Chapter Eight - Gone Baby Gone

Okoro was determined to fish Jide’s mother out. Now it was all he wanted to do. He got very bad news just before leaving the settlement. Jide was still alive. He regretted not killing him right there at the settlement, now he had a vengeful brat to deal with.

He was going to kill Jide’s mother today, make life more unbearable for the brat, then finish what he started. He was going to tear him into a hundred shreds, then burn the remains and scatter it in a hundred places. Nobody was going to save him this time. It had been a costly journey to Ikeja where the tracker indicated Jide’s mother was. He had lost almost seven men on the way; the beasts had taken over most of the major roads. They had been ambushed by almost a hundred of the flesh eaters in Maryland. They had fought hard, but the abominations were too many, they were lucky to still be in one piece.

He still had about fifteen men and three vehicles in his entourage, two four wheelers and one van. He was still vexed by the unnecessary waste of ammunition; those beasts had made sure they had wasted enough fire power to get through them.

Out of the seven who had fallen, the beasts had actually taken six; the remaining one was from his own hands. The soldier had suggested abandoning the quest; he ended up in three pieces. They burnt him to ashes after. He wouldn’t tolerate any form of insurgency. Nobody would question his authority, he was in charge now.

Okoro was mad, and angry. Jide! He screamed in his mind.

The tracker showed that Jide’s mother was in close proximity. What he would do to the boy’s mother would make him kill himself. At a distance, they could see what they were up against, there were three times as much flesh eaters as they had earlier faced, and Jide’s mother was one of them. He could sense the fear in some of the men. As long as they didn’t show it, they were safe. Nobody raised any objection.

‘Men! Ahead of us lies another victory. In there lies the enemy, and we would find her, and bring tears to the eyes of our worst enemy,’ he looked at all his men, fifteen of them, ‘Any objections?’

None of the men said anything.

He was going to annihilate any trace of Jide’s existence. He knew where he was. He knew about the general, and he knew about the girl. He had his sources, and he had his ways. The girl posed a threat to his whole plan, and he wasn’t going to allow one girl to mess up what he had planned for years.

He smiled at himself. He was destined for this. Providence had given Jide and the girl to him in one single pot, and he was going to burn that pot till they turned to ash- two birds, one stone. He had a plan, activated, and in progress. He didn’t see himself failing.

Now he had to get Jide’s mother from these beasts. He was going to lose men, but he was going to get her. He never failed, and he wasn’t going to start now.

Let the hunting begin. He was the predator, and the prey was somewhere out there.

Z

Guns were ready; I could see my mother’s position on the tracker. It was odd that she was moving in a zigzag pattern around a certain perimeter. She was with them now, the flesh eaters, uncoordinated, erratic…hungry. I just hoped her soul could still be salvaged, that she still had a fragment of humanity in her, if not, then all is lost, or maybe not. There was Nneka, and in her was hope. Where there is hope, there is life.

It was odd, how Nneka had reacted just before I left the general’s mansion. We had earlier seemed to strike a cord, but after I came out of the armoury with the general, her disposition became cold and restricted. I had seen the hurt in her eyes, but did we not all have hurt in our spirits, it was just obvious because her emotions could easily show on her face, after all, she was alive.

I liked her.

We had boarded a military spec Hummer H1 Jeep.

‘One of my favourites,’ General Yakubu said. ‘I bought it on one of my trips to America. I totally fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.’

‘Its just perfect,’ we had mounted a browning M2 machine gun on top of the Jeep, just in case we needed to keep flesh eaters at bay and not get too close to them. I reached for my electromagnetic shock gun, Naija spec, and held on to it for about two seconds. I was ready.

‘Are you ready?’ General Yakubu asked.

‘Yes,’ I had been ready since the day Okoro tried to kill me in the settlement. ‘General, are you sure you want to do this. It is not your fight.’

‘It is my, brother. It is...’ I could see it in his eyes. He believed in me and was ready to stand with me till death- his eyes said so.

‘Thank you,’ we both stayed silent as General Yakubu drove out of his garage. I looked back and saw Nneka standing at the entrance of the garage as it slowly closed. She stood there, staring.

I had kept my gaze on her until the garage door closed itself fully, as I monitored the tracker, I still had thoughts of her lingering in my mind.

Nneka... I wondered if I would ever see her again. I wondered.

Z

The last few minutes had been gruesome. Okoro had sighted Jide’s mother and he had gone after her. At some point, he felt she recognised him, or sensed he was trouble because she kept running away from them instead of attacking like the rest. He felt that was a bit odd. He had tried shooting her from a distant but that didn’t work either, there were too many of them and he could not get a clear view.

He had lost seven of his men, to the beasts. They had been torn apart and devoured like common prey. He wasn’t going to be prey, he was the predator and his sight was on his prey. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight. He was always the predator, never the prey.

To his right, another one of his men had just been taken down by one of the flesh eaters. Two, three, four, then almost ten joined in the feast tearing him into tiny bits.

Focus, Okoro, don’t let the prey out of your sight.

One of the flesh eaters leapt at him, digging its long nails in his shoulder. He could see about two more coming his way, but before they could get close, he quickly drew out a machete from a holster fixed to his back.

With two strikes he sliced both hands of the zombie. It slowed down the beast but it didn’t deter it, it still came at him with both hands severed.

He quickly drew out his electromagnetic gun with his right hand, holding the machete on the left. He aimed right at the head of the zombie, in seconds; it was down, electric shock waves surging through its body, immobilised.

The other two seemed to pause staring at their fried pack mate. Then they came rushing at him, their uncoordinated moves disgusting him. He loved order, and loved to assert it.

With two quick shots from the gun, the flesh eaters were down frozen in an orb of continuous electric shock. 

Two more of his Men covered in flesh eaters had been torn from limb to limb.

He had her in his sight, for a moment he thought he saw fear in her eyes. These beasts were incapable of emotion; they were only driven by their raving hunger, their madness to devour.

Okoro aimed the electromagnetic gun at her, finally. He would shoot her then they would burn her and scatter the dust in a million places.

His first shot caught her by the arm, she jerked, and fell, but she got back up. He wondered why he missed, he never missed. She was about thirty feet away, but distance never affected his accuracy.

He stilled, he aimed right at the head, which would definitely fry her.

One shot got her down, as she jerked in electrocuted spasms. She stopped moving, dead.

The irony caused a smile on his face; she was dead a second time. They were all dead, yet still alive, zombies, immortals. That was the new world, and he loved it.

He brought out a double barrelled shot gun from its holster strapped to his side. ‘Men, get the body.’

The men hesitated, more than twenty flesh eaters now stood in the way of the fallen zombie. It was as if they were trying to protect her. This was strange. They were not supposed to have any semblance of reasoning.  He thought about soldier ants ready to die for their colony, for the queen, did they see her as a queen? Is there something she had that they didn’t? He remembered the look in her eyes, the emotion.

‘Get her!!!’

The five remaining men tried to fight through the horde of flesh eaters, almost over thirty now circling Jide’s mother.

He needed to confirm that she was finally done. He would use the shot gun to blast the head, and then burn her till she turned to ashes. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, fair enough.

His five remaining men were now meal for flesh eaters. He was sure of his shot, straight to the head. She couldn’t have survived it.

He found an opening and quickly dashed for it. He wasn’t going down for this. He had killed Jide’s mother, though he would have preferred total annihilation, erasing any proof she had ever existed. But a lifeless body of Jide’s mother at the distance was good enough. Or was it?

He dashed for the SUV he had parked close by. He had to head back to the settlement. His plan was still on track. Some of his men, headed for the generals place in Ikoyi. Their orders were clear, annihilate. Kill the general, and kill Jide, bring the girl back alive. He could use her as leverage later. He knew all about her. If the world thought she was their hope, then she could open many doors. Things were looking good.

He doubted if they would find Jide there. For all he knew, he would be on his way here to find his mother... dead.  That brought a smile to Okoro’s face.  If Jide didn’t end up dead himself, he would come to the settlement, to avenge his mother’s death and maybe rescue the girl. But he would be waiting.

The Supreme Ruler, and Igwe of the New World, Okoro would be waiting for him. And he would squash the cockroach. That was all Jide was.

The thought of tearing Jide, limb to limb with his bare hands filled his mind, and he liked the thought.

He was able to get into the waiting vehicle safely and headed back to the settlement, the victorious Ruler, back to his people.

Z

We were close to where my mother was. I could sense her presence. She was close, I could feel it. At the entrance of the street the tracker led us to; I saw a van I recognised from the settlement. It was Okoro. He must have been there somewhere.

I hoped my mother was okay. God please.

Getting there had been war, we had almost exhausted most of our ammunition. The mounted machine gun, our hand held machine guns were almost out of ammunition.  General Yakubu had used his AK47 most of the way, he said he preferred it the old school way.

At some point we had to run through a river of flesh eaters, but the hummer had served its purpose. Ikorodu road was a blockade of flesh eating zombies. While General Yakubu drove I opened the roof of the hummer and used the mounted machine gone. It reminded me of Rambo, a popular action figure when earth was the way it used to be. On that hummer, clearing the way of flesh eating zombies made feel like Rambo.

Lots of bullets spent, and hundreds of dead zombies on our trail, we had finally reached where my mother was somewhere in Ikeja.

The tracker told me she was close, I could feel her presence though I hadn’t seen her. I couldn’t explain the feeling, but I felt it, and it grew stronger with each passing moment. The tracker signified she was less than hundred meters away.

The flesh eaters were surprisingly docile. We had expected them to ram into our Jeep with the insane rage that usually characterised them. Instead they stood, staring at us, observing us. Some of them wanted to rush at us and tear us apart, I could see it in their eyes, but something was restraining them.

I readied the Electromagnetic gun I held firmly in my right hand. I was ready to blast any flesh eater that made the wrong move.  The general inserted a new cartridge in his AK47 and cocked it. He was ready, and I was ready.

We waited for the flesh eaters to come rushing at us, but they didn’t. We surveyed the surrounding from inside the hummer, side windows firmly wound up. My mother was close, I could feel it. According to the tracker, she was right in front of us.

‘She’s here,’ I looked at General Yakubu and he understood exactly what I meant. We couldn’t get to my mother from inside the bulky hummer. We had to get down, and getting down would mean facing hundreds of flesh eaters with an electromagnetic gun, and an AK47. Another option we had was to run through the zombies with the hummer, and risk running over my mother, but even if we did that, we would still have to get down.

I was willing to risk my life to save my mother, but was General Yakubu also willing to do the same? I would do what I had to do even if it killed me. I looked at General Yakubu, and he understood, he bowed his head slightly.

‘Let’s do it,’ the general said, picked two grenades and stuffed it into one of the pouches in his jacket. I took the last one and stuffed it into one of my pockets. I jumped out of the hummer pointing my gun at hundreds of flesh eaters that just stood there staring at me. I had expected them to rush at me like the flesh hungry monsters they were. What had they done to my mother?

I looked at General Yakubu, and he was as perplexed as I was. Some of them snarled at me, but something was restraining them- something inside. It was as if they were been forced not to attack us.

We circled round making sure the flesh eaters kept their distance. Any wrong move from them, and we would shoot. We were one unit, I and the general. But did we stand a chance against a hundred flesh eaters?

‘Locate your mother’s position,’ General Yakubu said. I checked the scanner and she was less than 20 feet away, behind the horde of zombies. She was one of them. I just hoped I would be able to take her back, and she wouldn’t attack me.

She was one of them- a flesh eater. I wasn’t going to give up on her.

I pointed my gun in the direction the tracker indicated she was. General Yakubu faced the opposite direction, covering my back.

Fear gripped me almost suffocating me. I wondered whether I should start shooting to clear the way or I should just bid my time. My mother was somewhere behind these zombies, and time was running out.

The flesh eaters kept staring. They didn’t attack.

I had made up my mind to shoot. I aimed at the head of the first zombie.

Mother, I’m coming for you. My finger rested on the trigger, and I stared into the dark lost eyes of the zombie in front of me.

It stared back...gnarling. There was hunger in its eyes. There was hatred. But it didn’t attack.

Shoot.

Shoot.

I felt her presence, and she told me not to shoot.

That was strange.

My finger remained on the trigger.

Shoot.

Don’t shoot. I’m here. The voice was as clear as it was when she was alive, but it was coming from inside my head.

The zombie in front of me stepped out of the way. I followed it with the electromagnetic gun.

I couldn’t believe what was happening.

The flesh eaters were clearing out of the way, as if they were making way for something... or someone.

I moved my aim from one Zombie to another, and they kept moving to the side, creating a wide space between me and whatever they were making way for. I aimed my gun at the space in front of me. Whatever they were making way for was going down. I readied my finger on the trigger. I was going to take it out. I was going to take as many down as I could, then I would save my mother...nothing was stopping me.

She stepped out from the opening, heads up, staring right into my eyes. I had my gun fixed on her for a few seconds, my whole body started to quiver. I wondered why. I slowly lowered my gun, was that my mother?

‘Jide!’ she yelled running towards me. I couldn’t move. My mother had changed. She recognised me. She knew who I was.

I didn’t know when I dropped my gun and ran towards my mother.

‘Jide!’ the general called from behind me, I saw he still had his gun held high, and he must have wondered why I dropped my gun. He must have thought I was crazy. Maybe I was. I had just opened up myself to be attacked and torn into pieces by the flesh eating zombies that surrounded us.

I ran into my mother’s embracing arm. I saw tears stream down her eyes. How was that possible? She was still a zombie, and zombies don’t cry. Nothing made sense, she had changed from being one of the flesh eaters to one of us... and she cried.

My mother’s soul had fought for her body, how it did that, I couldn’t explain that, all I knew was that I looked into her eyes, and she recognised me.

‘My Jide,’ she touched my cheeks.

I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t, my soul yearned to release the years of pain and agony in one stream of tears, but my face remained as dry as it was ever was.

‘Mother,’ I held her tight. I looked around, half expecting the flesh eaters to be charging at us, ready meals, but instead they just stood there staring at us. It was as if they looked up to my mother.

‘I miss you so much Jide,’ she looked around and nodded her head. ‘Its sad what the world has turned into. She stared at her palms, her tears dropping on them. We are all dead,’ and then she stared at the flesh eaters again, ‘some are just more dead than others.’

I was confused; I still couldn’t understand why the flesh eaters didn’t attack us. She looked at me and she smiled as if she knew exactly what I was thinking about.

‘They are also lost souls, just like every one of us,’ she held my face in her hands, ‘we are all lost Jide, and sometimes all we need is some direction and a ray of hope.’

I didn’t understand.

‘Everything is connected Jide, we all are connected. I feel connected to all their lost souls. I feel their pain,’ more tears streamed down her face as she turned to stare at them, they all stared back, flesh hungry, hateful, but controlled. Controlled by my mother? I didn’t understand.

I looked at the general, and he looked as confused as I was. He kept his gun in position. My mother looked at him.

‘Who’s your friend?’ She asked.

General Yakubu turned to her, his gun aimed directly at her. My Mother walked towards him. He kept his aim.

He could shoot; I saw it in his eyes. What had come over the general?

‘Drop your gun, General! It’s my mother!’

‘It’s a trap. Don’t you feel how strange all this is?’ General Yakubu kept his gun aimed at my Mother. ‘You told me yourself that your mother was one of them, and now she’s like us, and then the flesh eaters are not attacking us yet. Okoro might be up to something here.’

It was confusing, I agreed. But I knew Okoro; he would have killed my mother if he had the chance. Still I couldn’t explain the zombies and my mother. Were they being controlled by someone? Was my mother being controlled?

I saw her eyes. I felt her spirit. It was her.

She continued approaching General Yakubu..

‘She’s my mother...please, lower your gun,’ there was a grace; an ethereal aura that enveloped her.

She got to the general and stared deep into his eyes. ‘Lower your gun; general...we are on the same side here.’

I watched in amazement as General Yakubu slowly lowered his gun. ‘How about the flesh eaters?’ the general, looked at the strangely docile flesh eaters that surrounded us, looking confused and bewildered.

‘They won’t harm you. They are your friends now,’ my mother took General Yakubu’s face in her hands.

General Yakubu stiffened for a second, and then he completely lowered his gun. First a little bit perplexed, then he became more relaxed. ‘How come,’ the general asked, confused by everything that was happening. I was also as confused as he was, but I was happy to see my mother.

‘I think its faith, General…faith,’ my mother answered calmly, also reminiscing on what she had said. There was something out-worldly about her, something almost divine.

General Yakubu relaxed, then looked at me and nodded before returning his gaze to my Mother.

‘I’m happy you could stand by my son in times like this...Thank you.’

‘Your son is a great man,’ he continued staring at my mother. I could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t sure what to make out of everything that was happening, but he trusted me.

My Mother looked around, and looked at me, ‘I don’t understand all of this myself,’ as if she had read my mind. She looked up to the sky, ‘What had the world turned into? We are all dead...’ she looked at me, ‘...your dad ...your sister. It’s so sad.’ Tears streamed down her eyes. ‘It’s so sad.’

Everywhere was suddenly silent. The flesh eaters all moved around in silence, not paying attention to our presence. General Yakubu looked around in bewilderment, himself quiet. The atmosphere was odd... the eerie silence. As if the world had stood still to weep with my mother. I walked up to my mother and held her in my arms.

The embrace of a mother... how odd it was, how strange. Memories of my earlier days flashed in my mind, my mother driving my sister and I to school. Our friends, our neighbors, our extended family, cousins, aunts... my dad, the people who had been part of the days when everything made sense where all gone. All dead, even the wind was silent.

Silence…

My Mother looked into my eyes, her face wet with tears, ‘it’s so sad.’

My Soul cried. I could not get tears to come out of my eyes. I looked into my mother’s tear wet face. It was beautiful.

So sad…

Z

Akpos scanned the building from a distance. It was a do or die affair, direct orders from His Supremacy Okoro. He admired Okoro. He was strong and he had the iron will to take the settlement to greater heights. That Jide wasn’t good enough. He was weak, soft and didn’t deserve to be a leader, good riddance. He would finish him off personally. The weakling was going to die by his guns. A smile formed on his wrinkled face.

There was no sign of life in the big mansion that was supposed to have the enemies; Jide, a certain General Yakubu, and the girl. They were to finish off Jide and the general and bring the girl back alive, and unharmed, and in one piece.

He wished he was authorized to deal with the girl a little. She signified the old world, the world that the rich oppressed the poor, and if you didn’t have money, you were nobody. The world where he was an ordinary street urchin and nobody cared about him. He preferred this world where survival was for the fittest, and nobody cared about how much you had or what your name was, or what family you belonged to.

She was a living breathing human, and he hated that. The fact that she could breathe, taste, feel, was evil, yes, everything from that world was evil. Things where better this way. If they were all dead, they deserved to be. It was God’s punishment for a cruel world. They were now gods themselves…immortal. They could not die unless they were killed, and that was real power- Okoro’s quote. Okoro was a legend. A new legend for a new age, and very soon, he’d be a legend himself. He would be the greatest legend; it was only a matter of time.

There were about twenty men sent on the mission. They had strategically surrounded the building. He was sure they must have seen them from inside, because of the cameras stationed at different spots on the fence. Jide and the general must have armed themselves, but they were more armed, ready to fight to the death.

Death to Jide...

Death to the general…

As for the young lady, she was lucky Okoro had given direct orders, if not, he would have given himself the pleasure of tearing her apart, but not until he had given her pleasure, which he knew he wouldn’t feel one bit, but the sight of pleasure and pain on her face would have given him the utmost pleasure. He would still get his chance he thought.

He signaled to the men, all armed to the teeth, all ready to kill.

It was time to lay siege.

Z

Nneka had seen them from the monitors in the living room. From her estimation, they were about twenty of them. And they intended coming inside. She knew of the security installations the General had installed around the house, but she didn’t trust those things. They would have worked well with a hundred flesh eaters; those uncoordinated beasts wouldn’t have stood a chance against all the booby traps and installed sub machine guns, mines, strategically positioned around the house, but the undead she saw outside looked like a tactical unit. They were heavily armed and their movements were extremely calculated.

She had to think. The security installation could take out half of the zombies that now surrounded the house. The element of surprise was a big factor; they wouldn’t expect what was coming to them. But then the other half that would possibly get in would definitely get her since she was the only one around. They would have certainly walked to their deaths if the general was around, but she didn’t stand a chance alone.

She decided she wasn’t going down without a fight. She hadn’t come all this way to be gunned down by some trigger happy wanderers. She watched them as they positioned themselves around the house, getting ready to storm in. The way they moved exposed some military training, they came here for a purpose. She had been wrong; they were no wanderers, and the way they moved cancelled that out.

They were there for a purpose.

Her…?

The General…?

Jide…?

She wasn’t sure, but she would soon find out.

Think Nneka! She thought to herself.

The Armory!

Of course, she was going to give them a fight of their lives. She had come this far, and now she also knew that the world depended on her. She was going to give them a fight.

She had once followed the general into the armory, and she had in one glance caught the general’s password. Other people might not have, but she was careful to catch it.

‘Mariam’ ‘zainab’ ‘paradise’ were the three words that made up his password. They were Mariam his wife, and Zainab his only daughter, both lost during the Transition. But he believed they were in paradise, away from hell, what earth had eventually turned into. He didn’t go into the details of how he lost them, she was sure the memories were too painful.

She had memories that haunted her too- painful, horrific memories. She chose to lock them up in some distant place in the crevices of her mind where she couldn’t reach easily. Any attempt to would tear her apart, drive her to the very edge of her sanity. She might as well end up like one of the ravenous flesh eaters that roamed the streets.

The Armory was waiting for her. It was ready for her, and all she had to do was get ready.

She heard an explosion outside followed by a slight tremor. One of the damned zombies must have been caught in one of the mines. They were all damned; she was going to make sure of that. She wondered if the general and Jide were on their way. She hoped they came soon.

Jide…She wasn’t sure why the name just came to her mind. Just the name, no thoughts attached, no other name attached.

She wondered what could have happened if they had met before the transition. It was sad that she might not be alive to even get to know him better. That was the world as it was now, there was no time for such.

She picked up an N44 electromagnetic blaster, and a smaller sub-machine gun that shot strong electromagnetic blasts. They were coming in to meet one angry chic.

She took the stairs to the top floor, from there she was going to observe, wait, calculate, then strike. She had also taken a mobile monitor that was linked to the cameras in the house. She could switch between cameras, that way she would know where the intruders were at every point in time. They were many rooms in the house; she would stay in any one of them, bid her time, and she would take them out one by one.

She had fought flesh eaters and survived. These undead, like Jide and General Yakubu were different from the flesh eaters, they were essentially human, and these ones looked specially trained, but she was ready for them. She would stay and fight. It’s what she’d been doing for years.

Z

Akpos was furious. Nobody said anything about mines and machine guns with intelligence. He had lost almost half of his men and he hadn’t even gotten into the house. Two of his men had exploded into tiny bits just before the rest got to the door. He was definitely going to kill somebody. Since he couldn’t kill the girl, Jide and the general will suffer for it.

They placed a grenade beneath the metal door and backed off. One massive controlled explosion took the door out. It was now time to go in. The remaining men rushed in, guns ready, ready to kill.

‘Find them! Find them!’ he barked. They hadn’t seen anybody yet, but he was sure they would be here somewhere in the house, they couldn’t have escaped in such a short time. He had also left some men strategically positioned round the house, to alert him if they saw anybody attempting to escape.

Akpos was furious, why are Jide and the general not coming out to fight like men. Hiding like Chickens, it will only make their deaths more grueling. He was going to tear them apart, limb after limb. They moved from one room to another on the ground floor. It was a big building and had quite a few rooms. He wondered if the general had owned the house before the Transition. That will make him one of the rich people that oppressed the poor; his hate for the general grew.

‘Come out you cowards!’ he shouted at the top of his voice. He wanted Jide and the general to hear him. He wanted them to shiver with fear wherever they were hiding. But they couldn’t hide for too long; he was going to find them wherever they were hidden.

‘Come out! Come out! Come out!’ he was going crazy with rage. Those idiots thought they could hide from Akpos. Never!

‘Make sure you check every single room. Every single room in this house must be checked,’ he barked at his men. He held his gun straight. He didn’t want any surprise attack from a gun trotting Jide and General Yakubu.

‘Flush them out. Nobody’s leaving this house without the heads of Jide and the general,’ he yelled at the top of his voice. He wanted Jide and General Yakubu to hear him. He wanted them to hear him and shiver with fear. He wanted them to tremble with terror.

Z

Nneka could hear them moving around the house, opening one door after the other. She waited, gun in hand…ready.

The darkness had gotten familiar, so she was neither afraid of it nor scared of it. Before she moved to the general’s secured mansion, she had stayed in the dark for days unending with the aim of preventing the flesh eaters from noticing her. She would do everything she needed to do in the dark, darkness would be her cover.

Even her mind had gotten accustomed to darkness. Not in the physical form, but in a way that kept her sane in a world that didn’t make sense. The darkness had become a place of solace. She had had to lock a lot of good memories away in the darkness, memories that would make her remember the good times, when there was love, and smiles, and happy faces. Even the bad memories where locked in the darkness, the memories of death, of losing loved ones… of killing loved ones.

Those memories were better left shot in the dark recesses of her mind. Memories that could push her to the brink of insanity…memories that could push her to limits that she couldn’t even imagine…memories that could destroy her very soul…

She waited in the darkness, waiting for the first zombie to walk in through the door she stared at with so much intensity…waiting for the kill.

Now she didn’t care whether she lived or died. Maybe it was better she died than live in this insane world. The earth should look for hope somewhere else. She had gotten tired and weary of the whole staying alive business. She had gotten tired.

She would still fight, not just to stay alive at all cost, but also to prove to herself and those walking corpses that she was a fighter, and she would never give up without a fight. She was a fighter, she had been a fighter, and she would fight to the death.

She sat there in silence, waiting in the darkness.

The door knob turned a few degrees. Someone was at the back of the door.

She placed her finger on the trigger, a smile forming on her face. She wondered why the smile was there. There were zombies out there that were going to kill her, and she had a smile on her face? She wondered if she had started going mad.

The door opened slowly. She aimed at the opening, fingers pressed lightly on the trigger ready to shot at the first moving thing that came into the room.

The zombie came in head first.

Bloody…Deadly…mistake.

She pulled the trigger, sending the zombie flying back crashing into the adjacent wall.

That would have gotten the attention of the other zombies. She quickly got up, and dashed out of the room. She had to move fast. She scanned down the corridor. No zombie was there yet, but she could hear several feet moving towards the room. They had probably heard the shot and where heading towards the source of the sound.

She was looking at the zombie lying headless on the floor, smoke and contorted flesh replacing where the head once was. She had used a double powered mini shot gun, light weight but powerful. She quickly ran into a small store room just before the end of the corridor. She was lucky enough not to have any zombie reaching the corridor before she got there.

Her plan was to have them converge at the room she had come out from. Then she would take them out from behind.

She heard feet run past the storage room, her plan was working well. She immediately came out of the room; two zombies were staring down at the lifeless zombie. They didn’t have enough time to see what was coming at them, she made sure of that.

One shot took one of them out from behind, and the next one went down with similar ease, she felt like one of the characters in the many action films she had seen growing up. She was a gun trotting bad ass.

She didn’t know there was already one in the room she previously hid. It came out and aimed at her, but for some reason he hesitated. She sent a bullet right into the middle of his temple sending another zombie to its death- the second time.

Four down, she wondered how many more to go.

‘Don’t move young lady,’ she heard the strong male voice from behind her, ‘if you do, I’ll blow you away.’

Two zombies came in front of her, their guns aimed at her, but for some reason, they didn’t shoot.

‘Now drop that gun of yours and turn around slowly,’ she looked around, there were three zombies in front of her, and another four behind her, and they all had their guns pointed at her. She saw the hatred in their eyes. She saw the intent to riddle her with bullets, but for some reason, they all restrained themselves. She dropped her gun.

‘Now slowly turn around,’ the same voice commanded. She turned around and looked into the zombie’s eyes. His eyes were terrifying, but they didn’t terrify her. She saw the hatred in his eyes. He hated her. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was in charge. He wanted to kill her with every single dead cell in his body, but for some strange reason he didn’t.

‘Tell me where Jide and the general are,’ the zombie who must have been equally rough looking when he was alive asked with so much intensity and hatred his voice vibrated.

She smiled, ‘They are not here.’ They were carrying out somebody’s orders. The same person had probably ordered them not to harm her.

‘Don’t lie to me young lady,’ he barked, ‘I will cut you in two if you don’t talk.’

She remained calm, ‘If they were here none of you will probably still be standing.’

That vexed the leader of the pack. His finger tightened on the trigger of his gun. He wanted to kill her. She could see the battle that was raging in his mind. Whoever gave the orders must be very powerful for them to follow his orders to such length. She wondered who it was.

He walked up to her and stood directly in front of her.

‘You must think you are very funny,’ he looked down at her with so much hatred, ‘when the time comes, I will kill you myself,’ and he meant every word of it.

The depth of his hatred caused goose bumps all over her body. What she saw in those eyes were disturbing. In front of her was a very disturbed man, one who would take pleasure in causing suffering. His eyes were dark and cold, nothing like Jide’s.

Jide… She wondered if he was safe, or if she would ever see him again.

‘Take her away,’

Z

Akpos looked at their lady prisoner, Nneka. Sadly, he had to personally take her back to the settlement, he would have loved to wait for Jide and General Yakubu, and kill them himself. He was getting tired of all the orders, but he respected Okoro.

Okoro was the only person he respected. He didn’t fear him, but he respected him.

He ordered five of his men to stay behind and wait for Jide and General Yakbu. He had a feeling his men were not going to be able to stop those two. He hoped they didn’t, that he would have the pleasure of stopping them himself.

One thing he was sure of was that the general was going to come after his little girl, and Jide was going to try to avenge his mother, but he was going to be waiting for them. He was enjoying this game. A smile formed on his face.

As for the young living girl, Nneka, he was going to cause her pain…

Pain beyond anything she had ever seen or experienced.

Z

General Yakubu was deep in thought. He drove on, with Jide by his side, and his Mother, at the back sit.

He looked into the rear view mirror and looked at her, she caught him staring and she smiled. Something in those eyes was strange. They were all dead, and had dark hollow eyes, but there was something deep in her eyes, something very powerful.

He remembered when he held the gun to her face at Ikeja. He was intending to shoot, because everything felt strange, and he thought she was a decoy planted there by Okoro, but with time he understood that the woman that stood before him was more powerful than anybody thought.

The ride was fairly silent, Jide just chipped in some words once in a while and she answered. He could imagine how odd Jide must feel. He must have gotten used to being alone, and now that the mother he had fought so long for was here, catching up was awkward.

Nobody wanted to discuss the events before the Transition, because they brought too much pain. He had his own pain. A pain that tore at his heart daily…a pain he didn’t want to remember. He had lost everything that was special to him.

He could see that Jide loved his mother very much and could give his life for her, but even the young man was confused.

The whole Ikeja incident was strange. The flesh eaters had listened to her like dogs listening to their master. The flesh eater’s eyes had betrayed their actions. He was sure they wanted to tear himself and Jide apart, but something...someone restrained them.

Jide’s Mother restrained them. Unexplainable, but that was exactly what had happened, he had seen nothing like it in his entire life- even after the transition when everything that happened was unbelievable.

It was sad what the world had turned into. He had fought in wars, seen hundreds of deaths, escaped death, but nothing compared to this. Life was still bearable even though man was always on a quest of self-destruction, but this was total annihilation, and for what reason... He wasn’t sure. What brought death to every living being on earth?

Was it God? Was it some top secret experiment? Was it some evolutionary shift? Or was it just purely nature asserting itself in a way nobody understood? Could it have been the Devil?

What had brought such evil on the earth, such evil that nothing could survive it? Was it man’s sin?

If it was spiritual, then was Nneka really the hope they had been waiting for. Could science bring them hope if it couldn’t save them in the first place?

He had spoken to Doctor Majekodumi of the Marina Centre about his thought but the doctor believed there was hope and Nneka offered a hope closer than there had ever been. Tests and experiments proved this. He hoped the doctor was right, and everything could go back to normal.

Normal...he wondered if mankind could ever return to normal, dead or alive.

They took a turning that would lead them to his mansion. He thought about Nneka for a moment. She had been like a daughter to him. She reminded him of his lost wife and daughter...lost to the transition. He liked to think of his wife and daughter as lost...gone to a better place. The thought of them turned into one of those beasts roaming the streets made his heart bleed. He prayed every night, for God to keep them in his bosom.

He wished they had died and transited to paradise… he prayed they had, he wasn’t so sure what had become of them.

He wanted to cry, but he could not.

They had traveled to Kaduna to see his mother in-law before the terrible plague that turned every living creature into zombies broke off. He hadn’t seen them since then.

When he saw Nneka; memories of his wife and daughter came flooding back. They were both beautiful and elegant women, his heart ached every day for them…

Every single day.

As they got closer to the house, he felt something was wrong. Had the house been attacked? He could see smoke coming out of the house from a distance.

He stepped on the accelerator sending the hummer roaring forward. He took the sharp bend that led to his house, and confirmed his fears. A thick smoke emanated from the house.

The first thing that caught his eye was a gun wielding zombie standing in front of his gate. The zombie aimed at the hummer and opened fire, but the bullets only bounced off the SUV like rain drops. He drove straight into the zombie, sending him and the car crashing through the gate.

Nneka!

If anything had happened to her, he would not forgive himself.

The zombie held on to the front of the hummer  as General Yakubu kept driving until he came to an abrupt stop by crashing into a wall with the squashed zombie squeezed between the hummer and the wall. 

The General rushed down, taking his AK47 and a sharp shiny machete with him. Rage engulfed him. The zombie guy was going to pay if they had done anything to Nneka, and if they hadn’t, he would still pay.

Jide came down from the hummer, taking an electromagnetic gun with him. Mrs Diaro, Jide’s mother stayed in the car, hands on her mouth, tears streaming down her eyes. She had tried to hold her son back, but Jide was as enraged as General Yakubu, ‘Mum, I’ll explain everything,’ Jide had told his mother.

‘Where is she?’ General Yakubu asked the trapped zombie in a guttural scream that surprised both himself and Jide, but none of them cared. Nneka just had to be safe. He wouldn’t forgive himself if anything had happened to her. A clean sweep took one of the zombie’s hands off from the elbow.

He had just started with him, and with whoever else was involved in breaking into his house. He saw the fear and terror in the eyes of the fallen soldier. The same eyes he had seen so many times before. In wars he had fought when he was alive. The Nigerian Civil war, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, the terror that was the same in every soldier that knew his end was near. He knew they had been sent here to get Nneka, and probably also Jide and himself. He sent several bullets into the zombie, turning the black uniform he wore into something worse than a rag.

‘Where is she?’ the zombie was still alive. Dead, but alive, a zombie didn’t die so easily. They were all dead once already, to die a second time always took quite some effort. Jide surveyed the surrounding, he was sure this zombie was not alone.

‘She is back at the settlement,’ the shaken zombie answered.

‘What settlement?’ General Yakubu wanted to take him out in one clean sweep, but he needed to know what had happened to Nneka, ‘Who sent you?’

The Zombie hesitated. The General had lost his patience, he wasn’t sure what he was doing anymore, striking with the Machete, or bathing the trapped zombie with bullets, he did both without remorse, ‘Who?’ He asked more emphatically.

‘Okoro,’ the battered zombie answered, ‘Okoro, sent us.’

Two zombies had come rushing out of the mansion, but Jide had put them out with two precise shots of the electromagnetic gun.

As for the battered zombie, he met his end… the second time.

It was sad what the world had become, a place of death. He was a zombie…they were all zombies…and zombies where dead.

Another two zombies met their ends in Jide’s hands. The Foolish things just rushed out to their deaths. He wondered who gave the pathetic creatures military uniforms…foolish soldiers.

He stared at the fallen zombie in front of him. Nneka was gone, and he was going to find her no matter what. Even if it meant felling every single zombie that existed in this dead world, he would do that and bring her home. She was all he had now.

She was gone, but he would find her.

Gone…