April's Curse

Uncharted

In a county like redwood, there are not much unfamiliar faces, each person knew the other to an extent. Every morning brought with it the same regular pattern of greeting, the car wash on aderike street could be heard playing a disorganized song that had a good morning at every pause. Mr Michael, the sheriff who oversaw the only police station in the county would move from house to house, greeting each person who answered his knock. Ms Yems was not always involved in the everyday greetings, but her dogs would put their forepaws on the low fence that formed a circle round her house and howl while barking. It was indeed a horrible moment every time he opened his eyes to discover it was morning, and there was no stopping them. But not this morning, everywhere was unusually quiet, that is, there were the chirping of the birds, the rustle the leaves of the palm trees made as they shook hands welcoming a new day and the creaking of his bunk which only made sounds in the afternoon and night. He got off his bed, and performed the daily rituals of getting clean for the day, while listening to 'family' by the Chainsmokers on a voombox his dad got for him before leaving town. He lived in a bungaloid home which was about the size of a football field; a number close to one acre. His home was used as a motel, the unused parts of course, his family believed in nothing going to waste, and they were hellbent on rooms not going to waste, but they weren't to be blamed,  the philosophy of 'money must be made' ruled their hearts.
"Another long tragic day", Richardmuttered to himself as he tucked his hands into his hoodie and left the house for the mall in the bitter cold morning of Tuesday. His parents who were returning from Wakanda were bound to arrive the next day, and he had been instructed to do some shopping, with which he agreed rather reluctantly. Parking his car in the underground section of the mall, he climbed up the stairs with very little difficulty, it had been a while since he had walked up a flight of stairs, the elevator was his most preferred option, but not today, he couldn't wait with the long queue that awaited the doors. What he despised most about the mall was its large interiors and unmarked sections, "how on  earth was he meant to find ketchup and tomatoes in the maziest of mazes",He wondered. Fortunately for Richard, he came across a woman pushing a cart which had 2 bottles of heinz ketchup jutting out from the loads of goods in it, she seemed to be in her late thirties and a really nice person as she flashed Ben a smile and gave him the direction to the groceries section when he inquired of her. He grabbed a shopping basket from the left side of the glass entrance, and went on to fulfil the purpose to which he was in the mall while still wondering why there was an influx of people in the mall on that day, the county might be known for being loud, but populous, definitely not. As he reached out to grab a bottle of ketchup from the shelf, the fluorescent bulbs lighting the mall flickered and made  an unsteady hum. He looked up and wondered how a mall that big was unable to maintain important aspects of marketing like lighting
'Perhaps the mall is trying to deliver to us an April fool's day message', he joked to a white lad standing next to him
'Happy April's fool then", he replied uninterested, then left to get other things. Smiling to himself, he tossed the ketchup into the shopping cart and went on to get tomatoes. In a flash, darkness engulfed the mall as the lights went out in every section, all that could be seen were little beams of light from mobile devices being used at the time of the blackout. It all began with a dead silence, then whispered murmurs began flying around till a loud bang sounded, a gunshot unmistakably. Richard, terrified, groped around trying to sit and rest his back on the shelf containing the groceries, it took a lot of struggle but when he secured the posture, he brought out his phone with his hands shaking furiously and was about dialing his mum's line when his phone fell to the floor and had its screen shattered
"Dammit", Richard cussed at himself, he had seen movies like this, little did he know he was going to be a victim of an armed robbery. If he had just stayed at home was the thought that filled his mind, he hit the floor thrice violently and wanted to scream out in frustration.
                                                                                                            ***
Navigating through the traffic on Osaile highway was the hardest part of making the journey from greenwood county to Daisies mall, though the distance was not a far one, the slow movement of the traffic in times like the first of April always annoyed Becca. She had plotted to prank her friends before they pulled the wool over her eyes, they might have won the last year's fool day, but certainly not this year, she vowed to show them who the boss is. She drove dexterously into the driveway that led to the underground car park, there was a green Ford at her rear, and her instincts told her it was one of her friends tracing her movements to find the perfect moment to pull off a prank. To ascertain her theory, she took a left turn, but unexpectedly, the Ford took a right turn to prove that her theory was probably invalid as it was impossible to see the car park on the left from the right, but not vice versa. She put her car on park and killed the engine, suspicion still lingered in her mind, so she put her seat in a reclined position and from her position, began watching the car through her windscreen to affirm who was to emerge from the green Ford. After thirty seconds of nothing, the driver's door opened and a man wearing a hoodie emerged from it. The moment she laid eyes on him, she knew she was greatly mistaken, the man bore no resemblance to any of her friends, and seemed to be somewhere between his early twenties and late thirties due to his physical build, definitely nothing higher. None of her friends had the stride or build of this fellow, anyways, she was not going to be lax about it so she decided to wait till the man had passed her vehicle and was on his way to the elevator. She got out of the car, and put not too much of a wide but reasonable distance between him and herself, he seemed like he had wanted to take the elevator but must have changed his mind due to the amount of people present. She watched him clamber up the stairs, then went to join the queue at the elevator
                         ***
Richardtook a deep breath, laid his hands on the floor and crawled to the edge of the shelf desperate to see what exactly was happening. The lights had come back on about a little under two minutes ago with the flickering a constant presence. From the little he could see, there were about six men suited up in hooded paintball equipment combat shirts with black nose masks, it felt like six Alan Walkers in the mall. Out of the six, there was one who held an M4 to the head of a light skinned black woman who wore an afro hairstyle which was plaited on both left and right sides forming an arc overall, a thought then struck him that she was probably the hostage the movies portray. With his heart beating wildly and his hands trembling viciously, he looked at his phone whose screen lay shattered on the floor, what he saw eased him a bit and put his mind to rest. Though his screen had gone dark, he could make out the date which read April 1, the year section wasn't visible. "This is just an act", he realized, "An April's fool". Laughing aloud angrily, he got up from where he was and began walking towards the fake gunmen while ranting
"This here, all this crap isn't cool, man. You come here with them prop costumes and guns and scare the life outta all of us here! You could face the cops for this, y'know?"
The gunmen were taken aback by his defiance, and seemed shocked by his discovery. The one with the gun to the lady's head laughed and said
"We're really sorry guys,this is just an April's fool attempt. Fooled y'all, let's not let the prank end here, there's a camera recording this event, all items will be paid for, we want to be the best on this day"
People who were earlier crouched began lifting themselves off the floor with stares of shock and disbelief written on their faces, they could not believe that such an intense situation was just an act, they were furious.
"You shouldn't do that kind of thing", a man roared from the crowd. A loud murmur sprang up  from the victims of the prank immediately the man who summoned the courage to protest ended his speech. Ben felt relieved that it was nothing but a fool trick until he heard  a very fast series of uninterrupted loud cracks, everything seemed to go into slow motion as he blinked his eyes, and saw about five to six people falling down with blood spurting out of their bodies. His heart beat suddenly increased, and he could hear it pound violently against his chest, desperate and devoid of ideas of what to do, he took a knife hanging from the shelf to which he stood and raced headlong into the gunfire. Fear driven, he slammed into one of the gunmen, and drove the metal deep into his abdomen, the impact forced him to tumble unto the floor with the soon to be lifeless body of the gunman he hit. While falling, he heard the nearest gunman to him bawl incoherently but it sure sounded like a cry of shock mingled with anger, Ben understood what it would mean for him if he hesistated a moment longer on the floor, it was sure to be death. The second his body hit the ground, he rolled to his feet and bolted across the room with the speed of an athlete, he could feel the wind slap against his face as he made his way to the elevator and was nearly fortunate enough to have four bullets miss their mark and register their sting on the walls holding the elevator, a fifth one hit the elevator itself. The elevator door was closed, he did not have the luxury of time to waste hoping it would open up fast, so he took the stairs and jumped the whole sixteen stepped stairs to the path that led to the car park, he was like a black panther, a black panther gone wild, to everyone who saw him take the insane leap. The jump shook his bones, and he couldn't help but limp hurriedly to his car with intense pain for fear heals even the worst injury, he got into his car, ignited  it and drove out of the tunnel. Behind him, gunshots and voices got nearer
                       ***
She wondered who the mad black man was, this was no April fool. These men who held her captivewere armed robbers who had no care for anyone. She had got what she needed, and was on her way out of the mall, when a man walked up to her, and hit her on the face violently. The security guards who were meant to be on watch were on the floor with a pool of blood around them, the same fate must have happened to those on the other wings, as five men approached her from each cardinal point that had an exit door. "These guys are going to murder me", she thought to herself, with palm on cheek, she attempted to escape the situation by running away  but all to no avail as she was intercepted by the burly arms of the one who had slapped her, he grabbed her throat and tossed her at the diaper shelf which fell over with her on it. The impact almost sent her backbone flying out of her belly,the struggle between consciousness and unconsciousness began for a split second and she wondered why they wouldn't just kill her at the spot. They must have had other plans, perhaps she was the intended target and the robbery was just a cover to reduce a successful chance of backtracking, her head hurt as they pulled her from the floor and half dragged her to the spot they were at. "What was this mad black man's plan", she wondered. The moment her executor affirmed it was only a prank for April's fool, her hopes rose, the security guards were probably on the joke too, she wasn't going to die. Her friends were totally capable of something like this, she had done something similar to Juby last three years, the joke was on her this time and she giggled inwardly, then closed her eyes. With revived consciousness, she sprung to life when she heard the repeated sounds that tore through the air, her eyes opened wide in disbelief as she saw people fall to the ground at the sound of the guns, forever to remain there. Then another thing amazed her, like lightning the mad black man dove into one of the gunmen, and as soon as he hit the ground, he was gone. Everything happened too fast, but what she could register well was that a pool of blood was starting to form under the gunman who was dove into, the mad man must have stabbed him with something. His death made his peers go mad, as they began firing all cylinders in the mad man's direction, but somehow, one way or another, the mad man was unharmed by any of the torrents sent his way. Controlled by rage, the men who were with her left to chase after the mad man. "This was her opportunity to get away, thanks to the mad man", she thought to herself. And as she got up to escape from the mall, she made a 180 degrees turn only to meet a gunman who had stayed with her unknowingly, he was holding a powerline 340BB pistol to her face. Taking a large gulp of saliva, she muttered "crap", a loud bang followed and like a stone falling, she crumbled to the floor.