Virus

by Ifedayo Akintomide

  “Wait D.P.O! What about the virus?”

  “The virus and the containment plan will have to wait. This is a more pressing issue.”

  Austin’s lightface grew beet red as if he was on the verge of having a stroke. Taiwo glanced at him worriedly for a few seconds before starting after his men.

  The main body of the police station was a beehive of activity. Scores of men armed themselves slinging lethal looking machine guns over their shoulders and stuffing their cavernous pockets with shells.

  There were sixty men in the police station now, but there was only body armor for fifteen men. Taiwo knew they would give him one automatically; but what about the rest of them should the untoward happen?

  He shook his head to clear it of his thoughts. He could not bother himself about that now. There were plenty other things to think about, like that virus for instance. A shiver ran down his spine.

  Suddenly the whole building shuddered as if something heavy smashed into it. All the men holding guns automatically raised them up, their bodies stiff and at the ready. Dust, bits and pieces of plastic fluttered er fllutter down from the roof. There was an uncomfortable silence for about a minute before___

  “WHUMP!!!”

  The building shuddered so violently that a few police officers fell down.

  “What in the world was THAT??” Taiwo yelled, his voice sounding squeaky and his eyes wide with alarm.

  “I think something hit the building__” A junior officer murmured as fear danced around in his eyes.

  “Six of you __ outside immediately__ find out what hit the building.”

  Six men broke away from the main mass, heading towards the exit with long brisk strides.

  “You have permission to use deadly force.” Taiwo called after them.

  The leader of the six men nodded his face and mouth grim with determination as they exited the building.

  “D.P.O sir__” A squeaky voice piped up from Taiwo’s left.

  “What is__” Taiwo began pausing when he saw the thick cloud of dirt floating out of the narrow passage leading to the holding cells. A lump rose in Taiwo’s throat and for several seconds he had difficulty swallowing.

  “Is anyone in the holding cell?” He asked swallowing again.

  “Only Eze__”

  “Eze__ Taiwo murmured rolling the name over his tongue. “I had almost forgotten about him.”

  “Four of you come with me.” He barked heading towards the passage with slow measured strides. The thud of several booted feet behind told him his men were following.

  The frown on Taiwo’s face deepened as he cocked the rusty AK 47 in his hand. Looking at it with a deep sigh, he could only pray the damn thing would fire. Saying a prayer under his breath, he stepped into the dusty gloom of the corridor.

  A click rang out behind him and bright light illuminated the gloom. Thank God one of the men had the foresight to bring a torch. Five steps brought them to the front of Eze’s cell. They were shocked to see that a sizable chunk had been taken out of the wall beside Eze’s cell.

  The door of the cell hung drunkenly on a pair of twisted hinges. The cell was empty. Eze had disappeared. Their minds had barely processed that fact when faint sounds reached their ears. It took them about thirty seconds to realize that the sounds they were hearing were gunshots. Taiwo and his men leaped out of the hole, heading towards the gunshots.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Fifteen of his men stood in a square formation in front of the police station, firing their weapons into the thick bushes in front. They all had scared and panicked looks on their faces.

  Taiwo and the men following him surged forward taking position on the left. He gave the signal for those behind him to hold their fire. Peering into the bushes, he scoured the green in front of him trying to see what they were firing at.

  “HOLD YOUR FIRE!!” He roared.

  Some stopped, but most continued firing. “HOLD YOUR FIRE!!!” He screamed at the top of his voice. Only then did the gunfire stop.

  “What are you goats SHOOTING AT?”

  In a lighter mood, some of the men would have chuckled at the way their senior officer used a calm tone of voice for the first part of his question and yelled out the last bit almost hysterically. A heavy silence engulfed their ranks.

  “Is someone going to answer me or do I have to start shooting kneecaps?”

  The silence continued for five more seconds before one of his patrol officers spoke.

  “We don’t know what they were.” There was another pause.

  “They?”

  “Yes they__ they looked __” He swallowed pausing. “strange__ even__”

  “Even what sergeant?”

  “They looked dead.”

  Each second after the man finished speaking seemed to stretch for hours. Time seemed to slow down, maybe even stand still. He took a step towards the man who had spoken, searching his face for any trace of mirth or jest. The most frightening thing was that there was none. He looked more serious than Taiwo had ever seen him look before.

  “But that is not the only thing sir__”

  “Jesus the holy Christ, there is more?”

  “They were led by something. Something big and huge__ I have not seen anything that big before. That was what broke the wall and took Eze.”

  “Where did it take him?”

  “Into the bushes and the others followed.”

  Taiwo chewed on his lower lip. Now he was in a quandary. Should he order his men to follow the creatures that had kidnapped Eze or head back into town to help fight the fire?

  He did not have to think about it too long. Putting the fire out was more important than chasing Eze. After all, he was the one who had started this madness in the first place.

  “Let’s fall back into town. Those fires are not going to put themselves out are they?”

  Several relieved sighs greeted his words. It was obvious most of his men were relieved that he was not going to force them to chase down those scary creatures.

  “Let’s move!!” Taiwo barked.

  Half a dozen men raced to the back of the police station where they parked the police vehicles. The healthy growls of more than twenty trucks rang out a few moments later. Within minutes, the police station was empty.

  Alaba slid his house key into the lock of the front door with a sigh. A puzzled frown hardened his usually pleasant features. Something was amiss, but even as he pondered on it, he could not quite place what was wrong. It came to him about a minute later. The apartment building was quiet. In fact, it was TOO quiet. He was just about to investigate when a loud thud from inside his own apartment caused his heart to race. Had Joke fallen over?

  He unlocked the door quickly and dashed into the room surprised to see Joke crouched on the linoleum cover floor, beside a large traveling bag, the contents strewn in a dozen different directions. A relieved sigh burst from his lips as she turned around slowly.

  “Oh___ you are back! Would you believe I did not hear the key turning in the lock? She had a sheepish look on her face as she said this, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

  “I can see why__” He growled looking very displeased. “You dropped the bag didn’t you?”

  “Yeah__ if you enjoy stating the obvious.” She replied winking as she did so.

  He sighed closing the door behind him.

  “What did you want to remove from the bag that could not wait till I got back?” She could see he was controlling his temper with some difficulty. That worried her for a couple of seconds and then she realized she did not really care.

  “You worry too much Alaba. I am pregnant and not disabled. You cannot expect me to wait for you before I get even the littlest things done do you?” Her eyes hardened as she said this and this caused another sigh to burst from his lips.

  Unwilling to be drawn into an argument, he strode to the left side of the room where a large bag was placed, filled with dozens of clothes. He slipped out of his work clothes leaving only his b
oxers.

  She watched his every move waiting to see if he would try to argue. A tinge of disappointment filled her insides when he did not. She sighed. Maybe her pregnancy was making her cranky. Spoiling for a fight was not something she regularly did, but the closer she drew to her term, the more she felt like quarreling.

  Turning her attention back to the scattered contents of the travelling bag, a feeling of frustration surged on her insides. She realized she did not remember what she was looking for in the first place.

  She started stuffing the clothes back into the bag as she struggled to remember what she had been looking for. Alaba stretched out on the bed. He had a pensive look on his face as he stared at the cement ceiling above him which was covered with more than half a dozen black stains.

  His thoughts drifted. They were random, not fixed on a particular train of thing. He kept expecting to hear the loud thud of footsteps that usually emanated from the apartments upstairs. That noise was strangely absent today.

  The expression on his face grew hard. Silence in the building at this time of the day was unheard of. Something is wrong!

  Joke seeming to sense a change in his mood turned to face him. A surprised look came on her face when she saw the hard look in his eyes.

  “Is something wrong?” She asked. She could only hope she had not done anything to displease him.

  He did not answer for a couple of seconds, without warning however; he sat up suddenly, turning around to face her.

  “Have you noticed how quiet the building is?”

  “Yeah ___ what about it?”

  “Don’t you think there is something strange about that?”

  “I can’t say I have really given the matter much thought.” She began slowly. “Though now that you mention it, it is unusual for the house to be quiet at this time.”

  She barely finished speaking when a scream reverberated down the hall. They jumped startled.

  “What in the world was that?” Joke asked in a shaky voice.

  Alaba was on his feet in a thrice and quickly began to put his clothes on.

  “What are you doing?” She asked aghast.

  “What does it look like I am doing? I want to find out what’s going on.”

  “Are you crazy?? What if its an armed robber or something?”

  “I hardly think so__ not at this time of the day anyway. What it could be is an accident. Someone might really need help.” Before she could spit out an appropriate response, he was out the door locking it after him.

  Chapter Twenty – Four

  A cold feeling filled Alaba’s insides as soon as he stepped into the corridor. He realized that coming out might not have been the best idea. His eyes swept the whole length of the corridor, stiffening when he saw a shadow vanishing up a flight of stairs to his left. Swallowing he hurried after it.

  The staircase was shrouded in gloom. Two sixty watts bulb usually illuminated it, but today the bulbs gave no light. He reached towards the wall on his right where the light switch was. He clicked it on and off. Nothing happened! The darkness remained.

  He took a deep breath to calm himself and pulled his cell phone from his pocket to search for the torch function. Clicking it when he found it, a sickly looking white light streamed from the tiny light bulb on top of the phone. The light barely illuminated three feet in front of him.

  He started up the stairs, pausing as he considered the wisdom of his actions. Would it not be better to go back down and try to call for help? Maybe even call the police. He dismissed that thought as soon as it came. Even if they did come, which was unlikely, they were likely to make the situation much worse.

  Like most Nigerians, he had a great distrust of the police and other law enforcement agencies. They had not been exactly stellar in their operations and duties over the years. A faint scream and a loud thud coming from the second floor made up his mind for him. He hurried up the stairs faster with a grim look on his face.

  The walk up the stairs seemed to take forever. As he got closer to the top, his footsteps slowed and for some reason he could not define, his heart began to race.

  Summoning courage, he took a deep breath stepping onto the second floor. Like the staircase, the entire floor was dark and gloomy. A frown hardened his face at the sight. It was late afternoon; things should not be this gloomy in the house. A feeling suddenly surged into him. The rational part of his brain wanted to dismiss the feeling as being a flight of fancy but it became impossible to quell.

  It seemed as if a dark entity occupied the entire floor. Even though it was invisible, it felt as if it had eyes, fixed on him, watching his every move. Several loud thuds and a ringing filled his ears. He grew so alarmed that a cry hovered behind his lips, until he realized the thud he was hearing was simply his heartbeat.

  Swallowing he tiptoed down the narrow length of the corridor. There were several doors on either side. These doors led into a one room self contained apartment like the one he had downstairs. Five steps later, a low murmur reached his ears.

  He paused startled with every sense alert. The sound, he discovered a few seconds later came from the last apartment on his right whose door was wide open. Taking a deep breath, he started towards it.

  The low murmur quickly turned to a loud wheezing. As if someone was having difficulty breathing. He lengthened his strides, the expression on his face growing even grimmer.

  He peered around the edge of the open door fearful of what he might find. His eyes grew wide with horror. The room he looked into was in complete disarray. The large sofa sitting in the center of the room was ripped and slashed, with the foam and stuffing pulled out. Clothes strewn all over the floor and pictures pulled from their perches on the wall and smashed on the floor.

  That wasn’t the most disturbing thing. The most disturbing thing was the two people lying on the floor with blood gushing from their bodies from half a dozen cuts and holes that looked like bites.

  Their skins were a scary blackish green color, and there were several gill like holes on both sides of their bodies, along the abdomen which opened and closed spasmodically, seeping a yellowish liquid as it did so.

  “Oh my G__” Alaba began breaking off when a slurring growl rang out from down the hall where he had come from.

  He swallowed, turning around slowly. The hall seemed darker for some reason. He could not see a thing. Swallowing again, he raised the phone in his hand. His heart skipped a couple of beats when a pair of dull red eyes appeared about seven feet away from him.

  He leapt backwards almost dropping the phone. His back struck the hard concrete wall behind him. The eyes lunged forward, coming closer as if the person it belonged to was leaping forward.

  He ducked to his right as something slammed into the wall he had been leaning against barely two seconds earlier. A feral growl burst from the thing’s throat and he caught a whiff of its fetid breath. Rising quickly he flung his phone in the direction he hoped the thing’s head was.

  A dull crack rang out a few seconds later. The sound brought t him immense satisfaction. His phone had hit its mark. The only trouble was, the corridor was now completely dark. He could not see a thing, but he could hear the person’s slurring growls and loud shuffling feet as it searched for him in the darkness.

  He ducked down, feeling his way back to the staircase. His palms traced a path along the cold concrete wall. He could hear the things shuffling after him making those eerie growling sounds.

  The seconds ticked by and panic welled on his insides. He had no idea how far from the staircase he was. Sweat streamed down his face soaking his white shirt. He had to be close to the staircase, he just had to be.

  The sounds that erupted about five feet in front of him made his heart skip a couple of beats. It was the same growling sound. His heart was now racing violently.

  Since the sounds behind him had not stopped, it was only fair to assume that there were now two things hunting him. His eyes grew wide in fright and sweat entered them. He rubbed them vig
orously, blinking at the stinging sensation. Now was not the time to have his eyes blinded by sweat. He needed all his senses if he was going to escape the merry pickle he found himself in.

  The growls behind grew louder, followed by several answering growls in front; his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Was it possible that the damn things were communicating?

  Since he did not have an answer to that, he began to inch forward slowly, wincing when the leather sandals he had on gave a loud squeak. The growl in front turned to a roar and he felt something leap at him.

  He broke left losing his balance when two legs collided with his, bringing him down with a loud crash. There was a sickening crunch as something crashed into the opposite wall.

  Another roar erupted from behind and he knew what had been stalking him was heading his way and fast. He began to crawl forward desperately, expecting something to leap on his back.

  His left hand suddenly clutched empty space, his arm slamming onto the edge of the first stair. His relief was so great he did not even feel the pain coursing through his arm.

  Using all the strength he had in his arms, he pulled himself forward as hard and fast as he could. His body slid over the edge of the staircase and tumbled down the stairs, his back eventually slamming into the hard wall marking the beginning to the second flight of stairs.

  A loud whump above told him that something had just smashed into the ground at the spot he had been mere seconds ago. The slam into the wall almost knocked him unconscious. Struggling to his feet with a gasp he tore down the second flight of stairs in a thrice. Four long bounds took him to the front of his apartment. He opened it in a flash and ducked in slamming it shut after him. With two loud clicks, he locked the door.

  Joke screeched backing against the wall.

  “Shush, shush___” he barked in desperation, whirling around with his eyes wide with fright.

  “Alaba____ what happened?” She whispered in a shaky voice almost consumed with fear by the terror she saw lurking in his eyes.