The Thorny Path to Europe - Episode 18

 

Before Tunde could retreat into the toilet, the policemen pointed torchlight at him.

'Don't move', one of the policemen barked and Tunde’s hands flew into the air. The distance between him and the toilet could be covered in a few milliseconds, but the thought of dying the same way Emeka died scared him.

The men advanced towards him. One of them pointed a gun at him . They began to speak in their native language, leaving him in the dark. He tried to explain his dilemma to them but they wouldn’t listen.

‘Shut up’, the one with the gun kept saying even when they pushed into the police station. Nothing looked the same as the police stations he had heard about in Nigeria. Everything seemed rowdy. They left him in a corner as they tended to different things. He tried catching the attention of the numerous policemen that passed through but they acted as if he wasn’t there.

Later, one of them gestured at him to sit up and question him, asking to explain his plight. As he did so, the man nodded understandably.

‘I know where you should be’, the man said. ‘Follow me’.

The policeman beckoned on another policeman to follow them. They placed Tunde between them in the front seats of the car

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/the-thorny-path-to-europe

. He wondered why they just didn’t give him space at the back of the car. The journey from the police station to a major road didn’t take two minutes. Tunde couldn’t understand the source of his fears but it was definitely ominous.

The darkness made it hard for him to realize they had just entered the street that housed the deportation camp. But upon seeing it, he understood what had happened.

'Not here', he cried and tried to break free. But it seemed the policemen had anticipated that. He wasn’t allowed to move from the car. The one on the passenger seat brandished his gun and made Tunde keep quiet.

They were greeted by some men that scanned Tunde as if he was a product. They interacted in their dialect. Soon, the men in the deportation camp gave some amounts of money to the policemen. They others pointed their gun on him and pushed him towards a room.

They led him to a room that contained a vast number of Nigerians and people of different nationalities. Nothing seemed familiar. Everyone stared into the emptiness with a type of sulkiness that shook him. He found a space among the people there and within a few minutes of being there, he witnessed some of the most inhumane things that could be done to anyone.

The door, which he discovered was locked, burst open and three men rushed into the place they kept them. They aimed for a fair man and beat him to a pulp. Blood stains on the man’s cloth said enough of how weak they left him.

Too tired to even make a comment, Tunde dropped his head to think. He had plunged himself into a horror that could not be expressed. Suddenly, the door opened with a battered Lizzy being dragged into their cell.

'Please, let me go', she cried.

Tunde was surprised as he looked about for Ade. Although he was still angry, he wanted to ask Ade why he didn't make them agree on one point. He shouldn’t have left Lizzy but if it was any consolation, he was happy to see her there. No word could express the drop of happiness that surge through his vein when he saw the consequence of betrayal.

'Call your parents', one of the men said with his gun pointed at her. She dragged her phone from her pocket and called her parents to ask for money.

Her parents promised to send money or so he heard. She saw Tunde and refused to move near him. He sighed severally as even he couldn’t bring himself to comprehend what was happening. They were meant to be deported from there and he should have fought but the sight of the policemen being paid made him understand he had fallen into another group.

The men came in again. One of them tapped Lizzy. ‘Your father has sent money’.

She knelt down and pleaded, ‘Thank you. Thank you. It was those Arabs that spoilt everything. I had paid before leaving there. I didn’t have extra cash’.

The men looked at her as if they were staring at a wraith. The leader scoffed. ‘This money is not enough’.

She looked stunned.

‘Ask them for more’.

‘But that’s five hundred thousand naira’, Lizzy said. ‘This is not the plan. You promised to take me away from this place if I paid. I have paid. They sent the money. They transferred the money from their gold bank’.

‘Your parents have gold?’

‘No. Not like that. This is… I meant from their money’.

The men were adamant and demanded more. She pleaded with them until one of them pounced on her. He gave her several punches that scared even Tunde to make any comment.

‘Make the call’, Tunde felt forced to shout at her.

Her eyes were swollen by this time. She nodded as she heard him speak to her. Tears flowed down her face.

‘Put it on speaker’, the man shouted. She cried as she narrated the ordeal to her father. But he seemed infuriated by her demands.

'Lizzy, I'm disappointed in you. Of all the things in the world. Trying to defraud your own parents'.

‘No… Dad… They won’t allow me…’

‘Don’t ever call me again…’ Her father shouted and disconnected the call.

‘Try again…’ The men said and slapped her severally. Her parents refused to pick any call from her. The men left her and pounced on another person. They seemed to deal with a certain set of people but Tunde didn’t mind. After a while and they had made more than enough from them, they left the room in depression.

Tunde edged towards her and wanted to console her but the words that came out instead were, 'that's a reward for being disloyal'.

She couldn't reply; instead, she burst into tears and he watched her cry. For days, the men brought a type of bread that looked around like a fish roll and they would cut it for them. That alone, including water, served as the food they would eat per day. Many people refused to take their bath and when Tunde did, the water burnt his skin. He learnt later that it was sea water.

Lizzy sat beside him but refused to make any conversation with him even when he asked about Ade. She only stared into space. As much as they hated each other, the presence of the other made them feel comfortable. Tunde, though tired, got used to the lifestyle and always looked forward to their torture and food. It was the only thing that made him feel something. Most parts of his body had become numb that he couldn't express any feeling, whether sadness or anger.

The men tortured him for money but he had none and had no one to call. Some rich women came into the house and pointed at several men and haggled prices about these men. Then, the men were dragged away.

‘That’s your mate being let out of this place into the freedom of slavery. If you don’t get us money, the UN will and those rich people will’, one of the gunmen said.

Then, one day as the door opened, Lizzy grabbed his hand. He wanted to push it aside but they needed each other because he needed someone to touch. Her beautiful skin now had scars and a lot of stripes from the torturous lifestyles they had been made to live. The stench from their toilet, which was just beside the door flooded the room. Tunde covered his nose.

Some men he had never seen before pointed at Lizzy. Her hold on his hand became stronger. They came for her but Tunde couldn’t fight them. She held onto him and they kicked him in the bowel. He yelled and sprawled on the floor.

However, they didn’t take her out of the room. They brought her to a corner and began to r*pe her. She yelled and called on every name she could for help. And Tunde couldn’t even help because the weakness for malnutrition alongside the kick he had just received made him weak at that spot. They took turn r*ping her.

For some odd reason, tears fell down his face. When they left her, he crawled to her and helped her to the place they had sat before. She cried throughout the night and refused to eat the next day. Instead, she fasted and prayed to God for forgiveness. Then, she turned to Tunde too and began to plead with him.

The next day, some other men came and were led by one of those that came the previous day. They pointed at another lady and Lizzy again. That day, they r*ped her on an empty stomach. She yelled as several of them r*ped her. Tunde wondered when people became inhuman.

'I loved you', she whispered after he dragged her limp body to his side. Tears flooded both their eyes. 'I did. I became friends with Ade to get closer to you after we fought and I couldn't say sorry'.

'You can say it now', Tunde said with tears streaming down his eyes. The things he had seen done to human in that place made him wish death would come for him also as it had done to others.

'That's what I'm saying. But when you started acted weirdly, I decided to hold on to Ade to spite you'.

'It's not too late', Tunde said, not because he felt something but because he hoped it would make him feel something and hoped it would soothe her pain. And that alone brought tears to his eyes. He wanted to feel love again, but it was something that he couldn't get to do with what he was facing.

That night, they came for Lizzy, who weak from lack of enough food as she kept praying to God for salvation. Tunde burst into tears and for the first time, he wondered if the police station of the Nigerian police would be as deadly as that.

He spent most of the next day trying to force Lizzy to eat, which she refused. He hated her guts but he couldn't leave her to herself.

'We can still escape this place', one of the men shouted and the other people gathered round to listen to him. 'The last time we were outside, we told the UN about our plight'.

'We can still do something', another man said and they began to make arrangement on how to leave the place.

Tunde was lucky he didn't tell them how stupid their plan was. He kept his cool and hoped to glean some ideas from those spreading their ideas. They kept quiet from their plans and soon the gunmen came to pick people one by one to force them to produce money.

He had witnessed some of the men being r*ped too in the anus and couldn’t help but feel favoured to have escaped the ordeal. Soon, some of the gunmen came inside and pushed one of the inmates, who went on to point out those that were plotting against the guards of the deportation camp. The gunmen picked the man that championed the discussion and dragged him out of the room. Later, the gunmen returned, strutting among them as if they had gained the whole world.

'We've been able to send him back home, to heaven'.

They laughed cynically and began to flog everyone with whips. Tunde awaited his own with so happiness. The pain made him aware of his environment and his life. And like before, people were picked randomly to call home for money. When they were done, the one leading them turned this time and glanced at the hefty men with him.

‘That’s her?’ He asked, pointing at Lizzy. One of them nodded.

‘Good’, he exclaimed and rushed down to her side to drag her off.

Tunde knew he had to help this time.

'Leave her alone', Tunde shouted and ran to help, but one of the men hit him on the head with the butt of a gun. Tunde slumped and fainted but not before he heard people shouting.

He woke up to meet the inmates tendering to him. And Lizzy had finally being r*ped. She was looking limp and weak. She stared at him for a while and murmured something. Despite being tired, he crawled to her. 'What did you say?'

She mumbled it again and he placed his ears to her mouth.

'You're a good man', she said and stared at him for a while. He stared at her and rushed to get her bread to eat but she refused to eat. Later, she gave up the ghost. He sat still as he stared at her limp body. People cried that God was wicked, but he knew humans owned the bulk of wickedness. Tears streamed down his face but the pain wasn't as strong as that of Emeka that still haunted him.

For days, the men left her corpse to rot there. Tunde sat across it as he stared at the vanity of everything. He couldn't help but wish she told him about Ade. But after his first trial, he couldn’t bring himself to ask about Ade because it reminded him of how he was betrayed. Now, he was alone with no one to understand the entire ordeal they faced.

Days later, the UN came around and saved them. Someone had hinted them on what was happening there. They got out to another camp, where they were prepared to leave for Nigeria. Tunde refused to talk to an interviewer as he could only sigh. He called his father with the hope that he would come for him but his father rejected the call the moment he heard his voice. Nonetheless, he sent him a message about their arrival in Nigeria.

When they got to Nigeria, Tunde knelt to praise God for the first time in a long time. He knew it wasn't God's fault. He didn't consult him before leaving. So, it couldn't be God's fault.

After expecting them the third day, he knew his parents weren’t coming. He meandered about. The government had promised to give them a stipend of 12000 naira for transportation. That couldn’t meet any need but it was enough to work for him. Just as he finished packing his bag and went for the last round of food he would be eating in the mini-camp set for them, Tunde saw Cecilia seated in a corner.

He wanted to run to her to hug her or fight her. His emotion sparked like firecrackers. At the sight of her, every emotion he had been bottling up broke open. He crashed to the floor, crying. She looked up and saw him. Shuffling her feet, he could see the surprise in her eyes. He looked bushy and terrible but he didn’t mind. She stood by him for a while as he wailed. People that saw him crying shook their head and walked on. Many of them too had experienced a great deal of pain but he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. Cecilia sat on the floor in front of him and hugged him. Nothing felt as good as being understood by someone that went through an ordeal with you. She cried along with him.

‘What are you doing here?’ He asked after a while.

She nodded. ‘Jude’s passport was fake. We were all deported. Ade left here a few days ago’.

He cried for a while before rising up to leave her. They shouldn’t be seen together and she seemed to understand him. She pulled him back.

'Tunde, I've decided since you rejected me for who I was, I will report myself to the police'.

He looked at her, assured that she was lying again. He left her side without making any comment. She tried connecting to him but he wouldn’t let her come near him.

The time he was to leave camp, he went up to her where she sat aloof.

‘If you really want to give yourself up, come and do something with me’.

She agreed with him and they left camp together. She took him to his house, where she confessed to have waited all along with the hope he would ask her out. He went to the market, bought a chicken and cooked it to Emeka's memory. Even if he couldn't take it to Emeka’s mother, he could at least eat it on her behalf.

The next few days met her giving him access to most of the asset she had. She claimed she wouldn’t need them in the prison. He accepted and followed her to the station.

Read " Don't! Look Closer " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. When they got near the place, he pulled nearer and hugged her.

'You what? I love your past, your future and now. Don't go. Let's go and build a map together'.

'What map?'

'The map of the Sahara Desert'.

'For real?'

'Yes. Let's'.

She cried into his chest for a while. Tunde couldn’t tell what made him change his mind but the crazy things he had seen had shown him life was too short to waste looking for one that loved him. They went home and they never talked about their ordeal on the Sahara Desert- not the good or the bad or the ugly. The only thing Tunde knew was that he would wake up sweating and heaving horribly in the middle of the night while Cecilia would be seen m*aning in her sleep. He never complained about anything again.

END

Acknowledgment

All thanks to the almighty God. This story started out as a script, then became a prose and here we are. I really appreciate everyone from Nairaland, the Fortune City Citizens- Oyelami Oyebisi, Skubido, Ann, Fijumokesayo and the ever growing citizens.

Then, I want to thank Oluwapamilerin for her patience when I started out writing this story. Thank you! Thank you all!!!