CHAPTER 7

CHIDINMA'S VIEW

We walked out of the kitchen, followed the trails of dead bodies and got back to the entrance.

"Are you ready?" Musa asked us.

I looked to my side at Ife and Mayokun. Ife nodded her head. I looked down at Mayokun. She looked so weak and the thought of her surviving this calamity was one of the things that kept me going.

" Mayokun, are you ready?" I repeated Musa's question to her. Her eyes were getting wet and I knew this was harder for her than it was for any of us. She was giving up! She shook her head giving me a negative reply. " Mayokun, you can do this! You have come this far, you can...."

" No! You guys can just leave me here to die. It's obvious that I am being a burden and I am slowing you guys down."

" No one said that." Ife said to her.

" You don't have to. It's clear."

" So what if you are slowing us down, we want to get you out of this. You need to get out of this!" I said.

" I am tired." Mayokun said as tears fell from her eyes.

" I really hate to stop this heart to heart conversation going on here right now but we need to get out of here fast. The inverter room in girl's hostel is glowing red and that doesn't look like a good sign." Musa said.

" One of those guys probably did something there." I said. " It's going to blow."

Directly infront of the girls' hostel was the big generator. If the inverter room blows, there's a high possibility of an explosion occuring. In less than a minute, I watched as the hoodlums began to run fast out of the hostel. They passed us but didn't even notice us. They were running to save their lives after taking other people's own. The anger in me at that point was beyond measure. They all deserved to die! They deserved to burn up in the inevitable explosion that would soon occur.

" Chidinma!" I came out of my thought and saw that they had moved but I was still on the spot. I ran to meet up with them and we ran as fast as we could. 5...4...3....2..... BOOM!

The force of the explosion fell us down. Like I had predicted, the inverter room caught fire and the diesel of the generator caught the fire and exploded.

Everywhere was smoky. I tried to move and that was when I knew that the impact I made with the floor had given me injuries on my body. I felt nothing but pain. I did my best and finally stood up.

"Musa! Ife! Mayokun!" I shouted. The generator was still on fire and the smoke was increasing. I turned round and squinted my eyes to find whoever I could through the fire.

A body moved on the floor and I walked over to it.

" Musa." I said as he stood up and grunted

"Are you okay?" he asked me

" I'm fine."

" Let's find Ife and Mayokun."

We looked around and tried to find them. Musa's hand found mine as we looked around. For a few seconds I couldn't process anything other than the fact that Musa's hand was on mine. Why he held me, I couldn't tell but I wasn't complaining either.

" Look there." Musa pointed ahead. A body was moving and in the twinkle of an eye, his hands left mine and he ran towards the moving body. I looked down at my hand and back up at the scene before me. 'Chidinma focus!' I told myself before running after Musa. I was close to him when I heard sobs coming from where he stood. It sounded like Ife. That made me quicken my steps. I stood beside Musa and watched as Ife sat on the floor with Mayokun's head on her leg. I could make out Ife's face and I saw that she had also injured herself when the generator exploded and sent us to the floor. I looked over to Mayokun and my eyes went wide.

" Mayokun." I said in a low voice as I knelt down beside her. She was already injured before now and when the explosion occured, the glass from the window close to her stood around her body.

Musa knelt beside me and whispered into my ears " She won't make it."

I knew she wasn't going to make it but I wasn't going to listen to his negative conclusion so I ignored him. My eyes remained on Mayokun and her breathing slowed down. I looked up at Ife and listened to her as she begged Mayokun to stay with us. I looked over to Musa and saw as he just starred at Mayokun. Tears threatened to pour but I held it in, I had to be strong. Ife was already crying, if I followed suite now, Ife will only break down the more.

" Chidinma." Mayokun called slowly. I looked at her and held the side of her face letting her know that i was listening to her. " I.... I know you guys will make it through this." She smiled as the words left her mouth. "You will be faster now. Your burden has been removed."

" You are not a burden and you have never been one." I replied.

" Thank you for trying to save me." With that, she made her last breath and gave up.

Ife's sob changed to loud cries and I couldn't help the tear drop that fell from my eyes. " You are welcome." I said as I closed her eyes.

I stood up and wiped the tear drop before I looked over at Musa. I needed him to help me drag Ife away from the corpse. He got the message and looked over at Ife.

" Ife we need to go. She's gone, we can't bring her back." Musa said.

" We haven't even tried. Chidinma do something." Ife cried.

" I can't do anything. She's gone." i replied.

" No! Help her."

I looked over at Musa and he looked back at me. His eyes seemed to be asking for permission so I nodded. He walked up to Ife and pulled the body from her. She of course tried to fight but Musa was stronger. He dropped the body on the floor before pulling Ife to her feet.

" Let's go." Musa said to me, his hands never leaving the crying Ife at his side. I nodded and turned around.

**********************************************

Hi guys. Thank you for reading up to this point. Sorry for the delay in updating, I was busy. So now Mayokun is gone. Sad right? I know. So what next? Keep following and share the story with your friends. Thank you for the support so far. Love you guys.

Yours sincerely,

Just_Rufina