Deadly as trust

Thirty four: Jide

I cringed in pain as the all too familiar sound of gunshots came to my hearing. A bullet suddenly hit a place near my ear on the wall we were hiding behind. We had only gone far enough for her to tie up my bullet wound with my shirt to take care of the bleeding, and Gabriel still had a few of his men around the building so it was dangerous to confront them.

"Miriam, you're going to have to use the gun.", my voice dragged on as best as it could.

Beside me, she was a nervous wreck — panting loudly and sweating.

"I don't want to kill anybody.", she whispered.

"If you don't kill them, they'll kill us. You have to make a choice if you want us both to be alive."

She hesitated but brought the gun out. I tried to place my hands over her shaking ones in an attempt to reassure her but ended up leaning on her as well, I started to feel my head spin but tried my best to calm myself down enough to be stable — at least as stable as I could get, Miriam was not used to this kind of thing so I wasn't going to force her to do it.

"If you can't do it, then I'll try.", I sighed taking the gun out of her hands and leaning against the wall.

I scooted a little towards the edge and shot a few times before pausing and trying to resist the thoughts of the throbbing pain coming from my leg. For the first time, the impulse the gun sent back to me felt so powerful.

Miriam's breathing was loud as she hugged her legs to her chest and tried to drown the gunshot sounds by sticking her fingers in her ear and muttering something even if we were both sure that it wasn't working.

If we made it out alive, I had a lot I wanted to say to her, a lot to explain. I owed her a lot.

I tried to concentrate on shooting instead. When the round of gunshots had finished, I turned to meet Miriam's frightened eyes, she was trying to keep her breathing in check but failing terribly at it.

I didn't realize how much of my energy I had used up while I shot until I tried to say something but couldn't get the words out so easily and ended up murmuring it to myself instead.

She seemed to understand what was going on and stood up quickly out of fear than anything else and carried me up, using her body to support mine.

She walked as best as she could through the building which had gotten quiet after the sounds of gunshots had died down. It seemed like Gabriel hadn't recruited enough men to stay around the building but the building was in a place so secluded that I was sure he didn't think he needed so many people around. My head spun wildly and I cursed, realizing I was still losing blood.

"Miriam, I'm... sorry you had to... see that.", my voice was low and it was becoming harder to speak. The pain in my leg became worse with each step.

"No, I'm sorry for not being strong enough. I couldn't kill them."

I heard the self-disdain in her voice as she apologized again. She sounded like she would cry any minute from now.

"I was useless back there."

If this was a normal situation, I would have laughed and asked if she was still the same feisty person who kept fighting with me.

But all I could think of was a way out of here.

"No..., don't say that. It's all my... fault after all.", she had no reason to feel guilty for my crimes.

She made a sound like she was going to protest but didn't say anything else.

I was content with saving her from dying after all that had happened and if it came to it, then at least I would die a happy man. Besides, if there was no one to help us to get out of here, then I wouldn't be able to get far, there really would be no saving me.

"Miriam... if I don't... get the chance to... say it after this, I'm sorry... very sorry. Make sure you... try to put... the owner of that... brothel in prison. You'd have any... thing you need, just... check my room.", I tried forcing the words out with every intake of air, she turned to me sharply.

"Find your... way out... my phone... my phone is in... my pocket. Call anybody... for help... there's some spare... change in... there too. I won't be... able to make... it that far... if we... don't get help... immediately but I... want you to... finish what I started... with Dayo.", I tried to continue.

If I died here, I wanted her to forgive me for it.

I slipped from her body and fell to the ground. Miriam came down beside me immediately.

"Jide? Are you okay? Talk to me!" she kept screaming but I couldn't reply. My head felt light, very light.

And I couldn't explain it but everywhere felt warm as well, very warm, the pain in my leg soon turned to numbness as my whole body was slowly going numb. Miriam's screaming began to drown into nothingness and I could barely keep my eyes open.

In my reclining vision, I could see a new figure coming towards Miriam but I couldn't make the person out in my blurry vision or try to guess why.

So this is what it felt like to die. I barely had enough time to do reflect on my past or properly apologize to Miriam but I was happy that I was able to save her and I tried to tell myself that that was more important.

Slowly, my eyes closed and I started losing touch with the surrounding area and in a moment, everything went pitch black.

This was it.

~~~

Author's note: I'm sorry for the long wait but so many things happened and I forgot about this book for a while but I'll try to finish it up soon. There are about one or two chapters left then we can part happily 🙂

Please don't kill me for this chapter. It was really hard to write considering the fact that I had to marry fact with fiction and tried to picture blood loss in a real situation. And did you know a person suffering from blood loss dies after losing 40% of blood?

Okay, I'll see you in the next chapter, please don't forget to vote and comment 😁