Dance to the Whirls ||Daniel Jaja

Laughing seemed to be something villains did right before signing their death warrant because just then Kareem leaped at him, detaching himself from his family and closing the distance between himself and the commander with superhuman prowess. A man can do anything to protect his family and Kareem proved just that.

Kareem and his family were on their way out of the state when they were accosted by a group of jihadist bandits. Kareem was driving and the bandits had created a barricade on the route he had chosen to take that day, forcing him to slow down and at the same time, giving the group of seven bandits the opportunity to pounce on him. His wife had earlier pleaded with him to not take that road, but her plea had fallen on deaf ears. Kareem had wanted to catch up with some friends who were flying out to Abuja and it was the quickest route.

For some time now, rumours had been circulating that bandits were on the prowl, constantly attacking and maiming unsuspecting victims and massively recruiting males. The rumours had yet to be verified but the atmosphere in Borno State was tense and its residents were kept in suspense as to events that could or would occur next. The security crisis was the reason why Kareem was now leaving the state with his wife and two kids, Biodun and Lola. Now it appeared that they had been caught in the maelstrom.

“All of you, come out. Now!” barked a stout black man with deep gashes on his cheeks. He advanced towards Kareem’s window. Kareem rolled down the window.

“Oga, I and my family are just….” Kareem tried to explain but he was shut up and screamed when the man stabbed him in the chest with a concealed dagger.

Kareem woke up to the beep-beep of a heart-rate monitor. He was in a hospital ward. In the intensive care unit. The lights flickered on and off for a while before stabilizing. Kareem’s eyes hurt and his head hurt even worse. He remembered.

“Those bastards….”

But where were his wife and children?

Immediately the thought crossed his mind, the heart rate monitor began to pulse rapidly. Within a few seconds, a nurse was in his room.

“Mr. Ajibola, how are you feeling?”

Kareem was surprised that this woman knew his name, then he remembered he had his work ID card in his pocket when the thugs had accosted them.

“Where is my wife?”

“Mr. Ajibola, I think it’s best if you lie back and relax.”

The nurse stood by a table by the door where tranquilizer-filled syringes lay on a tray.

Kareem removed the oscilloscope cable connected to his chest, stood up, and stealthily walked towards her. She was examining the dosage when he put his hand over her mouth. He grabbed the syringe and needle from her hand and plunged it into her abdomen. The nurse fell to the ground and the clattering of the tray reverberated in the room.

Thankfully, the door of the unit was locked. Kareem looked around. The solitary glass window was transparent and there was nobody outside. He felt lightheaded and nauseous. He sat down on the hospital bed and took few seconds to catch his breath.

Minutes later, an unnamed nurse left The Graces Hospital gate in a hurry. In Kareem’s room lay the on-duty nurse, naked on the cold tile floor.

Kareem hurried off to a phone booth and called his father. His wounds, still covered in cotton wool, were just beginning to heal, and he winced as he explained how armed gunmen had accosted him and his family and how they had left him for dead after stabbing him twice.

His father recounted how they had been contacted by unknown gunmen who had requested ransom for his wife and two kids. Kareem dropped the phone and cradled his head in his hands. The stubborn tears he was trying to keep at bay flowed. It seemed as if his world had come to an end. He straightened up and shook off the feeling. Things were bad, but not irredeemable. He picked up the phone again

and called his mother.

“Hello.”

“Kareem…?”

“Hello, Mama!”

“Kareeeeem! We have been searching for you all over. Where are you now.”

“Mama, please tell me, can you send me their mobile number?”

“The abductors? Well, they called using a private line. We couldn’t get a hold of the number.”

“Okay, how did they say you should contact them?”

“They said we should get the money ready by tomorrow and drop it at a certain location, which they will get us to know at the appropriate time.”

“How much are they demanding?”

“Five million for your wife and another five million for both kids.”

Kareem was speechless for some time. Where would he get five million naira now?

“Have you contacted the police?”

“They said not to contact the police, that they have a man inside, and if we make contact with the police, they will kill both the children and rape your wife before killing her. They said so many horrible things.”

Kareem had no money to pay for the phone call so he deposited his wristwatch with the phone booth operator, promising the woman that he would redeem the watch once he sorted himself out. From the address written on the signboards in the area, he figured that he was a few miles away from the spot where his family had been abducted. He began to walk down the dusty road until hunger, thirst and tiredness slowed him down. He found a spot where he could sit and rest. He begged a food vendor for a meal and some water, and after eating, he prayed to Allah to give him strength for the journey he was about to undertake. Feeling refreshed, he resumed walking.

His car was still parked by the roadside but it had been looted. Vandals had made away with the batteries, side mirrors and other detachable items. He searched the ground for

any traces that could lead him to the whereabouts of the unknown gunmen. There were drops of blood and shoeprints here and there and Kareem followed the trail into the thickness of the forest. It was almost dusk when he came to a large clearing. Kareem stood for a while, debating whether to keep moving forward or to return to the road. He had taken but two steps into the clearing when someone shouted at him in the local dialect.

“Hey, you there! Stop! Who are you?”

Kareem put his hands up.

“Lie down on the floor, your hands behind your head…. Now!”

Slowly, Kareem put his hands behind his head and knelt. He must have seemed reluctant in doing it because his would-be assailant fired a bullet close to his feet. A trembling Kareem flopped to the ground, burying his face in the sand.

One minute, Kareem heard footsteps approaching, and the next, he was receiving kicks on his head; the pain caused him to curl up on the ground. He attempted to lift his head and sneak a peek at his assailant, but the butt of a gun jammed onto his head. Kareem lay

still, protecting his face as the man continued assailing him until another man, apparently a superior stopped him with a shout. “Usman!”

“Usman,” the superior continued in a calmer voice, “Let the newcomer be. We don’t want to scare away our new recruits now, do we?”

Kareem lifted his face above the ground.

He could only open one eye. The other was swollen shut.

The superior was a black bulky set man with piercing eyes and crude stud piercings on his ears and noses. His assailant was also dark skinned but lanky, his distinguishing feature a

characteristic stoop.

“Arise, my son, what is your name?”

Kareem suddenly felt anger at being so close to his family abductors but he managed to restrain himself.

“Kareem,” he spat. “Kareem Ajibola.”

The superior sized him up, intensely gazing into his soul through snake-like slits for eyes.

Kareem lowered his eyes.

The Superior walked around him in slow measured steps. “Let’s see what you’re made of, Kareem. Usman throw away your gun.”

Usman, Kareem’s lanky assailant threw away his gun.

“Now, both of you, fight!”

The words were barely out of his mouth before Kareem leaped up in rage, landing a left hook on Usman’s abdomen. Usman doubled over in pain and received several more blows before straightening up to grab Kareem. Both fell and rolled towards the gun. The Superior was laughing. Clearly these were men who enjoyed violence.

Kareem managed to get a hold of the gun and fired it straight into the Superior’s chest. Usman was horrified and didn’t have time to come out of his state of shock before Kareem fired the gun into his face. The sound of the gunshots attracted a party of eight other men who speedily armed themselves and ran out to investigate. They met the bodies of their comrades lying few feet from each other. One of the party was the stout black man with gashes on his cheeks who had stabbed Kareem a few days earlier. He looked at the bodies and instructed two others to dispose of them. He was next in line in the chain of command and now assumed responsibility of the cell.

He commanded the other five to spread out and search for the person who had murdered their colleagues.

Kareem had retreated and climbed onto a top branch on a leafy tree. Silently, he watched as the man who had stabbed him interacted with his subordinates. He needed to stay angry so that the adrenaline would override the intense pain he knew he would feel from his wounds and exhaustion, so he imagined all the things he would do to that man for abducting his family and attempting to kill him.

Once the men who were searching for him had gone some ways ahead, he climbed down. He then proceeded to skirt the edges of the clearing before approaching the small settlement. It had been left unguarded in the haste with which the men had hurried out. Kareem treaded carefully on despite all his senses screaming that he should run away. He finally came to a room where his family was being held.

At first, they didn’t recognise him. They scampered away, whimpering and huddling close together to each other on the far corner of the room. He went down on his knees and whispered his wife’s name.

“Zaria!”

Her eyes went wide and she sobbed even more, opening her mouth to reveal bloodstained lips and a missing tooth. The bastards had taken out her tooth, his beautiful wife! Once his children recognised him, they rushed to meet and hold him.

“Daddy, I’m scared,” Biodun said, looking into his father’s eyes.

“Don’t be, my son,” Kareem reassured him. “Thank you for taking care of your mother and sister. Don’t worry I will get us all out. I promise, okay?”

Both children nodded in earnest. His wife smiled at him.

“There’s no time, they could be here anytime soon. Let’s get moving.”

The entire family had just made their way out of the compound when they were intercepted by the new commander of the insurgent group.

“Well, well, well. What have we got here? What a grand family reunion. This is just perfect.

Daddy has come to join the party, eh?”

He laughed out loud. Laughing seemed to be something villains did right before signing their death warrant because just then Kareem leaped at him, detaching himself from his family and closing the distance between himself and the commander with superhuman

prowess. A man can do anything to protect his family and Kareem proved just that.

The commander was bulkier than he was yet he held on, attempting to choke the commander. Both men grappled with each other until the commander brought out a dagger from his utility belt and was about plunging it into Kareem’s side in a stroke that would have finished him off when his wife Zaria ran up to them and put herself in the way of the dagger.

“Mummy, Nooo!”

“Noooooooo!”

Zaria smiled at her husband for the last time. There were tears in her eyes as her head lolled to one side and she went limp. The Commander pushed her away and she folded into a dead heap at his feet.

Kareem was stupefied. He lost the will to fight and disentangled himself from the Commander. He knelt beside Zaria, exhausted. Life held no meaning anymore for him. There was now no hope of survival for him or his children. He waited for the Commander to finish him off just as he had done his wife, so he could at least be at peace with her.

The commander took a few steps toward him.

“This is the Nigerian police!” A voice called out.

“You are surrounded and your accomplices have all been apprehended. You are advised to come out with your hands behind your head, no sudden moves.”

Terrified, the commander suddenly leaped into the inner room and emerged with an automatic rifle to shoot down the police. He was promptly cut down in a second. Kareem emerged from the room, his hands behind his head. His children followed suit. They were all whisked to the police station to have their statements taken.

END