I dropped on the floor crying, my arms were bleeding and it stung like it has been slashed off by a sharp knife but it was a sharp dry small tree branch piercing my arms as we ran through the forest.
Ebuka and Dave sat down behind me, dave was crying too and Ebuka had his hands under his face.
The sun has crossed the sky and heading towards the western horizon.
"I can't believe the driver is dead just like that" i moaned wiping out my face with the back of my hands sniffing.
"That is life for you" ebuka replied wiping his face with both of his hands.
Dave kept to himself, his eyes were beaming red and the looks on his face shows he was overwhelmed by fear. I have never seen Dave be shaken out like that.
"Sky get Dave up, lets get out of here" Ebuka threw at me standing up beating out dirt from his clothes.
"And go where?" I asked
"We will go down that hill walk down towards the right for a while and turn back towards the direction we came from to see if we can find the main road" He said demonstrating his plan by pointing towards the directions.
"Are you sure that will work?" I said again betraying the fear that gripped me.
"I don't know we just have to try, we don't know if the police are still coming behind us or not so we need to get out of here"
I nodded in agreement, helped Dave up and we walked towards a hill valley.
Just hill was a bit slippery and trees got thicker and taller as we went deeper down the hill, we could see a running water down the base of the hill providing a little ray of hope to our already battered hope.
I was visibly shaking and it was no news that dave might slump anytime soon, his face looked like one who hasn't eaten for decades and the cover of darkness was slowly creeping in with dry chilly cold building up.
Ebuka and i went a bit to look around the forest to see if we can find anything edible to eat, i came back with two paw-paw i saw on a lone small paw-paw tree not too far from where we left dave. One was ripe, the other was not only a total green peel, i didn't care anything was ok now.
Ebuka came back later with some strange looking fruits, rough and brownish red. said he used to eat them during christmas holidays in his home town.
There was no time to choose what you want to eat or not, dave delve into the strange fruits almost immediately taking large wild bites rushing it like he was eating his last.
The fruits didn't stop the hunger but we felt a lot better than we were before, drank water from the dirty looking flowing stream and started off following the direction of the stream flow.
The sound of the running water kept filtering into our ears, crickets smearing the night with shrieky songs, frogs complimented around the bushy border of the stream croaking away into the night and a crescent moon beamed down.
"Ebuka i thought you came here with your phone?" Dave blurted out immediately..
"Yes yes" Ebuka sang out excitedly reaching into his pockets ..
"Its no longer here oo" He intoned feverishly still searching the already searched pockets over and over again.
"Jesus christ!!!" came dave who placed his hands above his head.
"If this people find that phone we are dead" Ebuka said looking like a whipped dog.
remembering i also came with my phone i collected the back pack from Ebuka and reached into the small pocket i remember putting it.
Drew out my phone but it was no longer in one piece, the many parts of the screen were badly cracked and the battery was running at 21%.
"My phone is broken but at least there is still some battery left though we don't have service here" I said to Ebuka and Dave…
We moved on more with the stream, climbed a small ridge in the stark darkness that i had to crawl on both my hands and legs to maintain my balance.
There was a rustling and then thudding sound, Dave's voice groaned into the night sending chilly sparks down my spine.
"What happened?" I blew out.
"Dave just fell" Ebuka replied making to go down the ridge again i followed him with a heart thumping hard threatening to rip open my chest.
Dave was sprawled on the floor clutching his right ankle groaning out in pain.
"Dave what happened?" Ebuka asked as he made to where Dave was.
"I slipped and fell i think i just broke my ankle" He said in a groan wincing in excruciating expression.
I grabbed the ankle and stretched it a bit, Dave let out a piercing cry into the night making me drop the ankle again.
A look from Ebuka was enough to show me he knew the ankle was messed up really bad, i removed the black jacket i wore and we tied it around Dave's ankle.
Helped him up and placed each of his hands on our shoulders as we made to leave again with dave limping in between Ebuka and i.
We walked on for hours with darkness covering every side of the direction, Dave was getting heavier and from his face it was obvious the pain was getting worse.
My shoulders were almost torn off and Ebuka's was not any better.
"Sky did you hear that?" Ebuka said stopping.
"Hear what?"
"I think i just heard the sound of a car running past, i think we are near a main road" He blew out excitedly ..
"I didn't hear it" i said stretching my ears to catch even the faintest sound.
"Lets go" Ebuka said as we quickened our pace trying to keep Dave from falling off.
We arrived at a main road, it was tarred but small can only have two cars running side by side at the same time, but the whole distance smeared in pitch black didn't have any promise of a vehicle approaching.
We set Dave down beside a tree on the road and waiting to see if a car will run through..
"Sky look, there is a light coming from there" Dave said weakly pointing towards the right direction of the road.
"Yes, its a car" An excitement grew within me and a smile appeared on my face "Ebuka quickly grab Dave" i said to Ebuka as i started waving at the approaching vehicle.
The speed didn't reduced as it got nearer and nearer by the seconds, rushed past us at neck breaking speed shattering the little glow of hope that already grew inside me.
We waited for another 1 hour for another car to rush past again without stopping even though we waved and shouted at it, the next and the next cars didn't stop either.
the time on my phone was clocking 4:30am showing it will be morning anytime soon and we cannot stay out in the open main road like this in the morning.
The next car that approached slowed down as i waved and gestured my hands in a pleading manner.
"Its an early morning taxi" I blew out at Dave and Ebuka happily as i made out the paint and look of the small Nissan altima.
Ebuka dragged dave up and we rushed into the taxi without even talking to the driver..
He drove off immediately looking back at us with a questioning eyes.
"Wetin una deh do here by this time?" He asked …
"Oga na armed robbers chase us oo, we lost since and our brother don break leg" Ebuka replied ..
"Chai this boys no go allow person rest for this side eeehn, sorry oo" he came again looking at us through the rear-view mirror it was pity this time.
"abeg where we deh?" I asked having noticed we have not passed any house just bushes.
"This place na road that pass through Umueje" he blew out fixing his gaze at the windscreen.
"Ewoo that's far from the city o" Ebuka intoned.
"Yes na, i just go village deh rush back town now to start work early" he replied.
"Ok abeg take us to No 8B Melview independence layout when we reach the city" Ebuka said.
"Una fit pay me?" He asked in a blunt voice.
"Yes yes we will pay you anything please just be quick" i replied reaching into my pocket to be sure i still had the money i went out with.
Dave's groans the car bumped into gallops intensified our haste to get to Miss Lola's apartment faster, the taxi maintained a steady speed until after some time we started seeing house clusters with lights.
"we don enter town" he said beating the steering like a drum.
In about 20 minutes more we arrived Miss Lola's gate, dawn has not broke out yet but from the looks of it that wouldn't take long now.
The taxi man asked that i give him any amount i want as his own way of helping us as victims of armed robbers, i gave him 3,000 and he drove away in a hurry.
Carrying Dave in our shoulders we banged and banged the gate impatiently.
"Who be that?"
"Agaba na me Ebus abeg hurry open gate" Ebuka replied sounding even more impatient.
"Aaaah ebus, jesus una deh alive?" Agaba blew out as the gate creaked and squeaked open.
He grabbed Dave and lifted him off the ground as we made it more inside the compound towards the house.
The pains in my arms and below the eyes returned, could see Ebuka was limping but not too noticeably.
Almost banging the door down, it finally opened and we were met by Miss Lola who looked like he just saw a ghost.
Her eyes ran from Ebuka to me and Dave being carried on Agaba's shoulder.
"You are alive?" She intoned dabbling into a smile..
"You are alive, they are alive" she broke into a shout all over the house. Skull who was now seating in the lounge stood up immediately looking at us with a very un-expecting look.
"We got a call from an informant that things went bad and the anti-drug squad gunned down you guys" He addressed us still looking shocked.
"We escaped, the driver was killed" I said falling down on the floor to regain my sanity and rest my bones.
"What about razor, the bald one that went with you?" He asked to no one in particular.
"Dead too" came Ebuka who went to the couch to seat and Agaba gently dropped Dave on one of the sofas.
I still can't believe we made it out alive ..