Labyrinths
The unharmonious melodies of the creatures above prevented the boys from deciphering from which end the faint cry came. The forest straggled with the chirping of wild insects, twittering of all kinds of birds and the rustling of fallen dry leaves as the boys wandered. Lost. Obi, the eldest and a youth corp member strained his ears to pick the sound. It was that of a girl. The shrieking cry came again, this time nearer and louder as if whoever it was headed towards their direction. Where she was running to or what she was running from and myriads of other questions ran through Obi's mind. The other boys were visibly shaken and froze in fear. Obi had the urge to cower like the boys. Before he could do that, the cry came again, this time louder than ever and continuous and piercing in a frightening manner that chilled his bones. Another urge to run came too. But he did not, he felt a responsibility to protect other boys. Apart from the fact that he is the eldest, he was the one who brought them out on their unwarranted adventure. Only about a month ago, he was posted to a secondary school in the community by the The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as a youth corp member. A compulsory one year service to his glorious nation as it was called. Usually, after undergraduate studies. He arranged a picnic for the boys as a way of engaging them and contracted a driver well known across the community for chattered contracts of transporting people but who had a lot of odious tales about him. Obi was new and he disregarded every story. Their vehicle had developed a fault in the middle of nowhere or maybe they thought it did. That was what the stout looking driver told them. He wore a look of deceit and strangeness. Obi suddenly thought what in the first place made him pick interest in this man. The boys, stranded decided to stay by the roadside. Hopeful a vehicle would pass and convey them back. The thought of the picnic had vanished as dusk drew nearer and nothing had happened. As if that was not enough, Obi noticed that the driver had disappeared too leaving them and the engine he had killed.
With his thoughts whizzing, Obi got so confused and felt something was wrong. Suddenly, a car came speeding up towards them. Just then, about five men dressed in black with black sunshades and armed came out of the car and made their way to the boys who at the same second like flash, scattered into the bush in no orderly manner. Orderliness was of no significance that moment. And groped through the woods then came the cry!
Producing a small pocket knife he had used earlier to peel oranges in the bus, Obi stood his ground and waited for whatever it was that was coming. The next second, a girl came sprinting through a narrow network of track roads that had been hacked out of the forest due to incessant passage by foot. A trade route, Obi came to understand later.
"They are coming" she shouted.
" Who is coming?" Obi asked.
"The kidnappers!"
As if conscious of the situation, the forest went calm. The chirping of the crickets, croaking of frogs and even the ominous hooting of an owl all ceased. There was a sudden flurry of fluttering and flapping wings overhead as bats scattered through the thick foliage of the trees.
Obi motioned to the girl to seal her lips with a demonstration of his forefinger across his lips. The girl nervously nodded and cowered like the other boys behind a dead tree's trunk. They came. Smelling of murder. Men dressed in black just like the ones Obi and the other boys had seen earlier. They sniffed around for awhile like dogs on search. Seeing nothing, they turned to another direction.
The girl whose name was Jane narrated how she escaped from the camp where the kidnappers had them. She would have joined the next batch for trafficking she cried. She has been there for about two weeks after a driver claimed their bus developed fault and characteristically handed them over to those men after being paid some cash. This story made so much sense to Obi and he needed no soothsayer to tell him it was the same stout ugly-looking man that had abandoned them here. Mr. Joker as he was infamously known has been in this business for awhile now. Since his wife and children died mysteriously, he had taken to selling children like bread. In fact, it was rumoured that she sold off his family and claimed they died in an accident. He has always withdrawn himself from the society and does only one thing, drives a bus, best known to the people. But no, not at all. He drives no bus. He is a monster. A human trafficker. Obi felt a hot liquid trailing down his khaki pants. The thick foliage of trees made canopies overhead and this made the forest darker with night hurriedly approaching as if on winged chariots. The hooting of the owls resumed, the chirping and unharmonious melodies of twittering birds and squirrels with hisses of some unknown reptiles all made the kids freeze in terror's firm grip. They were a long way from home. They were lost in the woods...
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The second part coming soon. Stay tuned chum