Dance in the Graveyard – episode 4

Episode 4

After those words of encouragement from the
General, I was esc-rted
half way back to the camp by the personal
guards of the General. It
was convincing that they were military men
but they don’t belong to
the Nigerian Army. When I got back to the
camp, I was quite surprised
that no one knew about my movement,
everyone was fast asleep. As I was
about sleeping, my phone alerted me of a new
message. The message was
quite surprising and scary. The message
reads: “hello young soldier, I
know about your movement. Be very careful.
Don’t go further”. I knew
immediately that it was the Major. The hatred
for this man as at this
time was really and truly established. I was so
determined to take him
out. “Musa, just cross my way and let my
bullet do the talking” I
thought to myself.
Terrorist attacks which was the order of the
day at that present
moment manifested again, terrorists were
along our borders. But this
time, Major Musa Yusuf himself led us out. It
was surprising to myself
and Lanre. To be sincere, Major Musa is good
at war combat. All his
commands were straight and precise. We
killed over a hundred that day
without using any of our explosives.
Unfortunately, one of us was
injured by the action of a bullet from the
enemies. He was quickly
taken to a hospital at the capital for proper
treatments. He survived.
That night, we celebrated like we use to. That
night was the first
night Major Musa is going to celebrate with
us. We could see the joy
all over his face. “Could he want to disguise
as if he not the one who
sent me the text? Musa you can’t deceive me.”
I thought to myself. In
fact, he gave we the new recruits gifts. Shirts,
trousers, money to my
colleagues. But when it came to my turn, what
he gave to me was a
surprise. A pen and a nokia torch light phone,
in hypocrisy I gave him
a salute. On the pen I could observe that there
was an inscription on
it. And it says; “make this pen your best
friend”. I immediately
looked into his eyes and he gave me a nod.
The major was trying to
pass me a message. After everything that
night, we went to sleep. I
switched on the phone the Major gave me
while on my mat, something
interesting came up again. The welcome
message was; “I will resign
soon. My reasons? You will know one day”.Its
now confusing, the Major
is no more the bad guy, then who is? I slept
that night in confusion.
The next morning, we had our drill. This time,
it was fun-filled as
the major himself led us and he was telling us
the story of himself as
a young soldier. A quite interesting story but
after the story, he
broke many of my colleagues heart by
announcing his personal
retirement. Everyone was shocked but not me,
I was only eager to know
why he wants to resign and not retire in the
future. “But listen, I’m
going to come back, not as a Major but
something else” that was his
last words to us. We had a 21 gun-shoot
salute in his honour. My
situation become the person who wants to see
with a dark light, I was
confused.
Days after, another commandant was sent to
us his name was
Major-General Demola Johnson. He was quite
gentle and cool. His own
drills were too stressful. But with time, we
adapted.
On my mat one day, I received a call;
Me:” hello”
Unknown: “hello soldier”
Me: “who is this?”
Unknown: “you don’t just want to know me”.
Me: “so what do you want”
Unknown: “we know your tactics and plans.
We also know that you are
intelligent. We offer you an open arms to join
us. Do you think you
can conquer us? Ahahahaha I laugh. We only
send our weak ones to you,
so that we can know your abilities. You guys
are quite good but we are
better. Now here are your options, join us or
don’t plan with them,
else….”
*ends the call*
I was beginning to hate myself as a soldier. I
was confused. I
couldn’t tell anyone because they wouldn’t
understand. That was the
beginning of the dance.
The biggest of all the attacks came on a friday
evening. About five
states were attacked at the same time, so
there was no room for any
troop helping another. All man for himself.
During this attack, Major
Demola and some other colleagues were killed.
Lanre fled but to a
place I don’t know. My fear came back
immediately. But I took courage
to drive an armoured tank to attack the
enemies, Col. Yaro joined me.
I didn’t stop firing until all of them fled and I
could see no one.
Although I conquered but wasn’t happy. Going
straight to my tent I
received a call.
Me: “hello”
Unknown: it seems you are adamant, say hello
to someone…..*another
voice came up* Richærd, its me Rose. I was
taken this morning. Please
help me. I know where……” *call ends*. She
was crying on the
phone.
My commandant dead, my friend missing, my
fiancee kidnapped. I only
have the option to join them. All man for
himself.

TBC

⬅️ PREVIOUS episode