It had got dark and the air was cold. We found a spot and made a fire with some wood. I had calmed down and was feeling much better after what had happened to me. The black man was busy keeping the fire going. We ate some apples and bananas he found at the treehouse. They were still fresh. Whoever lived there had probably beenswallowed by that viper.

I sat and stared at the fire with thoughts of how the hell we were going to get out of there. The black man kept trying the radio but there wasn’t any response. He got upset and threw it far away from him and came and rested next to me.

“Thank you for saving my life black man,” I said honestly, but teasing him at the same time.

“Black man?” he asked raising his eyebrow.

“My name is Odala,” he told me.

“Odala?” I asked. “What sort of name is that?” I giggled.

“It means I’m a grown man. My friends used to call me that name during high school because I was the wise one who had never been in any kind of trouble.”

“Ooh. So where’s the bad attitude coming from?”

“I’m sorry about that. It’s my girlfriend.” He paused for a minute. His mood shifted.

“She ran off with my friend.”

His eyes were filled with hatred and pain.

“So now when I see a woman, I feel like I could just strangle her.”

Tears filled his eyes.

“Odala, I’m sorry to hear that. I understand how you are feeling, but you must know that woman didn’t deserve you.”

I had spoken to comfort him and remind that he shouldn’t give up on finding the right woman.

“There will be a good woman for you. A woman that will appreciate you and love you in the way you wanna be loved,” I encouraged him while I rubbed his back gently.

“Thank you, Spheh,” said Odala with a sad smile.

“You still remember my name?” I smiled because I was flattered.

While we ate fruit we had found we heard something shuffling in the woods. “Did you hear that?” I asked.

“Shhh. Quiet.”

He took out the gun. I held onto my knife just to feel safe. I knew the weapon would probably not save me.

There was something snorting loudly. We panicked as we got up. Odala took a stick and dipped it in the fire to get a small flame burning.

“I’m scared,” I whispered in his ear.

“It’s okay. I got you. Stay behind me.”

The noise and shuffling was getting closer. Then we saw a shadow scuttling past us. It went quiet for a few seconds and we held our breath.

A wild boar that was the size of an elephant came up behind us, snorting wildly.

“Run! Come on!” Odala shouted.

We ran for our dear lives. The boar was behind us running at full speed. You’d swear we were being chased by a cheetah. The only reason why the boar hadn’t caught up to us yet was because of the trees that were blocking it. It was too big to run through them easily.

We took a right turn and saw some kind of a cave to hide in. We quickly ran into it and we saw the body of Anthea. She had been torn apart. Her legs were chopped off and only her upper body was left.

“Anthea!” I cried as I went down trying to get her to wake up – liked she would. The boar had probably done this to her. What was even worse is that we ran into its cave.

“Let’s get the hell out of here! Now!” Odala exclaimed and grabbed my hand and made a run.

While we were running the boar had finally made its way through the trees. It managed to stab Odala in his back with one of its horns and threw him in the sky.

“Odala!” I screamed as I saw him flying through the sky. I didn’t know where he’d land. He’d probably be dead when he did. It was like flying from a first floor building to the ground.

I was on the ground crawling on hands and knees when the boar saw me. I got up quickly to make a run for it. I saw a cliff in front of me. I ran as quickly as I could and made a jump for a branch that looked like a rope. It saved me.

Since the boar was running at full speed it didn’t see the cliff up ahead. It and fell and smashed against the rocks.

I pulled myself up on the branch realising that I had survived once again. I saw the gun on the ground, picked it up, and went to look for Odala’s body.

I was screaming out his name hoping I would get a response, but he didn’t. It broke my heart. I was running again and sobbing not knowing exactly where I was going.

I was so relieved when I found him lying there on the ground — alive.

“Odala,” I whispered coming towards him to help him sit up.

He was injured with a wound from the boar’s horn on his waist.

“It’s okay. I will stop the bleeding,” I said, taking off my jacket and wrapping his wound with it to stop the bleeding.

“I guess we are both hardcore. We won’t be killed that easily,” he joked and we laughed.

I kissed him on his head to show him I was really happy to have found him alive. We got up and started moving again. Walking became difficult as the rain had started falling heavily. We headed back to the boar’s cave for shelter.

***

Tell us: Do you think Spheh kissed Odala because she’s starting to develop feelings for him?