TAKEN

[6]

Indignant shouts and a trembling door were what woke Ifechi and me from sleep. Boots were kicking down the door. More thumping footsteps filled the entire settlement as though there was a training parade going on.

Ifechi grabbed me and led me to a door under the floor which I'd been suspicious of. Same Floor which carried the weight of my bed.

        " What's happening" My eyes flashed at her in trepidation.

Cries of children and gunshots filled the compound. I wanted to run towards the door but she pulled me away. "Not that way. Come."

In minutes, we'd disappeared beneath the ground in something that looked like a tunnel after the shed moved my bed. Above us, she covered the opening with a rock that fitted that entrance so it looked as though there was nothing there.

I followed her into the darkness that housed the tunnel. From her pocket, she fished out a flashlight. Soon our path was Illuminated. We ran through the roughly built tunnel, scratching off loose sand and mud. Minutes later, we merged into a right turn away from the straight path.

            "Where are we going?" I asked as Ifechi navigated us through the rigorous path. She didn't respond, so I followed like a sheep.

At the end of the tunnel, Mama and others were waiting for us. There were no children with them. Some of the teenagers were also absent.

I didn't want to ask questions that could get me killed. But it was obvious that 'Mama's business had suffered a huge blow. She was a little thankful that I was still with Ifechi.
Thirty minutes inside the ridiculously narrow tunnel, we exited at the end, climbing out of it one after the other.

The number of her muscle men had also reduced. I didn't see Frank anywhere. If that was a rescue mission, then I had just missed a chance to be free.

We walked in darkness for another couple of hours before we came face to face with another settlement. Some men welcomed Mama with their knees on the floor.
In my head, I knew right there that I was far away from any rescue. This woman had more camps than I could imagine.

Later, we were ushered into an even better settlement. Ifechi and I shared a room while Mama went to have an emergency meeting with the men at this camp.

Another batch of forty men and women arrived on the second day of our being there. They were dumped in a large hall at the center of the camp. With the inscription of 'New arrivals.' There were wooden beds about a hundred in that hall.

This wasn't a team interested in prostitution but massive kidnapping. Anyone was fair and good. Families were even among those kidnapped.

A pregnant woman was whimpering in pain, clutching her big tummy. My mind went hot. "Are these people not mad? Who kidnaps a pregnant woman who is almost about to give birth."

          "They fetch more money. " Ifechi snuck into my thoughts, answering my questions.

I turned to look at her. She was standing right behind me, watching what was feeding my thoughts.

These days, we'd become more friends than enemies. And I'd come to realize that the more friends I made, the more trust I garnered.

No matter how much Ifechi snuck up to me or appeared kind, I knew better, and escaping their grip was the topmost thing on my mind.  But for my temporal friend, she had nowhere else to go.

Her story was that Mama and her gang kidnapped her when she was just five. And she'd lived with her since. She had fated and built her life on Mama and her business. Even though she managed the kitchen and the restaurant, she knew the depth of the business.