As if those words were some sort of activation code, the cars sped up to them. Her bike rider seemed prepared and increased his speed, making her heartbeats amplify.
'What are you…? Ah!' Simi grabbed his cloth for support.
The bikeman spun, holding a revolver as he yelled, 'girl… Get down!'
She cowered behind his blue pullover, grabbing his trousers for support. At the same, a shot rang from his gun. Then, another one. Cars swerved and screeched behind. A ghastly bang followed. Simi squealed.
Her hairband sprung off, making her hair hang after them like a kite in the wind. Hurriedly, she sat straight. 'Who are you? Who are you, people? What did I do?'
'Duck!' The bikeman yelled again.
Even if she wanted to be stubborn, the fitful shots of guns from behind compelled her to heed him. Someone once told her that if she could hear a gunshot, then she was still alive. Her howls were drowned in the seas of shrieks that came from different places.
Immediately, her bag fell off. She cried and reached out to grab it. 'My bag…'
'Not now!'
'My bag!'
'Hold me tight!' The bike man said and swerved off the road.
In no time, he was speeding off through a bush path. Houses sunk out of view. The vast cloudy blueness of the sky and the jarring greenness of leaves were the only things on their trail. Simi could get her mind off the bag, which contained her wallet and her information.
I'm dreaming, Simi thought.
No meaningful sound came out of her mouth despite her several attempts to tell him to stop. Nonetheless, alongside the bike's revving, she could attest that she made different sounds that would beat animals'.
Their assailants were no longer in view.
'Drop me! Drop me!' Simi gripped her seat tightly with sweaty hands. 'I will jump'.
'You will die…' The bike rider claimed.
'Drop me!' She yelled.
She braced herself, ready to make a jump for it.
'Brace up!' The bikeman brought the bike to a halt. Simi crashed into him, her fatness vibrating, splashing pain into her bone.
'Ouch!' Quickly, she grabbed his cloth to steady herself. 'Kill me, you hear!'
'Get down…Now. Now…' The bikeman urged.
Accelerating cars crushed their ways towards them. Simi leapt off the bike and stood still, confused about the next phase of action.
'Why are you standing? Run… Follow me!' The bikeman scrambled through the bushes as if they would splash hot water on him. Simi froze.
The bikeman wheeled around, glared at her coldly, and dragged her into the belly of the bush. If she had a different opinion, it was instantly wiped off by their assailants' intensifying noises.
Leading her through several bush paths, the bikeman's navigation skill unnerved her.
'Who are those?' Simi asked. 'Who are you?'
'Young lady… You're in for a long time of trouble if they ever catch you. The accent that rolled off his lips awed her.
'What did I do?'
The bike man was muttering something repeatedly as he glanced at her and urged her on with his hand. After what felt like forever, they popped out on another side of the bush. Near a river. A fair young lady with a sleek Afro was waiting in a speedboat. If Simi were a comb, she would spend the rest of her life in that shiny hair.
'Hurry, Eyes man!' The young lady.
'Dezzy, get moving!' The bike rider shouted at the lady on Afro.
No way, Simi thought.
Snatching her hand off the bikeman's, Simi withdrew. Silence and cold air dancing around the river were the only witnesses to know that she was being picked by the bald bike rider and the soldier-like Dezzy. 'No…Not going anywhere. Not with you. Not without knowing what's happening?'
The bikeman raised his hands in frustration. 'Okay! Okay! I get! See, I'm Kukoyi Jackson, and that's Dezzy. That is Aigbodezzy Ilavari. We're both powerful. You posted something on Nairaland…'
Simi spread her hands. 'I've posted many things…'
'Well, this particular one…In the general section. It's about you thinking you're mad these past few days and trying to understand why you kept seeing yourself at an event that happened before and then back to the future.
Dezzy nodded. She swallowed hard.
The bikeman explained, 'those men… Are there to kidnap you for that information.
'How do you know?' Simi wondered and looked from one person to the other. 'Why?'
'Movement! Movement!' Dezzy yelled. 'C'mon…'
Simi glanced back into the bush that was suddenly becoming louder. Now, her odds were becoming slimmer.
'Who's shooting at you? Me or them?' Kukoyi said and splashed his way into the speedboat.
Having no other option, Simi heeded them and climbed into the speedboat. The boat trembled under her weight, making Dezzy throw her an uncertain look. A short while later, when their speedboat was far from the riverbank, their assailants got to the river and shot desperately at them, to no avail.
Yet, they all took cover. Simi repeatedly prayed to everything in the world as Kukoyi's smooth hand covered her head. Dezzy astounded Simi with her nifty manoeuvre of the speedboat. In no time, the riverbank became smaller than a needle hole and eventually evaporated.
She glanced at Kukoyi's smiling face and couldn't ascertain if they were genuine or ominous. If she had any question, she couldn't ask there.
Shrouded in the hum of the boat, the swoosh of the river as they travelled through and her own hug because of the cold, Simi inhaled the menthol-like feeling of the river and allowed her mind to wander off to the many questions she needed answers to. The first being, why did her mum drop her as a baby outside an orphanage home?
'Why did you?' Simi said and stared into emptiness.
Afterwards, Simi brought out the only picture she had with her and stared at it. The people in the picture were a man, a woman, and herself. The man was none other than Mr Makinde, their matron. The woman was Miss Johnson, their nanny, at the orphanage home. She wished she didn't run away from their haven, but she couldn't live her life in their confines anymore.