THE ESCAPE (5)

John Finalises His Escape Plans, then Gets Left Behind

How could it be? How could this be true? How could Khalid be one of them? Was he just about to spill his guts to the enemy? Was he just a spy and was his kidnap story all cooked up? And the voices he kept hearing at night, that voice was definitely Khalid’s. It didn’t seem likely earlier, but it was beginning to make sense to him now.

He would think more about this development later, and about his plan, but for now, he had to make sure that nobody suspected that he had found out. Besides, he had to be sure he was not making a mistake.

“How far,” he called to Khalid, “I hope you are fine. Are you very wet?” John asked. “Down to my bones” Khalid replied. They both took off all their clothes, leaving only their boxer shorts, and spread them to dry around the hall. “You said you had something to tell me, about your escape. I’d like to hear it” offered Khalid. “Yes.” John responded, “Only it isn’t really an escape. It’s more about playing smart. I wanted to know if we could talk with our people to get them to negotiate a joint fee for our release so we can leave this place. I am really sick of it. The food is poor, there are mosquitoes at night, plus it gets cold and I could fall sick anytime soon”.

The look on Khalid’s face showed that he didn’t fully believe John’s story, but he didn’t have to. John took his leave and decided to see if he could confirm his suspicions about Khalid. He decided that he was going to try and sleep early so that he could in turn; wake earlier to catch them in their regular night meeting. He would have his dinner earlier than he usually did, then go to sleep. He really hoped it was a mistake, and that Khalid wasn’t a part of the gang, but he knew it was all false hope.

A kick made him stir and he was about to sit up when the voices he suddenly sensed told him that his best option was to sleep, or at least lie-down. The boot that hit him was Eagle’s, and the other footsteps revealed that there were more people than he would have thought. He had had his dinner a while back and slept off as he had planned. If they were here, it means the night had fully come already. He could only hope that they were just arriving, not departing. “K-man, K-man!” he heard someone whisper, “Locate us for that quarter, we get consensus”, the voice finished. The moment the voice stopped, departing footsteps were what John heard, and then the place went quiet. About two minutes later, John could hear very silent footsteps, tiptoeing across the hall. It was confirmed, that Khalid, or K-man, was checking on the captives. When he was convinced that they were all asleep, he left for the consensus.

The night was quiet, and John could hear voices, but couldn’t clearly make out the words. He crept to the window, propped himself up a bit, and finally, he could hear the men talk. It was still light talk; they were catching up on their day. A voice, one John had never heard before, asked Khalid on status updates on the captives. He wanted to know how they were faring and if any of them truly had the money they wanted. Khalid updated them and added something rather interesting; one person, John, had been planning an escape!

Raucous laughter greeted the news, and John didn’t know whether he was to laugh or cry himself. They found the thought of Khalid’s report of John’s escape plan very funny. Khalid explained the details and when it was clearer to them, the mood around them grew reflective; they had gotten an offer of one and a half bags of rice and were considering taking it. They had said nothing to him about it yet, but he was sure they would. He didn’t imagine his mother would raise a million naira, talk more of an extra half. That woman was incredible.

A housefly from nowhere suddenly appeared and landed on John’s nose. As he slapped it, he realised his mistake, busted! The meeting had stopped and he heard footsteps and voices approaching. He dashed over to his usual sleeping position and put on his best sleeping position, he even snored for good measure.

Three people came into the hall and after some time, they couldn’t imagine that any of the visibly fast asleep people they saw could have been awake to create the sound they heard. It must have been a mistake, they concluded as they left. John was still counting stars in his mind when he slept off.

He woke up and it was Sunday morning. John had strangely been feeling closer to God lately and what better day was there to ask God for wisdom to carry out his plans than a Sunday? He took out time to pray, plan, pray, plan and pray some more. He had picked his day; he would escape in five days, on Friday.

His plan was simple: He had noticed that fewer guards were available last Friday and that it was going to be that way again this Friday. He would work with the fellow captives at their manual labour tasks and then look for a conducive spot for his theatrics. He would fake a sudden stomach attack, and when it gets to the ears of the person on duty, in his rush to get help, he would forget to keep an eye on John, who would spring up and run away once the coast looks clear.

The plan would have been so much better with at least a person on his side, in case something went wrong and it got physical, but he didn’t have anyone, in fact, he had to look out for Khalid too. He couldn’t risk telling any of the new guys, he didn’t know who they were; he didn’t even know who anybody was anymore, apart from himself. Well, he had God, and now was probably a good time to learn to have faith, although he had no experience or knowledge whatsoever. Hebrews 11:1 was all he knew, and he couldn’t even recite it all.

As the day progressed, John noticed that Khalid was actually paying more attention to him, although he tried to appear casual. Had he been doing this all along and John just didn’t notice? He couldn’t wait for Friday; he couldn’t wait to escape, to flee this cursed place. The others could take care of themselves, he would worry about himself.

Monday came and they woke up to the news that Bello, one of the new guys had just been ransomed, and was leaving them. John thought he was going to leave first, but this had happened and while he was happy for the guy, this made his own condition somewhat complicated. There were fewer people to look out for, so the captors would have less trouble watching him.

It was now four more days to Friday, but John didn’t know that his Friday was going to come earlier than he thought it would.

Does John get the help he needs or does the money the captors ask his family for finally arrive? Find out next week.

Stay smart!