Wake up!!" shouted Temi. Demi rose up, reluctantly as if he went to bed minutes before. ”We need to get to Kantagua market,” said Temi. “ Mama,I don’t feel the need to go shopping ,” he objected. Temi looked at him with fury visibly etched on her face muttering “If you don’t want to go to the market, then the program is off for you.” Demi knew in his heart that this was another one of his mother’s numerous antics to stop him from attending the program; this life saving program organized by the billionaire Abel Adams that his mother was discouraged about just because she wanted him to stay put with her.

"Let’s go," said Demi finally after seeing that nothing would turn the situation in his favour. “At least wash your face and brush your teeth” Temi retorted. Demi quickly did as he was told and joined his mother outside their home.

The journey was not so arduous as their place was not too far from the well-known Kantangua Market. Having reached there, they started to make their way through the congested crowd ahead of them. Demi thoroughly disliked the experiences of the market, and stepping foot in the market only made anger blossom in his heart. the bad road, congested crowds, and the pokey sellers; their persuasion, which Demi always found irritable, were all the combined factors that made Demi dislike the market. To top it all, the sun was blazing hotter than it had in a while. He started muttering and grumbling to his mother’s notice. Temi flashed a nasty look back at him, which made Demi stop immediately. The pair had finally made their way past the congested crowd to a shop in the inner parts of the market. They walked a little further before reaching their intended location. "Do you have leather palms for my son?” said Temi after several hand waving gestures to the seller, whose mind seemed to be hung up somewhere else. "I have a few sets of them, ma."

Temi picked most of the wears for Demi, and after a long series of haggling, Temi and the seller had finally agreed to a price. "Mama, can we go now," asked Demi. "Not yet,one last place to go." Demi’s face had gone cold now as he summoned every bit of strength left in him to follow his mum to this mystery place.

“Oya oo, we don reach,” said Temi. To his surprise, the person he dreaded to see the most was right in front of him: Auntie Remi. There and then, Demi realized this was a plot hatched by his mother and that the primary purpose was not shopping but to be repeatedly told off by her pessimistic friend, Remi. The conversation played out to Demi’s expectation. He was completely lambasted by Auntie Remi about his choice concerning the program. ”I’ve heard ma," Demi simply said after Remi’s lecture about going far away to a country called Madagascar, leaving his mother alone, among other reasons she wanted to use to tie him down to his motherland. Temi beckoned to him for them to get going as it was getting late. He waved goodbye to Auntie Remi, who shot him a scornful look, and then set off with his mother to the exit of the market.

“Why mama?”shouted Demi. Temi looked puzzled as though she had no idea where she was.

"Stop pretending like you don’t know what you did,” continued Demi.

“I should have known something was off. My dear mother couldn’t have possibly taken me out strictly for shopping.”

”You are not the victim here Demi” replied Temi. "So you were really planning to leave me with all the menial jobs and my sales.” Demi knew that this was another ploy from his mother to play victim and make him stay behind, but his mind was made up. He wasn’t going down that road.

“You’ve always been selfish, Mama. The only reason I am doing this is because you don’t have a decent job anymore.”

"How dare you?" blurted Temi. Demi could suddenly feel the rage he had kept in for years coursing through his body, which propelled him to continue his speech. "The reason you lost your job was due to your pride and maltreatment of junior staff." Demi wasn’t done, he went on about how she was sacked, how she couldn’t find another another job due to her egoistical personality and now her self centered nature was preventing her to see that this program was for the best. "Let’s go," replied Temi, ending his speech abruptly. Demi felt he could keep ranting about how his mom’s sack from work cost him his education and forced him to join his mother in menial jobs for survival.

But his mother was right, they had to go. Rain droplets had started drizzling, threatening to pour down heavily. The usual yellow commercial buses were unavailable, so they decided to take a tricycle home. The driver decided to take advantage of the situation by charging a ludicrous fee that the pair could not afford to haggle due to the weather.

Reluctantly, the pair boarded the tricycle home, and roughly thirty minutes later, they arrived home after boarding another tricycle. Demi couldn’t help but think that after all his tantrums, his mum would forbid him from going to the program. Things were cold between them that night, his mum went to bed early while he made do with leftovers from the kitchen. After eating somewhat hastily and finally going to bed, dark thoughts of his mother preventing him from the program filled his head until he finally slept.

The day of his journey to the airport had finally come, and Demi woke up earlier than usual. As at thirty minutes past seven, he was dressing up and packing his belongings for the journey when his mother came to inform him that his food was ready. He ate a lot as he knew that the journey ahead was going to be strenuous."I packed some snacks for you,"said Temi. "Thanks, Mama, and I am sorry for all everything"

"Go now," said Temi with a soft tone that failed to harness the anger in it. Although he was shocked that his mother no longer tried to stop him, he knew she wasn’t still approving of his actions. While Temi, on the other hand, knew there was nothing she could do to stop her son from what she thought was a bad decision. Her heart definitely wanted to stop her son and hug him as tightly as she as could before his depature but she was resilient enough to ignore and have her son live with the guilt of his mother’s disapproval.

Arriving at the bus stop, Demi was groomed for the program that could possibly change his life forever. He wandered around the park in search of the bus that would take him to the capital where all the persons in the country applying for the program were to gather before the final flight to Madagascar, the base of the program. The transport money was a lot more than it used to be due to the failing economy, a factor which led Demi to involve himself in an odd job despite his mother’s disapproval. She refused to give him anything until this morning when a little compassion forced her to pack some snacks and naira notes for her child.

Still in search for a bus headed to the capital, Demi noticed a pickpocketer at work and without another thought, he decided to alert the victim, a lady of average stature, fair in complexion and probably in her late twenties. But he was late, the thief started to make a run for it. Seeing how the lady was distraught and the fact that he had not still seen any bus heading for the capital, he decided to chase the thief. He pursued after the thief as the thief lured him out of the park. Even though he felt reluctant to keep chasing after the thief, he ignored his instincts and kept chasing the thief. The thief led him to a silent place across the park where all his other partners had laid in wait for their next victim.

Demi finally realized the whole thing was an ambush and knew any attempt at escape would be futile since he was fully cornered by the gang. "There’s nothing valuable I have," Demi thought, but then he remembered about the cash he received from his mother, and now, the said naira notes were in his back pocket. "What’s this?" said one of the men who was laughing mockingly. "It’s my phone,"Demi replied casually. Another man jeered as he kept analyzing the outdated nokia button model, and Demi could tell that he was their leader. "This one no get money sef," They hurled abusive words at him as he prayed inwardly that he wouldn’t be searched again but the prayer was not taken to account when the leader moved towards him, searched him thoroughly and inevitably found the money in Demi’s back pocket. "How can you be this dull?" said the leader who was angrily pointing at the thief that Demi had trailed from the park. "No vex," he replied softly. His behaviour was no longer as daring as it was when he stole the lady’s belongings at the park. The leader gave Demi a nasty look and sent him away. Demi obeyed and ran as fast as he could even though there was nothing significant on him the thieves could take again.

After reaching the park minutes later, Demi was surprised and relieved to meet his belongings right where he left them in the park, but the lady was nowhere to be found. His guess was that she probably plotted with the thieves or simply boarded one of the buses. Either way, he had learned his lesson not to render help carelessly to a stranger in the busy streets of Lagos. Suddenly his mind raced once more to the money the thugs took from him but fortunately for him, he still had spare money that he had earned from some odd jobs and to add to his relief, he had finally seen a bus heading for the capital.

Demi headed to the bus, the bus was a mass transit bus, bigger and more well spaced than the regular buses that showed up at the park. Though the bus was rusty, it was still tidy than the regular park buses. ”Organized”, Demi thought as he paid his fare to the conductor, fixed his belongings at the back, and then settled for the back seat as there were only two people present in the bus. His mind shortly drifted to the duration of minutes he was going to wait for the bus to be filled up before taking out some snacks from his bag.

Shortly after, a fight occurred, and consequently, chaos ensued, Demi looked through the bus window to check if the conductor was there, but he wasn’t. He then decided to settle himself with more snacks and a copy of Flames when a boy of average height, dark, and plump figure settled for a seat in the back next to him. The boy didn’t look much older than him, which gave Demi the go-ahead, among other factors that he could talk to him freely.

“Sorry for bothering you, but do you know anything about the fight going on,” Demi asked in hope that the boy sitting close to him was the warm and friendly type that didn’t dismiss others. The lad explained that the fight was between their bus driver and another driver, saying the other driver owed their driver and refused to pay, which sent their driver into fits of rage. Demi’s puzzled look showed that he was quite shocked that the boy knew all that. The boy figured and told him about how he was outside playing spectator to the argument before deciding to board the furious driver’s bus.

Apparently, Demi couldn’t notice the bickering taking place previously as he was engrossed in his book. Abruptly, the boys saw a well-dressed gentleman arriving to the aid of the other driver by covering his debts and also paying his transport fee to their driver, who would be taking them to the capital. ”The man’s really lucky someone offered to pay his debts in this difficult time,” the boy said to Demi. Their driver collected the money from the man shruggily and seemed to direct his anger away from the other driver and onto the gentleman, lamenting the fact that he was denied the chance to inflict pain on the other driver, much to the dismay of the onlookers.

“Still putting on a show after collecting the money,” the boy beside Demi nodded his head and sighed. Demi kept silent. He didn’t want to get all comfortable with someone he had just met. His thoughts suddenly drifted to the gentleman who paid their driver and was now sitting directly in front of him. Evidently, the man was also heading for the capital and had settled their nagging driver since he was on board...

“Shift please,” said a lady who was not so much older than he was, with voice so quaint that he looked up from his novel and saw the lady sit down next to the man. Soon enough, passengers had filled the bus, the driver had finally gotten ready, and before Demi knew it, the journey had started. Demi continued his book, and having reached the third chapter, he had started to feel sleepy and decided to settle for a short nap.

A short nap had extended into an hour and thirty minutes of quietus. He woke up with his face drenched in sweat, his half closed eyes unable to figure out the geography of the place. ”Where are we?” Demi inquired from the boy next to him. ”Ogun state,” the boy replied with further info that they would soon be arriving at Oyo. ”The journey is fast, especially with the factor of traffic jams in Lagos,” Demi muttered. The boy replied to Demi with an acknowledging nod as Demi turned to continue his book.

“Buy your energy drinks, strong ones at discount price,” the voice kept on yelling the same words for the next ten minutes. Demi had been able to read no longer than an hour when he looked up to see the cause of interruption. The cause of a disturbance so overbearing was a small man with dressing so dishevelled that one could easily liken the man to an urchin. The man’s choice to sell drinks in the bus caused mixed reactions, but concerns evaporated as the price was heard.

Hearing the price was music to the passengers' ears amidst the failing economy, plus the idea of buying those drinks was really convenient since most of the passengers were already getting knackered from the journey. The said drinks could also go a long way in cooling their bodies due to the harsh sun. All passengers had bought the drinks except Demi, who still couldn’t afford the drinks despite the fact that the drink prices were lower than the price floor.

As the capital bound bus arrived at Osun, some of the passengers took to buying snacks from road hawkers to supplement their drinks. Demi on the other hand had finally run out of snacks and decided to resort once again to his book while the boy next to him had gulped his drink with such voraciousness that one would think the lad had been denied any sort of drink for days.

Forty minutes had barely passed when, for an unknown reason, the driver started driving recklessly, which was met with an uproar from the passengers. Lots of insults were being hurled at the driver from the visibly furious passengers with a particular voice screaming ”My wife is pregnant,careful!!” The man with the claim was bald, dark with moustache that looked like it hadn’t been shaved in years. His claims were immediately supported by two old women who tried chastising the driver as the matter made them all like kindred.

The clamouring complaints went on until the conductor suggested the driver make a stop so that everyone could take a break from all the drama going on. The passengers unanimously agreed, and the driver eventually made a stop after finding someplace appropriate to halt.

The passengers started using the ten minutes break issued by the conductor judiciously. Some went to ease themselves while some simply went out for the fresh air. Demi had sat fixed in the bus while going through his book. The ten minutes were finally up, and the passengers started finally making their way into the bus. The driver, whose eyes were still blurry wanted to continue the journey when the gentleman (who settled the debt) noticed that the couple; the bald,dark man and his pregnant wife were not yet in the bus, thus calling the attention of the driver. The driver was somewhat relieved in the sense that he could rest his eyes for a while before they found the couple. As the conductor ventured out the bus,he froze…

“Everyone should get out of the bus now!” the voice barked. Even though Demi knew the figure for a few hours, he quickly recognized the voice as the man with the pregnant wife. The voice of the man was easily distinguishable as the feeling of fear was mutual among the passengers as they emptied out the bus. ”Darling take out every valuable you see in their belongings and put in ours,” said the husband. The wife simply replied with a nod and entered the bus to do her hubby’s bidding.

The boy who lodged beside Demi burst into silent tears. Demi, who was next to him, this time on the floor, patted his head carefully with the hope of consoling him. ”Don’t worry, they are not going to kill anybody,” said Demi.

”I have valuables that I intend to give my sisters. We’ve not had the chance to meet for a long time”.

“Your sisters will appreciate their brother coming hale and hearty,” said Demi.

”How are you doing this,not being afraid,”the boy asked with raised eyebrows and beaded sweat all over his face.

”Hope is all I can say.” Though his confidence had started to dwindle greatly, he still had hope that the couple wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“You two there should shut up or I pull the trigger,” the husband barked. Demi looked up for a moment, thinking the husband was referring to him and the boy he was chatting with before realizing the male counterpart of the couple was referring to the driver and the gentleman. Demi quickly bowed his head down like othes after his short scan.

The wife came out of the bus and informed her husband that she he had handpicked everyone’s valuables, the pair also ransacked the luggage in the rear, leaving nothing untouched. The husband ordered everyone to occupy all seats in the bus apart from the back seat as he and his wife settled there much to the dismay of the passengers. Many thoughts were racing through Demi’s mind. One of them was the fact that the robbers did not flee as they still accompanied the victims on the trip. The pair really planned this well, Demi thought. Waiting for the driver to pass a deserted road, posing as a normal couple, Demi thought it was quite brilliant…

“I’m Chika,what’s your name?” Demi looked to his left and saw the boy who had been next to him all day, now formally introducing himself in this moment of peril. Demi introduced himself in turn and looking right, he saw the haggard man who was selling drinks next to him, he also saw the debt gentleman at his front and the girl who was next to him earlier at the other end of the bus. Everywhere was suddenly tight and stuffy since the couple had the backseat all to themselves, which further resulted in strangers making space for strangers. No one dared to look back lest they be shot.

Within a few hours, they had gone past Osun and Ondo and now in Edo when Demi finally noticed something strange around him, he turned to the haggard man next to him who was selling drinks earlier and said silently “You no see wetin I dey see?” The man ignored Demi, which forced him to continue pressing matters by explaining how they kept hitting the driver each time he came to a halt and the fact that other passengers around them were fast asleep. For the millionth time, the driver had dozed off again, and the bus drove to a halt. Earlier, the conductor and the driver had been swapping places for the wheels position, but the conductor had been knocked out for a while, unlike the driver who had been resilient. Unfortunately, his body could defend no more as his head dropped to the face of the steering wheel.

“We are done for!” lamented Demi, his thoughts went to the program and whether he would still make it. His thoughts vanished when he heard three words; ”I did it”. Demi looked to his side where the haggard man was and said very silently “Did what?” Confusion was all over his face, now waiting for the man to continue his talk. The man revealed how the drinks he sold were drugged and how they would cause the passengers to fall in deep sleep so he could steal their valuables. ”Why did you sell to the driver?” asked Demi. The man further explained how it wasn’t part of his plan to sell to the driver, saying if he was adamant to sell to the driver, his actions would have aroused suspicion among the passengers. ”Since you were the only one who didn’t buy, my plan was to convince you into stealing their valuables with me,” said the man, who was now full of regret and self-loathing.

“Your plan was nonsense. You could have chosen to plan this with the driver instead of drugging him too and on top of that, the couple at the back have spoilt your plan…” Demi finally realized the couple also took the drinks without realizing it was drugged. Surely all this while, they must have been asleep in the back.

“Let’s turn around,” Demi said with confidence, brimming through him now. The haggard man tried to revolt as silently as he could, which left Demi no choice but to explain all that he had realised. The pair had decided to look back on three counts, and to their relief, Demi was right. The couple was fast asleep, and the gun the husband was carrying earlier was just lying on the chair next to them. It had just dawned on the pair that the opportunity to turn the situation around was available, making the captors the captives.

“Get the gun,” the haggard man said to Demi. Demi shot the man a foul look and respectfully said ”You are the man,this has to be you.” The man obliged reluctantly and started to wriggle himself through the spaces to avoid waking the sleepy passengers. Having wriggled as gently as he could, he reached the back seat and proceeded to take the gun lying on the seat. ”Come,” he signalled to Demi, stretching his hands forward. Demi came to the back and took their belongings out the bus as the man ordered while the stolen possesions of the passengers stayed inside the bus. Outside the bus, Demi noticed the vehicles till moving at high speed, ignoring the stationary bus at the side of the road.

Before getting back into the bus, Demi searched the couple’s possessions for valuables, and without stress, he found some money and swiftly put it in his pocket. The man winked at Demi as he entered the bus and asked “E remain?” There was no way he could play dumb since the man clearly saw him taking the money, so he simply nodded in response to the man’s question. The man also went out to check their belongings for any other thing before returning to the bus.

Demi finally exchanged acquaintance with the man. ”Demi,go and wake the driver.” The man whose name was Jubril woke the couple and led them out of the bus while threatening to shoot them if they weren’t silent. The couple was dumbstruck. They couldn’t believe what was happening. Jubril informed the couple that he had retrieved all the stolen possession, along with abandoning them once the driver woke.

This led to constant bickering between the couple, and at this point, Jubril was trying hard to put his gun down in fear of attracting the populace of cars on the road. ”I have woken him.” Jubril looked back and saw Demi with the driver. He could tell the driver knew about his drinks by his facial features; narrowed eyes and forehead creased with anger. Demi tried to explain to the driver, saying if Jubril hadn’t drugged the drinks, the captors wouldn’t be put to slumber and would still be terrorizing the passengers. ”Please sir, let’s keep this between us three.” After a few pleas, the driver agreed and turned to look at the couple, looking at them with disgust.

“What should we do?” the driver asked. Jubril decided that it was best to leave them while they continued the journey as it was getting late. The trio agreed to the suggestion, which made Jubril tell the couple to run with their belongings.

“Pregnant woman again!!” the driver said in awe of all that had happened in the previous hours. The trio of Jubril, Demi, and the driver finally agreed on the story to be told in case the passengers started asking questions.

Apparently, the story was no story, and the passengers were left to wonder about the change, how their captors were nowhere to be found, and how their valuables were recovered. With the departure of the captors, Demi had gone back to his seat as he desperately hoped the passengers wouldn’t figure the cause of their knockouts. He kept looking at the drinks seller(Jubril) and also the gentleman whose facial expression suggested he was suspicious.

The sky began to get darker as the bus approached Kogi, the only state between the passengers and the destination. The bus was so silent that the pinging of cellphones could be heard. The passengers just wanted to be rid of this horrendous journey and reach their destination safely.

“Sorry,do you know what happened?” asked Chika. Demi noticed the girl in front of them leaning to the back of her seat, trying to hear his response. ”No,I was also knocked out for a while,” replied Demi after a few seconds. He picked up his novel as he tried to take his mind off the journey’s events.

It was already late in the night when the bus started to approach Abuja. Suddenly, the gentleman stood up to walk to the front of the passengers. The man brought out a gun and started laughing maniacally; motor actions which led the bus to be thrown into disarray.

Demi had started dozing when Chika tapped him to witness the gentleman whom he he had eyes on throughout the journey, same man who was now conversing silently with the driver he fought with earlier in the park, carrying a gun in his hand. In a flash, his eyes widened as the image of the gunman sent shivers down his spine.

“You guys really saw a shady mass transit bus in a park of commercial buses and went for it,” the gunman laughed a little, then continued.

”As long as everyone is silent,I won’t shoot.” The bus became silent as the gunman proceeded with his speech. ”No one will reach their destination, my friends in higher places need bodies and unfortunately for you all, I am in the debt of said friends”.

The gunman let out a forced laugh. This time, his cheer had suddenly vanished. ”What’s this about, we only agreed to rob them,” the driver hissed. ”Shut up and drive, and as for you…” the man was now pointing to Jubril; his face now devoid of emotion.

”It’s a shame your drinks plan failed. My good friend driving the bus informed me.” The girl who was next to him started to pleading, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. The gunman laughed and mocked her for sharing her goal of going to some program, saying she wasn’t going to experience the program. He walked over to Demi and asked if he was going to the program, rather harshly. Demi thought of denying it, but he figured there was no use, so he simply nodded.

“Yes or No?” Demi’s fear had transformed into anger as he replied with a “yes.” The gunman proceeded to Chika and asked him the same question, Chika tried to explain his ordeal to the man who was less concerned and quickly shut him up. ”If it’s any consolation. I’m sure you are not the only two of my friends who have prevented from going to the program.” And with that, he returned to the front of the passengers, completely silent this time.

Demi looked over to Jubril’s side, his eyes meeting Jubril’s. Jubril nodded his head. Demi understood the sign,he suddenly remembered Jubril was still in possession of the gun and figured he was going to use it against the gunman. He looked back at the gunman’s side and saw him pointing his gun to the driver’s head, probably muttering instructions on where to go since they were already in Abuja. ”I’m happy I hired you, your bus really acquired a lot of bodies,” said the gunman as he patted the driver on the back.

“Stop talking .” Jubril was up to his feet now, visibly annoyed and irritated at the man’s rants for the past few minutes. ”Petty thief,I should have killed you for the drinks, now sit down before I pull the..” Shots were fired, the bus stopped moving and the passengers felt the deafening sound against their ears, the ones who were down on the floor of the bus stood up to see two bodies on the floor, Jubril’s and the man’s body were found on the bus floor, both parties losing blood uncontrollably. ”Jubril,” cried Demi as he knelt over the body, undecided on which emotion to feel for this anti-hero. The passengers attempt to stop the overflow of blood came to nought as Jubril gave up the ghost. Demi walked over to the gunman, who was barely breathing and smiled down on him.

Two different passengers carried the two guns and instructed the driver to carry the two bodies to the bush, they were about striking the conductor when the driver explained the conductor as a relative he offered to take to Abuja, saying he knew nothing of the scheme.

Minutes later, the driver dropped the passengers at the nearest bus park. The group chose to spare him but they all collected their transport fares before leaving the driver and the conductor. ”You get to meet your sisters,” Demi said to Chika cheeringly. Chika shook him, wished him well with his program before the two parted ways.

Demi had enough cash now since he collected his fare back and some of the couple’s cash. He struggled to find transport considering how late the time was. After twenty minutes, he finally found transport heading to Nnamdi’s airport, the applicants were directed to Nnamdi’s airport on the registration platform. Demi wondered why the gathering had to be centralized, he felt each state should have been given license to run their transportation on their own. He headed to the airport still distraught about earlier events, finding solace in the sole fact that he would soon reach his destination.

Having reached the airport past midnight, he decided to rest outside the vicinity till the sun rose. Though spent, he decided not to lose his guard to avoid being robbed of his belongings. Demi reached for his phone so he could be occupied but his eyes were so heavy that he dozed off minutes later.

Hours had passed when Demi finally woke to the bright shining sky above him, he reached for his phone to check the clock and found the time to be well spent. He hurried to the airport as fast as he could, reached the interior parts of the airport, headed for one of the counters and informed the official of his acceptance for the education program, showing proof when he heard a saddening news. They had taken off.