Our steps halted immediately at the sound of that dreadful voice. Stiffened with fear, we barely moved our bodies, but I spoke softly to the Nurse. "We must keep moving!"

"But they'll shoot! She whispered back.

"Not if we run!"

"Then you have a death wish!"

"So, suddenly, you are afraid of death?" I tried moving my head towards her.

"I said, Do. Not. Move!" That command came again, this time, more forceful and full of dread.

We stiffened again, my hand firmly leashed onto Mama's wheelchair.

While we argued, Mama was shaking her wheelchair, hitting it to get attention. She didn't stop there, she unleashed a loud wail. "H..e...l..p!"

Her voice vibrated through our fears and startled us at the same time. "Quiet! Will you?" Dima hushed her as a sudden tremor of fear laced her every word. I thought she was silently crying.

"Hel... up!" Mama yelled again.

Footsteps began running towards us. They were heavy, hard on the floor. But it was only one pair of footsteps. So I knew it was only one person coming after us.

As those footsteps got closer, without another thought, I ran off with Mama still hooked on the chair and fled the scene, running through the hallway, hoping to make it quick and get back to the others.

More footsteps came after me, I knew the Nurse was behind me. "Run Dima!" I called over my shoulders without looking back. Mama kept screaming and fighting to keep me from running away with her.

I'd gone for maybe two minutes when I heard two gunshots. Someone yelped, followed by a big thud. My escape came to an abrupt stop. Swiftly, I turned to see Ifechi and Dima on the floor.

"Dima!" I screamed, wishing my foot could walk over there but I couldn't move because a man was running towards us.

Blood was dripping from the women and I was just confused about what to do. Was about to go for Dima when I felt movement behind me, swiftly, I turned and saw the huge man slowly walking towards me, gun drawn.

He was all tall, covered in black attire, muscles threatened to rip out the clothes he had on. Helplessly, I watched him race closer to the two women on the floor, he kicked them and none of them moved. He smiled and exhaled.

Then his eyes moved toward me. "You," he barked, his gun raised pointedly at me. "Hands up!"

Quickly, I lifted my hands, facing him while backing Mama. My body shook from head to toe. He was now way past Dima and Ifechi's bodies. And in front of me, he stood, smirking away, self-satisfied.

Without another word, he roughly pulled my hands behind me, securing them with his large hand, and then called out to the old woman.

"Mama!" He robotically swerved his right hand above his ears in a weird military salute.

The woman's eyes turned towards us and scanned him slowly with a reluctant spiteful gaze. And for a moment, words stayed buried in her mouth. Minutes later, her head went down slightly in acceptance after pushing out a loaded sigh off her lips.

"Are you okay?" His stiffened body relaxed into his disfigured suit. The man's voice, however, was calm and polite when he spoke to her.

A hiss followed his question as the old woman suddenly let out a bark. "Took you long enough!" She forcefully readjusted her position on the chair, beating at it frustratingly while waving an angry finger at him. "So don't you ask me how I'm doing!"

"I'm sorry Mama. Your message came too late." He had tied my hands together and pulled the rope to turn me towards Mama. "Is this the girl you've been talking about?" Two of his dark glove-covered fingers were pointed at me.

Mama's hateful gaze washed me with an imaginary liquid fire. The anger in her eyes was better imagined. She didn't dignify that question with an answer. "Just take her out of my sight!"

I shuddered at the heat in her words. It washed over me like the hot water used to de-feather a chicken. It surprised me that she could find her voice so quickly. The acidity and authority returned as though it was never taken from her.

"Where are the others?" She was soon commanding and unleashing instructions like the Queen bee she was. And someone was already singing the two words she loved to hear. "Yes ma, Yes ma!"

"Erm," the guy whose eyes hid behind a large dark sunglasses stammered, pushing his head up, obviously avoiding her gaze.

"Due to some traffic issues, I used the back road to get here quicker. The others will soon be here."

Two seconds of silence passed before Mama spoke. "They need to get here ASAP. This whole place is a mess." She paused, keeping her gaze ahead. "And the military?"

"On their way ma!"

Now, I was walking on the right side of the wall while he pulled Mama's wheelchair with the other hand, The gun tucked in his back, inside his black Jean pants. We had walked past Ifechi and Dima's bodies When the hand that held me got weaker and let go slowly, only pulling slowly on the rope that leashed me to him.

The sound of the gun came a second later. I flew to the floor and hoped that it was a friendly fire. Mama's handyman was bleeding out from his stomach and mouth. Mama was whimpering and begging. She, as much as me didn't know where the shot came from.

I could barely lift my head when through the corner of my eye, I saw Nurse Dima push herself off the floor, drenched in red fluid and with a gun in hand. I would have thought a ghost had joined the battle.

She walked to where the dying man was and shot him again. She swiftly tugged at my restraints and freed me. "Take her!" Her gun pointed at Mama.

My foot swiftly pushed me up, subsequently freeing myself from the rope, I roughly turned Mama towards the main camp and began flying through the hallway until we made it outside. People were still packing themselves speedily into the buses, much more in a hurry than before.

The sound of military sirens could be heard in a distance and this seemed to heighten the fear of everyone in the camp, well, except for Mama. Her face was bland and smug at the same time. Dima and I were in confusion as the camp seemed to be in disarray.

Suddenly, the faction that refused to leave camp were swiftly packing themselves onto a bus they initially refused to board.

"Thank God!" Carlos exhaled, walking briskly towards us. "I'd been searching for you. Your sister especially."

His eyes did a 360° search of the camp but ifechi wasn't there, just Nma, hanging unto Carlos's hands. "He's coming." He whispered. His words came off as broken, and a tint of fear quivered on his lips.

I picked my head up and met his gaze. Panting, I asked, "Who?"

His hands shook on his side restlessly. "Have you not been listening to all I've been saying?" He asked forcefully, returning the stare. "And why did you bring her with you?"

Dima's confused gaze met mine as we both stared back at Carlos, our breaths rapidly pumping out of us due to an adrenaline-fueled race.

"She was going to escape and I couldn't let that happen." I pushed myself closer to him. "Who again are you talking about?"

"Your father!" He blurted out quickly. "As for her," He pointed at Mama, you should have left her there because everything was in place to make sure she didn't escape!"

I ignored those last words and focused on this person who terrified Carlos so much that he was very scared of even speaking about him.

"My father?" I scoffed, searching his face with sincere disbelief. "How?"

His head shook as though he was too impatient to explain. Quickly, He took the framed picture off Nma's hands. "This man here," he pointed directly at my father's figure. "Is the one person you do not wish to meet, family or not." He paused listlessly, "Especially, here, in this camp!"

I heard a quick whoof come off my lips. Yea, I agree, my father would never win a medal for the best father of the year.

He was and remained a deadbeat, so I wouldn't expect love or attention from him. But to go to the extent of hurting me and my sisters, I just couldn't imagine him being that soulless.

With eyes widened and a sob stuck in my throat. My right index finger dramatically pointed to the earth ground. "Here?"

He nodded. "That's why every one of us needs to be on that last bus and out of here!" Two steps forward and he was standing in my face, looking directly into my eyes. "We have very few minutes left!"

I blinked away those stingy tears that'd walled my eyes. My gaze was already on the bus he'd been pointing at while talking to me. "Not possible!" I whimpered. "Even if he is coming," I unconsciously wrapped both hands over my body, Ignoring Mama's wheelchair for a minute. "I'm sure he's coming for me."

Everyone stared back at me as though I didn't make sense. Head shook and my teary eyes got a quick wipe from my left palm. "To help!"

My gaze fell on my sister Nma who had been quiet and observant all along. She innocently looked at me and waited in expectation. She was little when my father left. At first, it was off and on until one day he never came back. So, I assumed Nma wouldn't recognize him completely.

"For us..." I stuttered, pulling my sister into my arms.

Mama was listening. I knew it because she moved herself forward and kept her gaze on the floor. Exactly how my mom acted when she was interested in a conversation but preferred to keep quiet.

So I shook my head in complete disagreement. "He wouldn't hurt us," I said, repeating a nonstop, No, just to assure myself of what was seemingly impossible.

A frustrated Carlos tossed his hands in the air. "That experiment is what you and only you will figure out, because, I am not waiting to find out." He halted his steps and gazed at me with pity. "The man in that picture is Mustafa Suleiman. The only person who runs and controls kidnapping cults in this country."

My legs shifted away from the frame of his body, but he wasn't done."The man you call father sits at the helm of the drug business in this country. The likes of Mama are just his stooges. He has the ear of the president, army, police, and every single organization in this country."

His Left fingers were laced against each other as he went through the menu of my father's corrupt collaborators. "

He didn't wait for a response before he continued. "He is indeed the head cartel business in this country and to be honest, I and my team do not have the resources to fight him." He finished and stood there watching me, waiting for a reaction maybe.

No response came off my lips. I was dumbfounded. Still couldn't believe it. If my father was all these, why then have we wallowed in abject poverty? How is it possible that his daughters couldn't even pay School fees or boast of three square meals a day? How did he even hide himself from us?

So many 'hows' raced through my thoughts as I helplessly watched him walk away with Nma onto that last bus. Probably, she trusted Carlos than she did me. Then ifediora comes to mind too. Did they know?

"Come with us if you want to live." Carlos's voice pushed me into reality. "Mustafa Suleiman is no man to mess with." He shouted over his shoulders with my sister in tow with him.