Chapter Five - Monster's Ball

I was floating, floating in a world that was neither here or in the next, a world of thoughts, pain, and vengeance. My soul yearned for vengeance, but I couldn’t remember what I needed to do or who I was going to face the wrath of my vengeance.

I was in total darkness, confused…lost. Where was I? Who was I? Where was I going to? Questions floated in my head. I knew I needed to do something, needed to go somewhere but I didn’t know what or where.

Slowly my thoughts began to morph.

Okoro! My Mother! I needed to find my Mother, and then get my revenge on Okoro.

But was I still alive. Had Okoro killed me? Was this how death felt? The darkness had me confused.

The darkness slowly ebbed. The first image that came to my sight was the dark clouds, red, hazy and dirty. It looked like death itself, the sun’s rays came in dull tiny streaks. It reminded me of the world we now lived in, a dead earth filled with hopelessness, sorrow and gloom.

I had been dropped somewhere by Okoro’s men. They should have killed me, which would have brought them a better fate than what awaited them.

I was on a bridge- dusty, deserted, and doomed. I was surprised I was still in one piece. I’m sure Okoro would be surprised too; he must have expected the flesh eaters to have mutilated me before I regained consciousness.

The Pulse gun must have blanked me out. It was a new gun that could put an undead in a state of unconsciousness for several minutes; there were more powerful versions in development that could fry every single cell, make it completely charred.

I dusted myself and scanned around for any flesh eater- there was none, lucky me. I had no weapon or anything I could have used to defend myself, I had to get some weapons, and fast.

Two things were on my mind.

One, find my mother.

Two…Kill Okoro.

For now, that was my destiny.

Luckily for me, I had installed a tracking bug on my mother, but the tracker must now be with Okoro. All I had to do was get a tracking device and tune in to the preset frequency. I had some suppliers in Victoria Island, some distance after the Eko Bridge, but the problem was how to get there.

How in this dead earth’s name was I going to get to Victoria Island in one piece?

I heard there was a settlement in Marina. If I could get there, I could get a vehicle that would get me to Victoria Island; I doubted if I would get a tracker at Marina.

The whole Eko Bridge was lifeless. I headed down the bridge towards Akpogbon which was the fastest route to marina. I had no idea of the danger that awaited me there.

Z

Okoro’s plan had worked perfectly. He had been able to both get rid of Jide and also gain the position of the head of the settlement in one sweep.

He had expected some resistance from the supporters of Jide Dairo, but he got none. Most of the settlers, and generally the human race had lost hope in everything. Jide had given them false hope that made them believe they could be human again, such heresy.

Why would anybody want to be human when they could be immortal? Why would anybody want to live, and then die, when we were all dead and wouldn’t die anymore? We were immortal.

He smiled at himself. Finally his plan to rule the world was on track. He needed a starting point which was the settlement. His plan was to build the settlement into a superior people. He had purchased weapons that were imported and he also had a secret factory that was manufacturing weapons. He had it all set out. First build a unit that would invade the other settlements. They would then wipe out those animals that still existed; the beasts that had everyday killed those like him.

Plan A, take over other settlements in Lagos. Form a military unit, which will then join with other states, when the time comes, his allies in the other states would carry out similar operations that would then lead to a central government headed by him. He knew it wouldn’t be as easy as he planned. He had envisaged opposition, but he had devised a way to get rid of all opposition.

Knowledge they say is power, that’s why he had dedicated a lot of his resources into intelligence. It was his intelligence that had gotten him the info on Jide, which made it easy for him to get rid of him, and like Jide, he had gathered intelligence on other heads.

He had known about Jide’s Mother for a while, but he was waiting for the right time to strike. He had wanted to kill Jide, but he thought otherwise. In his mercy he gave him a chance to live. His men had dropped him on Eko Bridge. To the settlers that was a gesture of mercy, but he knew Jide wouldn’t last an hour out there; the crawling beasts would have him in tiny bits in less than an hour.

As for his mother, he had a tracker on her. He was going to give her some time to play around and get acquainted with her kind, and then in a week, his men would track her down and get rid of her. A world with one less flesh eater was better for every undead.

In a week he was going to have both Jide and his mother out of the way. That was just a start.

His plan was to take over; first Lagos, then Nigeria. With a proper structure they could form a worldwide coalition, and he was going to rule it.  Damned mankind for wanting less, we deserved nothing less than immortality and nature had bestowed it on us. Why want less?

He would one day rule the world; the god, immorta...

A smile formed on his face.

Z

Darkness enveloped me as I approached Akpogbon. I had been lucky enough not to have bumped into any flesh eater but I had no idea how long I was going to stay lucky, and stay in one piece.

From a distant, I sighted a few flesh eaters, strolling around the streets on Akpogbon. They kept making the same guttural noise synonymous with the flesh eaters. The screams seemed to come from the innermost depths of their soulless beings. Was it a yearning for redemption or just a severe hunger for flesh, I wondered. I hid beside an abandoned danfo bus waiting for the road to clear before I could go further, but instead of clearing, the screaming flesh eaters only increased in number.

Dark clouds hovered, and the tiny streaks of sunlight that was able to penetrate the dark clouds reduced in number until the clouds had turned from a glowing mixture of dark blue and brown to a sinister black and red. The sky was now the colour of decayed blood. I quietly sneaked into an empty building along Akpogbon; the streets now had a crowd of soulless beasts roaming around searching for flesh to quell their hunger.

I needed to get to Marina, but I had no idea how I was going to go through the herd of flesh consuming zombies. Zombies… The word sounded utterly familiar. I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of it all, we were all zombies. Dead people doomed by our own hopelessness. We were zombies, existing in a consciousness that was in it self dead.

Was there hope? I wondered.

The sky was in complete darkness, a depiction of our present state. Would there be light at the end of the dark tunnel? I once believed in a hope that wasn’t real. I had dreams of the day we would breathe and feel, laugh and play; eat fruits and vegetables, take our kids to school and go to bed with our wives. I once thought we could relive the days when life was sweet and funny, painful yet exciting. I wished we could go back to the days when we could complain about the government, bad roads, power supply, under equipped schools, corruption. I yearned to complain about anything. At least we were alive then, so we could feel the pain.

Now we were all dead! What can a dead man complain about? Is it the fact that he can’t feel pain, joy, happiness, and was subject to just one emotion- gloom? Is it the fact that he could not taste the sweetness of oranges or the bitterness of boiled herbs or the fact that he could not cry or laugh, or play with friends? The fact that his life was subject to eternal gloom and that he was going to exist to experience the hopelessness for eternity.

I once had hope but I was loosing it slowly. Maybe Okoro had succeeded. He had succeeded in killing the only thing that was of value to our kind- my very soul. Was hope not the very fibre of the soul-the connection to a higher life?  Without hope, is the soul not doomed?

I found a dark room in the building and sat by a corner. Outside the window, the flesh eaters increased in number and with each passing moment their guttural screams increased to a fever pitched level.

If only I could get to the settlement at Marina, then I could find a way to get help. As each moment passed, I felt more hatred for Okoro, and the desire for revenge ate deeper into my soul. I needed Okoro’s soul to quell my thirst for revenge, I needed to have him beg for mercy that would elude him as I rip the life out of him , but such a strong desire for revenge only diminished the light in my soul and gave chance to the darkness to spread through it like a virus. I didn’t care.

The whole of Isale Eko had been hit hard with the death and the few of the undead who had not turned into mindless flesh eaters, found it hard to defend themselves against the daily increasing population of the flesh eaters. Some found their way to a high-rise on Marina, and they were able to secure it as a settlement. Others formed smaller clusters which soon disappeared since they found it difficult to fight off the flesh eaters. Since then, it’s been a battle for survival against the horde of flesh eaters.

25, Marina was the goal. From being head of my settlement and because of my intense research and quest for developments, I had contacts with a lot of settlements, sharing knowledge and improvements in worldwide research, anything to keep the hope alive. There was also trade, and exchange of equipment.

I knew I couldn’t get all the things I needed from 25, marina, but I could at least get a vehicle that will get me to VI where I could get everything I needed, weapons, a tracking device, and a damned good car. If I had a weapon I could at least fight my way through the beasts below me, but without anything to fight them, I was hopeless.

I wondered how long I was going to wait. Would I be able to get past the monsters that the slightest notice of my presence would bring them rushing in like bees?

I was beginning to lose hope.

I looked down at the beasts that scavenged the streets for flesh. They moved around in desperation, their screams increasing in intensity with each passing moment.

I was torn between staying where I was, and sprinting for it, but I knew I wouldn’t get too far.

The room was now a pitch black. Sometimes, I thought I heard sounds, and then I noticed it was just my imagination. The once human flesh eaters were not the only treats, I remembered stories of flesh eating dog packs, some as many as thirty in a pack, moving around and devouring anything in their path. Anything that moved was at risk, soul or soulless, undead or flesh eater, anybody or thing could end up as meal for these raving beasts. I’ve seen a swarm of monster bees devour an undead, digging into its flesh until there was nothing left. I also heard of stories from other parts of the world, mad elephants destroying whole settlements, killer fish killing anything that moved in water. Nothing was spared from this raving madness the earth had cursed its inhabitants with, even goats, hens, small and once harmless insects, rodents, were all turned into mindless monsters.

I suddenly became more conscious of my environment. Different thoughts flew through my head. Since I entered the building I had seen one or two rodents, what if they came swarming in, I’d definitely stand no chance against a pack of flesh eating rats. It would be a choice between been fed on slowly by the rats or been torn apart by the hungry flesh eating undead humans below.

I suddenly heard a rustling sound. It came from the corridor just outside the room I was. I wondered if it was my imagination playing tricks on me, or if the rodents had informed their neighbours that they had found easy dinner. I hoped it was my imagination. I didn’t have the strength or the weapons to defend myself against any danger that came at that moment. Maybe they should just come and devour me anyway. I had failed my mother and maybe deserved any fate that befell me.

The sound came again, and this time it was a little closer, just outside the entrance to the room. I wondered what it was. It wasn’t my imagination, so was it rodents or some stray flesh eater? At least I could take one rodent down, but to wrestle a flesh eater without a weapon would be quite a task, and if the others sensed there was stray dinner, they would come rushing up, the whole flesh eating party. I almost laughed at myself. I was really in for it.

Then I saw the silhouette, and it was one of them. It seemed as if the creature stood there for a while studying me, not sure if I was one of them, or the next meal. Then the wind came, and in a sudden dash the damned creature came after me. This was it. I had to fight the flesh eater without any weapon. Even if I was able to get rid of this one, I was sure the rest would come swarming in and I wouldn’t stand any chance against a horde of them. 

With a grimacing scream, the flesh eater ran into me smashing my body into the adjacent wall. I felt its sharp claws dig into my flesh as it tried to rip my flesh. 

With all the strength I could muster, I sent a punch crashing into the creature’s face. I knew it must have been heavy, because it sent the soulless beast about ten feet away into a nearby cabinet. 

Before it could get up I rushed at it sending a hard kick into its ribs. I could hear the sound of about three ribs cracking. The creature screamed in pain, but I was sure it wasn’t going to give up – I saw it in its eyes.

The creature leapt at me, screaming as it came, I could sense its rage- raw, deadly, and relentless- as it sent me crashing to the floor. I parried claws and decayed teeth as I tried to wriggle free from the creature. Decayed teeth met flesh, as the creature sunk its teeth into my arms. 

This was definitely it; I had had enough of tussle-of-dead men with this creature. With my right arm, I grabbed its neck, squeezing the wind pipe until the creature couldn’t scream and could only make low mumbled sounds. 

With one move, I ripped the wind pipe out of the neck, putting the head in an awkward position. The creature lost balance and in the thrill of the moment I took the creature’s right arm snapping it in two as it tried to grab me. 

The head dangled freely held in place only by the back flesh of the neck. In one swoop, I tore the head out from the body, the creature scampered around, headless. One moment, the creature’s decapitated body could still move, the other moment it was in two places, motionless.

With my bare hands, I had ripped the creature apart. I couldn’t explain the thrill I felt after, the thrill that all of us felt after killing. We had become monsters of our own death, and it had become a big cycle of death. We die, we kill.

Now I awaited my death. I knew that the rest of the creatures would come rushing in after sensing one of their own was down. I awaited my own demise.

I felt a rushing sadness sweep over me. Okoro had won. I wasn’t going to ever see my mother again, and I wasn’t going to see the day when mankind will live again. I knew that day would come, I dreamed of it, not in the sleep that I missed so much, but in a dream that kept me going, kept me believing.

First it was one, then two, until I couldn’t count them anymore. They came rushing in like water rushing out of a crack. The guttural scream, the uncoordinated movement, they came pouncing on me all at a time sending me falling out the window. They followed me not caring for anything but for the feast that lay in front of them. 

I landed with my back on the hard asphalt street, undead flesh eaters raining on me.

I felt my soul ebb as teeth and claws dug into me. I had lost hope in my very existence. I had everyday wished that someday, life will return to earth, but now, I wouldn’t even live or should I rather say exist to see it.

Darkness engulfed me, and the damned made me their feast. I looked around me, and all I saw was the hopelessness of many. The creatures that had lost their souls and were forever chained in a plain of misery and death. With each passing moment I felt essence leave me, my very existence was been ripped apart. 

I smiled at the irony in what was going on, were we all not dead? I wondered if I was any different from these insane creatures. They fought for existence, and we fought for ours. Were we morally supreme? Did we have a grasp of even the tiniest fibre of life? We both had death as companion, doomed in our own lust for the smallest of any form of life. Did we live a lie thinking we were any better than these beasts? They wanted life, we also wanted the same. Since they were in the base of existence, the closest they could get to life was devouring undead humans to quench their lust, a quest that had turned them into flesh eating beasts.

Could I blame Okoro? I wasn’t sure. Was I any different from him? I wasn’t sure I was. We all were on a quest for some sought of life. We all searched for some sought of hope, while for these soulless beasts, the flesh of the undead who still had a connection to life, gave them that connection, for me it was a hope in living life like a human again, and for Okoro it was the immortality of the undead, a supreme being that didn’t have to fall to death.

I stopped trying to move and had given up any form of hope. Suddenly, there was a glimmer of light. What started as a tiny streak of light quickly became a flood of white, bright, light. The creatures scampered for cover. Was that the light at the end of the tunnel? Was it the angels of God coming to take me forth to heaven? I wondered.

The light was bright and beautiful, and then came total darkness.

Light…then darkness. Which side of the divide did I exactly lay