friends had walked for
about 15 minutes with their abductors, he had
never killed
anybody in his life before but he could swear
he
was going to kill these men with the slightest
chance he had,
they had threatened
their lives enough, he remembered the fighting
skills he had been
taught when he was at the NYSC camp………….
The DPO sat in his office in deep thought, that
morning was
not a good one for
him because he just got a call from the
commissioner of police
who threatened to sack him if the criminals
who killed those 9 people which the TV news
and newspaper
broadcasted were not
arrested, he had been receiving reports of
kidnapping in the
community and now was the time to
act……………………………….
The man who held the gun
suddenly stopped and said ‘my guys wait I
wan
piss’ , John was
alert, now was his chance, he looked back at
TJ
who understood
him, using his hand to signal to TJ he
counted down with his
fingers 5,4,3 he was ready to die trying 2,1
The birds in the forest flew away at the sound
of the gunshot, the
first one was followed by two quick ones,
John
and his friends
laid motionless on the ground, John looked up
and saw a gun pointing at his face, he raised
his head more to
study the person
who had a gun to his face, no shoes, Dane
gun
and the man had
a sack around his neck, John concluded that
he
was definitely a hunter, but at that period his
name had been
changed from
hunter to hero as he was their saviour, the
hunter had shot their
abductors within the blink of an eye, they
stood up slowly, John looked around to check
if any of them were
hurt, he didn’t know
whether to hug the hunter or prostrate for
him, he had rescued
them from the hands of death, they all
thanked the hunter for his help as if he had
given them 20 million naira
each, the hunter
replied them and said no worry my children,
he
went on to
narrate how his one of his daughters had been
kidnapped by those wicked men, TJ looked
back and saw one
of the men
struggling to reach for his gun, with an anger
that he had not
shown for a long time, he stamped his foot
into the man’s neck, killing him instantly, they
all stared at TJ in
awe, except John, he
had seen TJ portray that kind of anger before,
the last time he
saw such anger was when TJ was sent out of
the examination hall by one of his lecturers,
that time TJ had
reacted by breaking
both side mirrors of the lecturer’s car, he knew
TJ too well, for
someone who joked most of the time, TJ had
a horrible anger no one would wish to witness,
my children where
una dey come
from and where una dey go? the hunter asked
them, Tomiwa then
narrated their ordeal in the hands of the
kidnappers and their underwater adventure to
the hunter who
didn’t seem surprised
but just nodded his head slowly and said okay
make una follow
me, the didn’t hesitate much, he had just
saved their lives and earned a little trust from
them, at least he
had just saved their
lives, he lead them through a different path,
they walked for 10
minutes and began to wonder where he was
taking them to, as if he was reading their
minds, he told them that
he was taking them
to his house, from there he would take them
to town the
following morning, he introduced himself as
Okeke, he was a hunter as they would have
noticed, they walked
for another 10
minutes before arriving at the hunter’s house,
the house was
made from mud, Tomiwa couldn’t have
expected better, as they approached the
house, a young boy ran out and said papa
welcome, he introduced them to his son
Obinna, where is ya
mother? he asked the little boy, she has gone
to the farm, the boy replied, just then a
beautiful girl who was
around 17 years old
came out from the backyard, welcome papa
she said softly, the
hunter replied her and introduced them to his
first daughter Chinelo, John saw TJ focusing
on the girl like a
lion focusing on
its prey, TJ looked at John who gave him a
stern look, he knew
John meant hands off, the hunter ordered his
daughter to prepare food for their guest, he
then lead them into
the house and asked
them to sit down, 20 minutes later Chinelo
walked in with their
food, it was Akpu and ogbonna soup with
antelope meat, they started devouring their
food immediately it
was dropped in front
of them, nothing like forming, even Joy who
had never eaten any
Nigerian staple food before eat her akpu like
a
pro,
Tomiwa was the first to finish his food, they
washed their
hands and drank
water from a bowl made from calabash, they
thanked the hunter
or his hospitality and then they relaxed, they
all
slept and woke up 3 hours later, by then the
hunter’s wife had
returned, she
greeted them and offered them oranges,
after they had eaten the
oranges they went out to join the hunter who
was by the fireside, they began to tell tales by
the fireside as the
moon smiled on
them, they later went inside to sleep, the
hunter’s wife offered
them 4 wrappers for them to cover
themselves, she apologized for the shortage
as that was all she had,
Tomiwa, TJ and Becky
grabbed theirs quickly and went to sleep,
leaving one wrapper for
John and Joy, John told Joy to use the
wrapper
as he could cope without a wrapper, Joy
smiled and suggested
they share the
wrapper together, she winked at him and he
got the memo, they
laid side by side under the last wrapper and
John put his hand over her and smiled in his
sleep, the girl he
loved was in his
arms
To be continue
