HAWA’S RETURN
CHAPTER 6
We abandoned our half-finished food and ran out of the place. We went to the road and stopped a bike that was passing. He carried us and we sped to my house. When I looked behind, I noticed that there were two bikes chasing us. Each of the guys had two occupants. I told the Okada man to increase speed.
“Oga, what is the matter?” He asked.
“We are being followed.”
“I hope I am not in trouble?” He asked, scared.
“No, you are not but you will be if you don’t increase the speed of your bike.”
The bike man was a good rider and within a short while he had outpaced the other two guys. I realized that they already knew where I was going to. They knew my house. Therefore, I had to rethink and change strategy.
“What do you think we should do, dear?” I asked Hawa.
“Tell the bike man to stop.”
“What? You are not serious, are you?”
“I know what I am doing. Tell him to stop.”
The bike man dropped us, and we paid him. He hurriedly sped away, afraid of what might happen should the other bikes meet him.
“What’s the plan?” I asked Hawa as soon as the bike man disappeared.
“You have your gun with you, right?” She asked.
“Yes.”
“Check to see that it is loaded.”
“It is, I checked already.”
“Good, let’s get behind that carpentry workshop.” She said, pointing to a carpentry workshop that was about ten minutes away. “When we get there, we will wait until they approach. They won’t know that we are waiting for them. As soon as you see them, open fire. You will target only the riders. Taking out the riders will send both bikes into the bushes. Then, we will finish off the rest of them. Do you understand?”
“Of course, I do.”
“Good, you will target the second rider and I will take care of the first. They will be in motion so; you have to try as much as possible to be accurate. Shoot with extreme prejudice. Do you understand, Ike.”
“I do.”
“Now, let’s wait.”
We ran behind the carpenter workshop and crouched behind. We crouched just in time too because almost immediately, we heard the approaching sound of the two bikes. As soon as they came into view, Hawa and I opened fire almost immediately. I missed but Hawa got her man in the head, and he died instantly, sending the bike out of control. Because the other bike was closely behind, it crashed into the first one, lost control and threw it occupants harshly on the ground.
The killers took more than a moment to realize that they had just been bushwhacked. As they laid on the ground, bruised, stunned and injured, trying to make sense of what had just happened, Hawa sprang into action.
“Ike, the time for caution is over. Let’s go get them.” She spoke.
“Right behind you.”
Even as she spoke, she was already on the move. With her gun spitting bullets, she fired two more shots in quick succession and killed the other rider I had failed to kill. There were supposed to be two guys left now, but we realized that there were three instead. We had miscalculated. One of the bikes had three occupants instead of two. So, altogether, there were five of them. Two of them, the riders, had been killed. Now, there were left three.
By now, the three remaining guys had realized that they had been waylaid and ambushed. They pulled out their guns and returned fire. The situation had become very dangerous.
“Duck, Ike, duck; take cover. They are returning fire.” Hawa cried.
I was confused, I had never been involved in a firefight before, except in video games. This, however, was no video game. It was a live firefight. In video games, people don’t die. In this one however, one mistake, and it will be oblivion for me.
I ran back behind the carpentry workshop as the guys, all three of them, opened fire. One bulled flew past my ear and another went through the plank wall of the carpentry workshop like an icepick on cheese and would have gotten me if I hadn’t moved just in time. I opened fire with my pistol but realized that I was out of bullets.
“Oh no!” I said to myself. “I am in serious trouble now. Hawa!! I called, I am out, I am seriously out.”
“Just lie down!!” She shouted over the noise of the deafening sounds of gunfire. The guys had sub-machine guns with them while we had ordinary handguns.
The guys had managed to crouch behind a building that was opposite the carpentry workshop. The building was solid as compared to the plank walls of the carpentry workshop. So, they were in a better position than us. Also, they had an advantage in numbers. It was three against two. They also had better guns. So, we had to reassess the situation and re-strategize otherwise, we would be killed.
Hawa stopped firing and managed to crawl back to the carpentry workshop. She gave me fresh ammunition and I reloaded my gun. I now felt a bit comfortable and confident.
“What do we do now?” I asked, my voice trembling.
“We are outgunned and outnumbered. Thank God that we took out the other two guys. It would have been worse. This is what we would do. We will crawl away from this place, go in a large circle and appear behind them. They won’t be anticipating such a move. Now that we have stopped firing, there are three things going on in their minds. The first is that we are dead. The second is that we have run out of bullets, and they could easily kill us now. The third is that they could crawl to their bikes and disappear. We must not let them do that. If they escape, they will alert the whole gang and the heat will be too much on us. Do you understand?”
“I do.”
The night was quiet now. It was around 11:30 PM now. Luckily for us, where we were was a business area. The owners of the workshops and factories had already closed for the day. If we were in a residential area, there would have been serious pandemonium and commotion, and the police might have arrived by now. Hawa didn’t want the police involved in this. Neither did I and I am sure the killers too.
What was going on now was a waiting game. The guys were waiting for our next move before they made theirs. They were afraid to leave their hiding places for the time being because they couldn’t determine whether the cause of our ceasefire was because we were dead, out of ammunition or strategizing. As for us, we are already moving. We crawled in a large circle and after about thirty minutes, and my elbows and knees were serious hurting, we came to about thirty meters behind them.
We stooped crawling, got on our feet and with drawn guns, we started moving towards them, bending low in typical commando style. When we got close, we saw all three of them hidden behind the building. But as soon as we saw them, they saw us too and realized that they had been cornered. They opened fire first and we ducked while returning fire. That was when I made my first kill of the day. I shot one of the guys on his lap and as he tried to crawl away, I put another bullet in his stomach and then in his head. The guy was left with no option than to begin the once in a lifetime business of dying.
Hawa engaged the other one but from my observation point, I realized that the guy had run out of bullets. Twice he tried to fire but both times, his gun clicked, signaling that he was out of ammunition. Hawa, who also seemed to have run out of ammunition allowed her instincts to act faster than her reasoning. Instead of her to reload, she ran to the guy instead and they were engaged in a hand-to-hand combat. I looked for the third guy, but he had disappeared. So, I ran towards Hawa to help her.
As soon as I got close, I realized that Hawa didn’t need any help from me. She was able to handle the guy herself. I saw her send all her five fingers into his eyes with force, blinded momentarily, he screamed and held his eyes with both hands. That was all the time Hawa needed. He pulled a knife that was hanging from the guy’s waist and airconditioned his stomach. He pierced him below his navel and then drove the knife up until it got to his rib cage. His intestines and other vital organs spilled out and the guy’s eyes became still. His mouth hung open. He was dead.
“There is one of them left.” I cried. “We need to get him.”
Just then, we heard the engine of a bike starting and then the bike leaving in high speed. The last guy had escaped. I told Hawa that we should get on the other bike and chase him but she declined.
“What is wrong with you, Hawa?” I asked in anger. “You said you wanted none of them to escape.”
“Yes, I said that but that has changed now.”
“How do you mean?”
“I think I know where his is going to?”
“How did you know?”
“You haven’t asked me why I decided to kill the last guy with my hands instead of with a gun.”
“It was because you ran out of bullets and didn’t have time to reload.” I spoke.
“Nope, I had all the time to reload. I just wanted to get close to him to see if I could recognize him.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, I did. I knew him back in my days in the streets. We even had an altercation once. I was very afraid of him then because he was not just a killer, he was also a cultist. He belonged to a very dangerous and deadly cult.”
“OMG! Good thing he is dead now.”
“Yes, but our fight is not over yet. That last guy who escaped, I know where he is going to. I am sure he is also a member of that cult, that is why I am sure I know where to find him. I am beginning to understand how all these came about. Your girlfriend, Nerissa seems to have a hand in these.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
