GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

Part Twenty nine

   Everything happened in a blur and it was not like in movies where it would be in slow motion, it was real. The bullet never touched me but hit Ghost. As the bullet hit him, he was firing at the man who shot at me and at the others. Another bullet hit him before he could take down the last of the five men. All this happened in less than ten seconds. It was horror, I was too shocked to react. I only knew I was not having a nightmare when he stumbled to the ground with blood gushing out of his stomach. I screamed in horror as his back hit the ground. I thought he was invisible, I wanted to wake up.
“No” I screamed placing my palms on his stomach hoping to stop the bleeding. I should have looked at the file. The man from my tribe had been the one after my life and the man from the tribe I hated had been the one protecting me.
“No, God please” I cried out.
“Emmanuella” He had to struggle to pronounce my name, it explained a lot. He raised his hand to touch my face.
“I thought I would not get to you on time, I can’t fail the second time, I’m happy…”
The pause was enough message.
“No please, don’t do this to me. I’m sorry, please. Somebody help me” I screamed.
“I’m sorry I could not save…”
“Stop talking, don’t talk, please don’t” I cried out.
His hand on my face fell making me taste dread.
“No, no, somebody help me” I screamed.
I heard the sound of a vehicle coming, then I saw the headlight and I was a bit hopeful they would be able to save him because his breathing was too faint but I heard numerous gunshots the moment they started coming out of the car. They were being shot by a sniper. One targeted us but the bullet missed by few inches. I heard the loud noise of a helicopter same time I heard a bike. It was chaos and I did not know which side was for Ghost. The helicopter flew low and something was dropped very close to us. It was that alien stuff Ghost had used at the river. I turned my attention to the battle around the new comers. They were targeting us but the bullet never came near us. Whoever was shooting at them as a sniper was too good, he was picking them out one by one. More vehicles arrived and it made it clear that whatever was in that file was lethal. The fact that they were determined to get the file by all means explained a lot. I screamed for help same time I saw them dropping from the helicopter. One was a female and she was on jeans trousers. She was firing as she dropped from the helicopter. I screamed for help again and turned my attention to Ghost. His eyes were closed and his breathing was almost not there.
“Please don’t leave me. Please. I won’t survive it. God please help me. God please forgive my foolishness and help me” I was already mourning afraid that he would be gone forever.
I felt someone was around and raised my head to look at the person. It was the girl, she had a bag on her back. She also had a square torch which was illuminating around us and which was also showing the terrible wound on Ghost stomach. My hand was still on his stomach but his cloth and the ground was still getting soaked with his blood.  She removed my hands from his stomach but froze when she saw how deep the bullets tore through his stomach. It told me a lot.
“Please, please save him” I pleaded.
But she was still frozen, if she was the sister he had described, she was not behaving like her because she was so afraid. Gunshots were so numerous and I had no idea which side was losing, all I wanted was for Ghost to live. Someone else joined her. He was huge and had the aura of authority.
“Doc” his voice was a baritone and it carried command.
The girl did not answer but started shaking her head.
“Doc, he is still breathing, start doing something now.”
“I can’t, Wild he is dying” she stammered.
Someone else joined us.
“Shit. What the heck, I can almost not feel his heartbeat. Why the pause?” he shouted placing his hand on Ghost’s heart.
The gun battle was still on. Wild started operating a wristwatch like that of Ghost’s wristwatch. A bird flew very close.
“Hadiya tell me what to do right now” he commanded taking the bag away from a frozen Doc. He started bringing out instruments they used in the operating room.
“Shit, fast, he is almost at the point of no return” the second man said.
“She too is freaking out. Jason stop current operation and connect me now to Pastor Sam’s wife” Wild said.
“It’s too late, no this is not happening, no” Doc found her voice. They ignored her.
“Wild…” the second man said putting pressure on Ghost’s heart.
“Ghost listen to me. We are not losing anyone now. I refuse you to stop breathing, she is here, she is still alive. You promised your mum you are bringing her. You promised AI’s mum, GG and their mum that someone is coming to see them. Pup too is waiting for you. We have pot breaking ceremony today. Of all days not today, not now. You can’t leave her now. Stay” the force in his voice felt like waves of vibration all over my body. I felt it like he was talking to me, and I felt like staying exactly at my position.
“Wolf just be the machine. Let me know when he is almost off.”
“For now he is still faint, not getting better or worse” Wolf answered.
“Thanks Dr. Sam. What should I do?” Wild asked.
The bird was looking at the wound. Another huge guy joined them. That was when I realized the gun battle had stopped.
“He needs blood” Wild said injecting the area he was shot.
“I’m O positive” the second guy said.
“No Wolf, you need to monitor him for me.”
“I’m here, we share same blood ground” the other huge guy said.
They were so calm, I wished I could be as calm as they were. Wild brought out what looked like a scissors but before he could do anything, I saw myself flying. I hit the ground and saw stars. It was the girl.
“You killed my brother” she shouted bringing out a knife.
She raised it to stab me and the only thing I could think of within that split second was finally, she was going to help end my misery. But the knife never touched me because she was flipped away by someone. I could not believe that the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the man who pulled her away was how handsome he looked. He was neither huge, lanky nor in-between. He just had the perfect body structure. 
He pinned her to the ground but she fought him off. She even attacked him but he blocked every attack then flipped her again to the ground and used his body to pin her by staying on top of her.
“Mark get off me now” she shouted.
“Sabrina what is wrong with you? Don’t you know his is still fighting because of her? When did you become so weak that you can’t treat your brother?”
“There is no hope for Saheed, there is…” she started crying.
“Sabrina, don’t do this to Ghost, don’t give up on him already. You know medicine is half a joke. His will his stronger than his body. I don’t give a fuck what medicine is saying right now, he just needs you and your mum to not give up on him. And you can’t hurt the girl he took a bullet for? What has come over you?” Mark shouted.
Mentioning me must have pissed her off because she flipped Mark away and attacked me but Mark was in time to stop her. She started fighting him same time shouting she was going to kill me. Mark thought he was helping me but he was not. There was no way I would survive without him. It made me turn to check what was going on. The huge guy’s back was blocking my view.
“Ella I need to concentrate and he needs to know you are safe, get up and run to your hostel, now” Wild commanded.
I found myself running to my hostel and it was almost when I got to the gate I knew I had obeyed him against my will. I did not want to leave him but Wild said Ghost needed to know I was safe from Sabrina. There was still hope because I could still feel him, there was still that awareness of him.
As I got to my gate praying to God to save him, I felt empty and it happened so sudden that it knocked me to the ground. Almost immediately, I could not feel him anymore. He was gone. I opened my mouth and screamed.