The Last Survivors - Episode 15

 

Melinda and the others were shocked by Austin’s words. Much more, Melinda picked something in Austin’s voice that made her suspect he was either on a spell or was entirely another person masquerading as Austin. Etim also lent his voice to support Austin’s view. “I think Austin is right; tell me how is prayer going to help a man in such pain? Don’t forget Ochuma’s arm was forcefully severed by a ceiling fan blade. I doubt any of you understand what he is going through . Let’s go to the hospital please!” “I don’t want to be taken to the hospital anymore. If it is suddenly wrong for me to be prayed for then I don’t want any of your painkillers”, said Ochuma while clenching his teeth in pain. Osoba was stunned and could not figure out why they were arguing over prayer. Prayer had always been their last resort whenever they were in a fire. He got angry and shouted, “Melinda pray jor! Who knows what happened to the two of you at the hospital you intend to take us to”. “You sure sey na Austin and Etim be these self”, said Verah. The two guys impersonating Austin and Etim drew closer as Melinda bent her head to pray. Ochuma kept his eyes fixed on them, he didn’t trust them

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. He had done the job of undoing the works of the dead and evil spirits that inhabit them for years. He was sure something wasn’t right about the two guys who had returned from searching for a hospital or drug store to take him to. While Melinda prayed, Austin leaned forward and grabbed Melinda by the neck and yanked her off the bus, Etim grabbed Osoba and also pulled him off the bus, leaving only one-armed Ochuma and Verah to attend their friends.
Ochuma was expecting the two guys to do something like that, so as soon as Austin grabbed Melinda, he lunged forward with his right foot and caught Austin by his jaw. His vicious kick sent Austin to the ground; Ochuma jumped off the bus and landed on Austin’s face with his both feet and Austin exploded into a black cloud and enveloped him.

Verah had no time to think about it, as soon as she saw her friends being dragged off the bus. She attacked Etim with her finger nails; burying them into the both sides of Etim’s neck. When her finger nails sunk into Etim’s skin, she felt a cold sensation spreading through her fingers to her arms and then to her chest. She resisted the cold sensation and pulled Etim close to her face as if to kiss him and then yelled in his face, “I bind you in the name of Jesus!!” Etim exploded into a thick dark cluster of cloud and dispersed with the wind. Ochuma was still in the midst of the dark cloud, they could hear his voice praying form within the cloud. Verah t----t her right hand into the cloud and shouted, “Satan the blood of Jesus is against you!” Her hand felt an object and she quickly pulled it out of the cloud; fortunately for them, the object was Ochuma. Right after their eyes the dark cloud smashed itself against their bus, shattering some glass and disappeared into the dark sky. Melinda and Osoba had to slowly pick themselves up from the ground. When Etim and Austin grabbed them, they felt that same cold sensation which Verah had expericenced when she sank her finger nails into Etim’s neck. The cold sensation had immobilized Osoba and Melinda and made it hard for them to fight. The two of them felt extremely cold, so much so that their teeth were clattering like they had been in the cold for hours. Verah had to put Ochuma down on the bus to keep Melinda and Osoba into the bus. Their condition looked very grim; they felt so much cold that they thought they could freeze to death at any point. Verah was shaken by what she saw of her friends, ice drops were beginning to form on their faces of Osoba and Melinda. She began to cry; she ran to a mallam selling suya nearby, her thought was to scoop some coals into the bus to warm up her friends. The mallam refused her saying, “Kai!! Madam you wan born the bus? I no give you allah!” Verah was at her wits end; she ran back to the bus still crying.

Ochuma grabbed her with his one arm and shouted at her, “Verah pray for them! Use your faith!”
“I have no faith now! I can’t feel my faith anymore! My faith is gone”. “You are wrong Verah! I just saw you exercise your faith! By the way, faith doesn’t come and go; you don’t have to feel it! Just pray with name of Jesus and you will get answer. Please pray for them, they are dying!”

Already Melinda had stretched herself on the bus shaking like a rain beaten bird, Verah squeezed her shut and hollered, “You evil cold, I demand that you stop now!” she felt she didn’t say that right so she rephrased her words. “You evil cold from hell, in the name of Jesus, I command you to break over these ones now!” She opened her eyes expecting to see immediate result, but there was none; hopelessly she sunk to the ground and began to wail. While she cried Melinda starred herself and said, “Thank you Verah for the prayer, it saved me”, Verah sprang to her feet, hugged Melinda and wiped off her tears with the back of her hand. While she held Melinda, Osoba sat up on his seat with tears in his eyes and a huge smile on his face and said “Thanks Verah, my neck was on a stone altar and about to be chopped off when you began to pray. I thought I was gone! Thank you Verah. But there was more, I saw Simon in a bottle. He was trying to say something to me……” Melinda cut in, “Yes I saw him too! He was in a bottle! He said something about helping him out of the bottle and leaving the fight to him”.

Osoba jumped off the bus and said, “We need to get back to Lagos now, we must find the God-forsaken temple of those Circle of demons (Stars) that must be where they are keeping Simon. If Simon wants the fight, let’s help him get the fight! After all he comes from those who believes in the Holy One. He is the only one who can fight the Circle of demons!”

As Osoba headed to go and start the bus, Ochuma and Melinda asked almost simultaneously, “How about Austin and Etim? They are not yet back”. Emboldened by her faith, Verah told them “They headed in this direction, let’s go find them”. She didn’t wait for the others to say a word and ran off in the direction she had seen Etim and Austin go. Ochuma could not keep up with Melinda and Osoba as they ran to meet up with Verah. Melinda ran back to help Ochuma and told Osoba to go ahead with Verah. Melinda had hardly covered a few yards when she saw a drug store, she couldn’t help but wonder why Austin and Etim didn’t see it. She lead Ochuma into the drug store and explained to the store keeper, an elderly woman, that Ochuma had an accident earlier in the day and had not had adequate treatment. When the elderly woman saw Ochuma’s injury she shrank back and turned away her face. “This is not the sort of case you bring to a drug store. This man is going to run mad with pain. Take him to a hospital please!” said the elderly woman. “I don’t know where to find a hospital around here, please help us madam”, responded Melinda “Are you new here young lady? That behind you is a hospital! Infact come with me!” The elderly woman stepped out of her drug store and led Melinda and Ochuma to the hospital she had pointed them to. When they entered the hospital, and nurses saw a man with a blood stained severed arm, them call for a strecher, As soon as the strecher arrived they asked Ochuma to get on it.

As they wheeled him into the hospital for treatment, Melinda heard some nurses asking the elderly woman, “Doc where is the severed part of his arm?” The elderly woman turned and asked Melinda. “Do you have the part of his arm which was cut off?” “I don’t have it Ma. Even if I did, it must have died by now.

Read " Dance With Me(Silent Whispers) " by the same author ( Ifeoma Isabella Okeke )

. He had this accident in the morning”. “In the morning? Why then did you not get get him to a hospital in the morning? Is he a thief?” asked a male voice behind Melinda. “He is no thief. A blade cut off his hand”, replied Melinda. “I will need a police report before I can……..” “No Doctor EMEKA, treat him and if he is a thief let the police deal with me”, interjected the elderly woman. Doctor Emeka asked Ochuma, “What did they give you in the morning when this happened?” “I don’t know but it quickly killed the pain”.
The doctor commenced the treatment on Ochuma, while he administered treatment on him he noticed Melinda who was trying to reach someone on the phone had several cuts on her body. The doctor quietly went to the elderly woman and asked, “Don’t you think we should call the police? Look at that lady, she has fresh cuts all over her body, maybe they are on their way back from robbery or might be cultists”. The elderly woman studied Melinda’s body while she desperately tried to reach Austin on the phone. She turned to the doctor Emeka and said, “Do it. But while you are it, give the young man the required treatment”. The doctor gave his phone to one of the nurses, whispered some words into her ears and sent her out of the theater.