Prologue
Friday, 9:55pm, Adeyiga street, Lagos Island.
The evening air was stale and hot, as a mix of clammy, sweatridden bodies cheered and chattered about the soccer match they were watching at the viewing centre. A few benches were littered about under the shed where the flatscreen T.V was housed and occupied to the edges by the earlier viewers while the later ones, hung around the centre, straining their necks as well as occasional shove of their neighbors to get a better view.
"And it's a Gooooooaaaaal... Ogunfayose has done it again. 13 appearances and this is his 35th goal for the club. This guy is on fire." The voice of the soccer commentator rambled as the viewers leapt up, giving high fives and even doing celebratory dances amidst a few others that sat sulking, saying derogatory remarks about how the goal scored was partial and out of luck.
"Woohoo... He did it. We've qualified for quarter finals." A lean youth with a crew cut hairstyle, standing at a height of 6.3feet shoulder danced, beaming a grin in his white vest, blue sport knickers and white flip flops.
"Look at how you are talking as if the match is over. Just so you know, Sunshine stars don't get demoralised just because your star play..." An elderly man in check shirt and blacks jeans cut in only to pause, looking at the flatscreen.
"We interrupt this program with an emergency broadcast from the President." A feminine voice boomed from the TV as the match scene was replaced by the Nigerian Coat Of Arms.
"What the fvck?"
"Which one be this one na?"
"Why would they interrupt our match?"
A series of unsatisfactory grunts and curses rang out as the viewers fumed. Just then, the image of the coat of arms faded away to reveal a scrawny looking president with grey beards and a tiny black point above his square rimmed glasses, just below the rounded edge cap, a sign common with most Muslims.
"Dear great people of our great country, Nigeria." The president started slowly, his eyes outlined by eye bags. "It is of a heavy heart I bring to you this demoralizing news to us all. Today, August 1st Saturday, we have discovered a new virus. For want of name, we call it, The Virus. And from summation, The Virus, grew and spread from places that has been visited by rain, in the past few hours since thursday morning. However, I urge Nigerians not to panic because if we could survive Ebola and fight hard against Corona, then we will survive this too." The president said as he clasped his hands and leaned forward on the brown mahogany desk, over his speech papers, while the swivel chair he sat on, shook slightly between the the national flag and the coat of arms flag.
"Along the course of time, the Nigerian Centre For Diease Control, NCDC, will be revealing a report on the recently affected places. However, if you happen to see any mon... Aaaaaaarggghhhhh..." The President gritted his teeth as he ripped at his blue flowing Agbada(2). In that same second, spores appeared on his skin as cancerous growth began to snake across his neck, hands from his chest area while pulsing veins of green accentuated the corners of his eyes, popping off the glasses from his face.
"Mr President!" A shout exploded from screen as a female in an all black suit raced to the president who growled and scratched with the claws from his hands that replaced his finger nails.
SLAM!
The female was smashed to the ground with a gargantuan fist of the monster that used to be the president. Groaning in ache as the reptilian faced monster slammed the mahogany desk into half, the famale with her bun packed hair, clicked her handgun at the reptilian face of the President.
And POW!
Brain matter splattered over the table, the flag and the fallen chair as the monstrous hulking form of the president growled, slumping down backwards.
Groaning, she struggled to move the massive form of the president fist away from her chest. Once she was free, she turned towards the camera. But to the viewers at the viewing centre, she looked on straight.
"Kill the Camera." She grunted, firing a shot forward as the TV Screen went blank for some seconds.
After a second of stunned silence, the viewing centre became agog with confused questionings of what happened as the viewers shifted about, uneasily.
"Oh shit, it's 10pm. The school security guards will be crawling all over the fence. Guy, let's go." The crew cut hairstyled youth spoke out as he looked at his wristwatch on his left. He pushed through the tight mix of sweaty bodies to leave.
"Hey,Sam wait." A new voice called to him.
Looking at the source of the voice, Sam frowned as a dark skinned boy with a knapsack slung acrosd his shoulders, donning a black hood, blue shorts, black socks and flip flops came into view.
"Tolu, if we don't scale the fence between now and 10:05 into the hostel, the guards will definitely catch us and lock us in guardroom. And I've slept in the guardroom before, so trust me, the experience is not nice at all." Sam rattled on as he turned heel and raced through the dimly lit and almost empty streets as Tolu followed suit, their flip flops joined in a rhythmic patter of squish squash.
_
Wednesday, 8:15am, Counter Terrorism and Insurgency Initiative (CTI), Research facility.
Thud!
The lights flash on and off, illuminating the hurrying figure of a girl, running. The pathway she uses is a sort of steel walled corridor with the strong smell of disinfectant in the air as her sneakers go squish sqaush in the panic.
Thud! Thud!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
*Huff*
*Huff* *Huff*
*Huff* *Huff*
The youthful girl with black afro hair panted as she ran through the passage between the steel walled environment, her white sneakers squeaking continuously against the steel floors. She wore a blue checked sleeveless shirt with a skirt that appeared to be cut to become waist line short along with black leggings as she raced, her pupils dilating continuously as the lightning flashes on and off.
"Sam, It's me Bolanle, you were right all along. The CTI is not helping people. They are cutting us up and doing all sort of experiments. They said they want to find the cure and the way to do that is through us, the peculiars." She bit on her lips to stiffle her sobs as she raced on.
Her face is laced with dried tears and her black kinky hair is puffed up here and here as she breathes, panting.
"Every hour, someone is taken out to be buried or burnt after they kill the person with their experiments. I can't forgive myself because as the Head girl, I told everyone to come to the CTI.Now they are cutting us up, one by one." She groaned, pinching her tear stained cheek.
"Today, I heard them say that they are coming back to the school, to take more people. You mustn't let them take any more people. I won't bear it if they do. And they are coming, tomorrow."
"Bayo, the CTI is evil. They believe that to find a cure for the mosterification that they have to examine we, the unturned, because only peculiars that exist are people 20 years and below. And..."
"There you are!" A trio of rifle armed men wearing black combat suits with a CTI insignia on their left chest bursted out from an intersection.
"Nooo..." Bolanle yelled as she stopped her racing hastily.
"Leave me ALONEE." She yelled and a burst of wind exploded about her as her pupils turned white.
"Hehe... Oh my, did I ever tell you I love your butt, Kevin." The middle man in the three slapped the one at his right on the buttocks after dropping the rifle.
"You love it? Oh, fuck it then." Kevin replied, ripping off his helmet seductively.
"Guys, look at this lake." The third one spoke, removing his helmet "I'mma take a dip." He added as he dived headfirst onto the cold steel floors.
"OMAGOD!" Bolanle bit her fingers. "I think I just turned some people mad now. God God, No."
"Aaarggghhhhhh..." Bolanle yelled, her body spasming violently as tiny arcs of electricity caressed her skin wickedly.
"Ah... Here we were thinking you had no abilities..." A voice came behind Bolanle as she slumped slowly, guided by a calloused hand to the ground. "When you have been the one sabotaging us."
The speaker wore a blue three-piece suit, with a smartly cut miniature afro like hair with edgey beards and moutache, square rimmed glasses, and cancerous growth snaking from his left ear to his nose and eye as he clutched a taser tightly.
"Change of plans, Commander." He said, putting a finger to the earpiece lodged in the outer pinna of right ear. "We can't risk going to Royal Heart College tomorrow, thanks to their Head girl who pretended not to be a peculiar all along."
"Yes." He nodded.
"Of course. Going today is our best bet at getting enough specimen for the experiments."
"Commander, let's use the firepower we have on ground now. Later, we can talk of restocking our armory and rescheduling of manpower but getting those specimens..."
"I'm glad you understand, Commander Gbemi. I appreciate your enthusiasm for our country."
"Of course. I'll proceed immediately,after, Bolanle is put up to the cutting board. She's a telepath, I believe so."
"No?"
"Oh. Never thought of it that way. It's very possible. I just need to do some designs and algorithms and we can use Bolanle as a sort of mental map in locating and locking on every peculiar we can find."
"Definitely! Research and Development Head Officier, Tayo, Out!" He smirked as the three seemingly mad soldiers earlier, began rising from the ground, having come to their senses. The two who had begun sexually motivated undressing looked embarrassed as they hastily pulled up their trousers while the third clutched his head, a trickle of blood escaping from his forehead.
"You three, take her to center and set her up in all electric chair. Occasionally, electrify her within the space of one minute. We can't afford her contacting he friends until we are ready." Tayo nodded at the colllasped head of Bolanle as he tossed the taser to the three soldiers.
"Keep messing her head with the taser or she messes your head up." Tayo said, turning the opposite way.
_