CHAPTER 6

MUSA'S VIEW

After our house master rang the bell for lights out, that was when nature decided to give a call. I picked up my toilet roll from my cupboard and began my journey to the toilet. As I walked, I watched boys move quietly to their rooms. They couldn't exactly make noise since I was the hostel prefect.

"Musa where are you going?" The house master asked,

"I need to use the toilet sir."

"Who will do your work for you? You need to ensure these boys are on their beds."

It was true. He wasn't lying. This was one of the few times that I had to resume my duty as the Hostel Prefect.

At this point, I had to send all the students to their beds, ensure all the room lights were turned off and most importantly, lock the front door.

"I'll do that sir," I replied him.

"Take the key." He said as he threw a bunch of keys to me. "I'll collect them tomorrow morning. You know what to do."

My house master walked to his room and shut the door while I dropped my tissue on the pavement and walked to the front door. I closed the door and locked it before going back to the pavement to bring order into the hostel.

"I'll count down from five to one." I began by shouting. "If by the count of one, your lights are still turned on, all the members of that room will walk out and clean up the toilets. If you are not in your room, move to your room, immediately!"

Boys began to move from one room to another, probably returning to their various rooms as I began to count down. At the count of one, the hostel was in grave silence.

I siezed that opportunity to go and use the toilet. The hostel was only quiet for a while, I knew that at some point, I was still going to get a scapegoat to wash toilet this night.

I took my tissue and moved to the toilet. I took my time and and responded to nature's second call. Ten minutes into the time I spent in the toilet, I started hearing foot steps. I chose to ignore. One person wouldn't be enough for the punishment that I had in mind. After about twenty minutes, I was done. I cleaned up and tried to flush, but there was no water in the hostel.

"Why now?" I spoke lowly to myself.

I walked out of the toilet and took a bucket that laid on the toilet passage to get water from outside the hostel. That was the only reliable place to get a bucket of water from by this time and thankfully, I was with the key. I walked out of the toilet and couldn't stop the smile that found its way to my face after what I saw.

"Good! Just stop there!" I said to the junior student who was sneaking to another room. When he looked back to see who it was, his eyes immediately watered and I knew he was going to cry but I didn't care. When I give any instruction, I usually appreciate it when people cooperate but right now, I had to make sure this boy wouldn't make this mistake again.

"Senior Musa please. I was going to collect my note from my class mate."

"What says your time?" I asked him

"Its five minutes past eleven."

"And you plan on collecting your note now. You had from morning till 10:30pm to do that, why now? By the way, what are you doing with this by this time? You obviously want to read which you clearly know, is not allowed. Two offences in one."

"No. But senior Musa ...."

"Toilet 1-5. Don't waste my time. Get a bucket and move quickly."

He was already shaking and crying but he brought it upon himself.

"I have gotten one." I announced for the whole hostel to hear . "Please come out, I'd like to get another."

I picked the bucket I was carrying, and kept on going so I could get water. I opened the door, walked to the tap outside and stood while the bucket filled. I stood outside in silence until I heard the shouts of neighbours.

This was an alert. As they shouted, their generators went off. Generators only went off at night when the attention of thieves didn't want to be attracted or if they wanted people to believe no one was at home.

I strained my ears and tried to make out the little I could hear.

"Won de ooo! (They have arrived ooo). E dakun, e lo sa kpamo ! (Please go and hide). Won ma kpa yin ooo (they will kill you ooo.)."

Hoodlums! They had gotten to this area. I tried again to pick out what they were saying.

"They are going to enter that school!"

I heard someone shout and that was all it took for me to sprint back into the hostel.

"Wake up! Get out of this hostel !"

Most boys, the ones that were awake came by to their room doors and were looking at me. 'Were they deaf !' I wondered.

"What's the noise all about ?" My house master asked as he came out of the room. "Musa, what is all this ?"

"Hoodlums are coming into the school. We need to leave the hostel now !"

"What did you say? You are panting. I can't hear you."

"I said hoodlums are...."

Before I could complete my statement, one of the security men ran in and behind him was a man dressed in black, armed with a knife. He looked very unkept and had a red eyes.

"Run!" the security man shouted before the hoodlum caught up with him and stabbed him.

I managed and ran out of the hostel through the back door. I ran out of the compound and got to school. I was wondering where the other hoodlums were until I heard screams from the staff quraters. I hid in a class room until the noise stopped. I ran back towards the staff qurater to see what had happened in there. Not a single sound was heard again, not even the sound of breathing. They were all dead! Not too long during the course of my inspection, screams started at the girls' hostel which wasn't too far the staff quarters.

"Chidinma!"

I honestly did not know what I was going to do but I had to find a way to save Chidinma.

I walked from left to right thinking of how I could get Chidinma out of all of this. She was obviously going to be with Ife, her cousin but that didn't matter.

After making up my mind, I walked to the girls hostel. On getting there, I saw two girls in one of the bushes. I recognized one to be Ife and the other to be Mayokun. I looked beyond them and saw two men guarding the door. How did they get out? Where was Chidinma?

I walked up to them. When they saw me, they were scared, probably because they couldn't see my face initially. I put a finger over my lips and shushed them.

"It's okay" I whispered to them. They immediately calmed down when they noticed it was me. "Where's Chidinma?"

"Inside. She got us out, now she's stuck."

Ife replied.

"Come. Let's hide somewhere else. Those men there," I pointed at the door "May see us."

They followed me to the back of the building and sat there. Mayokun was injured. She's lucky that she survived. Ife told me what had happened from beginning till now and how Chidinma got stuck.

"I'll go and get her." I said.

"You can't leave us here."

"I never said I would. I will hide you somewhere else. This place is too open."

I heard silent movement and told Ife to keep quiet. I looked around and peeped to where they stood initially. In the mist of all these noise and chaos, the men at the front door couldn't hear and I was thankful. I could hear because we were closer to the window. Underneath the window, in the bushes where I found Ife and Mayokun, stood a frightened Chidinma.

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Thank you so much for reading up to this point. I am very grateful. So, we now know how Musa survive this mess. Who do you think is smarter, Musa, Chidinma, Ife or Mayokun and Why? You know how to reach me. My facebook page is Just_Rufina Novelist. Hit me up. Thank you once again and watch out for Chapter 8.

Yours sincerely

Just_Rufina