REVERSE 2370

CHAPTER SEVEN

DAYS BEFORE

The journey was excruciatingly slow, long and painful. My broken arm throbbed painfully, the sluggish movement didn’t make it any better. Behind me Asha walked very close to the very tall dark man for support. The action didn’t seem odd, zombies walked very close to each other. I could only wonder how much pain he was going through but this was the only way to escape this things, we couldn’t risk playing dead and then getting our brains snatched out of our heads.

When darkness fell on us I noticed they stopped moving and became a little disoriented. “what’s going on?” Abayomi breathed

They seem to have lost the ability to see. I turned from side to side in search of any escape route. The absence of light made that a little hard I had to squint to get a better look of my surrounding. “what’s behind the ivy?” I wondered. There stood a wall about ten steps away from where we stood. It wasn’t so big, it was covered in ivy however with a closer I noticed what looked like a large whole.

My eyes widen when I realize what that was, “a tunnel.”

“guys,” I called in a quiet voice. “there’s a tunnel right there if we get those ivies out we’ll be able to get through….. quietly.”

“wait.” I took small steps towards it and tried to remove the ivies as quietly as I could.

We stumbled into the strange looking tunnel ivies covered almost every single part of the tunnel, the parts without had diabolic carvings. As if that wasn’t enough, the place was littered with the remains of dead people, blue awkard looking dead people. The whole place stank so badly I thought we could easily perish from inhaling all of this. Quickly, I tore out a small piece from my bloodied shirt so I could cover the noses of the children, they already looked green. Alina helped Anne and Zoya tear out a piece from their cloth to shield their nose from the awful smell.

“what is this place?” Alina asked, a tinge of wonder in her tone. She bent over to get a closer look at them. “they all seem to have deep gashes.”

Truly, they all had this horrid gash by the sides of their heads. However those gash weren’t the only strange thing, there was a something like an L and the letter I crossed over it carved into their arms, it was so deep I could almost see their bones, they looked appalling.

“who would carve something on a person until their bones were showing.” There was a tall woman who had come long with Alina, I had no idea what she was called but she looked fit I could tell from the muscles.

“so eerie and bizarre,” she commented, “I wonder what they used this people for.”

A deep frown creased Abayomi’s face. “like what happened to all this people.”

“oh I know,” I started, “initially I thought the prisoners were their only lab rats, seems to me they picked other people or else they wouldn’t be as much as this I can even sight two small children from the pile of dead bodies.”

“can.. can we just leave already?” Anne retched so much that she almost couldn’t speak. Alina moved towards her and rubbed her hand in circles on Anne’s back.

Zita’s nails dug into my skin making me wince a little, her ashen face screamed nothing but fright, John already had vomit all over his shirt.

“it’s okay,” I lied through my teeth but they didn’t even look convinced I couldn’t blame them, there were dead bodies sprawled out on almost every part of the tunnel.

“we shouldn’t stand here asking questions, let’s keep moving or else your friend here would not even make it to another day. If we leave now I’ll be able to fix him up a little.” I looked towards the man Asha had been leaning on for support, he didn’t look all too happy that we now stood observing dead bodies.

“we have no idea where the tunnel leads, who knows it could be leading us to our own death.” Another thought.

Standing up straight, I looked straight up to wherever this tunnel might be leading. “there’s only one way to find out.”

The tall well built lady walked behind me, the kids including Zoya and Anne walked behind her, Alina and Abayomi walked in from of both Asha and the broody dude, the tall light skinned guy walked behind them. I noticed that every now and then he would look over his shoulders.

For many hours we walked through the tunnel, I could feel my heart beat furiously against my ribs. I tried my best not to bite my nails knowing they were soiled with dirt.

We meticulously walked towards the end of tunnel only to find out that there were barriers blocking us from getting to the other side.

“the planks are quite strong,” I observed, “how do we get them off?”

“No,” the fair guy spoke for the first time, he sounded a little rusty. He felt the planks, “a little and we’re out.” He added.

We moved back as he took out the gun from his back. He shot at it a couple times, he stopped and turned to us, signaling for help.

With strenuous effort we were able to get them out of the way. Before walking out of the tunnel I turned to make sure the rest were okay.

Abayomi and few others turned on their torch lights as it was still dark out.

“the tunnel leads to a field?” I was confused as well.

Asha’s helper stopped for and looked at us, “wait, your friend needs a break, maybe I could fix him up a little he isn’t going to make it to the morrow.” True to his words, Asha’s breath was growing thin and ragged.

The tall lady handed him the flask that hung on her waist, “here you might need this.”

“there’s a little cut on your stomach ,” he helped Asha seat on the ground, the lady knelt behind him to keep him from falling. “his might hurt,” he announced.

I recalled that there was still a knife with me. “why don’t you stick this in his mouth?”

He looked at me with uncertainty, “uh no thanks a cloth would do.”

“pity,” I shrugged, “this then?” for the second time I was offering my special hankie to someone else, usually I wouldn’t cause it belonged to Laban one time but given the circumstance I didn’t have that much of a choice Asha’s painful moans might attract unwanted attention.

“this would do.” He stuck the cloth in Asha’s mouth, he used his teeth to open the flask. “this would hurt,” he warned again.

He poured a little liqour onto the stomach wound and pressed with a small towel I didn’t know he had. Asha let out a painful morphed moan, he struggled against the lady but her grip was so tight.

They spent quite some time fixing Asha, he looked so pale from all the torturous process his breath was shallow. A cloth now wrapped around his stomach. “he’ll get better with time, there’s a little fever and I avoided doing anything to the leg…. For now.”

“we should keep moving.”

Alina helped with the kids just as she had been doing since she arrived. Zoya and Anne followed quietly. Anne’s legs looked swollen, I could only imagine what she was going through. Silence fell on us as we continued our journey. The atmosphere was thick with sadness as we dragged our feet tiredly like dead eyed zombies. We all had lives of our own and all of those were snatched away in the blink of an eye, we had it all but now we were struggling to survive even those who got infected had lives just like we once did now all they did was shuffle and grunt and scramble around looking for humans to tear at. People, filled with so much emotions were nothing other than mindless and unremorseful now.

I was too invested in my thoughts that I didn’t see the small rock in my way, I tripped and fell with my face. Groaning when the pain shot up my right arm, Anne was by my side in no time. “are you okay?” she asked in concern.

“I’m,” I paused mid speech when I felt something wet on my palms, “could someone uhm flash the light towards my direction please?”

When they pointed the light towards me, I took a look at my hand. My hand was coated in blood?

“there there’s blood!” her body shook with fright

“there’s blood everywhere and they look …fresh?”

“that’s weird we just got out of a place filled with dead bodies and now we’re in a field covered in blood,” The tall fair guy frowned slightly, uncertainty creasing his face. “with every step we take I begin to realize that this is more than just the virus, I mean observe how the blood is all over the place not just that, seems to me several people were dragged across the grass.”

“you’re very correct, zombies are usually messing plus they don’t try to hide their victims,” Abayomi’s head snapped towards my direction. “this people are killing off survivors.”

“let’s leave please,” Anne pleaded desperately. I looked around and found that the smaller ones where asleep already.

“we probably should but the field is quite large shelter could be miles away, morning is unto us already.”

“we should split,” one suggested

“no, that’s a bad idea.” I thought for a while, “we should flip coins see what direction we should go.”

“fortunately ,” Abayomi grinned, “I have got a coin in my pocket, let me just find it.” He stuck his hand in his pocket in search of it whilst the rest of us watched expectantly. “ah here it is,” he laughed pleasantly the others couldn’t help but join in, he was cheeky as always.

“I say we go left, “Alina suggested

The other lady shook her head in disagreement. “nah I’m saying moving towards the right would be better.”

“alright Mrs Adolf head and the tall lady is taking tails, I’ll flip now.” Alina, Laban’s mom ended up winning so now we were going right.

“I never lost a bet in my life,” the tall lady bragged

“shame you lost to an old lady,” Alina mocked at her. That brought a smile to everyone’s face even I cracked a smile.

“smooth grandma,” she groaned with a playful frown on her face.

“we never really introduced ourselves to each other,” Alina said thoughtfully. “I’m Alina Adolf don’t call me Alina though I like it when Mrs is added to my name makes me feel old, you can see that I’m the type that never ages.” She boasted with a grin, “I’ve got a son he’s nineteen but he acts like he’s Kiupita’s age.” She added with a displeased look.

Truly, Laban might be older than I by three years but he acted like he was my age, no he acted like he was ten. I shook my head with a smile.

“I’m Abayomi, the science geek.”

“I’m Jabarl,” the tall fair guy announced

The later that helped with the flask grinned at him, “and I’m Amahle cute guy just in cause need to have fun.”

“Amahle! What have I told you about flirting with strangers,” the dark one hissed at her, he didn’t look so happy that she was looking to hook up with a stranger when things weren’t looking so good.

“chill Karem I was only kidding.”

“what about you, what’s your name.” Zoya didn’t look so comfortable with all the attention, suddenly there was something very interesting with feet.

“her name’s Zoya, the pregnant lady is called Anne and the dying dude is Asha,” I replied instead

“wow that’s the name of the world’s biggest wrestling champion.”

“oh it is him,” smirking when I heard the low frustrated groan from Asha.

They all gapped at him, shell shocked that all the while they’ve had Asha with them but they had no idea since he looked ugly at the moment.

“oh my gosh, I’m a big fan like you’re my hero,” the glee was clear in her Amahle’s eyes. “I’m beginning to love the apocalypse!”

“ugh nah last time a girl said she was a fan I ended up disfigured.” He sounded traumatized

“a…a girl did you this to you?” Abayomi looked around probably counting the number of girls here, he has always been the scared one.

“chile b no one would harm you well except you try something funny,” Amahle taunted.

“trust me I wouldn’t even dare, my girlfriend is scary.” He shuddered at the mention of Liupita

“wow I love how hopeful you are, you still hoping on reuniting with yo girl. How sure are you even that she lives still.”

He threw her a cold glare, “I know Liupita’s a hard one.”

“okay okay,” she threw her hands up in surrender, “was only making assumptions.”

“make none.”

The whole place was silent after that, no one wanted to speak again. The sun was already rising. We stopped occasionally to stretch our legs for a few seconds before we continued.

It was a long time before different voices began to filter through the field, we quickened our pace I asked Alina and the other person holding John to drop them or else they’ll slow them down.

“search the area for anymore survivors,” a loud voice boomed. “kill them on sight!”

I felt chills all over my body and for a moment we all stood akimbo, we were too scared to make a move. It was Alina who came back to her senses first, she jerked into action grabbing Zita’s hand in hers she took off the rest of us followed behind her.

She seemed to know exactly where she was going so we all ran along. As we kept going a fence came into view, it wasn’t so high but it was low enough for us to jump over.

The problem was getting Asha over he still didn’t have that much strength. The rest were already on the other side including myself except Karem and Asha.

“dude,” he said, “you’re going to climb with my help on the count of three.” He held onto one of Asha’s arms.

“one two three,” Asha sat on the fence with one leg at the other side. Karem crossed over and then helped him down before we continued only stopping when we found a small building. Running into it, we threw ourselves on the ground in and breathed in relief. Karem got on with fixing Asha.

“we can’t stay here for long guys,” I felt obliged to tell them that, we couldn’t forget ourselves else we might get killed.

“a little rest won’t kill so chill and not think about that for a while and forget all about zombies and fire arms.” Amahle advised light heartedly

I gave her a look before responding, “it’ll be nice if you don’t forget that.” she huffed and looked away.

Small hands fell on my legs, I looked to find John and Zita at my feet. Their innocent smile made me cringe on the inside.

Forcing a smile, “hi there.” Guilt gnawed my insides

“look,” they opened their palms to show me the wrapped item in it.

“is that candy?”

“yass, miss Ayina gave them to us?” John babbled excitedly

Zita frowned at him, “it’s Mrs Alina not miss Ayina.”

“oh okay miss Ayina,” John chirped still, with a wide smile. Zita tried to speak again but I put a finger on her lips to stop her from saying anymore.

“did you say thank you?”

They gasped simultaneously, shook their heads wildly before running to meet Alina.

I looked away from them and dropped my head in my hands in frustration, at this rate I’ll never be able to get Zita to my parents.

I heaved a sigh and shut my eyes, all this thoughts would get me nowhere.

“that arm doesn’t look too good,” Amahle, as I’ve noticed, is quite nosey I have no idea if it’ll kill to at least mind her business. I only spared a her a glance for a second or two and then looked away, I was now staring at the wall covered in graffiti. She was going to say something but stopped when heavy footsteps were heard just outside the building.

We exchanged a look before jumping into action. There was a small restroom at the corner of the room. “quick,” I said with urgency, “hide in the restroom.” I gave them no chance to speak and just forced them all inside. blocking the doorways I instructed, “don’t come out until I say so.”

“girl, don’t even think for a second that I’m going to let you go out there on your own cause I won’t.” I opened my mouth to retort but she cut me off with an icy glare, a cloud of warning settled on her features. “this are people trained to protect the kingdom and it’s people, grown men who can easily snap your neck with a single finger you’re no match for them. How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen? You’re not even an adult yet and you already want to do things by yourself.” Her eyes softened a tad bit, “times like this calls for assistance so I’ll come help you. Besides you can’t do all the cool work.”

Thinking for a good second, “I only have a knife with me, hope it’ll do?”

She smirked, “of course it would. I’ve got just one bullet let anyways.”

Amahle instructed them to leave the door the way she left it, closed. She motioned for us to wait behind the wall demarcating the sit out from the room.

“you two,” a deep voice boomed, “go the other way. I reckon there’ll be a few people hiding around just like they are here.”

“yes sir.” Came the answer.

They kicked the door open unhinging it in the process, their heavy steps echoed through the whole building causing me to shiver in fright.

“count of three you attack, you go for the neck I don’t care if it’s messy just do it.”

As their steps grew closer she counted with her fingers, at the third count we shot out of our hiding place. She kicked the first soldier on his knees and used the head of her gun to hit him hard on her head. I was too invested in how much strength Amahle had I forgot there was another soldier. Next thing I knew I was on the ground my hands around my stomach, I shuddered in pain.

I heard Amahle curse before a gunshot rang throughout the building followed by a heavy thud. Watching with blurry eyes as Amahle’s elbow connected with his nose, the soldier staggered back before immediately regaining his posture.

“I can’t believe you and Karem left the army to come live like this.” The soldier spat. I could hardly believe my ears, this people were in the army? Their build, alertness and strength should have given it all away but I just thought they were regular people who liked to gym.

“you should be happy, now you can be promoted since Karem and I quit.” She responded with a bit of arrogance

“so you prefer running everywhere just to survive?”

“you mean like you’re running from place to place looking for people to heartlessly waste just to destroy evidence.” She paused, “at least I am no one’s puppet anymore.”

No words were exchanged again they went on fighting. I laid there for a while before I was finally able to regain strength. I stood up, shook my head to get rid of my blurry vision and sprung into action. While Amahle struggled to take the gun from him, I jumped, because of how short I was, and drove my knife in his shoulder. He yelped in pain but didn’t let go of his gun. “how strong is this guy?” I asked myself

Amahle swung her left leg so it hit him square on the face, he fell on his knees to the ground. The kick must have been so painful cause now he had his head in his hands. Even in his weakened state Amahle had no mercy on him, she kicked and punched until he coughed blood.

“you might have won me now,” he drawled weakly. “but I promise you you’ll wish you were dead already by the time they finally catch up with you.”

She picked him up by his collar, face flushed in rage. “who?”

He spat on her and laughed cynically, “that is for me to know and for you to find out.”

She swiped the blood mixed with saliva from her face, the smile that crept up her face frighten even me. “right, your vehicle must be around here right?”

He looked confused for a while before his eyes widen like saucers.

“that’s right! Be scared , I love the fear I see in those big black eyes.” She stood slowly and without looking at me she instructed that I cut his thumb. With her left leg she pushed him so he was in a lying position again, she put her legs over his mouth to keep his scream from getting out.

I cut off the thumb with ease he could hardly struggle since Amahle already drained him totally.

“now tell me, who?” she asked again.

He grimaced in pain, “I would rather die.”

I frowned confused at his courage, he just had his thumb cut off and he’ll probably have the bullet in his head soon and he still wouldn’t say a thing.

“a good soldier,” she commended. “I should take you out of your misery already your breath’s shallow already.” She pointed his own gun to his head, “goodbye soldier.” And that was it, the bullet drove into his skull.

Spasm of irritation crossed her face as she looked at the now dead soldier. “pathetic,” she spat before walking towards the rest room and jerking it open.

All of their clothes were soaked with sweat, Zoya looked traumatized. “s**t,” I cursed under my breath when I thought of how hard all this might be for her knowing she went through a lot in the hands of those hoodlums.

“it’s okay,” I tried to sound convincing enough but skepticism dimmed her empty brown eyes.

“it’s okay,” I repeated slowly this time using a strong voice. “they are all gone and you’re safe and you’ll continue to be if you stick with me, with us.” I assured her, “deep breaths and you’ll be fine.” She did as I asked I left her when I was sure she was okay.

Squatting in front of the kids I place a hand on each of their shoulders, this time I could hardly fake a smile. “I promise I’ll get you both to mama and papa, you’ll be safe I promise.”

“let’s move time’s not on our side,” Karem announced. We filed out without any hesitation. I noticed Anne now limped so I put her hand over my shoulders to give her a support. Tears ran freely down her eyes, she clamped her mouth and tried to cry out. “I promise,” I simply said. She looked into my eyes, uncertainty creased her face. I looked away and repeated, “I promise.” This time she nodded.

Just as Amahle had predicted there was a vehicle outside, she called it an advanced military derived knight XV. It was a bulletproof vehicle with tainted glasses, it made use of finger prints.

She further explained that any high ranked soldier had access to any of the hundreds parked in their barracks. My brows furrowed in confusion, how come we didn’t see this.

“there are two barracks actually, the outer and the one we call hide out.” She explained like she had read my thoughts.

“can I have that thumb please?”

Just as I handed over the thumb a gunshot rang, the people around me gasped all of their attention now focused on me. Jabarl growled and took out his gun, he shot at the soldier twice before turning to me.

“what,” I snapped still confused as to why they were all staring at me.

“you have a bullet in your tummy Kiupita,” Alina gulped audibly as she explained shortly.

I looked down and saw they were right. Blinking when the first wave of pain hit me. Instinctively, I covered the wound with my left hand I fell with my knees to the ground quivering in pain. Zita was by my side crying profusely. I pulled her closer with my other hand and placed my head on hers. “it’s not blood baby, it’s tomatoe paste.” My breath was becoming shallow.

“wait little girl,” Jabarl cut in, he carried me as Amahle unlocked the car. In the car, he took off his jackets and wrapped it around my bullet wound, he urged me to try keep my eyes open and I did, I really did try but there’s only so much pain a person could take.

(PAST 2371)

KIUPITA WHIMPERED as the alcohol was poured on her wound. As the doctor went on with her she seemed to stop making small noises, her body went limp and for a moment everyone thought she was gone but then she clenched her fist.

‘ ……. ZITA’S PERSISTENT cries rang through the streets as Takura, their father, carried her in his arms and took off with the rest of the family running closely behind him. The skies cried too just as Zita did, bullets flew around people fell and went limp in their presence making Zita scream all the more. Burning buildings, screams of terror mixed with grunts from the dead eyed zombies.

Then all of a sudden it didn’t seem like they were running away from their homes anymore, now they were running away from the train stations. They ran amongst the sea of people, trying hard to make it out. There was a pregnant woman, she struggled too just like the others to make it out, almost getting stampede in the process.

Darkness fell on them when they finally found shelter, a small clinic. Kiupita and her sisters watched as their father poured gasoline all over the place and two men try to barricade the door.

“there’s a little hole at the back if we can make it out on time.” Someone announced

“how big?” Takura inquired

“not big enough, only one person can crawl through at a time.”

Heavy pounding was heard at the front barricaded door, the scrapping sounds and constant grunts was so disturbing to Kiupita she could hardly move, she stood, watching as the glass doors began to get cracks. Takura was almost out when he noticed that one of his children might still be in the building. Ignoring the calls of the rest he ran post haste back into the building.

There his girl stood watching as more cracks appeared on the doors. “pita baby snap out of it.”

She made no move.

Before he could say anything else the glass shattered into pieces.

He grabbed his daughter and ran towards the hole, he pushed her out but he would not come out himself. His sixteen year old looked at him probably feeling conflicted so he smiled at her instead. “go, go meet your mama. I love you, go.” One step back, two steps back and she was off.

Takura, lit a match and threw it on the ground, fire immediately caught the whole building.

PRESENT

LABAN STOOD OVER Kiupita when he noticed the small tears that had fallen on her face. He cleaned it before anyone else could see.

“if she wakes make sure to call on me I need to go check on the other guy,” the doctor packed her tools in a small bag, smiled at her Laban and the girl’s family before leaving.

Kiupita didn’t wake until hours later when the doctor came in to check on her again. Her eyes snapped open when a large hand wrapped around hers. Her whole body burned, she was soaked with sweat from head to toe. She panted hard and struggled to get the hands of the doctor from her face.

“hello, I’m doctor Juliana..”

Kiupita cut her off, “why’s it so hot in here? Is is there fire something?”

The doctor smiled kindly at her, “of course not darling, you just have a little fever.”

“fever?” Kiupita repeated, “you sure?” she moaned in pain. Doctor Juliana decided that it would be best to sedate her so she asked Laban for help.

“k, it’s okay,” Laban held her hands in his large ones.

“Laban…” she drawled as her eyes closed.

BLINKING WHEN MY EYES snapped open for the second time that day, I scanned my surrounding. Mama burst into tears when she looked at me papa tried to comfort her but every time she looked at me the tears fell like a water fall. In the end it was Kita my wolf that came to me first. She placed two of her paws on the small space left on the bed and whimpered. “kita, you’re a big girl now.” I ruffled her fur and as always she purred. I let Kita climb onto the bed and lay at my foot, papa took mama out and promised to come back later when she was a bit calm.

“never thought a day will come when I’ll be so happy to see your moody face.” An unexpected voice from the entrance startled me.

I rolled my eyes at Laban. “dramatic as always.” He laughed and walked towards my bedside he wanted to say something else but Asha appeared.