7/8
Excursion (into the badlands)
chapter 7.
(The Excursion day)
By the time i got to school,some of my clas-smates are there alre-ady.
After few minutes, we are all re-ady to go,only three teachers are coming with us, mr audu our chemistry teacher, mr Phil!pour biology teacher, mrs Adigun our Agric science teacher. By 8:30 a.m sharp the bus start and we left.
.
(on the bus)
While still on the road mr Audu c@m£ to inform us that….
Mr Audu : alright listen up,,…. I believe you’ve all make research of what i told you.
Yes Sir……. (we chorused)
.
Mr Audu : the reason Mr Phil!pand Mrs Adigun are here with us is because what we are going to do intercept with their subject and they know better.
So you will all be divided into 3 group, each teacher with a group.
.
You will all be given a small polythene bag and a glove, the polythene bag is for you to put each sample of the leaf and make sure you write down their characteristics and what you observed . And the glove is for your protec-tion because some of those leaves are poisonous, un-der no circu-mtances must you re-move your gloves.
So listen to your name to know which group you are……….
.
After calling our names…….. Josh and i are in Mr Philli-p’s group, lola and another 6 student are in Mrs Adigun’s group,
while Joy and 5 other students are in Mr Audu’s group .
.
(after 3 and half hour)
I was slee-ping when i heard Mr Audu shouting that we are here,
I open my eyes to look around….. I must say the place was beautiful because it was well decorated.
.
The place was decorated like a Garden.
We all got down after the bus was parked…………
.
Mr Audu : listen up, this place you see here is a Forest so dont go beyond where your teacher is . Now come and collect your hand glove and polythene bag.
.
After collecting it, we divided into each group.
.
(after few minutes)
I was still observing the place when a girl named sandra c@m£ to me and asked ………
.
Sandra: mike can you plea-se explain this leaf to me, i recognized it but i don’t know how to explain it down.
.
Me: Ok….. Hmmmm this is called Deadly Nightshade which botanical name is ‘Atropa belladonna’.
It is a very dangerous and lethal leaf,if it t©uçhes your ton-gue without the antidote after 1 hour you die.
IF you swallowed it after 5 minute without antidote you die.
If it t©uçhes your blood inless than 1 minute you die.
.
Sandra: wow…….it is indeed deadly…… no wonder Mr Audu told us to wear gloves and also not to wear ex-posing clothes…….. Thank you mike you are a genius.
Me : you are welcome
After she left , i looked around and i can’t find Mr Phill!p……….I started looking for him…… .i take few more steps then i saw him smoking cigarette.
.
Mr Phil!p:ohhh sorry about that just nee-d to make myself warm.
Me: no problem sir,who am i to tell you not to smoke but what i want you to know is that there are students here and we are all teenagers and you know in this stage we are, our mind like to explore new things and do things we’ve never do before,
what if any one else saw you…..you that is supposed to be our role model………ohh I’m sorry i spoke out of turn.
.
Mr Phil!p: no it ok…..you speak the truth,… ..i shouldn’t be smoking in the first place it just that i can’t help it………you know what…….take keep it because i can’t promise you that i won’t do it again……. it like it’s drawing me.
.
Me : it alright sir, i promise to return it when we returned to school. (i collected the cigarette and lighter from him and put it inside my pocket).
.
We both return to meet the rest, after few minute i heard mr Phil-ips aying……
.
Mr Phil!p: hey guys, come over here.
(we all went to meet him and we looked around and see that the place is different from where we are coming from ).
.
Where is this place?…. A boy from our group called james said.
Mr Phil!p: i don’t know…. We’ve never been to this place before……. It’s like this place just got here.
.
Joy’s POV
We were still observing the place and I’ve written down a lot and also gotten many samples……. I have to make sure that stupid Michael don’t get more mark than me.
Then suddenly out of nowhere an arrow hit Mr Audu on the head and he died immediately.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh………. (we all scream and started running away) .
.
Michael’s POV
we are still observing this new found place when we heard screams from different angles and we were wondering what happen until lola and the rest c@m£ to us and said that we are not alone that an unknown person shoot Mrs Adigun an arrow on the n£¢k and she died immediately.
Ahhhhhhh……. We all exclaimed.
Then we see Joy and the rest also running to our side crying and said also said someone shoot Mr Audu an arrow on the head and he died.
.
Whaaaaaaaaatt……. We exclaimed.
.
Then suddenly we saw Mr Phil!pfell down and see that he was also hit with an arrow on the head.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………… We all shouted and running without knowing where we are going.
Chapter 8
(in the forest)
.
Michael’s POV(cont’d) .
.
Immediately we all ran away from the scene,I realized that we are all scattered,
we all ran away in different directions,only 7 people are with me.The remaining 13 are not.
.
Me: where are the rest?,where did they go??
Chris(pastor): are you asking me?…. is it not you we are running after.
Sandra: who are those people?…. did anyone see there face?
Me: how can we see them?……. there are many trees and leaves here……. they are using them as camouflage…………which make us not to see them.
(we are still talking when we hear someone pleading ).
.
plea-se don’t kill me, i beg of you plea-se…………… The person was saying.
.
Then i signal to the rest to be quiet while we ti-p toe to the scene. We saw someone pointing at lara while she was on the ground.
.The person was moving towards her when she saw us, i signal to her to keep quiet while i take a big stone from the ground and ti-p toe gently behind him and hit him with the stone blood was gushing of his head.
.
He turn back quic-kly and hit me on my face and i fell down flat and he bring out a dagger to hit me and i hit him at his ba-lls and he also fell down gro-an ing in pain, i took the dagger from him and slit his throat multi-ple times until i’m sure that he’s dead and I went to lara …….are you alright …….i asked……she just nodded. You can all come out now…………i called the rest out.
.
They all c@m£ to meet me and asked whether i’m ok which i replied yes…..cus my b©dy was covered with blood,i told them it’s not mine.
.
Pst.chris: yo yo you killed him?
Me: what was i suppose to do?…..huh arrest him?……….he was going to kill me remember .
.
Then we started hearing the leaves rumbling .
Me: hey you hear that?….they are coming…..we better stick together if you wants to live.
.
Then we see that it is joy and the rest.
Pst.chris: uhhhhh thank GOD.
.
JOY: we heard someone pleading that’s why we c@m£ over.
(When she saw my clothe she ask).
.
Joy: michael are you Ok (pointing to my clothe)
.
Me : yeah…..it not my blood.
.
Daniel( one of the 3 bullies): only taiwo and sarah was hit with an arrow.
.
(i see the 2 people they are talking about with an arrow only the tail was cut off but the head his still there, taiwo was hit on the shoulder while sarah was hit on the leg).
Daniel: we also kill 2 of them, this is their weapon.
(I see 2 bag full of arrows and 3 dagger and i also went to the one i killed and also take his weapon).
.
Me: we nee-d to get out of here this place is not safe for us.
Joy: but how cus i think we are lost…..this place is full with trees and leaves and they all look the same.
.
Lara: what are we going to do now,its getting late alre-ady.
.
Me: first we nee-d to get out of here ……there may still be more of them.
.
(Mr peters resident)
.
Mrs peters(michael’s mom) was still waiting for her son cus its 7:00 in the evening,she is worried something must have happen because he’s suppose to be back by now.
.
Then mr peters entered.
Mrs peters POV
.
Mr peters: hello darling………..welcome dear……I replied.
MR.P: what happen you look worried.
.
Me: thats because Michael is not yet back.
Mr.p: whattttt……what do you mean he’s not back?……..have you checked the school?
Me: today is saturday the school will locked and i dont have the principal’s number i would’ve called him, i was waiting for you to come so we can call him cus you are the only one that have his number.
.
Mr.p: alright let’s call him
(they put a call throu-gh to the principal)
.
(on phone)
Principal: Good evening mr peter
Mr.p: Good evening principal, i just got back home now and realise my son is yet to be back.
Principal: i’m really sorry about that….i’ve also recieved call from other parents concerning that but it think may be traffic.
Mr.p: have you try their supervisor’s number?
Principal: yes i have but it was switched off, it must be a low batteryand i’m very sure they must have logged in to one of the nearby h0tels. If they didn’t come home today they will come tommorow, you can just come to school and take them.
plea-se put your mind at rest they will come home and i’m very sure the teachers wont allow anything to happen to them.
Mr.p: alright principal blake……thank very much.
Principal: you are welcome mr.peter ……goodnight.
Mr.p: bye goodnight. (call end).
.
(in the forest).
.
Michael’s POV
We’ve found a place with less trees and leaves and sit down. while we are treating the wounded one.
Me: we nee-d to re-move the arrow gently but first we nee-d bandages or clothe to st©p the bleeding.
.
Joy : we cant do that unless we have something like alcohol to use as antibiotics if not the wound might get infected which can cause tetan-us.
.
Me: but how do we get alcohol or any antibiotic in this place?.
Pst chris: Leafcutter ants……. It p@rt of our specimen we are to find in this place……They Carry Antibiotics On their che-sts. I think i have it with me .
.
Me: i think we all do…….so guys let gather every leafcutter ant with us so we can use it.
.
(after we’ve all gather it)
.
Me: so Joy you got your antibiotics, what else do you nee-d?
Joy: hmmm…….just any herbal leaves and i think we alre-ady have that with us which is our cannibal leave.
.
After Joy finish crunching the leafcutter and which she use as antibiotics ………we re-moved they arrow head from them and used the cannibal leaf to cover the wound.
We all settle down to discuss………….
.
Sandra: Now that we are lost, how are we going to leave this place?
Me: we will find a way but first did anyone observe anything?
.
Samuel(another boy said): the only thing i observe is we are gonna die…..we are going to die and i dont wanna die…..i’m still young i haven’t even finish school yet….i haven’t even fall in love……oh great God of heaven i dont wanna die.
.
Me: will you be quiet …….no one is dying OK.
.
Joy: Actually from my own observation….this people don’t wanna kill us……it more like they want to capture us.
.
Me: i think you are right cus if they want to kill us ,we would’ve been dead alre-ady cus they killed our teachers unnotice.
Lara: so you are saying they wants to kidnap us and take us as prisoners or slave?.
.
Me: not exactly but what i also observed is that they killed our elders maybe because might become a problem 4 them or maybe they are too old 4 them to useso my guess is that they want to use us for sacrifice.
.
Pst.chris and samuel: OH MY GOD.
.
Samuel: i said it we are all gonna die.
.
Me: we wont die unless we do something.
What……..they all said.
.
Me: unless we kill them first.
.
Pst.chris: we are not killing anyb©dy , we are too young to be a murderer.
.
Me: would you rather they kill us first or do you think if they kidnap us do you think they are going to re-lease us later or they take us as slaves…………….well as for me i’d rather die than to be anyb©dy’s slave.
.
Sandra: so we are going to kill them?
.
Me: yes if you wants to survive…….this is a nomansland …..it is the survival of the fittest ……..there are only two rules here:
1. KILL OR BE KILLED
2. DO EVERYTHING NECESSARY TO SURVIVE
.
Pst.chris: God why did you allow this to happen……….i pray to you concerning this excursion nw why did you allow something like this to happen or is because i sing shakiti bobo at home on friday or is ut because i dance shaku shaku in church last week sunday……….God if thats the reason plea-se forgive me and let us leave this place safely.
Daniel: so chris u sef sabi dance shaku shaku ….u weyb say una b pastor……..wonders never end (said in pidgin).
Me: leave him let him pray to God cus we nee-d all the help that we can get.
So lets sleep by tommorow we will fin a way to go home and if we come across any of those people we kill them.
Tbc….