WRECKED 11 10

There was no invasion in the state of Borno for about three months. All the schools that had been closed down during the looped invasion resumed. The brave students returned, those without bravery in their system preferred to stay home. Miriam and Laraba returned to school to finish their final exams. For safety sake, they stayed in the dormitory. Nothing could happen to them there, not when two military trucks had taken up post by the school gate. During the drive to school, Laraba looked at the scene before her, the aftermath of terror. Her eyes carried no hate, only recognition of what was. Peace to her was now an abstraction. The world she used to know had the word 'war' appended on it. Agony and fright were now part of everyday life, just as play was a wondrous experience, and above all perseverance. She wondered if she would ever emerge from this debilitating circumstance as a sane, productive human being.

Two nights later, Laraba drifted o to sleep filled with apprehension. Her sleep was interrupted by the sound of gunshots. The sound did not seem close though, but all the girls in the dormitory began to panic. Laraba's feet unconsciously hit the floor and she began running to Miriam's room. A few seconds away, armed men burst in, started rounding up the girls and promising to rescue them.
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"Miriam!" Laraba shouted, as her sister ran out of her room, clad in her nightgown and a wrappa draped over her shoulder like a cape. They held on to each other as the gunmen commanded all the girls to assemble outside.

"Safety measures," the one who appeared to be the leader growled.

Laraba held tightly to Miriam, and watched as some of the gunmen made their way to the storeroom and carted away food.

She wondered what they needed them for.

Suddenly, the men screamed "Allahu Akhbar!" in unison, as the dormitory was set on re.

That was when the girls knew; and what they knew was chilling. The men were not government soldiers. They were the members of the ruthless Islamic extremist group. The Jihadists. The girls began to weep as they were viciously thrown into cargo trucks. Their leader ordered his men to shoot any girl who tried to escape. Laraba watched in horror as he used his fingers to demonstrate a throat being slit.

The journey began. As the trucks full of frightened girls sped deeper into Sambisa forest, two sisters clasped hands and jumped o into the night.

They ran. They did not look back or stop until their legs could not carry them anymore. After more than an hour of running, they stumbled to the ground near a clump of trees, their lungs on re. Only then did they look back. They were surprised to see other girls behind them. Laraba counted eight.

"Let's rest here," she said. "It's too dark to see."

In silent consent, they huddled together and gradually fell into an uneasy sleep.

Hoots of laughter woke the girls up. Laraba felt something cold on her neck as she looked up and saw the strange men.

"I have a knife to your neck. Don't make a sound or you are all dead," the man said in a soft but serious voice. "Get up, all of you."

The girls obeyed and the men grabbed their arms. At knifepoint, some at gunpoint, they led them further into Sambisa forest. They followed a trail, going up in an elevation until they came across a dry stream bed, veered o and continued to go straight back up into hills and caves. Laraba prayed and pleaded to the Divine Watcher to help them find a way of escape. She remembered thinking that if the men were to kill them, they should do it closer to where someone would nd their remains.

They got to an inclined groove of trees and began walking down to where some ground had been levelled out. There was a cave, surrounded by a large tent and tarps, and behind them was a big mound of dirt. The mound was surrounded by many items—a very well-stocked sort of camp. Laraba began to cry.

Chapter end