Save Us – Episode 3

“let’s hide here” I said to my siblings as we saw a bushy part where we could hide after running for 15 minutes… We were very tired and hungry but we were more concerned about our safety… I was even surprised to hear my sister say “brother don’t worry I’m not hungry” when I asked her if she was hungry… We laid down there and at that point I started to remember my dad and mom.

It was at that point my youngest sister started to cry and say “I miss mommy, where is daddy, brother why did you let them die?”…. I held her tight to myself and whispered in her ears “don’t cry baby, mom and dad left you in safe hands”… I then drifted momentarily away in thoughts of how just few days ago my family was the sweetest thing on earth. I remembered when mom came back from the market a week ago with a brand new shoe for me because I was to go to the next class. I remembered how I jumped up and down happily and how my brothers were jealous and so dad promised to buy them their own shoes the next day.

I remembered how my family would sit and eat our favorite food together and how I and my siblings would go and steal yam to roast at our backyard and eat it with red oil. I remembered how we would sneak to come out in the night to watch our favorite cartoon after mom and dad must have gone to sleep. And how we would pretend to be sleeping whenever we would hear sounds of someone approaching… At this moment tears were beginning to rush from my eyes… I remembered how mom said I would go to the university 0f my choice if I came out with good results…

I remembered dad’s promises. We are just four children, I, my two younger brothers and then my jewel of inestimable value, my sister. My mom passed through a lot before she could give birth to her. So she was to be our princess and handled with care. I remembered once when someone tried to beat her up and how it ended. I nearly bit the person’s nose off. My tears were now becoming much. How could things become this bad all in a day. Just few hours ago I was having a great time in school and now here I am.

Read Also : Save Us – Episode 2

Oh my God! Just as this was going on my sister tapped me to alert me to someone approaching. We all kept quiet and as the sound of his footsteps became very close we bent so low… Just then we heard a voice say “anyone here”… Just then I recognized the voice… That’s my teacher’s voice and with happiness I jumped out with my siblings and held her so tight.

She was so happy and after asking of our parents and we told her what had happened she said that some youths in the community were evacuating children from the community to another one that is safe for them. But we had to go to a small abandoned hospital close by and wait there with other kids so that when the bus comes back we would join the next batch…

We followed her and we kept seeing dead bodies everywhere. We kept stepping over them till we got to the hospital. There were a lot of kids in the hospital and we even met those we knew. Some were our school mates while some lived close to us. I saw that boy that I nearly bit off his nose when he tried to touch my sister. He was badly injured. He came close to me and was crying. I consoled him and kept assuring him that all is well (at least that is the language we all understand in this country even when things are not well).

I saw this kid that would always fight in the street back then. He had lost his right hand. Still fresh were the wounds that he was losing his mind and looked as if he would die soon. I had to look around to see what I could find even if it were spirit to pour on his injury to help kill the pain… But I didn’t find any and I kept telling him to be strong. He held my hands with his left hand so tight and said “if you see my mom and dad pls tell them I love them so much” he was almost going to die.

We then heard gun shots and we all shouted. I knew that shout has exposed us and I started telling them to keep quiet. But they wouldn’t. Just then the bus arrived and with full speed. The guys asked us all to run out because we were under attack and our hiding place has been revealed. The gun shots got worse and there was chaos everywhere. I tried to run to hold my sisters hand but someone else did and she and my brothers were headed for the bus. She turned and looked at me and I gestured to her to keep running to the bus and that I’ll catch up with her.

But the crowd was too much and I was behind. The enemies were already close and they kept shooting at us and children kept falling down in their hundreds… I shouted as I saw my brothers running… “run to the bus and don’t stop”… My sister entered the bus and before my brothers Could get close the bus moved… My sister turned around to look at me… I ran as fast as I Could to catch up with the bus but I couldn’t… My sister nearly jumped down but they held her…

She shouted with tears in her eyes “brother pls run, brother, brother pls run, brother don’t leave me, brrrpootheeerrr”… And she was gone with the bus…

I then turned to my brothers and couldn’t find any of them… So I kept running to Save myself and meanwhile I kept looking at each corpse I jumped over to make sure it wasn’t any of my brother lying dead… I saw that boy I bit his nose off lying helplessly and I tried to help him but the enemies were already so Close and the shooting was so much… He then opened his hand and gave me a neckless that had his mom’s picture on it… I left and ran as fast as I could…i saw that notorious boy that lost one hand Initially… He was dead…so I ran and ran…

Hang on for the Next Episode .. 

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Echezonam Ibezim Jk

A chemical engineer with cognitive flair for creative writing . He writes for fun and renders his reportage humorously to keep you entertained . His avid love for food inspires him the most as he hopes to make his blog a real entertainment hub.

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