Unlid the Fury E-Book

kenechukwu obi

• Herausgeber: KenWrites
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Terrorists strike again with a deadly pathogen. Starvation threatens humanity. Only one boy can stop the pathogen. And the whole world needs the boy to quickly act or else…

Leseprobe

UNLID THE FURY

A NOVEL

BY KENECHUKWU OBI

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CHAPTER 1

PROLOGUE: THE V1B6F3 VICIOUS ATTACK

Their act had been perfected, a product of three experts on a deadly mission—a deadly pathogen now prowled around the world, a product that was more than just a mere pathogen. It was not a virus or a bacterium. Neither was it a fungus. You can be sure that one thing was ingrained in its DNA. And, there was nothing else except complete annihilation. A very virulent strain, cultured after a long time of painstaking work backed with steely resolve never to admit failure. It was cultured to ravage, cultured to conquer. “God is great! God is great!” These were the chants that rented the atmosphere as they left the mouths that produced them. There were smiles all over the three faces that were there, very wide smiles. Everyone took off their white lab coats immediately after the deed had been done, and busy hands were seen no more in the laboratory. A sense of having accomplished the mission hung everywhere like grape branches heavy with lots of fruit. The men embraced one another so tightly that they seemed like lovers who hadn’t seen each other for a very long time.

“God is great!” said one of them again, as he roared in thunderous laughter, threw his hands up, and jumped up and down as if he was an elementary school boy whose father had just returned from work with his favorite cookie biscuit.

“The enemy ought to have known that no one messes with us and gets away with it,”

another added.

“That is right!” said one of them, “Strike at the heart of the enemy once you can! God is great!”

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“God is great! God is great! God is great!” The three now began to chant. No one was happier than them. The depth of joy that they experienced was just unreachable. It is funny how joy can mean a lot of things to lots of people.

The element of surprise will never be in a hurry to cease to exist in this world. No one can disprove the fact that change is the only constant thing in our world and have any degree of success doing that. Surprise has this enduring character of change. It sneaks in on us and often leaves us wondering how we never saw it coming. But, it wouldn’t be what it is if we saw it coming. Its soul and essence would be dead once it becomes easy to predict the time of its arrival. Its joy always overflows whenever it takes us unaware. It knocks at our doors at its times of choosing, to continue to let us know that we cannot always be always aware of all things, or to make it abundantly clear to us that when we think that we are in control of all things, we are not.

That when we think that we are secure, we are most certainly not. Surprise makes us know that when we think that our enemy is completely shut out, we could be wrong. It comes to us uninvited. It walks into our lives and our world without its footsteps being heard. It can jolt us up from our sleep and awaken us to the harsh reality of danger if it chooses to do so. What can it not do without our knowledge of it? There is nothing you can cite as an example. We cannot know if, when, and how it will choose to strike. Otherwise, its name will no longer be what it is. The best way to take your target by surprise is to make sure that it does not see you coming. And that was exactly what the brains behind the V1B6F3 pathogen did to ensure that any trace of smile faded off from all the faces in the world.

This became the case from the United States to the United Kingdom, from Canada to Germany, from France to Russia, from China to Australia. The whole world began to feel the heat. World leaders were feeling the pinch. Globally, ordinary people were worse off. The Food 3

and Agricultural Organization and, indeed, the whole of the United Nations had lost their sleep.

Agriculture ministers from every single sovereign nation in planet Earth were running about like a bunch of big rats in garbage cans, coming together, huddling up in cozy conference rooms, and brainstorming, just to conceive and adopt the best of the variety of ideas on the way forward.

However, this was to no avail, as the conferences always ended with the delegates working away without a workable idea. The best plant pathologists and researchers of the world were caught in their slumber. The whole world was looking up to them to come up with a quick solution when they could not even figure out a single one. Their professional qualifications and all their groundbreaking feats had been awesome until now. However, the V1B6F3 had proved invincible and had rubbished them all. It had left these men of science wandering around the best equipped labs available throughout the world, only to appear lost and generally confused, not being able to distinguish their left from their right. The V1B6F3 made them run around these labs with creases as thick as the Great Wall of China, well-manifested on their terror-stricken faces. Large beads of sweat were trickling off their bodies, which together emitted a stench as pungent as a garbage pile. The whole picture was that of a gathering of professionals who suddenly had become childish amateurs in their established trade. One would capture it aptly by saying that all of them looked like kindergarten children who were in pathology labs for the very first time.

“I must confess that I have never seen anything like this before.”

“You are right! I have never seen this throughout my practice.”

“Where could this have come from?”

“This thing has defied all my attempts to identify it.”

“Is it a microbe?”

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“Do you think I know?”

This virgin situation had struck, and had compelled them to sound deflated, awful, and ridiculous.

“But you’ve always known the answers.”

“I can guess that you now know better. I used to believe that you are very smart. What has happened of late?”

“Now you know you have believed wrongly. Don’t ever take such a dangerous risk again.”

“I will be sure not to, that is if the world survives this invasion.”

“Yes, I understand you outright. No life, no research, no pathology…”

“And no science.”

“My Nobel prize award is in tatters. I wouldn’t have accepted it if I had known that this stalemate would come over to defeat me.”

“Oh…Professor…Why are you talking like this? Have you forgotten that not knowing what will come up next is common in this practice?”

“Please pardon me for forgetting it so soon.”

“This thing spreads at an alarming speed.”

“I cannot say whether it is a virus or a bacterium or a fungus, even with all my knowledge…”

“Resignation is calling me now.”

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“This is serious! How then are we supposed to find a remedy?”

“You had better ask someone who should know.”

“And who would that be if not us?”

“Anyway forward? You have one?”

“I am empty.”

“That is it! Empty! We are all empty.”

“Hey! Let anyone amongst us who is not empty and has the way forward speak!” The whole laboratory suddenly assumed the silence of a graveyard. If any of the pathologists or other sound minds of science that were there had dropped any pin to the ground at this time, it would have been heard loud and clear like the blast of a bomb.

The V1B6F3 showed no mercy whatsoever as it unleashed the widespread carnage it was genetically engineered to deliver. It was furious. It went about its business just like California wild fires, without an atom of any respect or regard for any of its targets. It made sure that ugly sights were left behind in its destructive trail wherever it visited. Farmers all over the world were being rendered absolutely helpless by its brazen attack. They could do nothing other than moping like wretched imbeciles as their livelihoods got swept away. All they could see were their labor, talent, touch, and expertise, that used to put big smiles on their faces, infuse dignity in their character, and got them laughing to their banks, being nothing but a big disaster.

There were dark-brown spots on leaves and stems of growing plants which eventually got them to dry up. Some plants had been afflicted with stunted growth in their vines. There were reduced branch formations in trees which quickly caused leaves to be unusually small. Distorted 6

leaves with significantly reduced sizes, wilting and eventual death of young stems and leaves, very weak stems prone to breakage by a slight breeze because of the cankers created on them had also become commonplace. Blighting of leaves, gums issuing from stems that finally became dead, lesions on leaves that substantially reduced surfaces available for photosynthesis to occur, and lesions on roots affected all the crops. Tuber crops were afflicted with cracks, soft, dry and spongy rot. Withered leaves were everywhere. Maize cobs were reduced to galls that were nothing but a bunch of spores. Many leaves carried brown spots with yellow streaks on them as well. It was really horrible! One thing that was not lacking was the presence of seed-borne spores that attacked and killed young seedlings. Yellow leaves flourished and were very busy falling off. Totally mottled, stunted, and scorched plants were among many more of the things that turned out to be uncountable. They were just ubiquitous. Counting them would amount to an attempt to count the number of stars in the sky with frail naked eyes that were heavily infected with glaucoma.

It, therefore, came as no surprise at all to have gaunt-looking wild, domestic, and farm animals roaming about endlessly with fast-diminishing hopes of finding what used to be readily available food. There were mews, brays, bleats, and lots of other sounds that go synonymous with animals. The only thing different was that this time, they were fueled by hard-biting hunger.

How would they find life in planet Earth to be interesting when the V1B6F3 had made grass so scarce for the herbivorous ones amongst them? And, with the herbivorous animals finding it increasingly hard to scoop out any blade of grass, the carnivorous ones became faced with big threats to their existence. In this situation, who would then dare to ask dairy cows why their udders had gone dry without any drop of milk? If there was no grazing, there would be no milk for sure. I am sure that any farmer that would even attempt to harbor such a question within the 7

confines of his mind must be seen by the cows as a selfish fool that only deserved a hard knock of their hooves on his groin. So, animals started eating up other animals whom they would not have eaten if all had been well. It became common to see big cats, like lions or cheetahs, in pursuit of small rats or lizards, thereby making the small wild cats starve so badly. It was that bad. Even animal carcasses became very rare soon, and so the vultures felt the heat as well.

Prices of the very scarce food crops rose so fast and aimed for the sky. And, only a psychiatric hospital patient, whose case was beyond the ability of medical science to comprehend, would attempt to announce that there was abundance of animal protein. The dream of an automobile world completely driven by bio-fuel was shrinking fast, now hanging by a loose thread that was thinner than the legs of a mosquito. Hunger and starvation were flexing their big biceps with reckless abandon. And, therefore, the human race had no other choice than to drift to the track of extinction at the lightning speed of Formula One cars.

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CHAPTER 2

IN THE BEGINNING WAS JAZI

The V1B6F3 had brought disruption upon Jazi’s design. It brought the smell of death to diffuse at very high speed. However, Jazi’s handiwork was not for hunger, starvation, and anguish, and gnashing of teeth to dwell freely in. He did not make the world so that fear and hatred would be visited on it at the volition of any man. From the very beginning, Jazi’s spirit had kept on hovering over the surface of the deluge and formlessness that were covered in darkness. He did not think it right to leave the mass of darkness and water to remain just like that. Enormous love streamed through his heart as it always did. “There is something good to do with this,” he said to himself gently, “I want to pour all my love into this thing that I will make.”

Jazi also wanted to make another thing, something so wonderful to be made out of his bountiful love that it would stand out and be left in charge. He embarked on this work at once.

And right after that, something called light came into existence. It stood out clearly from all the darkness that used to be, with an awesome piercing and far-reaching illumination.

Darkness and light mesmerized Jazi after he had separated them. He went on to assign each of them different times to reign, and day and night came into existence. The Light held its sway during the day, and darkness did the same at night. No confusion about the roles for these two arose at all, for Jazi’s work was a full epitome of order and arrangement to the very core. The water in existence began to move. A portion of it moved up and the other portion moved down.

And that was how empty space began to exist between the water. This space became known as the sky. Water below the sky began to move and gathered in one place, allowing dry ground to appear. Jazi kept on falling in love with his progress so far. The dry ground he named ‘land,’ and the water he named ‘sea.’

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The dry ground began to show the appearance of all sorts of grass and seed-bearing plants. Assorted trees with seed-bearing fruits began to appear, each capable of producing the kind of tree it came from. They all began to multiply. All the water became filled with fish and other marine creatures. This huge presence of myriad aquatic life looked good to Jazi. He went ahead in his growing joy to cause the sky to be filled with birds of different kinds. It felt gratifying to watch them fly about. And, then came the turn of all small animals, wild animals and livestock, each capable of producing its own kind. They all emerged from the ground, all sorts of beasts, and began to multiply. Jazi was not going to leave it all like this. One more thing was needed to bring his masterpiece to completion. Then at last, the outpouring of his endless love accumulated to give rise to humanity. That meant that the first man and woman began to walk the surface of the earth after arising from dust. They had the capacity to multiply as well.

This was Jazi’s way of putting his beloved humanity in charge of his beautiful creation. He crowned his work with love and constantly made sure that it always was a source of delight to him. He also left a web of interdependence, which he expected all he had created to subsist within and have everlasting peace and harmony. Man was dependent on plants and animals for food, and animals were dependent on plants and other animals in turn. The crops were dependent on man and animal feces for nutrients essential to their growth, and animals and plants depended on man for their tender loving care.

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CHAPTER 3

KWAME AND THE VOICES

Kwame had grown up in Shonga. He had turned just a year old now. And, this was when he began to hear lots of voices whose origin he never knew and could not discern. Being more of an introvert, he naturally kept this burdensome development to himself. He was simply under attack by these voices that were in fierce contest for his attention and companionship.

Antagonism and rivalry are stark realities of existence. These two will never go away from the theatre of life. It has been observed that the relationship between cats and dogs uphold these two aspects. Human existence and interactions are huge arenas where antagonism and rivalry act out their various scripts on a daily basis. Political campaigns make a great picture for these, and politicians act these out perfectly. Desires of the spirit of a man and those of his flesh are constant rivals that will never end their rivalry until a man’s flesh returns to dust from which it arose. Good and evil are also no strangers to rivalry and antagonism. They are fierce rivals, always in constant battle within human minds, heads, and hearts—Battles for who will win over human faith, who will keep humans under control and get them to become handy tools with which to give rise to destruction, or peace and harmony. Battles for who will determine the path in which human destiny shall head. Fierce battles always rage between these two that hate each other so much. Good and evil always go out and about in search of fertile grounds with lots of opportunities to establish their intents. They love to leave no vacuum at all with a passion. Either good reigns, or it is evil which does so. These two had now found a fertile ground in Kwame.

“May evil reign all the time!”

“Evil is good!”

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“Allowing evil to reign all the time is a sweet experience that the sweetest of honeycannot equal.”

“Kwame! Do not mind them!”

“Doing what is good is always the best!”

“That is a lie, Kwame! Do not fall for that deceit!”

“Evil is good.”

“Do not mind them! Evil is horrible!”

“Look, Kwame! You must know that doing evil is not good.”

“That is a lie! They are only trying to keep you away from doing what is good! And thatis doing evil! Do not listen further to what they are telling you.”

“No! Kwame! Do you want the worst things life can bring? I’m sure you don’t. Alwayschoose to do what is good. Evil is the way forward for destruction and damnation!”

“Kwame, choose evil and live, for the path of doing good leads to destruction.”

“Doing evil brings great joy to a man’s heart!”

“Doing evil brings prosperity the way of a man!”

“That is a big lie, Kwame! Don’t ever take that! Does that sound like the truth? It iscertainly not!”

“I am telling you the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Doing evil is the only way aman finds fulfillment in life!”

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CHAPTER 4

SHONGA

Shonga typified the very simplest of primitive existence—a place whose inhabitants needed no more than one look to see that they were exceedingly dependent on nature. They felt quite at home with nature, just like the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, depending largely on fishing and gathering wild fruits, nuts, and other products from forests which made up much of the landscape. Within these forests lay scattered human settlements that had nothing but thatched houses for homes. Houses were built from materials that came from the branches and leaves of trees, ones that could very easily be blown away and carried about like dust in one sweep should they ever exist in hurricane-prone areas. The men, women, and children wore no clothes. Not even the young men and women amongst them wore any clothes. All they did to cover a bit of their nakedness was to coat their private parts with hides of varying thickness, made from the skin of animals, mainly antelopes. They cared less that the rest of their bodies were uncovered.

Bare-chested men and women simply went about their businesses. They moved around dangling breasts and buttocks everywhere with absolutely no instance of promiscuity ever rearing their ugly heads. Shonga was one of the most isolated places on earth, located in the western region of Africa, that was yet to know even the least of incursions of civilization. A long meandering river, which lined some paths in the forests, was the only source of water for these people. This river mainly teemed with catfish. But, it also had a huge stock of other marine creatures like crabs and lobsters. This was Nature’s way of supplying abundant nutrition to its people.

Cases of snake bites were quite common, however, the people were well armed with the knowledge to gather herbs, and squeeze and apply liquid from them into the wounded area to secure complete healing within a matter of seconds. The people of Shonga had never heard of 13

anything called an electric bulb—None of them had ever seen it. The presence of one would be dreaded a lot, avoided, and would be regarded as strange and dangerous. They would say that Nature had gone crazy, that it had suddenly succumbed to the desire of inflicting harm upon them. The people of Shonga had no choice than to rely on sunshine during the day to do all their chores before it got dark. The arrival of darkness meant that all the major chores that were undone before its arrival would have to be put off until the break of dawn of the next day.

The people of Shonga had quite distinctive eyes. They were unique in the sense that they had eyes which allowed them to see clearly even in pitch-dark nights. This way, lactating mothers would not need sunlight to feed their little ones. The main source of energy for these people came from firewood which the trees in surrounding forests provided them with. However, no one could afford to light up firewood for anything else other than cooking, after which the fire would be quickly doused off with water. It is true that the people of Shonga had trees all around them, which should have meant that firewood was a commodity that was never to be found lacking, but it was not easy to come by. Getting firewood meant undertaking risky searches deep inside the forests. Many parts of the Shonga forests were inhabited by man-eating tigers, huge beasts that weighed up to one-hundred-and-fifty pounds, having beautiful stripes weaved around their massive bodies, which would not hesitate to attack and kill anyone that came within their strike range.. They would normally appear very calm, as if they were unable to hurt a fly, until the arrival of any trespasser. That is when they would quickly put aside their often-deceptive calm mien and demonstrate how swift and ruthless a killing machine they were. Many of the people of Shonga had fallen prey to these tigers on a number of occasions. It happened at such an extent that the number of people getting attacked and killed rose so high that it no longer was a thing that brought so much pain, sorrow, and a deep sense of loss. After all, girls of Shonga were 14

very fertile and were well able to begin reproduction at the age of ten. The high birth rate in Shonga meant that women gave birth at a rate so high that their population would still be exploding even if the tigers stepped up the frequency of their attacks by encroaching into places where the people actually lived. This was Shonga…before the V1B6F3 invaded it.

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CHAPTER 5