Out There

Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, 2023.

It's raining heavily, and as multiple, consecutive lightning strikes light up the sky, thunderclaps can be heard around the nooks and crannies of Nigeria's largest city, Lagos.

The usually bustling streets of Ikeja is now empty. Sounds of human interaction, plates and pots clashing as mothers prepare dinner for their families, and other otherwise audible sounds have been drained out by the heavy rain. Some faint, but piercing sounds can be heard at irregular intervals. Meows of some lonely, homeless cats with no shelter. 

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had announced earlier on that there was going to be a rainstorm in Lagos and some neighbouring states in Nigeria. And true to their predictions, the storm was showing no mercy.

In the now deserted, but steadily flooding streets is only one lady, Katie, walking with quick, determined steps, as she wades through the flooding street. Each step she takes leaves behind blood which is immediately washed and streamed away by the ongoing downpour into the nearby gutters. She speaks to an earpiece in her right ear. 

"Crosspoint evacuation, T-minus 4 minutes."

She has requested an evacuation. One which she expresses intense hatred for because it 'makes her seem weak and inept'. Katie hates the bitter reality she is faced with, and that it has made her request an evacuation. 

Moments later, her earpiece makes a slight static noise and David's voice is heard. "I don't think I heard well. Is the Wonder Woman requesting an exfiltration? That's new." His voice was oversaturated with his ever growing pomposity.

Annoyed, Katie sighed, "T-minus 2 minutes. They'll be on my tail anytime now."

In a surprised voice, David cuts back. "They?"

He looks at the GPS location tracker in the extraction vehicle and exclaims, "Oh, my. Hang in there. Our satellite has picked up some readings. You've got three vehicles on your tail."

David looks at Ben, the driver of the extracting armoured truck. "Don't hit those brakes at all. Increase your speed!" He had weighed out the direness of the situation Katie was in, and knew that they'll have to move as fast as possible. 

Now several metres to Allen Avenue Junction, the crosspoint, Katie picks up speed and begins to sprint. Just as she paces up, some screeching tires can be heard some distances away. Katie turns to look, and sees three black Range Rovers racing toward her. 

These men who after her are Alhaji Tanko's Men. The Alhaji would have been dead by now, had some unexpected event not occurred back at his mansion.

Katie removes the soaked gown she is wearing, a once flowing gown, now ripped to the knee, and dumps it behind her. She's left with a bulletproof vest and a black khaki shorts. She's geared up with some guns and knives carefully hidden in some specialized pockets in her vest. 

Static noise is heard again and David's voice comes through. "Approaching the crosspoint," he says in a husky voice. "Bringing in the steam. Oh, yeah!" 

As Katie is about approaching the junction, the revving of the 'evac truck' is heard some distance away. She pulls out a grenade and yanks out the safety lever. Immediately after pulling the pin, she exclaims in an excited tone, "Tic tac toe!". She says this phrase anytime she's about to throw a grenade, so as to count three seconds out of the five seconds time delay her grenades have. She always says it excitedly, as she finds pleasure in violence.

 She throws the custom made M67 grenade out onto the middle of the road and in about two seconds, an explosion is heard. And then, another. One of the Range Rovers has been taken out.

Now at Allen Avenue Junction, she sees the evac truck coming at full speed at a distance. The truck decelerates rapidly and she lunges into it. 

"Hey there, Wonder Woman," David says in a cocky voice.

"Call me that once more, and I'll have all your teeth pulled out to make a necklace," Katie retorts, throwing him a scathing glare. 

David grins and turns to face her. "Here, pull out my teeth," he says while showcasing his perfectly arrayed set of white teeth. He finds that Katie has already passed out. She had lost a lot of blood. "Damn, these monkeys have to pay for what they've done to her." 

David fumes and he turns to Ben. "Keep driving. I'm gonna smoke up these bastards."

He opens the door to the passenger side of the truck and climbs to the top. The wind is strong, due to how fast they're moving. It blows against him and his eyes feel sore. The heavy rain is beating against his body like whips, but he ignores the pain. He searches his Ripstop pant for his shades, and finds them in his right pocket.

Wearing his shades, he whoops and proceeds to the truck bed where the machine gun is stashed, and begins assembling it. 

"Hey, Ben, uh this machine gun looks different. Are you sure it's the M240?" David shouts over the wind so that Ben would hear him. 

"Yes, it's an M240, it's been redesigned. The custom designed gun fires at 750 rounds per minute, but this one has been enhanced to fire at 900 rounds per minute!" 

David whoops again, and Ben smirks, knowing he has made the right choice. 

"Go to hell, douchebags!" David begins firing at the cars and in less than three minutes, the Rovers were already up in flames. 

David gets back in the car and the journey to their headquarters continues.

Katie is injected with some aspirin, and some bandage is wrapped around her arm and legs to stop the bleeding. 

While asleep, She begins to twitch and mumble some inaudible words. David looks at her and shakes his head. It's one of her lucid nightmares. She's always slept this way; with difficulty. Everytime he's asked her what causes it, she ignores the question.

"Hit the gas, Ben. Come on!" David instructs with a voice heavy with concern. 

"You're tense, boss," Ben says after some minutes of silence. "Perhaps, I should turn on some music?"

David sighs.

"Well, I'm going to play Born to Be Wild, if you don't mind."

Ben selects the track and begins playing the song. Ben begins clapping and miming the song. 

"Don't just cause an accident," David snares and looks out the window, "or I'll kill you."

Ben laughs loudly and David joins him too at the realization that if such an accident happens, they'd all be dead before he could 'kill' Ben.

Ben continues clapping to the song and returning his hands to the wheel intermittently. After a short while, David begins nodding slightly and then he starts to mime to the song.

Ben stops clapping and looks at David with faux surprise. Without looking, David says slowly, "Don't. You. Dare." He slowly turns to face Ben and they both exchange a knowing look and another round of laughter ensues.