REVERSE 2370

Chapter Four

“oh is she yours?”

*****

Immediately picking myself up I took off towards their direction, the hairs on my body rose in fear, it wasn’t even up to five minutes that I left and there was already trouble.

A tall man bent over in front of the kids, the pregnant lady had her hands wrapped around her stomach in a protective manner.

Taking large steps towards them I roughly shoved the him away from them my small hands wrapped around his neck, the peak of my knife now pointed directly on his forehead.

“one reason why I shouldn’t drive this into your skull.”

With his head he motioned towards my back, “I saved your friends lives.”

Without taking my hands off from his neck, I look behind him to see what he meant, right there close to Zita laid a rotten human with the mouth opened and a knife stuck in it’s head.

Reluctantly, my hands fell from his neck.

“What if he hadn’t shown up?” the question ran through my mind as I reached the others.

Wrapping my hands around my sister letting her soak my shirt with her tears. “I want mama and papa,” she mumbled into my shirt. There was hardly anything I could do except tapping her on the back continuously.

“oh she’s yours?” I’d completely forgotten about the guy. “is this one yours too? He won’t stop crying either.” he grumbled with a look of helplessness

True to his words John clung onto him tightly as tears ran down his face. My eyes moved to the figure behind them to the pregnant one at their back. With Zita scared I’d completely forgotten that she was here with us, she shook in fear but tears never fell.

“we can’t stay here, their screams already drew in attention.”kneeling in front of the lady I took her right hand in mine and squeezed in a comforting way, I heard somewhere that a gesture like this brought comfort to a person.

“we….who?” he frowned deeply

“I mean all of us, heard danger lurks at every single corner of the outlands, we better hurry to find shelter.”

“you won’t be able to walk.” I whispered more to myself than to the pregnant lady

“just leave me here.” she wheezed in pain

My eyes met hers, “you say it but you don’t want it. In a way I feel insulted, I would never leave a pregnant lady behind.” she had that sad look her face, like she felt she was only going to slow me down and she didn’t want that.

“you’re not a burden,” I assured her, squeezing her hand one more time before standing.

“do you have a name?”I asked the big guy who unfortunately still struggled to get John off him, looked weird.

He gasped, “who? Me? You don’t know me?”

“you’re going to carry the pregnant lady, we don’t have much time.” looking at the kids now, I saw John had a smaller body, I was going to carry him instead.

“you can’t be serious, I can’t carry that old lady,” he gestured towards her. “that’s two in one.”

I turned and gave him a sharp look. “look big guy, we don’t have that much time on our side those rotten humans will close in on us soon.” he scrunched his nose in disgust at the mention of those zombies. “the earlier we start the better.”

“how are you so small yet so tough.” he put John down first before wrapping a hand around her knee and another on the small of her back, he did it without even breaking a sweat.

Squatting in front Zita, I held her hands and said. “John is a bit tinier than you are and he’s scared so….”

She sniffed, “you can carry John I don’t mind but don’t tell me to give him my Tommy.” She hugged her Teddy to her tightly. “I can’t give away my Tommy.”

I gave a smile.“Okay, I won’t.”

John still had snout dropping from his nose. There was a small hankie in my back pocket one which Laban had given me once long time ago, a hankie I didn’tlet anyone else touch.

I cleaned the snout and held his head in between my hands. “don’t let go of my hands it’s going to be okay.”

Our legs moved without stop, the moon was our only source of light out here in the dark, there were no torchlight or phone on us. Mine I’d purposely left behind to avoid being found out. These were simple mistakes we made in the past, we took our cells with us making it easier to be tracked. I led them with my instinct

“you’re so heavy preggy.” The man complained.

“Anne.”

“what?”

“my name Anne not preggy or pregnant lady.” Anne's gaze flickered to the man’s, she looked confusedly at his face before pulsing her lips and looking away.

“that’s a pretty name for a pretty pregnant lady but damm you’re so heavy.”

“Are you …” Anne trailed off.

“am I what?”

She shook her head. “nevermind.”

When I almost tripped, I knew we were now in a hilly path so I asked them to stop. Zombies will find it hard to get past a place as this, before they would lumber towards us we will be long gone.

Somehow along the way, John had fallen asleep, he drooled on my shirt much like Zita.“do all kids drool?” I wondered aloud

Zita looked exhausted she was close to tears, I didn’t blame her, her little head would be confused as to why there was a rotten person or the reason we raced all the way here when it was dark. Little children didn’t deserve to go through all this, a dark world wasn’t one for them it should be rainbows for them.

I gently put John on his feet, with both hands on his shoulders I tried to keep him from falling as he still had his eyes closed. A little distance from us stood a musa plant, I could cut their leaves and use them to make small beds for the kids and Anne. I shook the little boy so he’ll wake already but that itself wasn’t even easy I had to give him to the guy so I would go get the leaves. When I took one step forward my sister wrapped her hands around my legs, there was fear in her eyes and her body shook, she was going to cry again.

“it’s okay I’m not leaving you, I just want to get those leaves so you can sleep a little.” That alone was not enough to assure her that I wasn’t going that, I had to point to both the man and Anne before she let me go.

By means of my knife I cut about four leaves from the tree, they were big enough my only problem now was keeping them warm through the night, I’ve never been to a camp before and the last time I was here Laban had offered me his blanket and the rest had slept in trucks, there was nothing here except from dried leaves and small branches that should do but I couldn’t light them since it would attract the attention we did not need.

By the time I got back both Zita and John had their arms around Anne, they were asleep. Anne offered me a weak smile, I nodded in return.

“do you have any idea where we are now?” the man asked, taking a closer look at him I saw how his hair seemed to disappear with the night, he had a body that wasn’t too large and wasn’t so small either. His muscles weren’t those huge kind it was okay he had a scar on his right eyes, with the scar I could tell that he just wasn’t anyone so I asked. “who are you?”

He looked offended that I would even ask him a question like that.

“don’t you know me? I mean I’m quite popular.”

Before giving him an answer I used my legs to kick out the stones before spreading the leaves on the ground Anne was already tired from all this she needed to rest at least for a little while. “will you help me carry the girl over here, the lady needs to rest.”

He did as I asked without a single complaint. The leaves weren’t so comfortable but it was better than laying on the bare ground, my blanket would shield them from the cold.

When the trio were finally sleeping again, we sat side by side our eyes glued to the sky the nameless man kept sighing occasionally which was understandable but truthfully it was getting on my nerves. “would you stop!” I snapped.

He looked at me funny, “I still don’t understand how you do not know who I am.”

“is it that important?” I shivered from all the cold.

“of course it is, I am Asha the well known Asha, the beautiful actor and smart wrestler.” he puffed up with self-importance, “girl I’m always showing on the big screen.”

I gave him a blank look, “we don’t have one.”

Asha gapped at me, “you’re kidding right?”

“I’ve never told a joke before in my life,” I told him simply.

“that’s weird, I mean even though you don’t have a TV your friends would have me all over their lockers or squeal my name in the hallways all the time.”

“Laban doesn’t squeal when a guy’s name is mentioned he only does that when there’s an insect around.”

“hold up, you do not have female friends right?”

“just Laban.”

When Asha gave me a smile I gazed into his dark eyes, “maybe this one was already judging me.” The thought crossed my mind.

“trying to see if I’m judging you?” he chuckled but didn’t take his eyes away from mine, “what are you called?” he asked

“Kiupita.”

His eyes seemed to lighten up a bit more, “love huh? Your parents must have really nice taste.”

Shrugging, “maybe, maybe not.”

“how old are you Kiupita?”

No answer came at first, I looked down at my sister before replying, “sixteen.”

“never would have guessed cause you’re so tiny,” he looked at me in awe. “how did you amass such great strength at your age?”

“experience.”

“you look angry.” his smile was replaced with a frown, my eyes left where my sister laid and met his.

Anger, one emotion I was most accustomed to, the rest might be strange to me but anger wasn’t. Even then when I was nothing but a hindrance in Liupita’s life anger was what I felt the most, it only never showed when Laban was with me or Zita. I was angry because I couldn’t tell or even express how I really felt inside, I was unhappy and miserable but I could say nothing, I wanted to be more than just a puppet but I could say nothing. I could not even scream out loud without people hoarding my space like I had no right to.

“I am angry.” But then I had no rights to be angry, seeing as I hurt my sister so much and now I've hurt my father, I wonder what he thought about me now, he probably thought of me as a stranger now. All the things I did I regret them so much I wish I could take six steps backwards and amend my ways but it won't happen. I felt bad because the only reason I feel so much regret is the fact that my papa knows now.

“you must have gone through a lot for a girl your age to have this much strength.” He looked away, “when I was a kid I was bullied too and laughed at because I was fat and too small than my age, the thick rimmed glasses didn’t help my case either so I went on to become a wrestler.”

“if you’re telling me this because you pity me or you probably think you and I have something in common then save it, I don’t think we’re alike in anyway and I definitely don’t need your pity, I’m doing pretty okay, I’m always okay.” the last part was whispered.

Asha threw his head back and laughed. “I wasn’t pitying you infact if there was someone I pitied then it’s the people who will make the horrible mistake of crossing you cause girl you ain’t nice to begin with.”

I glared darkly at him for his last statement.

“chill b, I was only kidding.”

He laid down with his hands under his head, “if I had known an apocalypse was coming I could have brought a trampoline with me, yunno I just jump jump jump on it and shoot shoot shoot at their skulls.” he laughed hard at his own joke. Silence followed afterwards.

“before all this.” he started, “I had this girl I liked that broke my heart, she had called to tell me it was over but I wasn’t home so my answering machine just passed the info to me.” he laughed at himself pathetically. “so I flew all the way from Kingdom of Asia to your Kingdom to get better two days later my friend who was and probably still is in the army, that is if he hasn’t been barbecued by those living dead.” Again he laughed at his own joke before continuing, “anyways Carlos called to let me know that a message more like a warning was sent to them from an unknown source, they claimed that there was going to be an apocalypse and we had to prepare for it.” he paused and looked at me with sad eyes, “Carlos and I made a joke with it and called the person delusional and probably living in another world but I guess we were the delusional ones. They were right but we were wrong, whosoever that was must be tucked safely away from all this mess because they prepared for it, they were ready for it but the jokes on us all.”

“some of them are actually tucked safely away from all this mess but the one who sent you the message isn’t, she is after all sitting next to you.”

He gasped when he finally understood what I was saying, “you!” he exclaimed, “you mean to say that message came from you, it came from Africa! From a measly sixteen year old?!”

“you say Africa like it is unable to give the world one good thing, many years of civilization and you all still look down on us and is it wrong that for a teenager to have sent a message as such?”

“oh no I didn’t mean it like that, I meant that the place where I decided to go was actually the place the message came from, I’m even more surprised that it came from a small lady.”

“mm,” I hummed with a nod. “It didn’t really come from me I asked Abayomi to send the message across so he practically did the work not me.”

“how come you’re still out here considering that fact that you were the one who saw this coming.”

“I went back for something precious,” I looked back at Zita’s sleeping form.

“you went back for her,” he stated.

“who is she to you?”

“sister,” I replied shortly just the same way I had done to Anne.

“wow there is actually no indication that you are of one blood, I mean you’ve got this dirty brown hair and hers is golden brown, fair skinned and you’re dark, black eyes and hers brown.” he babbled on.

He was correct, I looked nothing like Zita just as I looked nothing like Liupita my twin sister people almost never believe it when they are told that we’re twins reason because whilst my sisters take after my mother I took after my dad except in terms of height, I was as small as my mother but not as beautiful.

“so you know a way out of here?” he broke me from my train of thoughts.

“not out of this lands if that’s what you’re asking, this is the only safe place as of now anywhere else is infested by those rotten humans but I do know a place where we can be safe for now at least, that is where we were heading to before you met us ” I turned back this time to check on the pregnant lady, she was shivering all of from the cold, because of this I had to cut a few more leaves to at least shield them from the cold and the insects that flew all around.

“tomorrow we continue our journey, if you’re game you could still come with us.” that said, I laid beside my sister not to sleep but to lend her a little heat from my body even though she wasn’t shivering as she was before but out here it was dark and she hated darkness she could get nightmares, however, bad dreams always disappeared when someone held onto her in the dark. She latched onto me the moment I laid beside her, that action alone made me want to get even faster to a safe place and even if it killed me, I was going to do that.

The sun, though covered by a mass of dark clouds still tried to make itself known. When it was up, I woke them up so we could continue our journey. Anne had a smile on her face not the normal big one but it was alright as long as it was better than nothing, Zita was back to her normal bubbly self and John was John, quiet and asking weird questions again, Asha looked worried, I had no clue if it was because of the world’s present situation or just something personal, I didn’t bother to ask. He had woken up from his short sleep this morning with the urge to smoke, I had no clue that he had cigarettes on him he must have hid them because of the kids and Anne. He had walked a short distance and inhaled a few cigarette smoke before coming back.

Now we were back on our feet, me walking in front, Anne, Zita and John at the middle; Asha at the back. Zita and John kept talking about whatever it was little children usually talked about, sometimes Anne joined in the discussion. That was good, at least they weren’t as scared as they were before.

When we got deeper into the words, I immediately recognized a path that led to the bunker. It was all good until we were cornered by a group of seven ruggedly dressed men, they held a girl hostage, a teenager not more than thirteen, taking a closer look at her my brain went a few steps back and I immediately remembered where I met her.

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“please look after her for me, promise me you won’t let her out of your sight,” my hand held tightly onto theirs.

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“I promise,” came the soft reply

“thank you, Zoya.”

I froze in shock, “Zoya.”