Divergent

The faithful Day

'Three days to go, Just three more days and I will be referred to as a Mrs, a bride, a wife! OMG I just can't wait' I said to kaltume and yagana while screeching and jumping.

Kaltume and yagana are my most trusted allies, we share a lot with ourselves and there's hardly any thing we hide amongst ourselves, we were the best of friends. Remembering when we splashed a bucket of water on kaltume's ex boyfriend when we caught him red handed cheating with another girl at the village square all because he had already asked kaltume out still puts a smirk on my face, it was scary but fun we thought he'd beat us up but then he was too guilty to try or probably afraid of tanko.

The night sky was poorly lit, only a few stars stood high above, the moon shone dimly and the weather was cold and hazy. Nonetheless the climatic condition of Bama did not hinder our daily routine, the whole village was awake, people scattered everywhere in groups both the young and old, some displaying their wares for sale others playing, gisting, young men and women in different positions courting.

It was a normal typical night for Bama residents. From a distance we heard loud sounds of gun fire, at first I thought it was just the hunters doing their thing but it soon edged closer and then it dawned on us that those were no ordinary hunters they were human hunters, people who were blood thirsty humans out to kill any and everything in their path, they were the most dreaded sect in the history of my country. They were the Boko Haram, the people we thought were planets away from us, people we only heard tales about,  they were merciless people who ransack villages carting away with food, livestock, and anything that seemed valuable to them while killing and  abducting the unlucky ones. unfortunately today we'll be part of that tale.

On realization of the situation at hand people began to scamper for safety, everyone running helter skelter taking cover where ever their minds decided was safe enough.

I couldn't move my mind froze, my thinking betrayed me. I became super scared, I didn't know what to do or where to go. This is surely doomsday I finally thought.

I heard yagana's voice shouting 'are you crazy' come with me right now but I couldn't even comprehend what she was saying it was as if she was speaking an alien language to me, everything was happening too fast for my little mind to register. Yagana abruptly grabbed me by the wrist and started running pulling me along I had no idea where we were heading to but I just followed suit kaltume was some steps ahead of us, running as well.

I could hear screams and cries of women and children as the gun shots grew louder who were just as confused as I was but I couldn't stop to help I was also running for my dear life. We ran very fast past the village mosque, past the central well, and down a narrow path before arriving the district's head house. A large crowd was gathered there, some inside the house while others we hanging around. Kaltume and I stopped to catch our breath but yagana kept calling 'we have to keep moving this place is no safer than the village square we have to keep going' yagana spoke panting heavily.

Before we knew it, the insurgents cars were rumbling closer just a few meters away behind us and sounds of sporadic gun fire was at its closest, to add to an already chaotic situation loud explosion began to rock our small town. We took to our heels once again. We went on running, finally arriving a small farm, we took cover from the long tall stems of maize and millet crops laying flat on our bellies, my feet felt sore only then did I noticed I had been running with no shoes on, little thorns penetrated my skin all over but I was lest concerned about that I only wanted to be safe.

From no where a little boy emerged crying at the top of his voice in the middle of the way, we could hear the sound of gun fire so I was not ready to be a hero. " I'm going to go get that boy" yagana said, I couldn't believe my ears that second "are you crazy? You're going to get killed stupid!! there's no way I'm letting you go out there" I yelled at her tightly gripping her arm, "you must be insane or having a death wish, those men are very close yagana!" kaltume chirped in. Neglecting our concerns yagana stood up yanking my grip off her and ran for the boy, she grabbed him swiftly placing him on her shoulder and began running for the farm, from the blues two tuareg looking men appeared from a corner and with no mercy or hesitation they rained bullets on Yagana and the little boy! My eyes widened in disbelief seeing yagana fall to the ground. We both held our mouths to hold back the scream trying to jet out, tears began to roll down my cheeks, memories we shared with yagana began flashing in my mind, "she is gone Jalila, we have to run far away from here else if they see us we're equally dead" kaltume said in whimpers, but we were too late because the men were now heading our way.

We got off the ground and threaded the tilled soil as fast as we could, we ran until we could no longer hear footsteps behind us, I wasn't bothered the least by the bruises I received from the dry stems I was brushing. Kaltume never looked back and so did I, we ran deep into the farm until we reach the other side, it was another open road thankfully we were only meters away from my house yet unfortunately we had to wait for a passing truck filled of insurgents to clear out of sight.

Five minutes later the road was empty again, Just when we were about to take off kaltume was grappled by a hefty man behind us, she screamed, quivered and struggled in a bid to free herself yet still shouting at me to run, I knew I could not save her and trying would be a very dumb idea so I took off to save myself.

*******

Are you done with your shopping Ameera? I lifted my head facing away from my phone's screen from which I was typing only to meet umma's fierce eyes glaring at me, "I'm done umma arrgh" I said returning to my phone. (Umma is what i call my mother).

Umma came closer and sat next to me saying "Ameera you know it's your cousin's wedding what do you want your uncles and aunties to think of me if you don't attend, you know what they're saying already please don't make things worse for us my dear". "I care less about what they say or do umma remember how they treated us after dad passed away" I replied in a clearly disgusted tone "that is true but you can't repay evil with evil ameera" umma had a way of persuading me, she can sound so cool yet very firm, I gave up knowing fully well I cannot win this argument.  "now go eat the food is on the dinning table, I'm sure it's getting cold... Oooh by the way Malam Adnan called, he'd booked your flight to Adamawa and a driver will be waiting at the airport to take you to yobe, you'll be leaving by noon tomorrow" umma said before she left. I have always detested going to yobe.

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Another chapter is here. I wrote it in a hurry coz I promised someone an update today,  do point out any corrections please.

So what do you think happened after Jalila ran away?

A new character right? Who do you 5hink ameera is and what's her connection to the whole story?

Do comment your views and opinions and please don't forget to vote!