Chapter One - Doom

I can’t feel my face!

I can’t feel my face!!

I CAN’T FEEL MY FACE!!!

My head rang with a nagging headache as I touched my face all over. I was touching it, but I couldn’t feel anything, it was as if nothing was there.

I stared at myself in the mirror. What I saw wasn’t me. I was standing right in front of the mirror, staring at a reflection that was supposed to be mine, but wasn’t. I knew it was me staring at the mirror, but the face that stared back at me was that of a total stranger. What stared at me was a monstrosity. The eyes were bloodshot with a dark ring around both eyes; its face was pale and gaunt. It was the image of a dead man that stared at me. My reflection looked dead, but I didn’t want to believe they were mine.

I looked closer to the mirror, and what I saw terrified me, the image of death itself.

Was I in a dream? It must have been a dream because that wasn’t me. I rummaged through the entire room in search of another mirror, anything that could reflect my image. I wondered if I was hallucinating, or if I was going crazy- maybe a few nuts in my head were loose. I looked at the TV screen; the same image stared at me, my reflection on a metal spoon lying on the table showed the same image. In no time, I had turned the room upside down and every reflection of me showed the same thing- death.

I ran out of the room, dizzy, hysterical, and confused, but what I met outside the room was that from a nightmare that I seriously wanted to wake up from.

I was the only one in my room that morning. My other roommates had left for a party the night before and were not yet back. It was 7:00 am.

Bade and Chuks were part of the happening guys on campus; Fast money, fast cars, fast babes, they had it all. I also got in the grind once in a while, but I liked to maintain balance- kept me sane. Though at that moment, I wasn’t sure of my sanity.

The corridor was crowded with pale looking people, all of them hysterical, also as confused as I was, crying, screaming- it was utter chaos. Sesan was vomiting blood into a bucket in front of his room, most of the other students were crowded in front of the toilet towards the end of the corridor, struggling to get in, some where on the phone crying, it was a scary sight. We all had one thing in common- Pale skin and Blood shot eyes.

What’s going on here? A voice screamed in my head- Nothing made sense.

‘Guy how far?’ Oritse walked up to me- Pale skin, blood shot eyes, terrified. He quivered in fear from head to toe, eyes darting to and fro as if looking for something and at the same time looking for nothing in particular. ‘Jide wetin dey happen here? Wetin dey happen?’, he said in Nigerian Vernacular English, trembling as he spoke. ‘Everyone’s dying,’ tears streamed down his eyes, but they were of blood.

‘I don’t know’, I replied, more to myself than to his question. My mind tried to process what was going on in front of my eyes, but the more I saw, the less I didn’t want to believe.  

Oritse’s eyes moved insanely around, blankly, trembling, also not understanding what was going on. Where we all dying? Was this a disease? Was it the end of the World? Why was it happening to everyone at the same time? I only had questions, but no answers.

‘I’m Jide Dairo, and I woke up this morning, January 20th 2012, looking dead. I’m presently at the University of Lagos and I’m really afraid for us all, seriously’, I recorded on my phone. ‘Every one around me looks the same. It’s crazy; I’m not sure what is happening? Everybody looks sick.’

Everywhere was in utter chaos. There was a mixture of blood and vomit in front of the toilet. Pale skinned students were everywhere. The ladies were going berserk- last night they looked gorgeous, this morning, they looked… dead.

My head pounded, and I seemed to be oscillating between consciousness and unconsciousness. The whole hostel started to spin, turning everything into a whirlpool. I could see distorted faces all around me, distorted blurry faces. I felt a sharp pang in my chest, as I felt fluid move up my chest. Red hot blood gushed from my mouth, I felt as if my Organs would spill out of my throat. Tears flowed down my eyes as I staggered down the corridor.

I needed to call my family. This was just crazy. On another thought, maybe I shouldn’t, I didn’t want to get them worried. I decided to call Bade and Chuks instead- their phones rang endlessly.

I dialled their numbers a few more times, but I didn’t get any response from the other end. No Bade, No Chuks, what had happened to them? Why where they not picking their calls. I hoped all of this was just one dreadful nightmare and I was going to wake up anytime.

I was even scared of calling my family. I was so confused- the chaos, the dread, the gloom all around me...the DOOM.

Kini Big Deal, Kini Big Deal, shebi, shebi, we’re on fire…

My phone started ringing. It was my mum calling- a part of me was afraid to pick it up the phone; I was too scared to find out what was happening on the other side of the phone.

‘Jide!!’ my mum sounded frenetic. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes, mum. Are you okay?’

‘I don’t know what’s going on here. Everybody’s sick. Your Sister has been vomiting all morning. I’m just trying to get to the hospital. The Traffic is terrible. People are on the streets, and everybody looks very sick. I just wonder what’s happening.’ I could hear the panic in her voice.

‘Mum, I’ll be on my way,’ I tried to calm her down. What’s going on? I asked myself, the same thing was happening even at home.

‘Take care of yourself and be very careful when you are coming,’ my mum said in a worried tone. I could hear my Sister crying in the background

‘How’s Bisi feeling now,’ I was worried about my sister; she had just gotten admission into one of the Private Universities and was supposed to start in a few weeks. God! This can’t be happening, please let it all be a dream, and I wanted to wake up from it really quickly.

‘Jide,’ I could sense the sadness in my mum’s voice, ‘she can’t even talk properly anymore, and she keeps vomiting blood. I really don’t know what to do; I just hope we can get help in the Hospital’. My mum had been crying; I could sense it in her voice.

Everything was happening so quickly, and it was all very difficult to process. ‘How is Dad?’

My mum kept silent for a few seconds. I could hear the trembling in her voice, ‘I’ve been trying to reach him. He travelled to Dubai yesterday morning. I still spoke with him last night but his phone has just been ringing all morning. I’m so worried; I really don’t know what to think.’

‘I pray he’s okay. He might be in a meeting,’ I couldn’t help the trembling in my voice.

‘I hope so,’ my mum said, a dead silence following. The horror of everything that was happening struck me; this might be it, the end as we know it. I tried to shake off the feeling of terror that gripped me, but I could not. Everyone in the school hostel was sick, my sister was sick, my dad was missing…it was all happening too fast

My stomach churned. I couldn’t get the feeling of dread out of my mind. I had seen it, first in my reflection in the mirror when I woke up, then in the eyes of every student I came across. I felt it…dread.

I could see the helplessness in their eyes.

‘I’ll see you soon mum,’ I said. The terror of everything consumed me at that moment, my hands started to tremble uncontrollably.

‘Ok, Jide. Be careful,’ the sadness in her voice couldn’t be hidden, I could feel it from where I was, piercing and engulfing. The dread lingered.

Z

‘Babes! What’s happening tonight?’ Nneka Ofili screamed, elatedly. She was outgoing and fun, one of the most popular girls on campus. She had won Miss UNILAG the previous year; and she was only in her Diploma year then. She had also won the Miss Lagos beauty contest. ‘Big Babes’ as her friends call her was the main thing- popular, sexy, stylish, to-die-for gorgeous- and she had a Nissan Morano parked outside her hall, and a boy friend in a Lagos Big Boy, Wale Bashorun to show for it. ‘Are we hitting town or what?’

‘Yes ke,’ Lola her number one chum was quick to answer in vernacular. She was Nneka’s right hand chick. Anywhere Nneka was; Lola most likely was too. They were one and two, and the rest were friends to the two best friends, ‘We run this town now.’

‘Yes ke!’ Nneka replied.

Nneka had attended Queens College and even in secondary school, she was one of the popular ones. Her dad was a business man and her mum owned a big Boutique on Victoria Island, Lagos. Her parents sorted her out well, but what’s a babe to do, she still had to run her own show. She got a Kia Rio from her parents, switched it for a Morano. She had her own way, and her own way got her more ‘chedda’ the term the girls usually used for money.

They were going to hit Sush that night, a new night club that was the talk of the town. The top club at the University of Lagos (Unilag), ‘Big Ballers’, was having a VIP party at the club, and Nneka and her clique were going to kill them all at the party. They had done their shopping in the top London shops and made sure they got the most exclusive of outfits- tonight was the night, the number one clique in LAG, hey! Even in the whole of GIDI, a popular term for Lagos. Why not, Nneka thought. Why couldn’t they be the tightest clique in the whole of GIDI? Unilag was just too small for them. With the number one clique award by wheels another popular Unilag Social Club behind them, their aim was now to win the number one clique in all the Universities in Nigeria. The Duetch magazine campus award was going to be her next trophy. She loved winning, and she was going to win it all.

The girls dressed up and headed for Nneka’s Murano. They were going to hit Opal Lounge in Ikoyi, have a few glasses of margarita, and probably some finger foods, and then hit Sush by twelve midnight.

Z

Music blasting, head nodding, Nneka could see heads turning when the entered Sush. A smile formed on her face as she envisaged all the attention she was going to attract at the club. They were gorgeously dressed in to-die-for outfits that were sure to turn heads, and she was so certain heads were going to turn and eyes were going to pop out of their sockets.

The closer they got to Sush the wider her smile got.

‘ZAAM!’

‘What!?’ a crazy driver had zoomed past Nneka’s car almost ramming into it. ‘Look at that mad man, I’m sure he must have been drunk’, the car had been facing a one-way traffic.

‘Thank God oo! That was close!’ Lola looked obviously shaken. The guy had gotten so close to what would have been a head on collision with Nneka’s car.

‘Well, we’re almost at Sush, and…we’re going to dance off all the pressure!!’ Nneka too was thankful they had avoided an accident. Though she was shaken, she was thankful they were okay and on their way to the party. Why bother, she told herself, ‘Hey girls, we’re gonna party!!!!!’ Nneka screamed trying to get the rest of the girls in the party mood.

‘Yes ke!!’ Lola and the rest of the girls responded.

Z

The entrance to the club was deserted.

Sush! Deserted!! It was hard to believe. Sush had been rocking from the word go. When it opened a few months ago, it had pulled the crowd from other clubs, and everybody wanted to get into the new hottest club in Lagos. Twice the crowd inside were outside trying to get in. People could have killed to get in, but she always got in easy, and she always usually had VIP invites– she was hot and always pulled an A-list crowd.

Since its opening it had been the top club in Lagos. Everybody wanted to be at Sush, and that was the law.

But this night it was deserted. The entrance was just…bare. There was nobody at the gate- No guys, No babes, No Bouncers. She couldn’t see any of the ‘Big Baller’ boys. ‘Big Baller’ parties always rocked, what had happened here? She wondered.

She drove into the compound, the gate was left ajar.

‘What happened here, Nneka?’ Lola was also as startled as Nneka.

‘I have no idea, it looks…dead.’ Nneka parked in the VIP parking lot where she usually parked. Some cars were there, but she couldn’t see anybody.

The door to the entrance was left ajar. Music was blasting from inside.

‘I’m not going inside o’, Lola stood at a distance, she had seen too many horror films, and this felt like one. Empty club, music blasting, nobody in sight, cars still parked outside.

‘Let’s go inside jo’, Nneka opened the door…Strange; nobody was on the dance floor. There were bottles scattered everywhere- Broken glasses, spilled drinks- no single soul could be seen. What happened here?

‘What happened here?’ Lola followed Nneka closely, their other two friends followed. Nothing seemed right- The music, the spilled glasses, and the fact that there was nobody on the dance floor. It looked as if people were there before and they just suddenly dropped their drinks and some of them left their cars in the parking lot and eloped. The VIP section was the same, empty.

‘Men! This is crazy. Something must have gotten down here. Lets get out of here men’, Nneka had seen enough and she wasn’t going to find out what had happened. It just didn’t seem right.

‘Look,’ Lola pointed at a girl at the corner end of the room. She was slouched on a couch next to the bar.

‘It’s somebody!’ The girl was the only girl they had seen since they came in. ‘Hi!’ Nneka waved at the girl, but she didn’t budge. She just kept staring at the floor. They all moved closer but with a lot of caution. The girl’s hair looked dishevelled, as they moved closer, the girl started moving her head to the music but she never looked up.

‘Hi, what happened here?’ Lola hollered. ‘Nneka, let’s go oo. I don’t feel good here oo,’ she whispered at Nneka. ‘Let’s go!’ She pulled Nneka in the opposite direction, suggesting that they left the club.

‘Wait,’ she moved closer to the girl who was now moving faster to the beats of the music. Her movement became more awkward becoming more disconnected to the music as each moment passed .Then the girl suddenly stopped. Nneka also stopped. They were now about four feet away from the girl.

‘Hi, what happened here?’Nneka had her heart in her mouth.

The girl suddenly started to laugh. Something about the laugh made Nneka wanted to turn around and run, there was something skewed and eerily unnatural about it. The laugh got louder until she stopped abruptly. The Silence that followed was even scarier than the laugh. Nneka could hear her heart beat, and it seemed to beat in her head. 

The girl slowly raised her head as if she had something heavy tied around her neck.

Nneka’s heart leapt countless beats. She wanted to turn and run, but she couldn’t. She just froze there. The girls at the back had turned and ran down the stairs as fast as they could. Lola fainted.

Nneka stared at the girl, who stared right back at her.

‘They all died,’ the girl answered in an unnatural voice.

Nneka stared at her, and what stared back was unlike anything she had ever seen before. The girl’s face was pale as if the blood had been sucked out of it. Her eyes were bloodshot, tears welled around her sunken eyes- the tears were red with blood. She had blood around her mouth, as if she had vomited blood. The horror of what the girl had turned into was both shocking and confusing to Nneka.

‘They all died’ the girl repeated, ‘and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.’

Nneka stared, frozen.

‘WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!’ the girl screamed, her gaunt figure quivered all over as more blood spewed from her throat.

Nneka stared on in horror.