REVERSE 2370

CHAPTER SIX

“Oh? But she’s dead.”

******

“She said she was following right behind.” Laban thought for the umpteenth time since they got to the bunker. He frowned deeply, “should I have waited?”

He blew a tendril of hair that fell on his face, “not the right time bluey.”

He scanned the whole place probably in hope that Kiupita's crazy hair will pop up in the crowd. Laban sighed and ran his hands through his hair no doubt blaming himself again for her absence.

It has been up to a month since they got here or so he thought. Everyday, since they got here he had counted every single minute every hour to Kiupita’s return.

Every day was spent staring, looking into space. Sometimes he would walk around just to make sure everyone was okay if he neglected the needs of the few people who had found the bunker then Kiupita will have his head.

Adjacent to him was Liupita Jaya and a few others. They kept whispering and laughing at something said, Liupita as always, had that noticeably fake smile on her face as she laughed along with the others. He doubted if she even cared that both of her sisters were outside this bunker unsafe and alone, they weren’t even sure if they still lived.

“You like her?” Laban jerked off his seat from shock, he glared at the tall girl standing beside him.

A sly smile formed on her lips, “what? Scared Laban?”

Adah, Abayomi's junior sister stood arms crossed with a smile playing on her lips. Adah was sixteen just like the Moyo twins. She was way taller than her age. Adah stood at six feet one or two inches taller than her older siblings.

The girl have always had this big crush on Laban, she together with half the female population. She like the others fought for his attention since he first arrived at the lower town of Africa, she was very vocal about how she felt.

“What now Adah? Do I owe you anything?” He groaned

“Well you’ve been unusually moody since we got here, is something wrong?”

Laban rolled his eyes at her silly question. “there are zombies out there and we are stuck her for a very long time, how am I gonna be okay?”

“Well duh obviously there are people with rotten flesh above us but,” she shrugged her shoulders, “who cares? We’re safe in here anyways.”

“My friend is up there Adah.”

“You mean that really small girl that follows you around? the one with no facial expressions?”

“Kiupita never follows me around.”

Adah scoffed loudly, “oh please,” she frowned, “that’s her name? Kiupita? Her parents have such good taste at least she has a pretty name even though she’s ugly.”

“Mind your tone girl,” Laban rebuked, he was furious at Adah for talking about Kiupita like that. “Get out if you have nothing better to say. Your brother is out there in the wide probably dead, no one knows, and all you can do is stand here to talk down on a person who doesn’t even know what you know like.” He felt too angry to even look at the girl before him. He picked himself up and walked away leaving the girl gapping after him. She had never seen him angry before.

“Laban darling.” He turned towards the small voice. He tried a smile when he realized who it was, “ah mama Pita.”

Iverem Moyo, Kiupita’s mother stood before him with a tired smile. “how are you holding up dear?”

It took a while before he understood what she meant. Since the blue haired boy arrived at the bunker the thoughts of his parents never crossed his mind for once he was too busy thinking about his friend instead.

“Oh,” he shifted from one foot to the other, “just fine. I uh have… I mean I believe they’ll get here safe so I try not to worry too much.”

“That’s good dear.” She looked away and released a breath. Laban placed his hand on her shoulder to bring her back he grinned at her in hopes that she’ll would understand what he really wanted to say. These was something Kiupita would always do when she wanted to assure anyone that she was okay, a grin even though it was fake.

The small lady chuckled, she placed a hand on his check. Like Kiupita small like Kiupita, Laban thought. “Sure Laban I would stop worrying so much. K never disappoints.”

She gasped, “ oh my I came to see if I could get a little water Takura have been coughing none stop.” She spun around and walked away whispering, “I hope this is just a passing thing,” under her breath as she went.

He turned away towards the sparse area of the bunker and watched as people struggled amongst each other some of them watched with sad expressions. He looked closer and frowned it seemed like the rich people brought their attitudes with them. He could see a bunch of individuals gathered close along the path that led to the escape room. They each had a look of disgust on their faces as they looked at the people who struggled over a can of beef.

They were still stuck in their heads, reality hadn’t sunk in yet. “A pity,” he thought to himself.

There was a loud crash and then a loud cursing. He wasted no time in finding out what the problem was.

“That’s not fair we all are trying to survive just as you rich folks so why would we be treated different.” A fat lady lashed out. Her low cut dripped with something that looked like …. Soup?

His frown deepened when he saw Jaya with her hands on her waist, an arrogant smile graced her lips.

“Deal with it oversized lady. Besides,” her eyes raked the lady before her, “you’re supposed to starve you’re so fat and ugly.” Her friends laughed. The girl turned away in shame. They were all surrounded by more than half the people in the bunker.

“What? Cat got your tongue?”

No, he had enough of Jaya's s**t. Since she realized Kiupita didn’t make it here with the rest of us she had been nothing but cruel to the others, she acted like she owned the place.

She made a rules that’ll get them to their early grave even earlier than the virus would.

“I think you should stop this now Jaya, since we got here you’ve been nothing but a burden on the rest of us.”

“what now Kiupita’s dog.” She jeered at him

He ignored that she just insulted him and went on to say what was on his mind instead. “Here we try to survive not build a hierarchy. If you keep on with all this we are all going to perish before we finally get word. In fact you have no right to go about telling people what they look like when you look everything like a bone.”

The girl who had earlier turned her face away giggled, he didn’t think anyone else heard her if they did they chose not to react.

“At least I look better than your dirty black friend.” Jaya was already red in the face she was close to exploding into a thousand pieces.

The people around them kept whispering most of them looked so angry at Jaya however he could see the smiles on the faces of those who benefited from Jaya's partial treatments.

“Just stop this Jaya, here everyone has one and the same goal and that’s to survive. Whether it’s a rich folks or a poor one all we want is to survive and if we must achieve that then we must do it together. Isn’t that the reason Kiupita showed us to this bunker?” No matter how much he tried to reason with Jaya, he could see from her body movements that she was going to take nothing from his words, she was hell bent on being a thorn in the flesh of those here. “we already have enough thorns on our flesh Jaya.”

all she did was huff and cross her hands over her chest. “whatever,” she spat and walked away from there with her minions following behind her Liupita included.

After the crowds dispersed a few girls remained. they watched every move of Laban the way his hands ran through his hair and the shiny blue eyes. Unbeknownst to Laban, he had left a few buttons of his shirt open, so everyone could actually catch a glimpse of his chest. Laban rolled his eyes at them. “To think that they’ll be more focused on surviving.”

“Uh thank you.” The voice of the person was small but sharp like his friend's. Laban looked down to see it was actually the girl Jaya just publicly disgraced.

Aliyah gazed up at the boy who just stood up for her, she thought he look every bit like a God. She’d caught a glimpse of him a few times and every time he did there was this small girl with him it was like she was the only person he associated with.

Standing at six feet seven tall. A beautiful face and a well sculpted body she wouldn’t be so surprised if they actually said he was a god.

“Hello miss.”

Aliyah blinked couple times before she was finally back to the present. “Uh yeah I wanted to say I’m grateful for what you did back there means so much to me. I just wish she’d stop all of this right now there’s no line between the high class middle class and lower class we all want the same thing just like you said.” She sighed and looked away realizing she was talking way too much. “Once again thank you.”

The smile he gave her was so blinding she almost melted into a puddle. “a pretty boy won’t help us survive this apocalypse,” she scolded at herself.

Laban hid a smile knowing fully well what was running through her head even though she tried to hide it but the admiration was clear in her eyes. She thanked him one more time before shuffling away.

“Hey Laban.”

He scowled at the girls that gathered staring. He quickly buttoned his shirts before walking out on them.

Jaya, eventually became worse. When Kiupita brought the idea of stocking up they had managed to get enough to get them through a whole year but seeing as Jaya wasted all they had it wouldn’t last even six months.

Furious was an understatement to what Laban felt. He had pleaded and even talked to a few of her friends Liupita included but they all had brushed him off

him off like he said nothing sensible.

Now all he heard around was that Kiupita was dead? He tried coming up with any reasonable reason why anyone would spread such news around. The people looked a little relived at the news and this angered Laban so much. This people’s would not have if not for Kiupita, it vexed him how people cheered when they heard the vile rumours.

Laban tossed the blanket in his hands on Kita, Kiupita’s wolf or dog he wasn’t sure what she actually was. Even the creature felt sad about Kiupita’s absence. “stay put, I’m going to meet someone If something happens to you to you Kiupita will have my head,” he whispered the last part.

“Hey bro.” Barrack turned around from were he was looking and took Laban's hand.

“You been scarce around here.” Barrack observed

“Yeah I guess but there’s something I wanted to talk to you about dunno if you got the time.”

Barrack nodded, “I know what you want to talk about and trust me I’ve talked to Jaya more times than I can count even her mum.” He sighed tiredly, “I dunno again man.”

Laban chewed the inside of his lips, he didn’t want to say anything bad about Jaya in front of her boyfriend. “my girl’s up there and if I don’t see her soon I’m going out to find her myself.”

The other guy looked at Laban like he was crazy, “you’re joking right? Going up there is dangerous, we still waiting on Issa to tell us when we could leave this God forsaken place I hate it here.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“And your parents? Why aren’t you worried about them? All you seem to talk about is Kiupita.”

“My parents will find their way here trust me they aren’t people I need to worry over. Kiupita and her sister Zita are the people I’m more disturbed about.”

Barrack shook his head in pity at the mention of Zita. “the little girl will be so scared I can’t even imagine but,” he placed a hand on Laban’s shoulders, “we can only hope that they get here soon.”

He swallowed whatever it was that he was going to say to Barrack again and just nodded his head. He stepped away from Barrack’s space immediately mixing with the crowd.

He scrunched his nose when the sweaty body of others kept bumping into his. Laban was and still is a neat freak. He had OCD tendencies but he didn’t even suffer from the disorder, always clearing something always looking for the perfect thing.

The loud voices of people filled the air blocking out most of the thoughts in his head he didn’t mind that all he wanted was to get his friend back.

He walked a little farther towards the direction of the escape door but stopped when His ears picked up what sounded like Mrs Moyo's voice. He tiptoed towards the study so he wouldn’t be seen.

“Jaya I beg you please stop spreading silly rumours about my girls being dead. You don’t know that and neither do we so please can you stop at least have a little bit of respect,” Iverem was furious with Jaya. Imagine waking up to the news that your child was gone night after night since the rumours started to go around she had hardly been able to shut her eyes. Two of her babies were out there and she had no idea if they were okay she was already going through a lot, the situation at hand already started to take a big toll in her life.

Jaya shrugged, “well they’ve been out there for months you need no rocket scientist to tell you your girls are gone.” She over her left leg over her right one.

“Stop this at least for the sake of your friend Liupita,” Iverem sounded so desperate

“I don’t ever do something for anyone.”

Laban had had enough of Jaya’s disrespectful tones, he barged angrily. “That’s too much Jaya way too much. I think you’re trying too hard to become what you’ll never be.”

“stay out of this Laban.” She sneered

“the lady just said she was tired of the rumours flying around, the lies you keep spreading.”

“I’ll do no such thing,” she spat in anger, “if she feels so bad about maybe she should go out there and find her no one wants the Moyos here anyways.”

Laban clenched his fist tightly. If Jaya was a boy she’d have a broken jaw by now. The girl was full of insubordination all the fault of her parents.

He pulled her up by her collar instead, “shut up Jaya.”

Jaya blinked surprised that Laban could have even thought of picking her up like this, roughly. All Laban was that extremely out of the world beautiful boy who followed Kiupita around. She’d always argued that he could never hurt a fly.

“Let her go Laban dear,” the older woman pleaded. After a little bit of hesitating, Laban dropped her to the ground like she was rag.

“I’m so tired please help me so I could go watch after my husband the cough seemed to have reduced but I’m still worried.” Iverem gave him a weak smile

He glared at Jaya who still hadn’t picked herself up from the ground. “okay.” He took the older lady’s hand and led her towards her husband.

*******

Adah and her elder sister, Amina, sat with their legs crossed on their mat as they both watched Jaya throw out commands.

“This girl is insane Amina.” Adah scowled at Jaya from where she sat on her mat. The amount of hate she held for Jaya was beyond words, she had never liked the girl.

Amina scoffed, “look at those ones following behind her.” she hissed, “it’s like they don’t even have a life of their own big pity.”

“walahi Amina,” Adah totally agreed with her sister. She’d always wondered if this girl’s also left their homes to follow Jaya, it truly was a pity.

“I’m so disappointed at Liupita I thought Abayomi was dating someone that had sense for once in his life, turned out she was Jaya’s mat.” Adah eyed them, “hmm my dear I actually thought all this will stop now that there was a virus going all about.”

“My dear I’m not even bothered by them if they want let them kiss her feet I don’t care.” Amina adjusted her hijab before she continued, “I’m more worried about Aba he said he was going to join us soon but He’s no where here.”

“Me I try not to worry because I know Aba is smart so he could easily outsmart those rotten things.”

Amina nodded, “true Adah but our brother is only smart not strong, he could easily get overpowered we already lost baba I don’t want to lose Aba.”

Adah sighed sadly and looked away indicating that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She have always dreaded the topic of her dead father since she was only two when he died and Amina, five. This a hard time for everyone she was grateful that at least on of her sibling made it here with her and her mother. It wasn’t an easy one but they were lucky enough to not have crossed anything that’ll endanger their lives the only difficult thing was running without stop.

“Where’s mama?” Amina asked

“She said something about going to relieve herself but I’m sure she stopped at the Moyo’s space.” She sat up straight ready to give her sister the latest gist.

“did you not hear that miss Jaya have been spreading rumours that Kiupita and Zita her sister were dead. Mama pita even went to confront Jaya about this but I heard she brushed her off.”

“heh?! Can you imagine?”

“Anyways I won’t even mind if she really was dead, if she was then Laban can finally look at me.” Adah now had that dreamy look on her face.

Amina rolled her eyes at her sister, “that’s a heartless thing to say. Whoever told you that Laban will come to you if Kiupita was dead. Or you think it’s by beauty, Kiupita is not even as beautiful as most of the girls in this rooms but still he follows her like fly follows dirt.”

“Leave me Amina you’re very annoying.”

Amina laughed. Suddenly curses rang in the air.

“isn’t that Jaya and….Barrack?!”the shock was clear in their faces there’s never been a time when Barrack yelled at Jaya he either simply ignored her or babied her.

“I will do what I want, you’re not my father.” She bellowed. Jaya’s face was red with anger.

“I said you’re too much of a dictator and you have no right to tell the people what they to do, leave it to people who are more reasonable to run this place and maintain order.” Barrack tried to keep his voice down but Jaya wasn’t having that.

“are you trying to say I have no sense?”

“You’re not sensible enough to run this place. We are all struggling both mentally and physically right now, reality hasn’t sunk in yet for some of us and here you are, adding more salt to our open wounds.”

“I don’t care I found this place so I own it.”

“you never did the credit all goes to Kiupita for warning us before hand she even found this place.”

“You sound like you admire Kiupita so much,” she added sarcastically

“Maybe I do. Look Jaya if you keep this up I’ll have no other choice but to..” he stopped himself from saying anymore

Jaya scoffed in disbelief, “what? Break up with me? I’d like to see you try.”

“I can’t do this anymore Jaya, I can’t be with someone like you since you’ve refused to listen I think it’s better we called quits.” Barrack had to keep his voice blank, there was not a single emotion playing in his tone.

Jaya staggered backwards in shock eyes wide, “you’re joking. You can’t break up with me.”

"actually I just did."

She opened her mouth to say something but a loud bang on the trap door stopped her. They paused for a while and strained their ears to listen, two seconds later another bang was heard this time it was louder.

Screams of terror filled the whole place, everyone feared for their lives. people running from one place to the other in a bid to find an escape.

Laban stood still, he strained his ears even more to listen and that's when he heard the voice.

"it's Kiupita." without waiting he dodged the bodies of the people and ran for ran towards the door completely ignoring the shouts from behind him not to open it.

He unhooked the small chains holding it and jerked the door open, he jumped out.

There stood his mother and Zita crying hysterically even Abayomi, their number seemed to have increased a great deal.

His heart stopped when he saw that Kiupita wasn't with them. "Kiupita," he whispered

"she'll die if you don't let us through." a dark man snapped before brushing past Laban. Laban noticed that there was someone in his hands. He seemed to freeze when he realized who it might be.

"Laban what are you still doing out there come on in those creatures aren't as far away from us as you think. there are army trucks everywhere."

Finally when Laban came back in and locked the door.

Most of the crowd had shifted to one corner just in case this ones were infected with the virus.

However, those who noticed that their families were part of the new arrivals did not hesitate to come over there was silence amongst them now safe for the small murmurs.

It was Adah, Amina and their mother Aisha that broke through the crowd first towards Abayomi. They all wrapped their hands around him and wept. Kiupita's parents followed Kita, Kiupita's wolf came along too. They threw their hands around their smallest daughter, Zita. kissing her all over the face.

When they finally realized Kiupita wasn't with them they seemed devasted.

Alina looked at Laban with so much guilt in her eyes, "we're we weren't aware the army were aroind as well."

The scream of Kiupita's mother filled the air, she kept asking for a doctor to come attend to her daughter. Fortunately, there was one but she didn't want ti have anything to do with them for the feae of getting infected. It was the dark man who convinced her....using force.

Both Liuputa and Laban stood frozen, watching everything unfurl before them.

"there is an army truck?" he thought, "how is that even possible?" questions kept playing in his head. he found it too hard to believe that out of every one to take that bullet it had to be Kiupita.

"what if she dies?" deep sorrow took it's place in his chest. it felt like a dark cloud over his head. Liupita felt just the same as Laban. She was confused about what to feel. she was happy that Zita and Abayomi made it but she wasn't so pleased about Kiupita's critical state.

Laban stood at the entrance of the study. He tried to watch at first but couldn't because of how pale his friend looked.

However, he had noticed the sweat that had dripped from her head and the way her fingers shook.

Kiupita was scared of something.