PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 6

“Ahan, wetin do her?” (What happened to her?), the police officer asked his colleague who appeared to be older than him.

“How I wan take know now eh, sergeant Bala? Sometimes you go dey ask stupid questions. Abeg go find water make we pour her first” (How am I supposed to know, sergeant Bala? Sometimes, you ask stupid questions. You had better go get some water so we can pour on her), the older officer said, looking obviously irritated and confused.

“Person no fit ask you simple question again? Na so so to insult person you sabi sergeant Frayo” (You can’t be asked simple questions anymore? You only know how to insult people, sergeant Frayo), the younger officer said sulkily as he walked away to go get water.

 People had started to gather around the officers to see what was happening. They made unsuccessful attempts at sending the onlookers away as they tried to revive her. Several splashes of water later, they still hadn’t revived her, causing the officers to enter into a state of frenzy.  

Flagging down a vehicle, the officers with the assistance of one of the onlookers, carried Diya into the vehicle, with one of them taking a seat at the back while the other officer sat at the front.  The driver of the vehicle being a little curious, asked them as he drove, “What happened to her?”

“Won’t you mind your business and just drive this rickety car of yours to the hospital!” Sergeant Bala answered angrily.

“Ahan! Officer, don’t insult my car o! After all, I’m just helping you out and I can decide not to help again!” the driver said angrily.

“Are you talking back at an officer of the law? You will be arrested on the grounds of emmm….emmm….count of contempt and insult on the personality of an active officer!” Sergeant Frayo said, in a bid to scare the driver.

“I didn’t do anything! You can’t arrest me o!”

The men argued while being oblivious to

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 5

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 4 HERE

“You incompetent fool! You made a mess of the whole thing! Your lust for power and recognition might have ruined this project! That’s if it hasn’t already! What do I tell the General? ‘Cos I’m damn sure he knows already. Infact, we are screwed!” Dr. Bayo screamed, as he frantically moved around the lab while throwing dart-like stares at his assistant, Tunde, who looked terrified and remorseful.

He had always known Tunde was ambitious and yes, of a truth, the idea for the project had been his. But, that didn’t mean anything in the real world! He modified the experiments, expanded it, got people to volunteer as lab rats and more importantly, he had got the funding, something Tunde could never have been able to achieve. Now, his stupidity might have just ruined the whole thing. The General would certainly be pissed and worse of all, TYPE-C was coming for them. That alone terrified him shitless.

“Umm…your phone, sir.”

 “Will you get that thing off my face!” Dr. Bayo barked.

“But sir, it’s the General,” Tunde whimpered. 

Turning abruptly, he lunged at the phone, being careful not to let it slip through his hands. “Hello sir,” he said, clearing his throat.

“Do you know how much mess you’ve made, Bayo? This whole project was supposed to be under wraps but what do I get? Headline news on national TV talking about seven special ops team members, being found dead in the apartment of a student! This project is over! Wrap up everything you seem to be doing there because, project TYPE-C or whatever it is you call it, has been called off!”

“But General, we only

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 4

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 3  HERE

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 2  HERE

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 1  HERE

“Remember! She must be brought back alive!” the man in charge of the team barked his orders into the radio-scanner. Taking a few steps further to the front porch, he made the countdown signal and then charged towards the door, knocking it open with his foot. He stepped into the apartment cautiously as he signaled his men who were behind him to follow after him.

Diya stood still, waiting for the right moment to strike. As soon as the first man moved in and was about stepping a little farther from the door which would make her visible to him, she lunged at him, burying the kitchen knife in his neck, immediately severing an artery and causing him to collapse and bleed profusely.

The other men were taken aback by the swiftness of the attack and began to shoot sporadically, forgetting their orders to bring her back alive. Diya took cover under her reading table beside the exit door at the back, allowing the armed men to rain bullets on her apartment till they were satisfied.

As soon as they were done, the men barged in together, including those who had earlier gone to guard the back door. “You have nowhere to hide, TYPE-C. just surrender yourself and come with us,” one of the men said. Diya however, remained calm and watched as they all searched for her.

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 3

Diya had been walking and running for the past five hours. Strangely, she did not feel fatigued. It felt like she had some sort of extra strength. Attached to the sudden strength she felt inside, came the feeling of being watched. She couldn’t shake off the eerie feeling of being followed and watched at the same time.

Stopping to study her environment, she looked around and realized she was some blocks away from her street. “It’s almost dawn,” she thought to herself. Just to confirm her thoughts, she heard the Muslim call to prayers, causing her to hasten her movement towards her street, as she didn’t want to meet anyone. She couldn’t trust her actions around people anymore.  

Standing in front of her apartment, Diya sucked in as much air as her lungs would allow at one time. It felt good to be home! Finally, here was somewhere she was familiar with. Raising her foot mat, she took her spare key and opened the door. “I need a hot shower and a good sleep,” she thought to herself as she pulled off the dress she had on and headed straight for the bathroom. 

“Doc, it seems she is back at her apartment; I just picked up a reading from there.”
“Good! just keep an eye out for her. We’ll let the General handle the job of bringing her back here, understood?”                                                                              “Yes sir.”
“I need to go freshen up and have a little rest; I’ll be back here by 11:00am. Keep an eye on things till I get back and call me only if there is an emergency. ONLY AN EMERGENCY, Tunde; hope you get that?” Dr. Bayo said, deliberately picking his words and pulling his ears to show his seriousness.
“Yes doc! No calls except there is an emergency,” Tunde replied, as he stared at his boss existing the building, while he tried to mask the annoyance almost contorting his face.

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 2

“Doc, she has been spotted!”
“Where?”
“In the slums off Premier Road street. She’s alone too!”
“She has to be brought back to the lab! She poses a huge threat to the public! Get me my phone, I need to talk to the General.”
“But sir, what about the men I already ordered to go retrieve her? Shouldn’t we wait for a report from them before we call the General?”

“Tunde, you are a stupid fellow! What gave you the idea that she’d still be there? Even if she was, my best bet is, those men are dead already!”
“Dead?!” Tunde gulped really hard.
“Yes, dead! Or alive, if they were lucky enough not to meet her. Now excuse me I need to make a call.” With this, he stepped out of the lab with his phone while trying to think of the right words to tell the General about the missing girl.

“Good morning General, there seems to be a little problem. The girl, I mean TYPE-C, is on the loose and we might be needing extra hands.”
There was silence on the other end. “Hello General, are you there?”
“You’re such an incompetent fool, Dr. Bayo! How much do I pay you, again?! And there you are, calling me at this time of the night to tell me that you’ve lost contact with my device!”

“Sir, she overpowered the men you placed here as guards. We tried our best to knock her out with the serum but it didn’t have any effect on her. She is getting immune to the serum.”
“Your explanation holds nothing! The fact still remains that you are useless. Has she been sighted?”
“Yes sir, she was last seen in the slums around Premier road street.”

“Alright then, I’ll have that taken care of. But know this, when she is brought back, you have just three weeks to complete whatever it is you do in there, in that lab.”
“Three weeks?! But sir…,” the doctor stuttered.
“Am I clear?!!!”
“Yes sir, very much clear, sir.”
“But she is not nearly ready, yet and three weeks is way too little a time. He just keeps throwing orders and unbeatable deadlines without registering that there could be consequences,” Dr. Bayo muttered to himself, oblivious to the fact his assistant had been standing behind him for a while.

“Emmm…excuse me sir,” Tunde tapped his boss on the shoulder.
Jolting back to reality, Dr. Bayo made the karate hand move in defense, but was surprised to see it was his lanky assistant, standing behind him. “You idiot! Don’t sneak up on people like that! I could have killed you!”
Stifling a bit of laughter, Tunde held up his hands in mock surrender.
“Why were you eavesdropping on my conversation?” the doctor asked angrily.

“Sir, I wasn’t! I only came to tell you that the men are back and they’ve got more bad news, she wasn’t found, but errrm…it’s uh…” Tunde stammered.
“But what? Speak up, Tunde! My day can’t be any worse than this!”
“They found the bodies of three men. One was unconscious, the other two were badly injured.”
“Shit! She has only just started, she doesn’t have a clue of what she can do and there are already casualties. The men? I mean the injured ones, what’s their status?”

“Umm…they’ve been put down, sir.”
“Good! we do not need anyone going around running their mouths.” Adjusting his glasses, the doctor began walking back into the lab. “We have to get things ready; we’ve got just three weeks left to complete everything on TYPE-C. Hopefully, her memory won’t return before she is brought back here.”
Suddenly, he heard Tunde say, “Sir, she has been spotted again! Should I send some men to go fetch her?”

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 1

Opening her eyes to the darkness, she was welcomed back to reality by a pungent smell which her brain recorded to be a dense accumulation of urine and a mixture of poo. Diya looked around but couldn’t see clearly because of the darkness.
Moving to stand up, she dipped her hand on a pile of poo, causing her to feel very irritated. Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze blow over her, drawing her attention to her state of nakedness, which suddenly, made her terrified, self-conscious and very confused.

What the hell was she doing in this dark room that not only smelt like filth, but was also filled with filth? And to top it up, she was naked. These questions, she asked herself, finding answers to none. The last thing she could remember was being in her room feasting on a pack of Noreos biscuit, while trying to make sense of the Tom Clancy novel she was reading. So far, it just didn’t make any sense.
Diya studied her surrounding, allowing her eyes get accustomed to the darkness. Just then, she noticed a crack which allowed a tiny ray of light into the room. Hastily, she made her way towards the light, hoping and praying the light would result to a door she could open and walk out from. Fortunately, it was a door and liked she had prayed, it didn’t have any lock.

Diya stepped out from the room which she soon found out to be an abandoned wooden stall. Walking cautiously, she was careful to avoid areas with too much light, while she scanned the vicinity to see if she could find any form of covering for her body. How had she come to this part of town? She kept wondering as she jumped over a pile of refuse.
Sighting a number of clothes spread out to dry, Diya walked quickly towards them. Reaching for a polka-dotted top, she stopped suddenly, freezing at the spot. She could sense them. There were three of them, all male: the closest to her was 6’2 tall, the second a 5’9, the third a 6’0.

Her head processed their entire anatomies from the distance and instantly, she was terrified! She realized it wasn’t because of the men but because of herself. How could she do all that? She had their heights to perfection!
“Ashewo don mad o!” (the prostitute has run mad), she heard the first man say.
“Na you make am mad abi?” (And that’s because you made her crazy, right?), came the second guy.

“Una too talk! The babe body set wella, conji don too hold me sef, make I go try release” (You all talk too much! Her body looks banging and I feel sex-starved; I will go have some myself some release), the third guy said as he made a move towards Diya as the other two followed after him.
“Heeyys!  Lady wetin you dey do for here? You no know say woman no dey come this kain place for night?” (Hey lady! What are you doing here? Don’t you know women don’t come to these kind of places at night?), the third guy said to her.
She did not respond.                                                                                          
“Come o! no be you I dey talk to? Sunny, see these babe o! I dey talk give am she no gree answer” (Hey! Aren’t you the one I am talking to? Sunny, look at this girl! I am talking to her but she won’t answer)
“Roberto, e fit be say she no dey hear join. Abi I lie Johnny?” (Roberto, she is probably also deaf. Or, is that a lie, Johnny?), Sunny said, laughing really hard while exposing his tobacco and gin stained teeth.

The third guy called Roberto stepped closer, “No be you I dey talk to?” (Are you not the one I am talking to?), he said, as he tried to place his hands on Diya’s shoulder.  
“Don’t you dare touch me!”, Diya heard herself say as her pulse raced.
“Haa na me you dey speak foneh for? E don be for you! Ashewo wey dey form tush” (Ha! Am I the one you are expending such grammar on? You are finished! Bloody prostitute acting all educated.”

The three men made a move to encircle her. She, however, stood still, not even flinching. Just then, Sunny made a move to push her to the ground. But, as swift as the wind, she grabbed a hold of his arm, twisting it behind him, causing a loud cracking sound. Using her legs, she toppled the third guy to the floor, hitting his Adams apple very hard with the end of her foot, causing him to choke and lose consciousness.

Making a flip, she released herself from the hold of the first guy who was now trying to grab her. Charging towards him, she kicked him hard on his stomach and pushed him to the other end of the road. Taking hold of his legs, she bent it against the right part of the joint while she hit it hard with her elbow, breaking both legs in an instant.

Two of the men, still conscious, were writhing in pain and making inaudible sounds. Diya looked at what she had done and grabbed a dress from the line which she wore and then, made a run for it. What had she done? How was she able to do that? Where had she learnt to do all that? What was happening to her? She quizzed no one exactly.

#BirthdaySpecial