with Alaba and two others bringing up the rear.

They could feel the tremors surging
through the ground as the EVONSO thundered after them. They still
could not see it because of the thick mist. Baba Adora who was
ahead looked as if he was on the verge of collapse.

They were now running on the uneven
orange rock. The glow from the opened graves was much brighter. It
lit up the darkness around it for miles like red Christmas lights;
before they reached it, scores of the undead burst out of the
shrine in front of them. Taiwo and one other police officer surged
to the front and opened fire-bringing dozens of them down. Three
other police officers stood at the back with their weapons raised
after lowering Joke to the ground. The civilians were crouched in
the center with the police officers surrounding them like
shields.

Baba Adora stepped to the front of
the police officers at the back and raised his staff speaking some
unintelligible words. Green light burst out of it lighting the land
for miles around. The undead and the EVONSO behind the mist drew to
a halt.

“SILENCE VILE PESTILENT SEER!” The
EVONSO spirit roared.

“do you for one second think that
your cheap spells will save you from my wrath!!! The weight of a
thousand spells will not keep me contained this
night!!!!

“I know you feel anger. But you can
still make the right choice__” Baba Adora replied, his voice
shaking with his fear.

“__ slaying these people will serve
no purpose. Spare them.”

“how dare you speak to me of
purpose? Did their ancestors consider purpose when they trapped me
in that shrine in the permanent sleep???”

“You were going to wipe them out.
Like you are determined to do now. this is not the way__ killing
scores of innocents will not justify your cause.”

The spirit laughed at Baba Adora’s
words. His laughter shook the earth all around them.

“foolish mortal!! How quaint it is
that you with your relatively ignorant mind could believe you could
understand the workings of a mind such as my own?

“This, you insipient fool is my
time!! Does your religion not say that in the end times gross
darkness will cover the earth, and an unending darkness the people?
Well I am that darkness!! And I fully intend to spread this
darkness to all corners of the earth and nothing you or your petty
spells will do will stop me!!”

The creature’s last words were
barked out in a roar, but he and his minions made no move to come
forward.

“Baba Adora!!” Taiwo barked pointing
forward.

Still holding the staff up, Baba
Adora glanced back relieved to see that all the undead in front
were truly dead.

“
Go in!!” He yelled.

With Taiwo leading the way, they
surged into the cave. Baba Adora waited a couple of seconds and
raced in after them. Before he disappeared into the cave, he felt
something sharp rake into his back instantly robbing him of all his
strength. He staggered into the shrine with what remained of his
strength and collapsed on the orange rock covered floor.

Chapter Thirty –
Six

Anike and Wole rushed to his side
instantly with worried looks on their faces.

“Are you alright?” Anike gasped
holding his hand.

“No time__” He croaked. Reaching
into the pockets of his trousers, he brought out two balls of
chalk.

“Pick one each___” They grimaced
because he sounded as weak as a newborn kitten. “Go to the center
of the hut and draw a circle, one that will be large enough for
each descendant to stand in. Inside each of the circles, draw an X.
The X must not go beyond the edges of the circle.”

“You haven’t told us who the rest of
the descendants are__” Anike began slowly.

“The descendants are Tunrayo, Chike,
Collins, Judith, Alaba and Wole.”

At the sounds of their names,
Collins, Judith and Alaba surged forward with puzzled looks on
their faces.

“What the devil is he going on
about?” Collins asked frowning.

No one answered him. Anike and Wole
instantly began to draw the circles. “How will they be arranged?”
Anike asked looking over her shoulder.

“Draw the five circles in a wide
circle. You see those large runes on the roof?”

She looked up, just noticing the red
and pinkish colored runes painted into the roof in a wide
circle.

“Draw a circle beneath each
rune.”

She nodded as she and Wole got to
it. As they worked, a trickle of mist entered the cave slowly. Baba
Adora stiffened when he saw it.

“He is shrinking himself__ you have
to hurry. Once he gets in he is going to kill us all.”

Taiwo and his men raced over holding
their guns at the ready, the barrels pointed into the mist. Heaving
deep sighs Anike and Wole continued working. By the time they had
drawn the five circles, the mist was a tower shape, the top
reaching the roof of the cave.

“Each person stand in a circle__”
Baba Adora croaked once again.

Seeing the old man had no more
strength in him, Anike took charge ordering Collins, Judith, Alaba,
Tunrayo and Wole to a circle. The instant they stood inside the
circle, the runes on the roof lit up beaming a glowing pink light
down on each of them.

Anike gasped turning to Baba Adora
for guidance. He was as white as a sheet and sweat streamed down
his face in torrents. His mouth opened but no sound came out. She
realized he did not have the strength to speak again. He fumbled
with his pockets again pulling out a long sheet of paper. There was
a long line of words written with an untidy looking scrawl. Sort of
like chicken scratches in the dirt.

Anike turned to face him with her
eyes widened in shock. Since he could no longer speak, he mouthed
the words read it and let them repeat after you. The Evonso spirit
had taken shape and was now solidifying. Taiwo and his men opened
fire.

The burst of gunfire made the undead
outside the cave howl. The sound was so eerie that it drove chills
down their spines. For some strange reason, the undead made no move
to enter the cave.

The bullets ripped into the EVONSO’s
torso, bringing out blackish green fluid. It swept its arm in an
arc, knocking Taiwo and his men aside like skittles, sweeping their
bodies against the wall with dull thuds.

Anike screamed in fear and began to
read the words on the paper.

“Evil spirit from yonder past, your
season of terror shall no longer last, ancient devil of the ether’s
blast, heed the power of the runes at last__”

The descendant’s eyes glowed with an
eerie red and pink light and they began to say the words after her.
The EVONSO spirit roared in fury and surged forward driving a hard
blow into the circle of descendants. Before its fist reached them,
a pulse of energy burst out of each circle, shielding them from the
blow. The force field drove the EVONSO spirit back smashing it into
the rock wall just above the entrance.

“___ enter into a sleep so deep,
that you will forever vanish into darkness keep. Bound and trod for
millenniums with no relief, till the world around us is put to
sleep__”

The creature roared in fury and
attacked the circle of descendants once again and the pulse drove
it back more fiercely, smashing its body against the rock wall so
hard that it mashed a hole into it.

“___ as the descendants continue to
speak, your doom is released. Never again will you trouble
Oraromi’s peace. You are bound like this__”

“Do you for one second think I will
be bound and locked away for eternity? I escaped once and that
means I will escape again.