been following silently buh couldn't help but say great write up this time around.

Dear dare, Unpon say girls they die for you, You no fit toast any of them, Na Rape you wan rape abi?? Ok na!

HMMMM.....DARE THERE IS GOD O!! d guy lived up to expectation Arnold All D Way BTW, TYPOS PLENTY O

JeffreyJamez: dare don fvckup big time!!!!!!!

all this fine boys and thier sweetmouth lol

royver na till further notice abi

sweetmouth and no patience... Mtchewww fine boy without brains

Nimen:

sweetmouth and no patience... Mtchewww fine boy without brains

I believe a major reason for Dare's interest is because he knew Arnold liked her.

As always, Royver ; well done.

Quietly following. Royver, u said weekend, we don enter weekstart yet no update. Abeg, try update o.

tfabu: Nice one,looking forward to weekend for more fantastic updates

thanku. Weekend was somehow. Update might be short. Or should i just wait till thursday?

Maccoy1: [color=#990000][/color] guy no be lie..the guy too like rough play..everytime i'll jx leave you hanging at the 6th floor of a 20storey.....#thinking#__*picks up d fone to call the police*

Dont call the police...hanging gets your adrenaline pumping and is good for the soul

SaMajeste: I'm not surprised at Dare's behavior. There's this sleekness about him that's uncomfortable Temi, all that glitters is not gold.
Royver, very nice update

Eshe!

Niyipo: Can I get the soft copy of this book cnt jxt take the suspense sir royver

Hmn, Book is still a work in progress oh

Cashio: been following silently buh couldn't help but say great write up this time around.

thanks and welcome

edogho: HMMMM.....DARE THERE IS GOD O!! d guy lived up to expectation Arnold All D Way BTW, TYPOS PLENTY O

really?
I posted it while half asleep, make i go crosscheck

GraceEzeh: Quietly following. Royver, u said weekend, we don enter weekstart yet no update. Abeg, try update o.

kk lemme update but just that it's short o

loading 100%. Thanks.

[size=14pt]DAY 3: EVERYTHING BREAKS DOWN[/size]


I had fallen into a fitful sleep when we were all awakened around 2am in the morning by wild screaming from one of the girls who had been sleeping near the fire. We all jumped to our feet, some people running into the bush in fright while others ran towards the screaming to see if we could help. I was among the latter group though I went mostly out of curiosity.

It was Shade, the girl that had been helped across the bridge like I was. Those around her kept shaking her to stop her from screaming but it wasn't working. Eventually Mr. Abel came and splashed some water on her face and she stopped abruptly. One of her friends hugged her tight as she sat down, her hands folded across her chest, rocking gently from side to side.

“Snakes.” She kept on repeating. “Big snakes.”


“It’s alright, everyone go back to sleep.” Mr. Abel said, dispersing the crowd. “She just had a bad dream that’s all.”


The crowd dispersed as people grumbled back to their make-shift beds. I was looking at shade and saw the way she shivered violently and I had a feeling it was more than just the cold from the water splashed on her. A vague memory of what had happened to me when I nearly fell off the bridge flashed across my mind and I remembered the horrible things I thought I had seen moving in the shadows of the crevice.


I knelt beside her as soon as Mr. Abel and the others were out of earshot.


“Shade, were people riding on the snakes?”


She looked at me with fear in her eyes and nodded vigorously.


“Yes! Did you see it too?”


I didn’t reply but left her and went back to where Bimpe and Sola were sitting. They hadn’t budged at all from their ‘bed’.


“What was that about?” Bimpe asked. “She screamed like she was being strangled.”


“We heard Mr. Abel say she had a bad dream?” Sola said.


I sat down beside them. They knew I wanted to say something and drew closer in anticipation.


“You remember when I was on that bridge, when I almost fell and I was holding on to the side?, I thought I saw something, deep down in the crevice…” I began and looked at their faces.


“Continue. What was it?” Bimpe asked.


“Well, I thought I saw very big snakes, ridden by men, like horses.” I said. “I know, it sounds strange, but I swear I thought I saw something like that. There were many of them, moving along the walls, in and out of it, and when I screamed they moved in my direction as if drawn by the noise.”


“Okay.” Sola said. “It was dark and the crevice was very very deep. There was no way you could have seen anything like that. Probably your mind was playing tricks on you because of the fear you were feeling at the time.”


“Yes, but…Shade said she saw the same thing when she was dragged off the bridge, remember? And now the nightmare she had was of the same big snakes with people riding on top.”


“Shade probably watches too many horror movies! I know you watch such things too, your imaginations must have run wild! It was probably deep roots in the ground that you saw and thought you were seeing snakes.” Sola said.


“Deep roots from which trees, Sola?” I asked apprehensively. “Roots don’t go that deep, do they?”


“We don’t know do we?” She said. “Nobody has dug deep enough into the earth to know what goes on down there, I’m sure even those that sink boreholes and wells haven’t gone as deep as what we saw yesterday. Who knows what happens underneath us?”


“Exactly my point, Sola!” I said. “Nobody knows what happens deep deep down beneath us! What if…”


“Temi, don’t let your imagination run away with you.” Sola said. “It will soon be morning and when everywhere is bright and you are back home you will see how silly this thing you are saying sounds.” She smiled and went back to sleep. Bimpe had already covered herself with the blanket. I wrapped Arnold’s sweater tighter around me and lay back down, thinking that I would never go to sleep again.

I woke up to bright sunlight and the smell of burnt out firewood. I turned and twisted around, thinking I was in my house on my own bed. wondering why my bed was so hard and my alarm clock wasn’t ringing. And who had opened the window blinds? I shielded my eyes from the sunlight and tried to go back to sleep when I heard a deep voice


“Temi, wake up.”


What was Ayo doing in my room? I groggily sat up and rubbed my eyes. It cleared to reveal Dare staring down at me and smiling.


Dare!


“Hope you slept well.” He said, smiling mischeviously.


Suddenly I realized where I was. The events of last night rushed back in a flash and I jumped to my feet. I staggered back and nearly fell over Sola who was still sleeping.

“Ah, ah, why are you marching me now?” she complained as she sat up. Then she saw Dare. She stood up quickly in front of me and faced him.
“Yes, what is it?” She asked in a very menacing tone.

Dare’s smile vanished immediately. “You told her?”

I shook my head vigorously and Sola held my shoulder.

“She didn’t tell me anything but you can be sure I will get it out of her sooner or later and God help you if you did anything nasty to my friend! Now go before I start shouting! Move!”


“Temi, I’m sorry about last night. Honestly I don’t know what came over me…” Dare pleaded but Sola was having none of it.


“Arnold! Mr. Abel!” She shouted and Dare walked quickly away.


“What was all that about?” Bimpe asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.


“Nothing.” Sola said. “Get up, everybody is awake already.”


We looked around at our little camp. The fire had completely died out and most people were already up and about. Mr. Abel was near the edge of the pit along with some other teachers. They were discussing among themselves, probably on how we should proceed. Arnold and the others prefects were nowhere to be seen.


“They went to get some more fruits so we can eat before continuing.” One of the boys that was passing by said when we asked him.

We washed our hands and faces with some of the remaining sachet water and soon Arnold and his team were back. He carried a bag of fruits on his broad gorilla like shoulders and smiled at us as he passed by. Soon they had shared the food and we all ate quickly as Mr. Abel described the day’s journey to us.

“The bad news is that mobile network hasn’t returned, so there is no way of letting our families know we are all right. The good news is that we’ll soon be reunited with them. It’s just for us to cross this road. The bushes and trees aren’t so much on the other side and I will be happier knowing that those of you who want to go towards the market will be doing so in broad daylight. The rest of us will go the other way. We are going to use those petrol tankers there. We will climb down one of them, move further down, and then climb up another one. Very simple, no bridge walking in this one.”

Some people laughed and Mr. Abel smiled.


“You have all been very brave to come on this small adventure with me and I am proud of you all. It will soon be over and we can gist and laugh about all this in class tomorrow. I’m joking and joking!” he laughed as there was an immediate loud protest from the group. “I don’t think school will resume for a while, so you guys make sure you read at home. I will be communicating with all of you as soon as network returns.”
There was clapping and cheering as we all got ready to cross the pit. Mr. Abel led the way to the tanker and we all followed behind. The tanker was turned on its side, haven fallen into the pit probably when it opened up. The other tanker was a little further off.

Mr. Abel climbed the body of the tanker then carefully walked down to the bottom. He was followed by the teachers and then the prefects and the rest of us. It was strange being inside the crevise, as if we were inside the Red sea when Moses parted it only that the two sides of the wall were rock and stones and dirt instead of water and there were wrecked vehicles everywhere instead of pharaoh’s chariots. We walked along this strange landscape for a while till we got to the second tanker.

“Where are all the people?” Sola asked as we passed through the wreckages.

“Will you stop asking that for goodness sake?” I replied, glaring at her. “Probably they were helped out when the earthquake subsided.

“Yes, but this kind of disaster, there must have been many injuries right? Maybe some people even died?”

“Yes, and so? What’s your problem?” I asked


“Where’s the blood?” she asked. “There should be blood somewhere, but everywhere is clean. The earthquake happened a few hours before we
reached here, there should be one or two people going through the wreckage, trying to collect their things that they left. There should actually be a small crowd, but we haven’t seen anybody since we got here! This is a highway, where are the ambulances, the towing vans, the villagers? Where are the people?”


“Maybe rapture happened when the earthquake took place.” Bimpe said. She looked so serious I had to laugh.


“Rapture? And I didn’t go?” I snorted. “It’s a lie jo. Are you saying there is no righteous person among us? At least someone in our group would
have disappeared if it was rapture na!”


“Remember those airplanes that went missing on television before this thing happened…” Bimpe said.


“Bimpe that was an entirely different matter. You are getting as bad as Sola!” I replied. She grimaced and we all laughed.

Sola looked at me, this was the third time she was doing so in a sneaky sort of way since we entered the crevice. I knew what she was looking out for but I just wasn’t emotionally ready to deal with it yet. I was looking for any opportunity to get Dare out of my mind and this conversation, any conversation, was welcome. But she kept on glancing my way until I became exasperated.

“Sola I’m fine.” I said quietly when Bimpe moved a little out of earshot.

“Dare didn’t touch you did he?” She asked, sounding very disturbed. “If he did then we should report to Mr. Abel. I think we should even get your father involved…if…you know…”

“He didn’t rape me, okay?” I shot at her. “You guys came just in time. I really don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want anybody to know about it,
it would be too embarrassing. Let’s just forget anything ever happened okay? I won’t go near him again.”

Sola kept quiet and we continued our walk.

Soon we reached the other tanker. It slanted upwards and out of the pit. As usual, Mr. Abel went first, climbing up the tanker carefully. He slipped and almost fell once but regained his footing. It wasn’t a particularly difficult climb except for the smoothness of the sides of the tanker and soon he was climbing out on the other side of the road.

“Alright, very easy as you can see, next person up please.”

The next person had started climbing up when we heard a low rumble and the ground beneath us began to shake! Another earthquake! There was sudden pandemonium as everybody struggled to climb up the tanker at the same time. Mr. Abel tried calming them down’ pleading for us to come one at a time.


Arnold and Dare were one of the first to climb up the trailer and then they turned and started helping others. Suddenly there was another huge noise and Mr. Abel looked up to see what might be causing it. When he looked down at us again his eyes were wide open with fear.

“Climb! Everybody climb!”

We needed no extra prompting. I joined Sola and Bimpe in pushing our way to the tanker and we started to climb. The loud noise drew closer and the ground trembled again and Mr. Abel urged us to move faster. Now there was a cracking noise, like the sound of many trees falling, and I looked back and saw that the walls of our pit were collapsing. I struggled to climb as fast as I could and reached out to Arnold who pulled me out. Sola and Bimpe were next. Soon we were all out and we scrambled from the edge as the pit we had just walked through caved in.

We were finally on the other side of the road! Home had never seemed as close as it did then. The ground continued to shake but not as badly as before. Mr. Abel suggested we all sit down and wait until it passed.

“Just a minor earthquake unlike the first one,” He said. "Nothing to be afraid of”.

As if on cue, as if some strange god were mocking Mr. Abel, the ground right in front of us tore open with a thunderous sound.
We all started screaming and shouting and I joined Bimpe and Sola in running into the opposite bush. We found a large tree and started climbing it instantly. We could hear Mr. Abel’s voice above the roaring noise of the earth moving around us.

“No! No! Don’t climb the trees! It’s more dangerous there! All of you come down and lie flat on the ground!”

Ignoring the voice, completely panic stricken, I climbed higher, urging Bimpe who was in front of me to move. Sola had climbed up another tree and was screaming something at us. Without looking back down, I urged Bimpe upward and finally settled on a branch big enough to hold my weight. The tree swayed dangerously and I held on tight, hearing the warning of my geography teacher but too panic stricken to obey. I looked around and saw the others who had climbed up. Sola, Bimpe, myself, two other boys and a female teacher. The noise gradually reduced and the horrible movement stopped. Mr Abel and Arnold stood up from the ground where they had been lying with the others and rushed to the trees.


“If those trees fall down, you will all break your necks!” Mr. Abel shouted. “Come down at once!”


“Temi come down.” Arnold said. “Come down so Bimpe can come down too. It’s safer down here, don’t worry.”


“I can’t!” I screamed. “I’m frightened!”


“Sir, don’t worry, let me go up and help them down.” Arnold said. Mr. Abel Protested but Arnold was already climbing. Some of the other boys who were lying on the ground previously had gotten to their feet and come under the trees to watch the drama.


“Arnold, this your babe go kill you o! Come down!” One of them said and the others laughed. I looked around and saw Dare watching from a
distance. He caught my gaze and then looked away.

Arnold slipped and fell off the tree and there was an uproar of laughter as he landed on his bottom.

“How did they climb up sef?”

“You know fear is a powerful motivator!”

Arnold didn't answer them. Instead he stood up and dusted his hands and grabbing a huge root of the tree, hoisted himself up once again.





That move saved his life.


To be continued

come continue o!!

JeffreyJamez: come continue o!!

seconded!!

Happy new month, bro

hhhmmm nice one royver, I had to go back nd read ur first post nd I can bet I know wats happening next but I cant wait for u to give us d full details.
more ink to ur pen bro

Awww Temi...ya nw seekin duh Mr Gorrilla protection?wah happened tew ya Mr handsome(dare)? He z nw a monster ai guess! So funni hw girlz fhink...girlz makin wrong decision cuz of one'z luk since 1879

Hmm.. I am a huge SILENT fan but I need 2 comment,..so temi z still kissing and doing boyfriend tins when rapture dey happen for her presence..lol..interesting!...can't wait 4 d next update..Royver u ar my new crush *winkz*

Grt story Royver!

I'm glad it saved Arnold life, Wonderful work Roy.

"That move saved his life". Pls don't stop here. Rili curious to know wat happened next. Abeg no kill us with suspense. They said curiosity killed the cat, ROYVER come cure me of this curiosity pls.

Happy new month y'all

Hmmm now i know what Temi was writing at the beganing.... Its really sad to see Mr Abel die.... *Holding back tear*

hmmm really interesting buh pls no let suspense kill person oo

[quote
author=PrettySpicey]Wow! Totally amazing, Royver.

Only read the last episodes now but I must say it sounds great.

I followed your I can see what others do not and The Claw, the Tail and
the Cross... I feel like the texture of your writing has improved...
becoming more refined...

Lol, practice certainly makes us all better in what we do. Well done...
we'll surely restart and meet up.


**@JeffreyJamez, are you stalking me? Hehehe**[/quote]





Prettyspicey, what doest thou here? Shouldn't u be getting ready for tomorrow's update? U are a very good but lazy cook u know. #winks#

All I do is follow @Royver, thus I get all updates instantly, but mehn water don pass garri oo, this last update is too hot, Royver na God I take beg U, biko come and continue! Even if its halfway!

methinks this story is about to end, guys remember the very first update, talked about Temi and some of them climbing up a tree when the earth opened up and swallowed the rest... just glad Arnold was safe, Roy, hmmmn, dont know what or how else to compliment u, just know u are reaching out. THANK U

please continue

Victoriousvic: Whoa! Best story ever!

Well done Mr. Royver

then u need to read his last story before this...ROY is de best writer