The Last Bend

The Curve

What do the following have in common: Franz, Poland and a cup of muratina ? At first glance nothing but this is how World War III started. The following are events that transpired leading up to the final moment when humanity was almost at the brink of annihilation. As I type this I am one of the last few humans still alive on earth and even so I will exhale my last breath very soon. However one of The Enlightened ones has allowed me to keep on living as long as I finish this story. This is the story of William Wafula.

…where according to legend mankind shall await, Armageddon, Day of Judgment, Ragnarok, The End of the World, Aharit ha-Yamin, et al-eschatology the learned shall qui…

The screen flashed red before it went dark. William gave an exasperated sigh and dived into his bag to retrieve his power bank and cussed internally. He had left it at home. He sighed and resigned to listen to the blaring hip-hop music emanating from the speakers behind him. The matatu hit a bump and he flew up in the air and hit his head on the side. He cussed again but internally unlike the other passengers who were very vocal and gave their mind of what they thought of the mad driver.

It was 1700 hours and the traffic jam on Ngong Road had already built up necessitating the driver to find another alternative route that dictated driving from one end of the universe to the other just to avoid a ten minute jam. He regretted moving to this route but he had no option as he wanted to cut ties with his old life.

This was his first week away from the children’s home he’d grown up in. As soon as he had turned eighteen, he made sure that he found a place and had been saving any coin he could to finance his plans. Unlike his peers (some of whom had been very fortunate to be adopted, others planned to remain back and help in running the home and yet others had escaped the home for the freedom on the streets) he’d been planning his exit ever since he was fourteen years.

Academically he was average as his report cards showed but he was way smarter than that. He played his cards well for he knew that if he showed his real intelligence then he would be forced on another path, one that he didn’t want. So from grade seven he suddenly became dumber in class and started getting low grades. In high school though they improved slightly when he noticed the low grades were affecting him. Another reason he did so was he grew tired of being picked on by his peers. It was bad enough that he wore round framed plastic framed spectacles giving him the nerdy look but that he couldn’t control as he was myopic and he wasn’t going to be given designer glasses.

William had managed to save some money and bought his first phone second-hand from one of the social workers in the home. It was what was referred to as a mulika mwizi a Siemens C35. He bought a SIM card that he used to save any money he laid his hands on through the revolutionary M-Pesa.

This week was a week of small wins for him as he had moved out, got his national ID and finally acquired a brand new smartphone. He looked at his phone in his hand and sighed. Too bad he forgot that it didn’t have battery retention capacity as his Siemens. The matatu hit another bump, this time he literally flew from his seat and at that exact moment a few things happened.

One, he felt a sharp pain in his head and saw stars as his head hit the roof. Two, the car screeched to a halt. Three, the vehicle became silent and finally rough voices started shouting orders.

Still in a daze he heard as a woman screamed and immediately cut off by a sharp slap. The vehicle started again and all passengers were ordered to close the windows and look down on the floor. William deduced that there were three carjackers in total, one at the front directing the driver and two with the passengers; one directly behind him.

He dreaded knowing exactly where the vehicle was being diverted to; Ngong Forest. The final resting place of many carjacking incidents in the city. He had heard stories of how vehicles were directed there and then people robbed of tall their valuables and at times being stripped naked and left stranded. Other stories involved women being r***d by the thugs or forcing the male members to have their way.

The thugs continued shouting orders and William felt a pang of pain as he realized that he’d have to part with his new phone. A few minutes later the vehicle stopped and they were all told to exit the vehicle and line up. One of them took a container from the vehicle, a plastic jerrican 10 l****s capacity and two metallic cups from the front seat. The first in line was a young lady in her early thirties and she was commanded to drink what she had been offered in one of the cups. Tears streamed down her face but she did as she was told. The cup came down the line until it reached William who was last in line. He was offered the cup and the moment the volatile vapours hit him, he retched. He had never taken alcohol in his life as the one time he had tried to take it, his body reacted adversely with it. Just like right now. He was hit on the head by the butt of the gun and he sprawled down.one of the men held him down and pried open his mouth and the contents were unceremoniously dumped down his throat. He coughed and sputtered as he got on his feet. Next they asked everyone to strip and their clothes were taken and burned in front of them.

It was a funny sight to see grown men and women in their underclothing. They were then told to face the forest and none of them to make any movements. They heard the sound of the engine of the matatu as it jumped to life. After what seemed like ages, one of them managed to peep behind and sat down when he saw they were all alone in the forest.

As all their belongings had been taken, they didn’t know where to start. Some argued it was safer if they stayed as a group and waited to be found as others wanted to split up and find a way out of the forest.

On the other hand, William was having an argument of his own. He was trying as much as possible to retain his composure and be sober but the unnamed alcohol in him was having its way. One of the ladies watched as he got to his feet and walked away heading deeper in to the forest. She tried to point it out to one of the men but no one paid her any attention.

William watched helplessly as the alcohol told him to wander into the dark forest. He had no control of his body but at the same time he felt as strong and as carefree, nothing would stop him, not even a pride of lions. He kept on walking not knowing where he was going until he came to a clearing. Had he been sober, he’d have been relieved to know that he was within a forest rangers camp. However, the alcohol was now strongly flowing through his veins and he knocked on the wooden door. A dog barked from within and presently he heard footsteps approaching.

The door was opened by a mean looking man who glared down at this young man. The man raised an eyebrow before William pointed in the forest from the general direction he came from.

The man heard three words before he saw the boy collapse and hit the ground. He sighed and carried the thin youth into his office/home. He then geared up and whistled for his dog to follow him. He checked his rifle then headed in the general direction that he’d been shown.

[William, wake up!]

The voice rang again in his head and he got to his feet. His eyesight got used to the dark place and he could make out the starry sky. In fact the stars were all around him and it was disconcerting as if he were floating in space. He told himself he wasn’t going to look down. He trained his eyes to look constantly ahead. That was when he felt the presence and knew he wasn’t alone.

He couldn’t see anything or anyone but he could feel a presence. So far he was surprised that he felt no fear.

[That is because you have no reason to fear]

He frowned and said, “Communicating via telepathy and reading my mind.”

[Child’s play, even you could it. And yes it is disconcerting to communicate with someone or something that you cannot see. All I can say is again child’s play, even you can do it.]

William closed his mouth and shook his head, “At least have the decency of pretending you don’t know what I am going to say. First of all who are you?’

[You already have the answer.]

“What do you want from me?”

[Nothing you can give, however I have something you want.]

“Assuming that I want something, what makes you think that you can give me?”

[Because you know I can]

{You know there is no difference between you and a Djinn, you are both very technical” William sighed

[Well a djinn offers1-3 wishes at maximum and I can give close to infinity]

“Why not infinity? Or is it because it is undefined even for you?”

[No Infinity belongs to Another One]

“Okay, so what next? I take it that I am either in comma or very drunk so chances of me remembering this conversation are very minimum.”

{True you most certainly might not remember this conversation so you might as well have fun, right? So what would you wish for?]

“If you really suggest whom you are then, I think you know what I really want.”

[Well then so be it]

“Aren’t you worried? I mean this will affect you, if you are what you say you are”

A light chuckle filled his head, [We shall see William. We shall see. For now you need to die.]

“Die? Wait I thought you said-”. He stopped when he felt the presence had vanished.

Kate Kasichana picked up the newspaper as she headed to her station. She sat down and tore open that sachet of instant coffee and poured it in her mug. She added hot milk and stirred it before taking a long sip from it. She sighed in pleasure as the hot drink trickle down her throat. It was bloody cold today she thought and picked up the paper. The headlines were all about the political nonsense taking place in the country. She avoided the stories and went to page three. A small story caught her eye and she read it.

Another hijacking on Ngong Road, she shook her head glad that she never used public transport. The story read of how eleven passengers and the matatu crew were rescued by a forest warden. Only one death had been reported and it had been of the young man William Wafula (according to his ID card) who passed away shortly after getting help. His cause of death was severe intoxication.

Oh great, she sighed. Another body would definitely have to pass her hands today. She sighed and got to her feet donning the white coat and leaving the office. Her job as a research officer was to examine any deaths that were directly attributed to alcohol and narcotics. A quick glance at her wristwatch showed her it was seventeen minutes past the hour. That meant the first bodies had already arrived.

Before she entered the lab she scrubbed down and wore PPE suit then entered the white pristine room. The first body was already on the gurney awaiting her examination. The body belonged to an old man in his late seventies. The tag on his body bag displayed his name as well as cause and time of death.

She sighed and got to work. She saw her work as redundant because the cause of death was already known in most of these cases. However, she couldn’t complain as she made a nice five-figure salary better than most of her age mates along with perks and benefits. She had landed the job by chance just as soon as she had finished her first year in university. The company was now paying her fees until she finished her BSc in Biotechnology. She had it very easy and well compared to any other nineteen year old. Throw in the fact that she was a loner having only one person she could call a friend, for her life was blissful.

Of course she knew that some if not most of her colleagues at work were envious of her. Though she didn’t blame them much, after all she at times thought she was dreaming but as long as she did her work she knew she was in the clear. She finished examining the body and testing it. She wrote her report and emailed tit to her superior. She wheeled out the body and put it in the outgoing locker.

The next body was of none other than William Wafula. She frowned and approached the body. The tag stapled to the body bag read the date of two days ago and yet she could still smell the alcoholic fumes around his olfactory areas. She touched his skin and was surprised that it wasn’t as cold as it should be, not that it was warm either.

Another thing bothered her. Upon closer inspection she noted that in as much as the body was preserved it hadn’t undergone any decomposition. The skin hadn’t retracted around his head not his finger and toe tips. The biggest giveaway though was his body wasn’t pale.

She fully unzipped the body bag and covered his body with a white sheet. She took a syringe and withdrew blood from his veins. What she saw confirmed her now growing suspicion. She emptied the contents in a test tube and labelled it and put it in a chute before she made a call.

“Lisa, it’s Kate, I’ve sent a blood sample down I want you to run a few tests on it more so the 3rd Variation.” She said.

“Third Variation? Are you sure, aren’t you in the necro dept?” Lisa voice came back.

“Please do it, I want to confirm something!” she said and then hang up. The test would take three hours so she might as well continue with the other bodies. She pushed Williams’ body back into the Stasis Locker and pulled out another one.

The next body had to be tested for both alcohol and drugs so it consumed a large portion of her time as it had come in untagged. By the time Kate had finished it was almost lunchtime. She checked her email but no report. She called Lisa but no one picked up. She sighed knowing the earliest she’d get an answer was at 2pm after lunch. She got out of her PPE and headed downstairs to her office.

It being a Tuesday meant it was Terrific Tuesday, and all her colleagues had gone for lunch at the nearest pizza place for the offer. She went to the common fridge and took out her homemade meal. As much as she was highly paid, Kate came from a prudent background and she never forgot her roots. Hailing from a family in the Coastal region, she’d been raised up her aunt and grandmother after her mother had abandoned her when very young. Her father then raised her up until an accident at a quarry claimed his life just as she was entering the fifth grade. She was told that she had an elder brother but she never saw him and so she had archived his presence to the darkest corner of her mind. As far as she was concerned she was an only child.

She unsuccessfully tried to bring her aunt and grandmother to the city. Their reason to decline her persistent offers was that Nairobi life was too hectic and fast-pace for their coastal blood. Initially shed always send some money back home to cater for their needs but after the second time she was strongly rebuked for that. They told her as a woman she needed to look after herself in the city and last time they checked they weren’t invalids.

Kate smiled as she remembered that conversation. She knew where they were coming from. Her grandmother was widowed and her aunt was a spinster and as such in the community they were almost ostracised. The community believed that a woman couldn’t survive on her own. Kate was no feminist but she hated that notion and so joined her female companions in proving the men wrong.

She dived into her mahamri and coconut mbaazi , savouring every bite. She loved cooking, and even more eating her own food. She finished and headed to the washroom to clean up. Along the way she passed her lab station and frowned.

The door was ajar and she was certain that she had locked it. The doors were designed in such a way that they could be locked only from the outside but one couldn’t be locked in. that meant that someone had opened it from the inside.

Her heart skipped a beat as she slowly pushed the door open. She tried to reason that whoever was inside had already gone but a nagging doubt still lingered on. Deep down she already knew what to expect.

She made a beeline for the Stasis locker and even before she reached it she could see it was open. William’s body was missing. Now an ordinary person would have freaked out and lost their marbles but not Kate. She had already suspected and seeing his missing body just proved it. She no longer even needed that test report from Lisa. She looked around and then left her lab and made for the washroom. Only this time her destination was the gents. She pushed open the door her heart beating slightly and she saw him standing at the far end gazing at the mirror like the ghost of a dead person still covered in his sheet.

William turned and looked at the lady watching him. “I smell of formalin.”

She took a step forward, “Well that’s what is used to preserve dead bodies.”

“I take it then I am in the afterlife.”

She shook her head and threw him her badge. “Not unless the afterlife there is Kenya and normal paying jobs.” He read her work ID and then asked her, “How long was I dead?”

She held up two fingers and he nodded. “You are awfully calm for someone who’s seeing a dead person walk and talk.”

“I had my suspicions, besides I am a scientist, I don’t believe in miracles.” He handed her back her ID and stepped back. “So what next? Hand me over to a mad scientist to run tests on me before being dissected and experimented on?”

“First things first, you need to shower, get clean clothes and get you out of here. Everyone is on lunch break but I am afraid that you are already on CCTV. This whole institution is under surveillance.”

“Let me deal with what I can, I assume I can shower around here somewhere?”

“This way.”