Chapter Five
A thick cloud hung over Oraromi. The bright sunshine lighting up the sky unable to penetrate the darkened shroud hanging over everything; the streets were deserted, devoid of human or animal presence. Many buildings were destroyed, the result of the bombing campaign undertaken by the federal government in an attempt to contain the virus. It didn’t work however.
A cold wind rustled through buildings scattering leaves which almost completely covered the town. The air reeked of abandonment and decay. Dark shadows flitted by every few seconds. They moved so fast it was almost impossible to see if you weren’t paying close attention.
The intermittent growls and slurs were also impossible to ignore. It was like constant rumbling, throbbing like eerie background music. This got louder as you approached the town’s outskirts. To the north lay the hills and the shrine.
The slurs and growls were louder here. So loud in fact it was almost unbearable to the eardrums. A pile of rubble lay in the centre of the hill cluster. It was the remains of the tallest hill which once housed the shrine; the Evonso spirit’s prison.
A cloud of dust approached from the north of this rubble. From far off it appeared like a real big dust devil but as it got closer the dark shapes racing within became clear and evident. One shape was larger than the rest. It was over twenty feet tall, humanoid with glowing red eyes illuminating the gloom around it. Its long horns pointed skywards as if challenging it to some sort of duel.
The race towards town stopped as it screeched to a halt looking up at the sky as if seeing something only it could see. Hundreds of infected gathered around, looking in wonder and puzzlement.
It retained that rigid stance for almost five minutes before it let out a high pitched screech. The frequency was too high for human hearing. The sound carried, covering hundreds of miles in seconds. It kept up this screech for a total of thirty minutes before it stopped and continued its journey to Oraromi.
Elsewhere (Ghana)
Deep in the heart of Sekondi – Takoradi, a city comprising of twin cities (Sekondi and Takoradi) lay a ten story industrial complex. It was a tall monolithic structure with wide windows covered by reinforced steel bars. At first glance, a passerby could easily assume it was some sort of prison but that was far from the truth. The first five floors housed company offices, mostly advertising agencies and telecommunication call centres. The top three stories however were another matter. Very few knew it was a government research facility tasked with genetic research built in part by the USAID group. And even fewer knew it was one of three research facilities presenting converting the Evonso virus vaccine into aerosol form.
A dark skinned man in a long lab coat stood in the building’s elevator with his head pressed against the wall. Sweat poured down his body in streaks and his eyes were a sickly grey colour.
The grey long sleeve shirt he wore under the lab coat was soaked around the abdomen area and he winced every time a piercing sensation came from it.
His thoughts were scattered, he couldn’t remember much of anything. He barely remembered who he was. All he knew was he had the driving urge to enter the lab. Why he did made no sense and if anyone asked him he wouldn’t be able to come up with an appropriate response.
If his scattered thoughts could be trusted he wasn’t even supposed to be on duty today. He had three days free; a result of several shifts done for colleagues over the last two weeks.
The elevator gave a loud ding as the doors opened. He stepped into the long well lit corridor starting towards the round cylindrical shaped structure which served as the decontamination room.
The door slid open as he approached and he stepped in staggering. The decontamination process lasted a few seconds and the door opened from the other side.
He stepped into a wide room filled with four wide tables arranged side by side. Scores of men and women in white lab coats walked round these tables priming and topping the liquid swirling in hundreds of tiny vials. There was a door at the opposite end. He made for it waving greetings at some. Fortunately no one seemed to notice his wan sickly appearance.
The door opened with a whoosh leading into another long corridor. This one was wider and longer than the first. There was a door at the far end. Several people passed him but he didn’t call out greetings to any of them, he kept to the shadows so no one noticed his sick look.
He eventually reached his target. A large room filled with two dozen cylinders. The word danger and explosive content was printed in large words on them. He walked to the largest one and tore off the pipe covering the valve. The effect was instantaneous. A sweet sickly scent filled the room.
He started to twitch like someone in the throes of an epileptic fit and collapsed on the cold floor.
‘Not yet __’ he thought to himself. He still had a job to do. Though why he had to do this was a mystery. It was like something compelled him to carry out this dastardly act.
The lighter came out in a flash. He took several deep breaths and lit it. His last thought was ‘Wow! Look at how bright the world is.’ And the next thing was absolute darkness.
South Africa (Same time)
A rotating cable car made the slow climb to the flat top of the imposing Table mountain. Tourists came here all the time to enjoy sweeping views of the city of Cape Town. From here you could see the busy harbour, boats heading for Robben Island which housed the notorious prison that once held Nelson Mandela; now a museum.
A man exited the cable car. He was alone. His superiors had seen to it no one was allowed up here today except him. He made his way to the extreme end of the mountain top. When he reached the edge he looked down. Nothing seemed out of place on the hard rock beneath. As he watched the rock surface slid apart and a steel ladder emerged. He took a deep breath and descended his hard muscles bulging against the black leather jacket he wore.
Two feet down he reached a steel pad about the side of his hand. He pressed it and the rock opened and he and the ladder slid into a wide passage way.
He stepped off with a grunt and walked right, a hard frown roughening his brow. There was a much easier way of entering this facility but his superiors weren’t taking chances. Evonso virus outbreak at the foot of the mountain made the area teem with police and security presence, most of who weren’t cleared for this place.
They planned to use the mountain as a vantage point to disperse the aerosol when it came online. All in good time __ all in good time he couldn’t help thinking.
The beautiful Catherine Kachifo was there to greet him. She was one of the Nigerian researchers working on the project. The word was she reported directly to Doctor Kemisola. That was as high up as it got in his book.
“Welcome Donald __”
“Hello Catherine __ how goes the work?”
“We’re almost there. A few more days at the most.”
A thrill of impatience surged through him. She noticed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was hoping it was ready.”
She gave him a long look.
“I did say a few days didn’t I?”
“You did but__”
“But what?”
“We have a security concern. The labs in Sekondi and Cairo just went dark.”
“But those are the two other places working on the aerosol dispersal.”
“Exactly! So you can see why I am here.”
“What happened?”
“We don’t know. Both places went up in smoke. Security agencies are still trying to ascertain if it was a terrorist attack or something else.”
“When you say something else what do you mean?”
He shrugged. She opened her mouth to ask another question when the loud explosion of gunfire rent the air.
“What the hell is happening?”
“I should be asking you __” He growled pulling out his sidearm. “Stay here.” He yelled making his way towards the noise.
He smelt the smoke long before he reached the disturbance. E
ven if he hadn’t the red glow at the end of the hall was still a dead giveaway. The screams and shouts were ear splitting. He coughed as a bit of smoke entered his lungs.
The wide area which had once been a large clean room/research floor was in disarray. Bodies littered the floor, some torn in half. Five security guards stood at the far corner firing at something he could not see. He hurried towards them keeping as low as he could. There was a flash and one of them screamed disappearing into thin air. His footsteps slowed considerably and he raised his gun.
A deluge of crimson poured from the roof followed by two large chunks of flesh. Bile rose in his throat. It was the security man’s top and bottom half. The dark shape dropped once again crouched in a corner. It rose slowly standing at over nine feet tall with long limbs and six inch claws extended. His eyes widened in fright when he saw it. Could this be? Could it be? What did the Nigerian populace call it again? He took aim his finger slowly tightening around the trigger.
“No__!” The word was spat out in a furious whisper.
He turned startled to see Catherine Kachifo crouched beside him. She must have really quiet feet. He hadn’t heard her approach.
“What are you doing here?” He whispered angrily. “Do you want to get yourself killed?”
“Do you? Let’s go back __ it hasn’t seen us yet.”
“I have it in my sights. I could drop it easy.”
“Not with that slingshot you can’t. I know what that thing is and the gun you have in your hand can’t kill it. You need something bigger.”
“How much bigger?”
“Like four times a shotgun bigger. That thing there is a darkling; a result of the mutation of the first vaccine. It doesn’t have great visual acumen. So if we leave now we might just escape with our lives.”
Donald flinched as it seized another guard ripping his head off his shoulders. “I can’t just leave them __”
“If you stay here Donald you’ll die. Trust me on this. When we get to safety we can ask the government to send in the military.”
Watching its highly efficient killing method as it dispatched a third guard, he wisely decided to take her advice. He turned giving her a nod. They pulled back slowly, heading back the way he came with the loud screams and frightening gunshots ringing in their wake.
Lagos (Mainland)
The armoured vehicle rumbled towards Ojota shaking the dozen men huddled inside it rather badly. Two more vehicles followed and the men inside those primed and checked their weapons.
The trucks were of the newer variety, retrofitted to deal with the radiation poisoning now rife on the mainland. It was sealed off from the outside world with its own air dispersal system. No outside air was allowed into its cabin.
The men had grim looks on their faces looking uncertainly at the new guns in their possession. It had a huge cylindrical chamber which housed the vaccination darts and could be clipped on the bottom of the long barrel.
The truck shook as the driver began to slow down. “Masks on men!” They reached for their masks and slid it on clasping it tight like they’d been taught.
“There are a bunch of infected not far away. This is a test run. We want to see how effective the vaccine is on the field. They say it’s been well tested in the lab but we know what happened with the last vaccine that was sent to us. It brought us the darklings. So we must be careful and vigilant. Is that understood?”
“YES SIR!” They yelled in unison.
The sound had barely petered out when the truck stopped and the doors slid open automatically. A green haze filled the air. They were parked in a Total petrol station beside what used to be Ojota motor park.
The leader leaped out first. As he said there were about seventy infected a few yards in front. He raised his rifle and fired a quick burst. The dart struck the closest infected in the neck and it went down immediately snoring peacefully.
Courage filled the hearts of the men behind when they saw that and they raised their weapons firing long steady bursts. The infected dropped like flies. Dozens of infected men and women lay in scattered heaps and piles, breathing very deeply. When they had all of them down, they were on the verge of celebrating when a loud slurring rumble shook the air.
The leader headed further down. What he saw made him stop and start to shake.
“Fall back __” Were his only words as he took to his heels heading back the way they came. His man paused and took a good look at what was coming and froze swallowing. They took to their heels racing after their boss as a tidal wave of infected swept down Ikeja Along racing towards them.
A dozen rotor blades shattered the calm a mile away; in the direction the soldiers were headed. They looked up as they ran shocked to see half a dozen helicopters headed their way.
These helicopters swept past them heading towards the wave of infected. The guns on the sides flared as the soldiers opened fire, showering the mass of infected humanity with volley after volley of vaccination darts. These helicopters were gifts from the UN; as were the pilots.
Dozens dropped. The helicopters made pass after pass. After sixteen passes they’d dropped barely a third. A sound on the radio brought their attention up short.
“Pack it up __ you’ve done all you could. Ground troops will sweep at night to pick up the cured. Mission is a success, we’ve established the vaccine works.”
“But sir __ we can still make some more passes __” The lead pilot began slowly.
“Pack it up soldier! That’s an order. It will be dark soon and we need you to return to base. Is that understood?”
“Yes sir __”
“Good!” and the connection was cut.