David held firmly to the steering wheel as he assessed the situation. The street was eerily quiet, and there was no one in sight to help us, the tension in the air was suffocating.
The menacing men showed no signs of backing down. They pounded on the car, demanding that we exit immediately. Panic welled up within me, and I felt my breath quicken. It was as though the walls of the world were closing in on us.
David, on the other hand, remained remarkably calm. He gripped the steering wheel with determination, his eyes darting around for a way out. Then, in a split-second decision, he shifted the gear into reverse.
The car roared to life, and David floored the accelerator, sending the vehicle hurtling backward at breakneck speed. The men, taken off guard by his sudden manoeuvre, stumbled in surprise before regaining their composure and giving chase.
The dark, eerie street seemed to stretch on forever as David expertly navigated in reverse, his eyes locked on the reverse camera screen. My heart raced as the men grew smaller and smaller in the distance, their shouts fading away.
Finally, we reached the main road, bustling with activity and the comforting glow of streetlights. Astonishingly, the menacing figures had vanished into the night, as if they had never been there.
It was obvious that David’s stress response had kicked in.
Stress response is also known as fight-or-flight response. It is the body’s reaction to danger and was designed to help people survive stressful and life-threatening situations. The fight-or-flight response is triggered by a release of hormones when there is danger, that prompts us to stay and fight or run away (flight). During a fight-or-flight response, without us telling our bodies what to do, our bodies assess the situation around us and determine how we most likely could survive the event. So you may notice that when there is an explosion for example, without even thinking about it, you start to run for safety and you may not even realise how far you have run until you are finally away from the danger. Sometimes, you even run faster than you ever knew you could, this is your fight-or-flight response in action. Symptoms experienced during fight-or-flight response may include, increased heart rate and blood pressure, you might become tense and start to tremble, you may pee on yourself, you will become more observant and you tend to feel pain less than you usually would .eg. you may sustain a serious injury and may not even feel any major pain until after the incident.The stress response is usually triggered instantly when there is danger, but it may take up to 30 minutes after the danger is gone
for your body to relax.
David pulled the car into the nearest filling station, parking the car then turning to face me, “Are you okay?” he asked, concern evident in his eyes.
I nodded, my voice shaky. “Yes, thank you. You… you saved us.”
He managed a weak smile, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel as he tried to regain his composure. “I couldn’t let anything happen to you.”
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We sat there in silence for a moment, the gravity of what had just transpired sinking in. It had been a night of unexpected twists and turns, from moments of intimacy to fear-inducing danger.
David eventually stepped out of the car and went to the station’s convenience store to buy a cloth to clean the egg off the windscreen. As I watched him, a sense of gratitude overwhelmed me. We had narrowly escaped a potentially disastrous situation, and it was his quick thinking and determination that had saved us.
That night, I was too scared to go back home, so we headed back to David’s and I spent the night at his place.
As we returned to David’s place that night, I couldn’t help but feel a profound sense of gratitude for his presence. The terrifying encounter with those hoodlums had shaken me to my core, but David had been my unwavering anchor through it all.
I couldn’t help but notice the way he treated me with such kindness and respect. He had transformed a night filled with fear into one of comfort and security.
Wrapped in the warmth of his embrace, I found myself drifting into the most peaceful sleep I had experienced in a long time. His steady heartbeat served as a soothing lullaby, a reminder that I was safe and protected.
Morning light filtered through the curtains, waking me gently from my deep sleep. I opened my eyes to find David still beside me, his expression serene as he slept. It was a moment of quiet intimacy, a testament to the unspoken connection that had grown between us.
As I watched him, a smile tugged at my lips. Despite the uncertainty that had marked our journey, I couldn’t help but feel that perhaps, just perhaps, this unexpected bond with David was exactly what I had been searching for all along.
David’s eyes fluttered open, and as he woke up to find me watching him, a warm smile spread across his face. “Good morning,” he greeted, his voice still laced with drowsiness. “I guess I must have slept longer than I thought.”
I couldn’t help but return his smile, the tenderness in his gaze washing away any lingering anxieties. “Don’t worry about it,” I reassured him.
But as the morning light filled the room, my smile faded, and I felt the weight of what I needed to say pressing upon me. I took a deep breath, and the room seemed to hold its breath with me.
“David,” I began, my voice steady but tinged with seriousness, “there’s something I need to tell you.”
His brow furrowed in concern, and he propped himself up on his elbow, facing me fully. “Chioma, what is it?”
The silence that followed was heavy, and I could see the worry in David’s eyes growing. My heart raced as I grappled with how to put my thoughts into words.
Find out what happens next tomorrow in episode 19 #checkwithdoctoro
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