Before You Die

Where is your safe place?

The sound of birds chirping loudly above the enclosed hideout startled and roused me from sleep. I stared around, squinting to accustom my eyes to the dark. From the birds chirping loudly outside, I could tell that the day had become bright and the sun was standing boldly in its place of glory.

Above all things; living, dead, and unknown.

My eyes probed the premise, hoping to find something, anything to eat in the darkness. It didn’t take long for my vision to adjust. I had been in here for too long. Darkness was fast becoming my best friend and my safe place.

What has light got to do with darkness?

These days, it was everything. Darkness was my friend, and light my enemy; the current evil of the world.

How quickly things had changed to a new ‘normal’, and the events that followed were fast resembling a movie adaptation from a page-turner apocalyptic novel.

The problem was this; we all received the warning, but nobody dared to take it seriously.

It was too fictitious a rumor, a religious indictment to draw people near, one of those conspiracy theories that didn’t hold ground. How could the world come to an end when there was so much to live for? or so we thought until great doom happened.

We saw it coming but we did not anticipate this amount of treachery that followed. Humanity had been poisoned, contaminated, and flawed beyond repair.

Even the gods have turned against us.

Humans have become beasts, If only we -I- had taken the warning more seriously.

I would have prepared ahead.

I watched a rat run from one end of the room to the other. The rat squealed with delight as it stumbled on a stray piece of bread.

“Hey! Stay clear from my food!” I yelled as I noticed what atrocity the rat was consciously doing to the last piece of bread that I had left. The only piece of meal that remained for me before counting down my last breath.

The rat immediately shied off into a darker corner of the already dark room, frightened by my sudden movements, and the inevitable echo of my voice.

Yes rat, your roommate is alive. I survived the night, will I survive the next?

With the rat already in a safe distance, I immediately reached for my last piece of meal. The bread was flat, dry, and fast decaying on the left side.

Brushing off the dirt that had attached itself to my straggly piece of meal, I chewed voraciously on the bread like my next breath hung on it. The piece fit into my mouth at once and tasted like nothing. Absolutely nothing. Dry and tasteless.

Right now, this was the least of my troubles. I was only concerned about survival.

As I chewed on it, I stared into the dark wall and thought of my brother. Was he dead? Infected? Or had he turned into one of those things? Has he become a monster like everybody else?

The painful image of my best friend’s eyes being gouged from its sockets and my classmates’ pitiful screams and yells seared my mind. The liters of blood on the streets, the isolation centers overturned, drip sets and hospital trays littered on the streets looked like a nightmare.

The chaos. Mother separated from Child, children crushed under the weight of this evil. Those beasts had invaded our city without warning. Ravaging everything that stood before them.

It was the doom of mankind.

As I sat to wait out the day again, I quickly began to recollect the events of the past week, and how I got to be here in the first place, hiding away in my grandfather’s cave.

I looked around, the cave was damp, dark, and eerie, like a modern tomb. A little tap of water danced in the farther end of the room. Although it was impossible to see where the source flowed from, I knew how to find it with the help of my ears and feet.

When the human body is put under strain or restrictions, it finds other ways to survive. Who would have thought that I would one day learn to rely more on my ears and nose to survive? In a cave so dark, my eyes were almost near useless and I had to use whatever means possible to survive.

This cave was hidden far away inside the mountains, away from human settlements. The day grandpa had brought me here, I had laughed at such atrocity.

“This cave had been protected and kept safe by our ancestors. It has provided shelter to your descendants long ago during the civil war about 300 years ago. It can also protect you if you learn to keep it safe.”

“Oh grandpa, how can a cave be a safe harbor when there are lots of dwellings and modern settlements in the city. ”

Foolish old men and their nonexistent philosophies

I laughed hard and told my brother the story as soon as I reached home.

Who would live in a cave when there were so many modern houses waiting to be occupied? On that day we had laughed over it and continued to tease grandpa about a cave that only harbored rats and cockroaches in the wild.

My brother had promised never to set foot near such a dreary site. And I had promised to sell it off as soon as I received it as an inheritance. I had no time for such old things.

Despite my naive insistence, here I was, hiding away in the same cave that I had rejected as an inheritance. The same cave that held my refugee ancestors long before I was born; the complete irony of it all.

I had quickly thought of this very cave as a hideout to safeguard my life when evil broke out.

It was the first and only best option available, and so far, it has served more purpose than I fathomed possible; impregnable.

Strategically blocked by the view of the mountains by night, and stylishly masked by the dense trees that were scattered across the rocky area, It was indeed a clever hideout designed with such ingenuity, I could only appreciate it until after I turned to it for help.

The only access was from an internally built chasm system that lowered a bridge that led out into the mountains. Though it was old and rusty, it was still effective and served its purpose quite.

The rat scampered past the cold floor again, clearly in search of food.

Poor rat, maybe you’d be my next meal.

As I walked carefully towards the waterfall that brought water into the cave, I sat and performed my morning rituals. First, I washed my face, and then my entire body with my hands serving as both bucket and soap. After completing this exercise, I realized I needed to drink water, and so I did. I ducked my head to drink directly from the source. The feel of the water within my body seemed to bring me back to life. I felt invigorated again.

Water is life.

But, how long will I last on it?

I sip on the water as I carefully recall the horrendous events of the last few weeks.

The event that had brought me here.

It all started on a cold evening. The government had come on air to announce that the plague that threatened most nations of the world had finally reached my motherland, our great country.

The news had brought mixed reactions. and most citizens were indifferent about the whole matter.

What you don’t know, can’t kill you

Until the situation gradually began to change. The state representatives at the local levels slowly began to advise the masses to avoid panic and fear. The sensitized information was straightforward: maintain proper social distancing measures in order to remain safe.

Government officials had assured us that all was under control, and they’ve got it entirely figured out. After all, it was just a pandemic, like the type faced by other nations of the world.

We could fight it too if we stayed away from crowded places and washed our hands frequently.

But, they had lied to us.

The moment we found out, it had become too late to do anything about the matter.

We still believed in the government and trusted the statements of assurance they issued on national media even though the number of infected cases began to skyrocket alarmingly by the day.

My brother and I would sit before the television screen and discuss the various implications that this would have on the country. Of course, being high school teenagers, we debated furiously with half baked knowledge. Our general reference resource was drawn from what we had watched happen in other countries.

Massive job loss, the recession of the economy, and many more. It was all far fetched but entertained our fancy nonetheless.

One windy evening, as we sat to debate and throw our carefully rehearsed points about the necessary implications of a pandemic, we heard a faint scream coming from the outskirts of the streets.

As we hurried to look in on the cause of the alarm, we were startled to see several women wailing. A woman lay on the floor in a revolting manner like she had struggled furiously before her death.

She had strange bite marks around her neck. It appeared that she had been attacked by a deadly beast. We quickly dismissed it as a wild beast, maybe she had ventured too far into the unmarked grounds that were off-limits to everyone.

We didn’t care. It was just a death like every other that took place in the city every day. But unknowingly to us, this was the first warning.

The second warning came when news operatives began to report that fights were breaking out in isolation centers, and most of the infected patients had gone missing-escaped from their respective isolation wards.

Although this was a strange occurrence, it was nothing new in the country. The government was quite incapable of handling a lot of things. This sudden development began to foster rumors that the sickness was not true, and that the government just made it up.

Nobody had a virus. It was all clout.

But how wrong we were. It was more than a virus, it was something more cynical and alarming.

It was a storm waiting to happen.

The next day, it was about 12:00 noon. Everybody was out doing their business and my brother had gone off to school as usual. I had resolved to stay back at home on that day because I was feeling unwell. Mother had advised me to take the day off school to remain at home.

Home alone, with a lot of things to do, I busied myself with games on my cell phone until I heard the gunshots.

People were shooting, but why would anyone shoot heavily in the afternoon, Was there a robbery?

It was until I heard the heavy sounds of an enraged mob fast approaching that I feared something grave was near my home.

Then came the screams and the bloodshed. I watched as these strange creatures that looked like zombie humans swamped in on anyone and anything before their sight. Destroying, biting, tearing apart, and draining blood from people.

I immediately hurried to the television set. Hoping to catch the news. What were these things? I needed to be certain that my house could safely protect me from these beasts.

As I turned on the television, I stopped dead. The scenes that flooded the TV were gory and unsightly for anyone to watch. I watched as these creatures clambered into people’s homes. Invading their spaces, and killing them on the spot.

One of the beasts held a newborn baby and snapped him into two before my eyes. Journalists were bitten to death as they reported. It was as if the world had gone mad.

A real-life zombie Apocalypse.

I quickly picked up my cell phone and dialed my parents.

Ring ring…static…no answer…

My brother was equally unreachable. I knew I had to get out or else I’d become meat and join the pillage of dead bodies littered on the streets.

As they approached our neighborhood, I quickly rushed into the kitchen and grabbed a few supply items and necessities with me. A can of beef, a large loaf of bread, and anything I could survive on until these beasts were extinguished from our world.

As I hurried out of the house through the back door, scared and totally ignorant of where to turn to as these things were everywhere, I immediately thought of the hideout cave in the mountains I had long forsaken. Humans did not live near there, these beasts would have no idea that someone could hide in the mountains.

It was a safe hideout, nobody would find me there.

It was safe and easy to navigate as I was familiar with the area.

As I clambered up the mountains, I felt my cell phone come crashing down from my pockets.

Now, I could not reach for help, neither could help reach me.

When I got to the cave, I had quickly unfastened all my foodstuff and plunged them in quickly before anyone or anything spotted the area.

That day, I had wept uncontrollably. Lost, alone, scared. I was certain these beasts would come for me. And I lived with that fear for a long time.

That was two weeks ago. Today, I had just finished my last piece of bread, and it appeared that no hope was forthcoming. No message from my mother or father, or my brother. I was all alone, left to die in this dark, cold cave.

I quickly resolved within me, I had to make a decision. It was death on both sides. Stay in the cave and die of hunger, or get out there and risk being eaten by these strange beasts.

Either way, it was death on both sides, and I knew it was better to die trying to survive than die hiding from survival.

The next morning, I opened the latch and stepped out of the cave for the first time in two weeks. The brightness of the sun stung my eyes, and the sounds of birds chirping in the air brought sweet tears of memories.

Memories of days that children played openly in the fields. Days that were devoid of fear and terror.

As I brushed my backpack, ready to begin a new journey outside the mountain.

I saw a young boy standing off the cliff. His trousers hung loosely around his waist, and his hands seemed to quiver as if from fear. He still looked human, and like someone who had deliberately claimed up the mountains to escape the monsters.

“Hey” I called out, treading softly back towards the cave. I couldn’t take any chances.

Even some of these beasts took human shapes as well.

Startled by a sudden yell, the boy quickly turned around, wide-eyed.

That movement, those eyes, and face unmistakably belonged to one person

Bolts of ecstasy washed over me. My brother had found me at last!

I immediately felt joy pulse through me, as I had found the one I had sought for, for so long.

He stretched his hands and waved at me.

“Abuuu…” I whispered, tears of joy stinging my eyes. “I knew you’d find me!”

At that very moment, Abu smiled, his teeth flashing in the sunlight, and that was when I saw it.

His teeth were the color of blood, and his fangs stood out like the beast that had killed the school children. This was not my brother, this was a monster.

Oh no

With this realization, I immediately headed back to the cave, running as fast as my feet could carry me. I had to get away again or lose my life earlier than I had planned.

But he was faster.

He was no longer the Abu that liked to argue about politics and economics, he was no longer the boy that preferred Tuwo soup to egusi.

He was no longer my little brother.

He had become a monster.

I was too late.

That moment. I felt a loud rush of wind. I looked up and was startled to see Abu standing effortlessly on a tree. His eyes were red as a demon.

And then he smiled again, and everything happened in flash.

His teeth in my flesh, the loud pain that cascaded my body.

Is this how I die?

Darkness.

Abu…Smile…teeth…pain…darkness.

All images are sourced from pixabay.com, free for commercial use and no attribution required.