Natural Wicked Verdict

It was cool Monday morning. The weather was what you will call normal with little breeze complimenting the order. Chris and his friend John the second year students of federal Ploy in their State. So, I really don't know what they were doing in the school clinic where first years students were undergoing compulsory checkups as mandated by the law. There must be a reason why they were there instead of at their lodge or lecture room if they have early lectures.

I was just entering the school gate and sighted commotion at the clinic side were many first year students gathered for the normal ritual Chris and John have gone through last year. I was not in the habit of heading towards noisy altercation, wisdom dictate your head away from such that are likely to turn violent and not towards it. So i took my right away from the clinic shorter route that would take me quicker to my destination which is Mass Com department.

Then, I saw the commotion extending itself towards the direction I was headed to and I had to stop to view the noise well before continuing my journey. I saw a figure that looked familiar to me running towards the security post which is adjacent to the mass com depart I was heading to. The person was running at the speed that told me something brutal is in the offing and about seven or more other figures were pursuing at a breathtaking speed and seemed to be closing the gap on their target.

The flowers that lined up that side of the campus did not allow me to see the figures well, so I never knew it was Chris running for his dear life. That kind of commotion isn't a new sight in the campus, the cult activities have surely taken a new turn for the worse since last year. Some group that goes by the moniker black ax believed that bucannees that had been around but overshadowed were gaining grounds on the new intakes and decided to up their violence to cut off the challenge they believed is coming. There had been three senseless deaths last month so, everyone is playing it safe. 

When crowd started gathering and peering from afar towards security post, i decided that its relatively okay to continue my journey at least to the place crowd gathered. When i got there, i sighted a figure on the ground beside the security post that about eight other figures were hammering with all manners of weapon they could lay hands on: shovel, chairs, sticks, mops, buckets etc. The security personnels were there mopping. They too were afraid to intervene and save who ran to them for protection. 

I saw one middle aged woman, probably one of cleaners or visitors, shouted and threw herself on top of the leg at the receiving end of the brutality and that was when the hammering halted. The people doing the beating started dispersing as usual towards the hotel they were known to frequent that is just opposite the school second gate. Then people started marching towards the spot and one million fearful hands gathered to help the blood soaked figure on the ground and the woman that received a few hammering before they stopped. 

That was when I realized that the figure that had been at the receiving end of the violence I was a spectator to was Chris, my lodge mate, I can still swear today he has no time for such cult bullshit in school. 

When they put both on the back of the 504 peugeot car that was available to one funny hospital three minutes away from the campus, one look at Chris told me that his continued stay here on earth is hanging precariously. In my estimation, he was half gone. Almost at the edge of eternity. The lady was groaning seriously from her own wounds.

Services and qualifications in the health sector are nothing to write home about even in major hospitals in this nation, how much more in tiny clinics in the college situated in interior village. It's glorified mortuary known as a hospital. "We don't have stretchers, you have to carry them inside" the nurse on duty that breezy morning was frowning while saying as if she was being harassed to volunteer from the comfort of her ,5-star hotel and not pitiable clinic she did not even gone through nursing school to be answering nurse. it's the blue attire on her that made her what she is. Nurse.

The quack doctor managing that place wasn't even on a seat and it's one of the nurses claiming seniority over her colleagues that directed events there and five minutes into Chris arrival, he crossed over to his ancestors side. Me and John standing just outside the ward door felt it that moment. Mighty sigh from one of the nurses confirmed my expectation. 

The weather never changed, the breeze was still at it's normal sync as when it all started in the campus which means to me that the heaven and hell seems not to have started claims like they do each time a soul crosses over to their realm. 

I went to the waiting room and John, who seems to be taking it harder, joined three minutes later. Since we are identifying as the campus next of kin of the deceased, there are papers to sign and advice to be given by the nurses on how to remove the body from their care to ours and of course their pay. 

"Tell me again for the seventh time what you said happened in that school clinic" I said silently.

"We went there for the result of the test I did yesterday. I did not feel well and needed to know. We were told to wait for two minutes. We sat there in their waiting room observing these new intakes do their test when two heads started peeping at us from the room door next to the waiting room. I ignored them initially. But, it came to me a minute later why those eyes were eyeing us and I whispered my suspicion to Chris who eyed that direction and they were still there and he sigh loudly and asked me to ignore those idiots. That sigh was the trigger the two needed"

 "So?"

"They come barging into the room and pointing at us asking us what our mission there was since we are not first year students. I was trying to explain and cut their madness off but Chris is not taking that route."

"so, he shouted at them and the dragging started, right?"

"Yeah. He told them to go fuck themselve that he has right as student of the institution to enter anywhere not restricted by the school law"

"And that was when it all started?"

" two more jumped inside and four of them started dragging Chris outside while i follow suite explaining our mission"

"Just like that, nothing else?"

The nurse incharge came out and joined us.

"I just talked to the doctor and he said for you to pay half of what is due and take the body away now" She said, eyeing both of us like vultures waiting for their turn to lay claim.

It is normal practice from the health sector operatives in every higher institution in this country. Once the dead involve cult groups, they want you out of their base because they fear if money is the reason any cult member is delayed in being treated of any injury or being discharged, there will be retaliatory attacks on the clinic or the staff there. 

I eyed the nurse and John understood what they were playing. Since both of us are not what they are tagging us, if we benefit from the group I suddenly became interested in going after, the better. 

 "Do you do transfers here?" I asked the nurse that I am sure did not see the four walls of the nursing school and yet she is in well ironed white.

"Sure"

 "What of the lady?- you include her money there too" I said as she swaggered into one office by our right.

He came with their machine and I handed her my card and after handing me over the receipt, they loaded Chris' body in the bus they called for us and we headed to the mortuary three minutes away from the clinic.

To think that just yesterday, I saw Chris served mass in the campus chapel was more disturbing to me. I couldn't believe he was gone so early the next day. One of the boys that beat him to death was staying at the lodge not far from ours. That guy I heard had been in the school, floating around without a department for six years was something else annoying to me. To waste a man as promising as Chris must come with consequences equal in brutality. 

I heard that revenge is best served when cold. I decided there is a wisdom in such a saying and gave them three months without making a single move openly but was on nocturnal motion during those two months. Town vigilante group head, one old former Biafran soldier, was my first point of call. The idea is to move the floating students away from the school and the town for they have risen to about ten percent. A month after Chris passing, the school management started making subtle noise on that aspect and it gathered momentum when the town union joined their voice to the issue, within three weeks, names were floating all around the campus and town, images followed later a week afterwards, those guys and gals were all sent packing from the campus and town. 

  Three years later, a year after my service years, I was heading to where to enter the bus going to my base in the oil rich city of Port Harcourt, I had managed to secure a job in one of the oil servicing firms operating the city. I saw one of those boys that killed Chris tucked in, looking haggardly walking toward me. It took me a little while to even know it was him. He passed and stood not far from my left, waiting for the bus too. The way he was throwing glances at me assured me I was right about that caterpillar. I turned to face the rat because that was how I see him now and what he did surprised me a little.

 He came smirking timidly and stretching his hands out in greeting and kowtowing at the same time as he greets me.

" i was wondering if it's you sir, you are bouncing sir, i can see that sir, anything for the boys sir, it had not been easy sir" he went on and on and despite my face showing the anger inside me, he was still timidly at his sir, sir, i took three minutes in casting away the anger and ideas taking roots inside me aside for the nature has done more than i can ever do to the rat. 

I showed him my teeth and waved down the taxi and moved away without talking to him. Let nature carry-on with its wickedness on the wicked.

 #Reedsywicked