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I roll Ayo into the supermarket and begin grabbing food off the
shelves and crossing items off the list clutched in my hand. Ayo
quickly gets restless and so I pick him up, setting him down gently,
before sending him off to go and pick some fruit with strict
instructions.
About a minute after Ayo leaves, I am checking yet another item
off the list when the building shakes violently, sending the tower of
canned produce on my right, tumbling to the floor. The bustle
around me quiets to a dull murmur until being completely
extinguished by the next tremor. The silence is eerie, and for some
reason it worries me more than the shaking of the supermarket. It
means other people are as worried as I am, making this growing
horror a reality.
Ayo, where is Ayo? My heart thuds in time with a gunshot.
Close.
Too close.
The world flies back into motion, people scrambling in all
directions, reaching for loved ones and disappearing out the door,
swept along by the stampeding crowd. Abandoning my shopping
cart I sprint for the fresh produce aisle, moving against the tide of
people shoving towards the exit. I’m not moving fast enough. I feel
as if I’m wading through thick mud. The distance should have been
easy enough for me to complete, but it feels like a marathon. If
anything happens to him…, I shove the thought out of my mind
before it can take root, reaching the end of the isle and rounding the
corner.
He isn’t there.
Through my panic I hear another two gunshots coming from the
other side of the mall, intensifying my desperation. My breath is
now coming in terrified gasps. I spin on my heel, desperately
searching the now empty room for the slightest movement, any sign
of life. My mind is trapped in a shell of fear that shatters when I hear
a familiar, but terrible, sound.
Ayo’s scream pierces through all of the other noise and I look
down the centre aisle to find him standing outside the supermarket
exit. My intense relief at finding him is immediately replaced with a
new level of horror as I realise why he screamed in such terror.
There are three bodies lying in pools blood, the result of another
three shots my clouded mind had prevented me from hearing.
Darkest Africa
8