Like every other Twilight, slightly between the sunset and the dark, I sat on my studying chair in an uncompleted building next to our student lodge.
The breeze was pleasantly calming and soothing my skin, which helped with what I was studying, to assimilate so well. I had been there for quite some time, about two hours or so, studying for a paper I had the following morning. It was such a productive evening for me.
There was this confidence I felt inside, knowing that I had fully prepared for my exam coming up. I was able to cover all the important areas of the subject. That night wouldn't have been short of a perfect night if not for the event that followed immediately.
I raised and made my way to the lodge, to take my shower before retiring to bed, but just before I shot the door of my room I heard some loud and disturbing noise coming towards our lodge from the main road.
I tried to make sense of the incoming noise, it became louder and closer to our lodge and I was still lost to what might have been the cause of the noise.
Before I knew what was happening, some of my fellow students in the lodge who were still hanging outside and taking in fresh air rushed inside the compound, and immediately closed our gate.
One among them called Tunde was barely able to explain what was going on outside, breathing heavily as he struggled to catch his breath.
He explained to us that some political thugs on the main road had clashed with some bike riders, they were burning tires, fomenting trouble with incoming vehicles and some of them had started making their way toward our street, with all sorts of dangerous weapons in their hands.
One scary thing about the part of the country where I schooled is that, once there happens to be a riot in the town, the none indigene living there, which are mainly students and traders, become a soft target, because of undertone hatred breeds from ignorance, cultural and religious differences.
Because of this, we always take extra caution whenever there is an issue in town. You never know who could fall victim to their atrocities.
My younger brother, a freshman at my school who was staying with me at the lodge, called me a little bit earlier that he was on his way back from an evening class. I tried reaching him immediately so he could stay back inside the school premises till everything calmed down to no avail.
As much as I was trying to stay calm it wasn't easy, I knew he was smart and would most likely get himself somewhere safe but, not being able to speak to him made the whole situation worse. I kept on checking my phone hoping to see his incoming call while I dialed his line concurrently with no luck.
I said a short prayer, silently, telling God to keep him safe, wherever he was.
We were so nervous, we knew we couldn't stay inside, it wasn't safe. An incident that happened a week back let us know that staying inside the house even with our gate locked was a suicide mission.
The previous week, a similar incident happened. The gate of the students living in a house away from ours was destroyed in the process, when those tugs attacked them, it took prompt intervention from the local police to save those students from being injured or something worse could have happened to them.
As we were still inside, contemplating on running to hide inside the bush opposite our house, at least they wouldn't suspect us of being hiding there, till the police probably came around, or they failed to locate us and go back to wherever they would come from. The lousy noise was drawing closer every second, my legs were shaking and my heart was pounding like a runner for a country race.
The eight of us in the compound decided to lock our rooms, put on our shoes, and get ready to dash into the thick bush in the opposite direction of our house for safety, after some of us were able to put calls through to some of our friends living in the school hostel asking them for help, to the student affairs officer and the local police.
Just then, the calls we made for help early yields or probably the local police were on high alert for any trouble all along, we heard the siren of the police car approaching from the main road. What a relief the sound of their vehicles brought to us.
Less than a minute later, they all seemed to have run back, then disappeared into thin air.
My younger brother came back to the lodge about thirty minutes later, his phone battery had died, which explains why I couldn't reach him. He had gone back to the school hostel like I had thought and let the noise die down before coming back to join us.
The following morning, I felt a bit more of myself from the previous night's ordeal and I was able to perform well in my exam.
We heard that some of those bad guys were caught by the police and were held to face the music of their atrocities.
It has been over ten years but the memory of that night is still very fresh in my mind. It was truly an unforgettable night, an experience I don't wish on anyone.
This is my entry into this week's #creativenonfiction In the Inkwell community
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