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

the SUVs that had been tailing them and soon enough, blocked their path, causing the taxi driver to screech to a halt and fortunately, quick enough to save them from running into one of the SUVs.  Masked men with automatic rifles stepped out of the SUVs, blocking every escape route, while three of them walked up to the vehicle with Diya in it.

“Who are these men?” the driver of the vehicle questioned the officers in a clearly terrified tone.

“How are we supposed to know eh?” one of the officers answered with a shaky voice.

“The both of you are just bad luck!” the driver murmured amidst sobs.

 Seeing the masked men approach them, all three of them came out of the car and went face down without being asked to.

 “Big uncles, please don’t kill me, I’m just an ordinary driver,” pled the now shivering driver, with a puddle of urine now forming on the ground around his crutch region.

 “Us! Us! Please, don’t kill us! We are ordinary drivers, too! Forget this our uniform, na sow we sow am (we only had it sown for us),” the officers shouted in the bid to drown the driver’s voice.

The masked men paying no attention to neither of them, moved to the vehicle and carried the unconscious Diya back to their car and then, drove off.  Hearing the last car drive off, all three stood up, took a careful look at themselves to see if they had been shot or hurt. Seeing nothing, they all unconsciously did the sign of the cross.

“Na like this person dey take die o (This is how people die oh),” said officer Bala.

“I swear!” agreed his partner.

 Although still shaky, the driver looked at the officers with anger and disdain. For a second, he seemed like he was going to strangle them but then thought better of it. He got into his car and started up his engine.

“Ahan! wait for us na (Come on! Wait for us),” the officers both voiced as they made efforts to get to the car.

“God punish una two (God will punish both of you),” the driver said as he drove off speedily, leaving the officers behind.

Waking up to the smell of steel and bleach, Diya opened her eyes to discover that she was in a room, all covered in clear steel except for a part that had a huge sized mirror, with her instinct telling her it was a false mirror. She tried to stand up but found out that she was restrained to the bed. What the hell was going on with her? Her life had automatically turned into that of an action movie one could watch in a cinema. Some months ago, she was just a normal girl in a tertiary institution, looking for a means to make more money. She was still sulking when it hit her. Her memories were back!

THREE MONTHS EARLIER

Lying on her bed, Diya scrolled through her phone in search of convincing money making ventures on the internet; she knew she had to be careful as fraudsters were rife online. Hopping from site to site, it began to feel like she wasn’t going to find any and, just when she thought she was on the verge of losing interest, something caught her eye. It was a job vacancy for students and surprisingly, the location was right there in her town of residence, Gusau.

“Who would have thought a small town like this had prospects?” she thought to herself.

The job required students who could work for a multinational Tech company as interns. The pay was quite attractive and no prior experience was needed. All it required was an application letter and a full photograph of the applicant. “This is something I could do,” Diya smiled to herself as she immediately began to craft an application letter.

Dr. Bayo went through the fake email account he had set up for the project. So many applications had begun pouring in from young men and women who were enticed by the pay attached to the job.  Clearly, many of the applicants were not really students. The project had a profiled age, as previous experiments had established that the serum worked perfectly only on a particular age range. Anyone outside the profiled age range, would most likely, die from the effects of the intended experiments.

He knew there was no way he could get more volunteers from the army after what had happened to the last batch sent in. Thankfully, the brilliant idea of advertising job openings online for students within the age range, came to him when he most needed it and now, he had more than enough lab rats to start. “You are just a genius,” he said to himself, as a contended smile lit up his pudgy face.

Diya rushed out of the bathroom to pick up her buzzing phone. Looking at the screen, the number had no name attached to it.

“Hello”

“Good morning. Am  I on to  Diya Tamara-Preye

“Yes, you are. Who am I speaking with, please?”

“This is Mr. Biodun Ogunleye, Human Resource Manager, EVON Corporation. I am calling to inform you, you have been selected for the student internship opening in our company and, you are required to report immediately to our temporary location for the first stage of your screening and orientation.”

“Wow! Alright sir! Thank you very much, sir!” she could barely contain her excitement.

“An email will be sent to you, detailing the location. Have a good day, Diya.”

Putting her phone down, Diya broke into a dance. She could barely believe her good luck. Who would have thought she would be picked for the job? Certainly, not her; this was as big a surprise as any she had ever had in her life. Picking up her phone, she hurriedly went through her mail to find out if the location had been sent. Seeing it, she executed another short, gusty dance and then, hurriedly  went to get dressed.