CHAPTER THIRTY

Stand down soldiers, stand down! Their boss ordered. Let's give these bloody civilians another chance. The main culprit might not be here. The second soldier wanted saying something but the boss shut him up.. this is an order, the boss shouted at them. 

"You guys should count yourselves lucky, no doubt today is your lucky day, said the first soldier. You have every reason to thank our boss. “common guys, all of you! On the double! Be on your knees and thank our boss!.’ 

They all knelt down and began shouting 'thank you sir, thank you sir.”

Before the soldiers walked out, the first soldier dropped one order_ “ We don't want to hear any noise coming out from this place, no matter what happen. Do you all understand? Its that loud and clear? They all shouted im affirmative. Yes sir! Because any further noise will attract severe consequences” 

 It had all been a show afterall, just to instill the necessary fear in them. The soldiers knew they wouldn’t get whoever fired the shot, not today, maybe another time. Five minutes later, Arsenal scored but no one shouted, not even Davou, they celebrated silently, shaking hands, hugging and muttering goalll with their lips but no sound came out, they knew better, they knew what would happen. The soldiers had instilled fear in them and it was working. 

  Ten minutes before time, Davou had had enough, they were in full control of the game, he knew Arsenal would see this one through, he just had to trust them. He would walk home through some short cuts. As he walked home, he knew his day had been a success, if today were to be his opponent in a match, he knew he would be the winner, he just knew_ he had taken his favorite beer against all odds, a beer he had missed, he had just watched his darling team cruise into the next round. What more could he ask for? Yes he had been forced to kneel down by a soldier who was almost the same age as his younger brother but so what? Was he the only one who had been forced to kneel down? Were some of the people who had been forced to kneel down with him not older than him? Were some not as old as his mother, what would they say then? 

Oh, and those who had come just to watch his darling team lose, what torment they must be going through now. Just then an oncoming vehicle shone it’s light in Davou's face blinding him and forcing him to use his hand to shield his eyes. 

“Who is that?” the question came from someone in the vehicle. ‘What stupid question was this person asking?' Davou thought, ‘who was even asking?' Davou didn’t move and Davou didn’t reply, he was weighing his options, to answer or not to answer, to run or not. 

“is there any problem? it's me,” Davou managed to answer. 

“What are you doing outside by this time?” Davou had finished weighing his options, he managed to convince his eyes to come alive in spite of the fact that light had blinded his eyes, his eyes did come alive, he realised it was a police van. Ordinary police van, did they have any idea where he was coming from and the people he had encountered there? Soldiers, yes soldiers. They had forced him and others to kneel down and they obeyed, yes they obeyed because they were soldiers. And now, these ones, ,' ordinary police, civilians like me. Not today, he wouldn’t fall into their hands. He wouldn’t set the record of being bullied by soldiers and police in one night.

 His eyes which had come alive had seen an opening, a narrow path with gutters all around, he knew this place well. He would go for it and these unfit police men wouldn’t get him. He made for it, the narrow path. He heard a sound, someone had just come out of the car. These men meant business, then he heard men running after him and someone saying “this idiot must not get away. this idiot must not escape.” He had become the idiot, he had to escape though. 

Dogs did not help his cause, the electric supply that had increased since the crisis didn’t help him either, it made it difficult to get away. Davou was beginning to slow down, he was getting tired. The men were not slowing down, surely they had more stamina. He suddenly came to a halt, he had to stop, a group of boys who were high on weed had formed a local vigilante group to protect their area. They would kill him if they thought he posed danger. 

While he knew this place well, he didn’t know the people well enough. If he had, they would have simply let him through or try to protect him. It worked to the advantage of men who were after him, they would have caught up with him though, they had the stamina, he didn’t. A police officer dropped a hot slap on Davou’s face followed by another kick. 

“Stupid boy, useless boy, why running away if you're not a criminal. we are going to deal with you today.” The police man who had slapped him said while trying to stabilize his breathing. 

“boss, officer What happened?” One of the boys had asked, he was the only one who seemed to be weed free. 

“Thank you very much,” the officer said. “he is one of our suspect, he jumped out from our car, trying to escape from lawful police custody” the police lied.

“Ahhhh, that's not true, its not true at all, I …….”Davou didn’t finish the words, a blow to his face had stopped him abruptly. 

“You are crazy, are you insinuating that this officer is lying?.” It was the boy high on weed who had said it. “ shut up you! He said again, you criminal, please officer take this criminal away.” with another slap from the weed boy, then the slaps came from some of the boys. 

“ You escaped from police car and suffered the police men into a wild chase and here you are talking nonsense.” The one speaking too reeked of alcohol. The officer had to hold his breath. 

“Thank you guys, you guys are doing a great job protecting your local community as vigilante.” The officer clearly wanted to leave this place but these boys were high on weed and they had to be pacified, the police didn’t come for them, beside they were just guarding their street. 

 “Here, take this, get yourselves something to eat.” The boys shouted and hailed the police man as they collected the 200 bucks. More slaps landed on Davou who was already crying and couldn’t believe it. A policeman giving money to gangsters simply because they wanted him and also to avoid trouble with them. Hmmm. This is serious indeed.

One of the policemen grabbed Davou’s trouser and dragged him till they got away from the boys. 

“Look at me,” he was not raising his voice but he spoke gently as though he counted his words, then he  smiled, it was a wicked smile. “You are finished, do you hear me, you are finished. Your mistake was not running away, no, that was not your mistake. Your mistake was allowing us catch you. If you had gotten away, it would have been better for you, but you didn’t.” 

Davou was still crying and begging but the man continued speaking as though the whole place was quite.  “You see this distance we ran, the distance we all ran, you will frog_jump it while we walk and if we walk faster than you, more trouble. That’s for a start, next, next, you see the money we gave those boys, you will pay a thousand fold, that’s for sure, or have you seen or heard were a police man becomes the giver? Or giving out money unnecessary?

“Nooooo, that aspect was unnecessary, you shouldn't have given those vigilante any money. We are the police men, they are supposed to give us and not the other way around.” The other officer spoke with anger. 

“dont worry, Bako, don't worry, this idiot will surely pay for it, he is surely going to pay for all the inconveniences caused.

“Ah, officer, ah, please you guys should have mercy on me, please have mercy on me. Please I beg you, have pity on me. It was never my intention to subject you into such running. I was scared and got carried away. Please have mercy on me.