REVERSE 2370

Chapter Two

“I said be quiet.”

“What?!....”

******

The slow movements just in front of Jaya wasn’t so noticeable but a person could easily tell that there was something there.

“Don’t move Jaya, don’t move,” I doubted she would listen to me with the way she was shivering in fright.

Taking small steps closer, trying hard to not make any noise with my feet. Again I repeated, “don’t move Jaya, stay put.”

She looked at me like I was crazy, the rest looked just as scared. Her boyfriend looked like he was going to jump in from of the snake, “don’t do anything stupid Barrack, let me handle this.”

The snake began to slither away when Jaya screamed that single action made the creature feel threatened. It turned back raised it’s head towards her direction, it’s head flatten as it prepared to bite it’s prey. I snatched the small knife from my back pocket and swung. My sharp knife caught it’s neck, the snake fell back to the ground.

Barrack had his hands wrapped around Jaya in no time, Liupita stood in a distance, probably too scared to come close to where the snake now laid.

Observing the snake now I realized,

“black mamba.”

“Phew! That was close,” Laban exclaimed as he threw his hands around my shoulder, “where’d you learn that from, best friend?”

Shrugging his hands off I kicked the snake to make sure it was dead, this creatures liked to play dead. I lifted it up from the ground with a big stick and began to walk deeper into the woods, I found a spot, chopped it’s head off it’s body and buried them in different places, a little farther away from each other.

By the time I returned Liupita stood with one hand grabbing Jaya's left shoulder, Barrack had a look of exhaustion on his face, Abayomi and Laban where both laughing at something on their phones.

“You!” Jaya spat as she rushed towards me, “you doubted that it was dangerous out here,” she clutched a piece of my shirt in her hands, her eyes burned and tears fell freely from her eyes.

Tilting my head to the side I observe her face closely, she was still shaken from the incident, “you’re scared,” the words left my mouth before I could stop myself.

“of course she is scared Kiupita, I mean she almost got bitten by a snake,” Luipita now stood chest to check with me. I didn’t understand why she was so angry when she wasn’t even the one who was nearly bitten.

“I said be quiet,” my eyes found Jaya's

“What?! You expected me to stay calm when there was a large snake in from of me?,” there was disbelieve in her tone, she probably wondered how I didn’t even pretend to look like I cared.

“the snake would have slithered away if you hadn’t screamed.”

She opened her mouth to say something but Barrack quickly cut her off, “uhm thanks Kiupita, for saving Jaya she’d have been bitten if you didn’t intervene.”

“She didn’t rescue me, she’s the reason that happened,” she huffed.

Barrack turned and glared at her, Jaya pouted and went ahead to look down in shame.

I could tell that Barrack hardly ever at scolded her. He offered me a tight smile before grabbing her hands and walking towards our truck.

“Can you at least pretend to be guilty,” Liupita thought aloud, “you did say this place was save.”

Even though I didn’t mean to, my shoulders pull up in a shrug, “it was a black mamba if she’d tried to be quiet it would not have felt threatened, it would be gone.”

“You’re impossible,” she sneered and walked away.

“You okay?”

I turned to see Laban behind me, he didn’t have that smile on his face, instead there was a frown, he must have been worried Liupita would say something harsh as always.

Nodding my head I tried to assure him with a smile that I was okay.

“Come on,” he motioned towards the truck with his head, “I think it’d be best if we managed the truck it’s not safe out here.”

“I’ll stay out here,” I paused and looked towards Jaya, she and her boyfriend were now swapping spit. She’ll feel threatened if I slept in the same space with her, so I’ll stay out here and keep watch, “and keep watch.”

Laban shook his head, “no you can’t, it’s not safe out here, who knows another snake might appear out here,” he shivered in disgust. Laban have always despised reptiles, he said they looked awfully disgusting.

“snakes aren’t the only wild animals out here,” I pushed him away gently, “go, you need someone to watch over you.”

Laban didn’t look pleased with my decision but he said nothing, with a smile he retreated towards the others.

I watched as he instructed them all to enter the truck. Jaya looked towards me with a frown, she turned away when Barrack wrapped an arm around her waist and directed her towards the truck.

Abayomi whispered something into Luipita's ear that made her laugh. Her laughter rang through the woods, he lifted her up so her legs were now wrapped around his waist, he pecked him before placing her head on his shoulders.

I turned my head away from them from them, the kind of energy they shared was too much for me, it felt like they tried to rub it on my face that I could not feel or show any emotions especially one like love.

“Here,” something fell on my shoulders,

“this will keep those tiny scary creatures away.”

I looked up to see Laban standing over me, a small smile on his lips.

“Thanks.”

“pita?” he bent to my level, placing his hands underneath my chin, he said, “you don’t have to feel guilty that you can’t feel anything, it’s not your fault.”

His arms wrapped around my me the way it always did. My hands remained limp, I didn’t return the hug, as always.

Hours after I was sure everyone else had fallen asleep, I started to walk deeper into the woods. My head was like a map, I searched my memories to find what I was looking for.

After walking for about fourty-five minutes I looked around, the silence was deafening, the small light I held in my hands did little to light the dark night.

As I continued down a rough path I tripped and fell with my face to the ground.

I groaned tiredly, I stayed there on the ground for a few minutes before trying to stand up. Just as I lifted myself from the ground I heard a low growl and then the weight of something small on my body, I fell to ground with a thud. Looking down, there’s a small furry animal on my chest, it barred it’s teeth at me.

I tried not to make any movement that’ll make it feel threatened.

I opened my hands to it, not to bite but to reassure it that I wasn’t a threat.

It growled one more time before licking my palms.

“Where’s your mommy little thing?" It relaxed when I rubbed it’s head.

Knowing too well that this little thing was probably hungry, I picked it up and turned back towards where others were.

Luckily for me, Laban had left the bag that had food in it just in case I grew hungry out here.

Unzipping the back pack I took out the canned beef and tore it open. I offered it to the small fur baby. He smelt it first probably to make sure it was edible before digging in.

I wrapped the blanket Laban had offered me around myself.

When it was done eating it walked to me, he rubbed it’s body in me, I tilted my head still confused about what it what it wanted. It purred on put his paws on my knees. I picked it and held it up in the air, “what are you?" I asked rhetorically

Observing it now, I released that it was a wolves, a very white wolf and pretty too.

“A wolf,” the pup shivered, that’s when I realized what it wanted, it wanted to cuddle.

The wolf purred and nuzzled when I placed it on my chest, a small laugh bubbled from inside.

“A nuzzler.”

Sighing, I ran my hands through my hair. I was determined to find a solution but I had no idea how. My condition wasn’t even suitable to lead a large group of people to safety.

The wolf suddenly got up and growled at something at my back. I looked at it and then turned to look at my back, there stood Barrack.

“Woah what is that?” He asked in awe.

I turned my head back to the wolf and tried to calm it down my running my all over it’s fur.

Without looking back I asked, “why are you outside?”

“Uh....." he started nervously, “I thought I’ll come check up on you.”

I nodded my head but didn’t look back at him. After a few minutes he took a seat next to me, “that’s a pretty thing,” he complimented, “how did you get it, cause you didn’t have anything like that with you when we first came.”

“A walk,” I stated simply.

He laughed a little, “you don’t talk much do you?”

“You should go in, it’s dark and dangerous out here.”

“But you’re out here.”

This time I looked at him, “yeah, your girlfriend won't be comfortable enough if I were in that car with you.”

“why don’t you go in she's asleep already, Jaya sleeps deep. Not to worry I’ll wake the other guys so we can keep watch the rest of the night.

"I'm not worried."

He laughed but still asked me to go into the truck.

After a moment of hesitation I made my way to the truck, the wolf tucked safely in my arms, Barrack opened the doors for me to enter I offered him a forced smile before going in.

I woke up the next day to someone screaming.

My head shot up in alarm and found it was Jaya, she pointed at something on Iher laps, “wha….what is this?.”

The growl immediately told me the cause of her scream, I reached out for it, the wolf growled one more time before climbing my body.

“It’s just a wolf,” I climbed down from the car before she could even respond.

“Finally my sleeping beauty awakes, should have waited for me to give you the true love's kiss,” Laban joked, the boys laughed at his joke.

I rolled my eyes at them before letting the wolf down, I bent and rubbed it’s head, “Kita, that’s your name now, I really don’t know your gender so I hope you aren’t angry,” the way it nuzzled it’s nose in my hands told me it wasn’t offended.

While the boys admired the wolf, the girls especially Jaya didn’t try to hide their displeasure.

After we had something to eat we set out in search of the bunker. At some point it became impossible for the car to pass through so we had to walk.

Once we where down Kita took off towards another direction, it felt like she wanted me to follow so I did anyways.

After running for close to ten minutes we stopped.

“Kita,” I breathed, “what is it?”

She kept sniffing a particular spot so I checked it out. I cleared out the leaves on the dirty ground. I sighed in relief when I saw what it was, Kita was useful after all.

The rest joined me later and I showed them the place. There was a small trap door probably for people to escape from when there was an emergency. One by one we stepped into it, it took time to reach down because just as I’d read, the bunker was about 9ft deep.

Laban kept freaking out as we climbed down the iron ladder. I was first to reach down, Laban following before the rest. Kita I’d wrapped in my jacket because she was scared, she kept whimpering. She reminded me of Zita, sometimes Zita whimpered especially when it was dark.

With the help of our torches we were able to get a good look at the place. The place was large, large enough to accommodate about a hundred people. There was about seven rooms, five of which had a about twenty beds, the other two was a sort of master bedroom. About two sick bay, two store rooms and five bathrooms and toilets. The bunker was about 9cm deep.

“this place is f*****g big!” Laban exclaimed in are, we all nodded our heads in agreement.

“I reckon a few adjustments was made in the bunker months before the cold war.” I thought aloud.

“so what are we going to do now?” Barrack questioned.

“we stock up, obviously.” Liupita answered in a duh tone.

“canned beef, canned beans, milk, energy bar and so on.”

“of course you’d know that,” Jaya taunted Laban, He glared at her.

“you guys remember we live in the lower city, we depend on the ministers for food and we receive after the rich folks are done filling the stores in their homes.” Barrack reminded us that all this didn’t seem so easy, we might have found a bunker that’ll shelter us through the apocalypse but shelter without food was nothing.

“thanks for reminding us that we are nothing but leftovers.” Liupita smiled sarcastically at Barrack.

“just saying.”

“Jaya and Laban you once lived in the cities, any idea how much is distributed to the city folks?”

“a lot.” They chorused.

Silence fell on us, at this point we were short of ideas.

“I know what to do!” Laban exclaimed with a glint in his eyes.

We looked at him with uncertainty. “no need to frown, remember store keepers are allowed to have more, I could always ask my parents to forge IDs so all we have to do is drive to the city to get us some things.”

“how sure are you that it’ll work?” Abayomi asked still unconvinced about the idea.

Laban shrugged, “well my parents can do anything, my dad is the highest official in the kingdom of Europe and my mum works among other big ministers too, so there’s nothing hard here. Plus I'm their only child so they'll do anything to make me happy.”

“I hardly understand what Europeans are doing here, in the kingdom of Africa.” Liupita have never hid her dislike for the Europe kingdom.

Laban wasn’t too pleased with Liupita’s small display of hate. “we’re here on exchange!”

She scoffed. “yeah, whatever.”

“that’s enough,” I met Laban’s gaze. “can you get us this IDs by tomorrow?” He nodded in reply but I wasn’t satisfied.

“words Laban.”

A look of disappointment crossed his eyes, he didn’t like that I didn’t trust him enough. “yes, I can.” He responded with a bitter tone before turning immediately and leaving the bunker.

... ... … ... …

Two days later, all six of us left for the city, abode the stolen trucks. We made sure to have our IDs around our necks and to look sophisticated enough.

We got an easy pass because Laban and Jaya were there with us. No one wanted to get in trouble with the big guys.

The lights in the city fascinated me, the large billboard and the pretty model on it. Flashy cars loitered the streets, the beautiful high buildings was an addition.

I’d only ever seen large buildings on my small computer, or on the TV in the small diner where Liupita and I walked.

“you like what you see?” Laban asked.

“thought you were angry with me?” I mused.

He sighed, “yeah and I still am.”

I finally turned to look at him. “well it’s not like I don’t trust you but with the others around, words are required.”

“yeah,” he smiled sheepishly. “I thought so too but only after throwing a tantrum.”

My lips went up in a smirk, “we all know you act before you think.”

He chuckled, a fruity sound that I liked to hear the most. My fingers twitched something that happened when I was either angry or happy, right now I’d say happy. He poked my cheeks before linking our fingers. “best friends?”

I made a face before nodding, “best friends.”

We were stopped at the entry of the big store house. “state your name and reason.”

“ugh here,” we gave him our IDs and told him our reason for coming when it felt like the soldier was hesitating Laban used his father’s name to coerce him into letting us in.

We spent about an hour signing different documents. I was so relieved when the commander asked that they allow us have whatever we wanted. Which included about a hundred canned beef, beans and soup, protein bars and other necessities by the time we were done it was already five p.m and we still had to get firearms.

Fortunately, we were able to get the firearms but not before bribing the owner of the gunshop. Before we even left the city, I could hardly keep my eyes open so I rested my head of Laban’s shoulders and immediately fell asleep.

“Abayomi, were you able to send out messages to the other kingdoms?”

“I did,” he answered with a nod.

“the outcome?”

“none believed us, they disregarded our warnings and accused us of rebelling against the 'kind and honest' kings.”

“hmm well then we at least tried out best.”

The amount of faith people had in this kings were surprising if not disgusting. The same kings that had their virgin daughters slaughtered on the so called ancient stone. My family have never taken interest in this kings, my parents thought they were nothing but selfish and power hungry creatures they didn't deserve to sit on those thrones and I agreed with them.

We were able to fix the bunker and stock it up with the items we’d gotten from the city, in three and a half months.

Issa dropped by during the weekends to teach us what we needed to know about guns and explosives as well as how we could use them. It was so hard, for months both I and Liupita came home late and tired. We had school, work and even had to train. If we collapsed from all the work it would not be a surprise.

With almost seven months gone, the six of us were already scared about about the coming event. Even though we were prepared we still didn’t think we were prepared enough.

The night of July thirtieth of 2370 found me laying awake on my bed, with a disheveled hair. Kita curled up at the foot of my bed.

I found out Kita was female, a fierce female wolf. I’d taken get to a vet to confirm, he worried that she grew more than a normal female wolf would that news alone made me satisfied.

When I brought Kita home for the first time my parents were furious but since Zita loved her so much they let her stay.

Seeing as I was too restless to sleep, I stood up and walked towards the kitchen, Kita following behind.

I sat there in the kitchen for a while just stroking Kita’s fur.

"what is it that bothers you Kiupita?” an unexpected, higy intrusive voice startled me and even Kita because she immediately barked and barred her teeth in that direction.

Shrugging I replied, "nothing papa."

the stool beside me was gently pulled out. "I know you maybe more than you know yourself, you know you can talk to me Pita."

My hands ran up and down Kita's fur, she laid back down on the table and relaxed as she relished in the feeling of my hands on fur.

There was a moment of silence before I finally gave in, "papa?" I called.

"yes baby."

"what if you died, maybe you lost your life as well as your loved ones in a zombie attack and then you're given a second chance to come back." I turned and looked at him, "what will you do."

He rubbed his beards, "what else, if not using my second chance to keep my family safe and if possible stop the attack. Stopping the attack would be near impossible but there's nothing as good as trying."

"Papa, do you think I can lead a group of people?" there was uncertainty in my voice.

"Kiupita, I don't think, I know you can. You don't yourself all the time because of your inability to relate but you see that doesn't take away your strength, haven't you heard the stories from the twentieth century when anyone could be anything." Papa placed his hands on both sides of my face, he gazed at me with his dark eyes. "you're Kiupita and the quirks you think you have is not a hindrance, you're one of the smartest kid at school, you have a lovely friend Laban, your baby sister Zita looks up to you and you draw the best things, the house is filled up with medals and awards you brought home from school…..”

I became so uncomfortable when he mentioned the awards. “papa..” I whispered.

“yes…”

“those medals… they aren’t mine.”

Papa chuckled, “of course they’re yours, you brought them back.”

“no,” I lowered. “they’re Liupita’s.”

“what do you mean?” I could tell that there was confused even with my head lowered.

“I messed with the computer at school so I’d get those awards, not Liupita.”

Papa told my hands in his, urging me to raise my head. “look at me Kiupita, are you telling the truth?”

I nodded, “the race… she could have won but I pushed her in a way that no one was going to notice, I have nothing none of those awards are mine they all belong Liupita.”

He abruptly stood up from his chair making it fall over in the process.

"so do you still believe in me, you think I can do anything?" my hands shook as I looked into my father’s eyes. In his eyes all I could see was disappointment, it was like he didn’t know who this person was anymore, I wasn’t the daughter he raised only a stranger.

“are there other things that you’ve done that I don’t know of?” he questioned coldly.

"outlands.”

“Kiupita tell me it’s not the outlands I know of.”

My silence was answer enough.

He gapped at me with shock. "what were you doing out there?"

"Papa there's something big coming so I had to go there... to look for shelter."

my vague reply did nothing quell his anger. "have you not heard of the danger that lurked in the outlands, it's not safe so why would you ever even think of going there? Who else did you put in danger? did you take your sister with you? You did, didn’t you cause for months now you both have been acting weird.”

luckily for me Liupita barged in with a phone in her hands, her eyes were opened wide in what was probably fright.

"Issa."

the name alone had me on my toes before anyone knew it.

"call the others," I instructed. For once Liupita listened, she ran back to her room to do what I asked.

"Papa can you go get mama and Zita, Laban will be here soon." I begged.

Papa folded his arms with a frown, "why? what is going on with you and Liupita."

“I know you probably don’t like me anymore but do as I have said.” I rushed out of there into my room, Kita following closely.

"the festival isn't until a month's time so what's going on?”

I grabbed the stack of paper on my table and threw them into my bag. Those papers contained all the maps to different places, all of which I could remember from 2377.

Just as I stepped out of my room the whole place went dark. I heard the ear piercing scream from Zita's room, Zita hated the dark.

Mama was up now, Liupita informed me that Laban was outside already, we all ran out to meet Laban. Just as I was about to climb unto the car I realized Zita was not in sight.

I gulped, "did...did anyone fetch Zita from her room?"