PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 8

  

PROJECT LIVING-DEAD 7 -HERE

          
Counting the money for the umpteenth time that evening, Diya couldn’t believe they had actually been given the money as promised. At some point, she had begun thinking it was all a farce. But here she was with seventy thousand naira that had not broken a solitary sweat from her. Fate had smiled on her after all. Picking up her phone, she placed a call, through to her mother.

“Hello mummy, good evening.”

“Good evening Deedee, how are you and how is school?”

“Fine mum. Hope you are doing okay?”

“Yes I am, my dear. You sound excited; what’s going on with you?”

“Mummy I have a good news!”

“Wow. Ok, now you’ve got my attention,” Diya could almost hear the curiosity in her mother’s tiny voice.

“I got a job! With a very big company here in Gusau, too!”

“Wow. That’s good to know. Really good. But umm…wait a minute, how are you going to joggle that with your studies? Won’t it be too hectic?” her mother asked cautiously.

“It won’t be that difficult to handle, mummy. It is sort of, an internship program for students and its flexible. They even gave me a start-up allowance of seventy thousand naira today!”

“Really?! They must be a very big company then. Congratulations my dear. Don’t forget to pay your tithe oh! All that money isn’t for spending”.

“Yes ma, I know. I will pay in some of it to you tomorrow.”

“I have always said you’d make a good husband if you were a man,” her mother joked, with a tinge of laughter in her voice. It was one of their favourite jokes. “Alright my dear; take very good care of yourself oh.”

“I will, mummy. Good night.”

Placing the phone on her chest, Diya could only but smile. Finally, she would be a relief to her widowed mum. She knew her mum could afford her basic needs, but, she also knew her mum could use some assistance and getting this job was going to go a long way in doing that. Drifting off to sleep, she had only two thoughts in mind: thoughts of her mum and her new job.

 

“Here is the list of those that scaled through, sir. About four of them were screened out,” Tunde said as he handed over a green file to Dr. Bayo.

“That’s alright.  Nine of them will be more than enough for now. The other four, what’s their status?” Dr. Bayo asked without looking up from the list in his hands.

“They’ve been injected with the TYPE-2-0 as requested, sir. They won’t remember a thing about this place.”

“Good. Very good. PROJECT LIVING-DEAD is a go. We begin our second stage of tests from next week. You’re excused and please, shut the door on your way out.”

“Alright sir.”

As soon as Tunde had stepped out, Dr. Bayo pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

“Good morning, General.”

“Yes doctor, tell me the next stage of the project is up and running.”

“Not yet, sir, but, we are ready to go. Stage two kicks off from next week.”

“That’s all I want to hear. We’ve waited so long for this.”

“I am very close to creating the right TYPE. I will be done, sooner than you know it.”

“Call me when it’s done.” With that order, Dr. Bayo knew he had been dismissed.

If only the General knew what he really had planned out for this project, he would respect him more, Dr. Bayo let out a sinister grin. Picking up the list Tunde had given to him earlier, he continued to study the selected ones. He was about putting it down when he came across a file that drew his attention. It was that of the amused girl from the orientation class. Taking her file out, he read out her bio;

 

Name: Diya Tamara-Preye                                                                                                                Age:19                                                                                                                                                   State of Origin: Bayelsa                                                                                             

Institution: Federal Polytechnic, Kaura Namoda                                                              

Course: Business Education

He read out her name again but, this time, slower, like he was tasting each letter of her name. Something about her reminded him of his sister. She had fire in her eyes, a good trait! However, she was someone to be cautious off throughout the project. With that, he marked her file while making a mental note on the need to be careful with her.

 

Walking slowly towards the school canteen, Diya paid little attention to her surrounding and so, didn’t know she was being followed by her friend, Florence who made a frightening sound that startled her.

“Hey!!! Don’t do that again; you scared the shit out of me!” Diya chided her friend playfully, chasing her half-heartedly.

Laughing out really loud, Flo held on to Diya’s shoulder to stable herself and also, stop herself from laughing so she could talk.

 

 “You are such a scared chicken, you know? Besides, who walks around like a zombie like you were doing?” Flo asked, still laughing.

“I am going to hit your head pretty hard next time you sneak up on me like that, just to show you I’m serious!” Diya feigned annoyance at her closest friend on campus.

“Hahaha! Calm your tits, lady. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you,” Flo apologised while trying really hard to stop herself from smiling. Diya, seeing her friend struggling to keep the smile down, burst into laughter herself.

“You never take me seriously when I talk you, this girl. You are a big aboki!” Diya said as she pushed Flo playfully.

“Aboki means friend and I am your friend, so, yes, I am your big aboki! Let’s go and eat jor, I am starving.” Flo replied in return.

Later that day, Diya recieved a call from Dr. Tunde Shekini asking her to report to work early the next morning. Sincerely, the job had not been stressful as she thought it would be. For the past one week, she had visited the company just once and had practically done nothing there other than sit, eat their specially baked cookies, surf the internet with their free Wi-Fi and sleep. Hopefully, this time around, she would do something that really mattered for a change.

Standing up from her bed, Diya walked into her kitchen so she could get a snack she could nibble on while she read her Tom Clancy novel. Checking through her cupboard, she settled for a packet of Noreos biscuit. Returning back to her bed, she stared at the novel for a while.

 

“This Tom Clancy sef! Always writing in a complicated manner,” she said to no one in particular, as she adjusted her lying position to be more comfortable.

While reading through the cover page, Diya heard a sound from her backyard but paid no mind to it. It was not until she saw a shadow pass swiftly through her window, that she decided to stand up and go see who was intruding.  Usually, Flo would play one of those her silly pranks.

 

“She had better not be the one doing that,” Diya muttered to herself as she opened the backdoor, flashed her torch and looked around, seeing nobody, she went back in.

She was about to lie back down when she heard her back door open. Jumping to her feet, she walked cautiously towards the backdoor to check, and then she saw them. Two men stood in front of her. Diya stood still, frozen and extremely terrified.

“If you shout, we will kill you! If you try to run, we will kill you! Either ways, you die if you don’t stay calm,” said one of the men.

"Please don’t kill me, I don’t have any money" Diya said in a voice that sounded like anything but hers.

Grabbing her, one of the men, covered her nose with a chloroformed handkerchief, knocking her out in seconds.