SURVIVAL:THE THIN LINE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE

DEJA VU

Patricia fell to the ground with a loud thud as a result of Mike's push.As she made to rise on her feet,she saw more men coming out of the bush.Mike groaned helplessly on the floor, nursing the pain of the arrow in his arm.
  They were soon surrounded by the bandits.The rest immediately rose up to defend themselves.Favour brought out the gun she snatched from one of the guys earlier,no one knew she still had a gun with her.
  She pointed it randomly at the eight men who were armed.
  "Heheheh!!, look who is trapped now?" Bulaso teased "Them bumboclaat spoilt brats and now where you gwan run to?"
  "Ya bastards think ya fit come inna mi yard and outrun and mi nuh gwan find ya?"
  One of the men approached and attempted to raise Mike up but he remained adamant on the floor despite being with an injured arm.
  "Leave him alone!!" Patricia exclaimed
  "Oh you now cared about him now" Mary whispered into her ear. She just replied her statement with a criminal offensive side eye.
  Wakaso forcefully jacked him up and pointed a gun to his head.
  "Now surrender yourselves or Mr hero here dies" Bulaso announced
  They were all beginning to tremble in fear, they know if they decided to bring anyone of them down, the rest of them would attack.
  In a flash, Favour took the bold step and with accuracy and precision, she shot Wakaso who had been holding Mike in the head. Before dropping dead, Mike quickly grabbed his gun and shot Bulaso but could only get him in his arm unfortunately.
  With this distraction, Favour successfully shot the remaining gun weilding guys but unfortunately those were the last two bullets in the gun while the rest went to work with the cutlass and arrow weilding guys.
  Favour and Jack approached Mike to take his gun and shoot the rest once and for all but Mike persuaded them that it won't be the right thing to also turn like them and kill them all even in the face of danger. Favour couldn't believe her ears but getting the gun from Mike was becoming a problem so she continued to go fight the rest of the men.
Soon they were able to bring all eight men downn and realise they bought themselves time to run. With Jack supporting Mike,they all took to their heels and fled the danger scene.
"What are you guys still waiting for on the floor, common get up and follw them immediately!!" Bulaso ordered nursing his arm but by now they were only five left.He brought a medical patch from his pocket and tore part of his clothe to tie the part he was shot before applying the patch.
  "I will make sure i kill them all this time around" He vowed and proceeded with the rest of the boys towards the direction at which Mike and his colleagues ran.
  "We have to split to avoid new casualties" Mike informed his men
  "But if we eventually all get killed then you should know it was your fault!" Favour lamented "We had an opportunity to finish everyone off and all because you are a nice that doesn't want to be like them, there are five men still comung after us"
  "Now is not the time to complain Favour, let's plan a way out" Kingsley said
  "Look i regret not killing them all at that spot and i'm sorry okay, i didn't know what came upon me,i just could not stand seeing more people die and i admit i made another costly mistake, i am very sorry but we have to split now...Arghhh" Mike apoloigised which ended with a loud groan from the pain in his hand
  Patricia rushed towards him and held him
  "He is intense pain and bleeding massively, now is not the time to throw blames, we didn't kill them all and i am very certain they are coming after us" She advised "Why don't we just listen to him for at least one more time, which i feel is a good idea, let's split"
  Everyone was surprised to hear this come from Patricia, the chief complainer of the group. They became convinced and decided to listen to his plan eventually.
  "So as i was saying" Mike began explaining his plan " I think we would split in a group of three"
  "Four of us will move towards this direction" he said pointing ahead of him "three of you will go left and three of you will go right, it will make it mure difficult to kill us all since all our eggs aren't in one basket"
  "I will go with Jack and Mike!" Patricia yelled almost quickly.
  Mary decided to join Toyosi,Gideon and Tobias in the group going left  to make them four.
  Kingsley,Favour and Tunde heading towards the right
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   "Sorry Mike, Patricia patted him on the back. He smiled back at her and told her a thank you.
  "You are bleeding so much,how about i help you remove this arrow?" She asked
  "No!!!" Mike yelled using his other hand to gesture to her not to make an attempt to remove it "It will only worsen the case, let's just wait until help arrives, i may just end up losing a whole lotta blood.
  They were all finding a way out, the plan was that whichever group eventually sees a way out should find a way to send smoke signals so the rest can be informed.
  "Thank you for saving my life back there Mike" She added, she had been looking for a way to tell him.
  "It's nothing, i told y'all already, i can't stand anyone dying again" Mike replied letting out a faint smile
  "But i still think we should remove this thing in your arm, its not doing you any good" Jack interrupted
  "No problem my guy,i just want all of these to be done and over with then i will have it removed" Mike replied
  "I'm so sorry about my behaviour earlier on, i just can't seem to control my anger or temper whenever i feel nervous or scared" Patricia revealed in an apology
  "I just miss home"
  "We all do Pat" Mike said patting her on the back "And i assure you, we will soon get out of this mess"
  "You got a heart of Diamond Mike" Patricia said staring into Mike's eye. But their staring contest was soon interrupted by Heysow who appeared from a bush ahead of them.
  Patricia hid behind Mike quietly out of fear and shock despite Mike being one handed now.
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    "Who's there?!!" Gideon asked while guarding the rest of his group with his two arms. They had heard a ruffling sound in the bush earlier.
  "Whoever it is in the bush should come out now and show himself like a real man" He challenged
  "Oya! Oya! you don catch us" Bulaso said while coming out from the bush. They began to slowly move back but was soon halted by another of the bandits from behind.
  "You spoilt brats!!, you think you can actually escape this?" Bulaso asked slowly moving towards them.
  "You already spoilt our plans for you but we still can't let you leave because you have entered the lion's den and you can never come out alive"
  "What was your stupid plan for us?" Mary asked
  "Good question, you deserve to know since you will dying anyways, we brought y'all here for our annual sacrifices we do for some certain occultic group for some certain politicians"
  "This evening was the intended time for the sacrifice and baba was suppose to have performed some rituals on you before the final one this evening, but it's useless now since y'all escaped"
  "Our only purpose now is to kill to stop you from going out there and exposing us, i can now tell you for free that you together with the rest are all going to die" He concluded letting out a mischievous laugh.
  After finishing his statement, he brought out his gun and pointed it at them but as he was about pulling the trigger, a gunshot was heard towards his direction and the result was a hole to his head.
  They turned around to look for who made the shot and saw officer Blessing came out of from bushed accompanied by officer Juwon.
  "On your knees now! your hands behind your back" Officer Chris also screamed from the bush.
  Kanzo immediately went on his knees an surrendered his machete. Officer Ben immediately cuffed him. Officer Jane and Bulus proceeded to confirm his death.
  "Don't worry guys, help is here now, Where are the rest?" officer Juwon asked
  They were in utter shock and releif to say anything, they were glad to see that it seems to be finally over but not for everyone.
  "We splitted, We have to go find them" Toyosi replied trembling "they might be in grave danger"
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  Favour was in total shock and disbelief upon the realisation of bullets finishing in her gun.
  "Hope y'all are good at combats?" She asked putting up her folded fist in a gesture for fight
  "I can see your hero is out of bullets" Janko said throwing a jibe at the three of them "Good thing for you is that we have no guns but..."
  "Who's gon' save you now?" his accomplice interrupted following with a mischeivous laughter
  "We will!!" Officer Suleiman Exclaimed coming from behind a tree shooting Janko on his left leg almost instantly.
  Janko wanted to remove the dagger by the side of his pocket but was soon stopped by a bullet to his chest which brought him lifeless to the ground.
  Minko made an attempt to run but was blocked by some officers approaching from the opposite direction of the forest including Bimbo.
  He immediately went on his knees and surrendered, he was cuffed by officer Kola.
  "Thank God you finally found us officer, we thought you would never make it to us" Favour showed a little bit of relief.
  "It's all thanks to the tracker One Mrs Irene gave to you guys, may her soul rest in peace" officer Suleiman replied "Who did she give in particular and where are the rest?"
  "There is some of them" Kingsley said pointing towards the direction of the incoming group of Tobias and the police company.
  "But the one you just asked off is not with them and still in grave danger" Favour added
  "Good job guys" Suleiman said commending the rest of his team "But now, we need to find the remaining people"
  "And we must commend your fighting spirits, it was what brought y'all this far" Officer Bimbo added
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  "Drop her now or else..." Mike and Jack said in Unison
  "Or else what?" Heysow interrupted "What are you going to do to me?"
  "You bastards just ruined our home and our means of livelihood and you expect me to spare you?"
  "We were pursuing our own livelihood before you decided to come for us too" Jack replied "Just give up, it's over"
  "Shut TF up, what's my concern with whatsoever you rich brats are going through?" Heysow snapped at Jack "You think because everything is handed over to you on a platter of gold, you are better than anyone else?"
  "You guys keep mentioning rich brats, what gave you idea that we are all from rich homes?" Mike asked "What you are saying makes no sense, it doesn't mean you should turn to a life of crime"
  "Just let the girl go please and have me instead"
  "And of what use will you be to..." Heysow couldn't finish his statement before Patricia decided to turn sideways with the weight of her body, managed to get a foot behind Heysow before kicking him so hard in his testes.
  He fell on the ground feeling the pain but didn't let go of his gun.
  Patricia ran towards Mike quickly and together they all started a marathon for safety.
  "Jack! quickly take the left route with Pat, i'm gon' handle this bloke on my own"
     Mike ordered
  "But you are very hurt, why don't you allow me do it?" Jack protested
  By this time Heysow was already on his feet and was after them, swiftly Mike ran to the right and signaled to Jack and Pat to go to the left, there was no much time for arguments anymore.
  He was glad his bait worked as Heysow began following him, Mike continue running with all his might holding his injured left arm.
   “Hey stop! Or I gun you down right now, I am not joking, I will”
  Mike looked back, he couldn’t believe the same guy was still chasing him. He fired a bullet but he missed. Mike felt he was lucky but as he decided to swerve left and continue on the bushy path, he heard another gunshot and looked over his shoulder, unfortunately he wasn’t lucky this time around, he saw blood.
  He immediately felt a sharp pain on his arm making the arm weak and lifeless. He knew though he was shot, he couldn’t afford to stop now, he quickly supported the wounded arm with his other hand and continued his marathon. The guy tried to shoot again but his bullets had fiinished
  He took another glance behind him and saw the guy still chasing him.
“When is he gonna ever back down” he muttered to him. He looked down and saw a sharp metal, the kind of thin metals used in construction of buildings but this type has its mouth sharpened like it was made for the purpose of javelin. It may have been the weapon of one of his kind.
  Mike picked it up and slowed his pace down making sure the guy caught up with him. As soon as the guy was about to grab him from behind, Mike gave him a kick to his mid-section and as the guy was about falling to the floor, he quickly pierced him with his newly found weapon straight to his stomach and the guy fell dead to the ground.
  Mike also fell to the floor also but as a result of blood loss. He was already weak and was passing out. Things were becoming blurry but he could slightly see a female figure above him screaming
         “Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike!!!” She screamed tearfully "No! No! please get up don't leave us now that it's all over"
  He let out a weak smile feeling fulfilled at her last sentence. That wasn't the first time he would be experiencing Deja Vu but that certainly was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.