REVERSE 2370

CHAPTER TEN

“What was that just now?” Amahle thought to herself, her head tilted to the left and lips pressed together in a thin line.

Kiupita just made a show, she’d seen something like that before, a fellow soldier – Micheal. One time Micheal acted that way and their captain had him killed, to him, their captain, Micheal would only weaken them so his death was to set an example. The rest of them tried their hardest to not show weakness.

Kiupita, Kiupita just showed weakness. Amahle couldn’t help the fear that she now felt in her chest, she thought about all the horrible things people would say if they found out about Kiupita.

Too engrossed in her thoughts, she barely noticed everyone’s eyes on her.

“Amahle,” Kareem snapped his fingers in her face. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing’s wrong.” She rolled her shoulders as she walked towards Kareem. She gave him a small smile to reassure him that she was okay.

Her mind took her back to their school years, when she and Kareem first met. They were going to write the states examination, the exams that determined a person’s future, if they passed exceptionally they were moved to the upper part of the city, in other words, the exams determined who would stay poor and who would be alleviated to a higher status. Anyways, when she met Kareem he’d been a lanky fellow, barely reaching her shoulders but now he packed a muscle and about two inches taller than you was.

“What’s funny?” Kareem arched a brow at his friend.

Amahle shook her head no.

“Is there a solution yet?” she cracked a finger as she asked.

“Nah,” he answered and turned his attention back to the computer screen. “Don’t you think you should check the clip from two days ago, Abayomi?”

Without wasting anymore time, Abayomi played it. App eyes remained glued to the screen, they waited for even the slightest movement but they found none. They all turned towards Barrack and gave him a look of displeasure.

“look stop playing around Barrack, it’s not a good time.” Amahle frowned at him. She didn’t understand why Barrack would make such an expensive joke, he gave them a false alarm.

Barrack shook his head furiously and pointed towards the screen, Amahle could see the frustration in his face but she barely understood why he looked like that since he was the one who had them fooled anyways.

“Look closely, there’s a movement, don’t be in such a hurry to prove me wrong just to soothe your fears.” He glared darkly at them all as he spoke, his tome so sharp they didn’t need to be asked to look carefully a second time.

This time they noticed it, a slow and subtle movement around the bushes, they almost missed it again. Whatever it was, it didn’t look like it was anything serious. The strange movements resembled those of a snake.

“That could have been a snake.” One of them pointed out.

Barrack nodded. “That’s what I thought too until I zoomed in.” He pressed the mouse, expanding the image on the screen, “infact I don’t know what it really is, you can tell that there’s a shift, though subtle, but I don’t know what it is, there’s absolutely nothing to indicate that someone was really there.” The poor boy sounded like he was completely out of his mind.

“Well, this is….” Abayomi trailed off. “It could be the wind you know.”

Barrack crossed his hands tightly across his chest and glared at his friend. “I’m not stupid if that’s what you think. We know you’re the brainy one here but believe me, I can tell the difference between a movement made by an actual person to that which is made by the wind.”

Amahle released a breath as she glanced at the arguing boys. “honestly guys, your arguments won’t stop anything from happening. Let’s say what you say is true, we need to look for possible solutions to this problem.”

Kiupita walked in with Laban trailing behind, just like always, as she was speaking. However, Kiupita's wolf was absent, felt strange since the beast went everywhere with her, they were practically glued to the hips.

“Anything yet?” Laban asked as he took a seat beside Jabarl.

Jabarl, as always, had a gloomy look on his face just like the tiny girl, Kiupita. Shortly afterwards a tall girl walked in, with her nose in the air and her steps confident.

“You guys are having all the fun without me.” She said as she stopped beside Abayomi, she looked down at him with a going in her eyes.

“Who’s that?” Amahle whispered the question to the person standing beside her.

“That’s Lupita, she’s Kiupita's twin sister.”

“Heh!” Amahle exclaimed under her breath, “how’s that possible?” The girl in front of her bore no semblance of Kiupita. This one looked like she owned the world and she could get everything with the snap of a finger, her steps were firm and confident. It wasn’t like Kiupita’s wasn’t, it just felt completely different with her sister. On a closer look, Amahle could see that they dressed the same, since she met Kiupita the only thing she’s seen her in are tank tops and baggy pants.

“Yeah she is, this one just had her mother’s features and her father’s build where as Kiupita has her father’s features and her mother’s build.” The person explained.

“Waw,” She sighed in awe of Lupita's beauty. “Her mother must be very beautiful then.”

“But the twins hate each other’s gut, they can barely stay in the same space without trying to kill each other, it’s like in their past life they were sworn enemies.”

Now Amahle frowned, twin sister who hated each other? Now that was something she’d never seen. Unable to stop herself, Amahle looked at Lupita again, taking in all her delicate features. The way she smiled down at Abayomi like he was the world, when she first walked in and the way her brows were scrunched as the absorbed whatever it was that Barrack was going on about.

“It does look like a movement.” Lupita announced, her stayed glued to the screen. “The grass would sway from side to side, although it all depends on the direction of the wind…. But look here,” she bent a little more as she pointed at the screens. “It looks like someone stepped right there, if you watch closely you’ll see that someone walked that way.”

“You’re right,” Kiupita’s bobbed her head in agreement. “But how’s this even possible that we can’t see who it is?”

Lupita shrugged her shoulders and gave her sister a look. “I wonder the same.”

Silence descended on the room like clouds, they were slowly beginning the wrap their heads around this information.

As if that wasn’t enough, Zev, the guy in charge of store keeping came in with the information about how they were running low on supplies.

“we don’t have enough supplies to get us through the next six months,” He’d said the moment he stepped into the room. “someone is going to have to go up there.”

Now they were all sporting a grim look as the wheels in their heads spinned.

“So what now?” Abayomi was the first one to break their silence. “we can’t go up there in search of food if there’s movement up there.”

“We should make Jaya into a bait so she can divert their attention from us, whoever it is.” Laban suggested with a goofy smile, he definitely loved the idea he brought to the table.

Lupita narrowed her eyes at Laban after he made the suggestion, the boy definitely knew it’ll rile her up. Laban have always irritated Lupita so much she’s always felt like strangling him, she still wondered why everyone drooled over him.

She stepped closer into Laban’s space so close their faces were almost touching. “How about I tie you up and gag that pretty little mouth of yours so I can have you offered as a peace offering to the zombies, I bet you’ll love the way their teeth would dig into your flesh.”

At first Laban looked like he was going to piss his pants from fright but then he glared at her. Everyone thought her was going to exchange a few words to Lupita but he did something else, he laughed. He barked out a loud laugh in Lupita’s face. “You…you should have seen your face, you honestly looked like you were constipated.” He bent over with his hands wrapped around his stomach as he tried to control his laugher.

From where Amahle stood, she noticed how Kiupita’s lips lifted a little as if to say she was enjoying the show, but the smile was gone quicker than it came.

However Amahle wasn’t the only one who had witnessed the smile, Lupita had too she could tell from the way her face became flushed with rage.

Laban sighed and wiped the tears that dropped from laughing so hard once he had sobered up. “Seriously, you looked like you were suffering from indigestion or something like that.”

This time Kiupita kicked his legs from behind. “That’s your last warning.”

As always, Laban threw a few weak words at Kiupita before shutting up.

“So what’s the plan?” Barrack tore open a chocolate bar and began to devour, he probably haven’t had a proper meal in forever, hell none of them had.

“I think we should focus first on the more important issue here.” Laban replied.

Kiupita shook her head with a frown, “they are both important, Laban. If we don’t go up to see what it might be that’s onto us and distract them, we might just end up getting discovered and if we don’t go in search of food we’ll all starve to death.”

Laban tiredly ran a hand through his hair, his lips forming an 'oh' in response to Kiupita’s reasoning.

“But if there truly is someone out there who would discover us soon, then we’ll never get the chance to restock.” Kareem joined his fingers together and placed them under his chin, he too like everyone else, had a frown on his face.

Amahle slumped down onto her seat, “we should lay low for now, and we should try to curb the noise in here we’re not even sure if the place is sound proof.”

“Also, I think it’ll be wise to have someone go up there to make sure we’re safe in here.” Kiupita’s gaze flickered over to the screen.

Laban’s face lit up with a smile at Kiupita’s proposal. “I’ll go, I'll go make sure we’re all safe.” Laban bounced with excitement, it was clear he was already making plans in his head.

“No you can’t.” Kiupita snapped, she didn’t look too happy with Laban’s decision.

“Scared he won’t return?” Lupita snickered at her sister.

“And why can’t he?” Kareem raised a brow at Kiupita.

“Yeah Kiupita, why can’t I?”

A look of displeasure settled on Kiupita’s face, she crossed her arms and gave Laban a look, obviously not pleased that he’ll willingly throw himself in the lion’s den. “Because I don’t want you to.”

Amahle smirked at Kiupita, the girl clearly didn’t want to put her friend in harm’s way but Laban doesn’t think the same, he was a free bird and didn’t want to miss out in this adventure. When she got here all people seemed to talk about was the way Laban and Kiupita followed each other about before the outbreak of the virus, people around here we’re hoping it’ll change now they were all put in a bad situation. But she knew they must have all been hot with anger since the two were back to following each other. Kiupita acted like she cared less about her best friend but everyone could see how much she loved him, it was as clear as the day, this girl would give up her safety for Laban’s. Amahle thought it was sweet but dangerous as well, she knew that quite well.

We

Kareem dropped his hands on his knees, “It’s a good Laban’s old enough to make decisions for himself stop acting like you’re his mother”

Kiupita’s nails dug into her crossed arms, her face was pinched with resentment. 'I guess Kareem just made his first enemy' Amahle smiled to herself.

“He should go.” This time it was Jabarl who spoke. None of them hid their surprise, Jabarl never spoke all he did was sit and listen without contributing, sometimes He’s hand went over his eyes signaling that he didn’t want to be disturbed, he was all broody and handsome.

“Your friend Latex should go.” He drawled lazily.

“It's Laban, old man,” Laban mumbled with a scowl but Jabarl simply ignored him like he was air. He went on to explain how Laban looked liked an easy bait because of his 'lousy' hair and 'pretty boy' features. He went on to explain that if they, the army, suspected that there might be people around then it was only necessary to shift their attention elsewhere, they should make them think the people they suspected where here we’re actually somewhere else.

“So we lead them somewhere farther from here,” Abayomi looked at Jabarl like he was some god. “Brilliant idea!” He exclaimed excitedly.

“However, the problem lays in the fact that none of us knows our way around the outlands, it’s a vast land and while your idea sounds great it might be hard for Laban to execute it alone.”

Jabarl nodded in agreement, still slumped lazily in his seat he said, “that’s why I’ll go with him and I’m sure Kareem would want to come along too.”

“Yeah I was actually just going to say that now, I’ll come along since we have to move the vehicle we came here in, it’s quite dangerous.”

Abayomi slapped his hands together and twirled around in his chair. “Okay, I guess that’s settled.”

“What about the food issue?” Lupita questioned.

Amahle placed a finger under her chin in a thinking gesture. “For now, it’ll be best to reduce the rations of food distributed daily and please someone else other than that snobby girl should take charge of distributing.” She hummed before continuing, “also, we should first check out how much we have left in the store room.”

“I think that’s a great idea, say we put Adah in charge of that.” Barrack mused.

“Jaya hates Adah’s guys.” Jaya answered.

Barrack grinned, “that’s why it needs to be Adah, that way Jaya won’t be able to cause so much trouble.”

“You know very well that Adah is no different from Jaya but you’ll suggest something like that because you don’t want her anymore, honestly Barrack you’re just an asshole and I’m glad you’re not dating my friend anymore.” She snarled angrily at Barrack, seemingly provoked that he’ll even think such a thing. With one last look at him she matched out of the room.

“Okay well, I think you guys have done and said enough, it’s time to let us do our work, so please excuse us.”

Amahle frowned at Abayomi's tone, he sounded upset like he didn’t want them in his space anymore. She rolled her eyes and muttered 'kids this days' under her breath as they all swept out of the room.

Amahle and Kareem made a detour to the store room with Kiupita and Laban walking behind them.

“By the way, why was Abayomi so angry?” She inquired.

Laban shrugged. “Lupita’s his girlfriend, he hates it when she’s upset.”

She made an oh sound before pushing her hands into her pockets. “Why did Barrack suggest that then?”

This time the usual goofy grin graced his lips. “Well Barrack and Jaya used to be a thing until he got fed up and called it quits, now he hates her guys or maybe he thinks he does, everyone knows how much Barrack loved Jaya, surely love don’t just disappear into thin air like that, right?”

“You’ll get wrinkles if you think too much.” Kiupita told Laban in a quiet voice.

“I wasn’t thinking,” Laban denied.

Kiupita smirked, she looked every bit of smug with one side of her lips up like that. “You were thinking about how tedious loving is and how difficult it is to understand it.”

Laban opened his mouth to say something but Kiupita cut him off.

“You also think it’s weird how love becomes hate so quickly and you’re wondering if we’ll ever become like that.” Kiupita heaved a sigh, “don’t worry that’ll never happen.”

Her voice became low at the last part, the smirk on her face now wiped off and replaced with that of worry.

It was quiet after then, no one said anything until they got to the storeroom. It was just as Zev had mentioned, they had little to nothing. Their number was too big for the supplies to even last them up to three months.

“This is not good,” Kiupita cried. “If we don’t succeed in distracting the people up there we might just end up starving to death.”

Amahle folded her hands over her chest and nodded in agreement. “And hunger make people do crazy things so Kareem and Laban you guys have to try your best.”

Kiupita swiped her tongue over her lips and locked her fingers behind her back. “Since we have to lay for the time being we’ll try out best to manage all that is left until their return. We could have just gone right after they leave but it’ll be too risky to have so many of us roaming about the place, it’ll make it even more suspicious.”

“If things does not go well then make sure to devise a plan, there should be a plan B just in case.” Kareem quipped. “And if a plan B doesn’t work out then go without a plan.”

They looked around the store one more time before leaving. Kiupita with Laban and Amahle with Kareem.