PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 7

    

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 6 - HERE

              
Getting off the taxi, Diya brought out her phone to check the address again. Something about the location didn’t sit well with her. Why would a multinational company set up their base in a location such as this? The building sat on the outskirts of town and behind the famous but eerie Kotorkoshi rock, somewhere no one would ever think of coming to – perhaps on a hunting expedition, maybe? It certainly looked like some wild life could be lurking around. She felt a shiver course it’s way down her spine. Looking at the address again, she read it out loud to be sure she hadn’t made a mistake. It read: EVON CORPORATION, BEHIND SABON-GWAZURU, KOTOROKOSHI, GUSAU.           
               
She was about turning back when she saw a young man like herself alight from a taxi. He looked like he was there for the screening as well. Diya walked up to him.

 

“Hi, my name is Diya; are you here for the student internship opening?”

 

“Yes, I am. My name is Emeka. Are you also here for the job?”

 

“Yes, I am,” Diya replied with a smile.

 

“Alright, I guess we better go in, then.”

 

The building was surrounded a with barb-wired fence and guarded by armed, mean-faced men. Diya couldn’t shake the feeling of having entered into an army base. She felt a little shaky and suddenly, felt a lump in her throat which refused to go down no matter how hard she swallowed. Finding her voice, she moved closer to Emeka and whispered into his ear;

 

“Doesn’t this place look a little too armed for a tech company?”

 

“I was just going to say the same thing to you. I think we should just play it cool and see how it goes,”Emeka replied.Diya nodded in agreement.

Finally, they got to the reception area where a lady dressed in a grey skirt and a sky blue blouse sat, her eyes glued to her computer screen, oblivious to the fact they had been standing in front of her for a while. Emeka, in a bid to draw her attention, cleared his throat. She jerked her head up and immediately, plastered a smile on her on face at the sight of the two young visitors before her.

“Welcome to EVON CORPORATION; I am Lydia. Are you here for the internship openings?”

“Yes, we are,” they found themselves replying simultaneously.

 

“Alright. Please come with me.”

 

Walking closely behind her, they were both ushered into a room where they saw other people seated. Diya did a silent count; they were thirteen in number.

“Please, sit down and make yourself comfortable. The director will be out shortly,” Lydia said to them, pointing to a vacant space for them to sit while she took her leave almost immediately.

 

Diya was still trying to take in details of her surrounding, when a man walked into the room. He wore a faded brown trouser and a slightly over-sized white shirt. He had a reading glass stationed on his head in a manner that reminded Diya of her primary school headmaster. The image in her head caused her to stifle an almost errant laughter.

 

“Mind sharing the joke?” the man said, looking sternly at Diya.

 

“Oh, no sir!” Diya answered with a sober look.

 

“We are not here for games, alright. This is a serious job and we only need serious people! Do you get me?”

 

“Yes sir,” they all replied.

 

“Before I introduce myself, I will like you all to sign a form. It is a non-disclosure agreement which demands that whatever we do or say here will not be repeated or shown to the public. My assistant will have the forms passed across to all of you.”

 

Diya looked at the form given to her to sign. She really didn’t understand why they had to sign a non-disclosure agreement for an internship at a tech company. It didn’t make any sense to her. Emeka, sensing Diya’s sudden hesitation, nudged her with his elbow.

 

“It’s just an agreement; sign it,” he said.

 

Reluctantly, she signed it and handed it back to the assistant who had given it to her.

“Now that we over that, I will like to introduce myself. I am Dr. Bayo Ademola and over there is my assistant, Tunde Shekini. I am the Managing Director of Evon Corporation. You all got selected for the internship because we saw the quality we needed in all of you. I must however, let you all know that, the program is not an easy one because you will be required to report here at odd times of the day. But your labour will not be in vain because, here at Evon, we treat our own, special.  You will be receiving a pre-payment of seventy thousand naira before you leave today. We hope the allowance will be able to get you the basic things you will be needing to start up here. My assistant will continue the screening; do enjoy your day.” With that, Dr. Bayo walked out of the room.

 

Everyone in the room including Diya whispered amongst themselves in excitement. The surprise pre-payment had washed whatever doubt Diya and the rest in that room, might have been feeling prior to that time.

 

“Alright! alright!” came Tunde’s voice.“I know you all are excited.”

“Yes!!!” they all echoed happily, almost screaming.

“I would be too if I were in your shoes. Well, down to business. The next stage of your screening/orientation would be medicals. There, some tests will be run on all of you to make sure you are all capable for the job. After that, you will be assigned to your different departments and your work clothes and ID handed to you. Is that clear?”

 

“Yes sir.”

 

“You will be divided into two groups. The first group will go with the doctor on my right while the second group will go with the doctor on my left.”

 

Diya was placed in the first group, while Emeka was placed in the second group. They all walked out of the room into another room that had an all-white décor.

 

“This is going to be interesting,” Diya whispered to herself.