My Share of the Northern Cake

Chapter Five

We kept walking silently through bush paths and shrubs until it was noon when the sun came to the middle up in the sky, when the weather begins to make your body gush out the liquids it had stored and that it may not have wanted. We hardly talked unless we came to a path that divided into different parts, and we had to put heads together to choose which one of the paths we should go. We kept mute most of the time to save ourselves some energy and to avoid waste of saliva, if those were all we needed to do to help keep ourselves from going thirsty for a long time, plus we couldn't afford losing more liquids, adding to what the heat was already taking from us. It was then we came out of a place that seemed like a market square. Everything was scattered. We didn't instantly feel the hunger that rumbled in our bellies. We still felt compassion for the bodies we saw that scattered around, some like uncultured barbecue, and others like waxed frozen sculpture works. The raid seemed two days old; maybe, it was before they came for us on their way back to their base. The bodies here were swollen and flies were feasting on some and vultures came to grab intestines as easily as they could from the bodies that had their stomachs burst. Rakia started vomiting. I collected Kucheli from her back and let her seat somewhere, while Mallam Balla and Haliru went into the market to cater for anything we could eat. They came out moments later with water, soft drinks, loaves of bread and some smoked fish. I collected the water to wash Rakia's face and gave her some to gurgle and floss her mouth with before she drank some from it. After a while, we went into a shed and others got a little sleep while I sat awake. Not that I didn't want to sleep, I just couldn't, considering all I had gone through. Sitting at the chair in that Tomato shed gave me a good time to think about the entirety of my life so far; what I went through within a short period of time. How life changed for me drastically and dramatically in just number of months. In life, within seconds, anything is sure to happen. Whoever has what he has should hold it well, and whoever has someone should guard the love between them jealously, and enjoy the people as much as they can because they never can tell what the next second would breed. I sat there moping, and not knowing tears were trickling down my eyes until Mallam Balla woke up to tell me I was crying.

"Who in my state, Mallam, would not cry?"

"You are right child, but you have to keep being strong. Systematically, others are looking up to you, and I must confess, I haven't seen a girl as strong as you."

"Thank you Mallam. Maybe I felt helpless, that's why I had to cry, although I didn't know I was."

"Anyway, it's high time we left here."

"Leave here? I was thinking we could settle here for days, at least to put ourselves in other and perhaps, if we would meet with TV or Radio people who would come to investigate the place for a report, maybe they could be of help to us."

"I thought that a good idea when first it occurred to me but on a second thought, I saw it as a bad idea. Staying here is not any hygienic considering the number of decaying carcasses around. How many would we bury if we decided to consider burying them as an option?"

"Yes, we would die of inhaling pungent, rotten smells if we continued to stay here any longer than we have already."

"Ok, wake others and get them ready, let me ease myself."

When Mallam Balla returned and we took our leave, and after we had walked a while, I noticed that Haliru wasn't as lively as his usual person. He hadn't smiled at me as he always did – he dashes me smile freely and easily; smiles, I later got to know, were tool she used in assuring me that all would be well. At first, I thought it was discomfort from helping me carry Labaran, but when I went close to collect Labaran from him, I felt the heat from his body, when my hands had a rub with his, I felt the burning from it. A second look, he was shivering. I got scared and couldn't tell the others, in fact, didn't know how to tell especially Mallam Balla about it. He was behind me and I was behind Rakia while Mallam Balla led the way. I turned to look at him again to be sure he could cover a distance with us in that shape. Seeing my fears from my face and reading the pity on my mind from them, he gave a weak smile trying to make me believe all was okay. That was when I was moved to get others informed.