AA West African girl is sitting at a cosy dining table, scarification marks on both sides of her face faintly visible. Three vertical and horizontal lines, barely noticeable, run down her skin. Her Amber-brown eyes contrast with her sepia-toned skin, and her white-brown hair falls gently around her face. She is at the dinning eating Amala and awedu soup with cows tongue, a local dish form her home land. In the background, This is a Man's World plays softly as rain pours outside. The living room is tidy, organized, and cosy, with no sign of disorder.
The living room is tidy, organized, and cosy, with no sign of disorder. The music transitions to classical as she relaxes on a couch, facing a television surrounded by shelves of books. As she lies down, a light thud catches her attention. She rises and investigates, first checking the bar stand in the living room, then the mini wardrobe near the entrance. Finding nothing, she heads toward the bedroom down the hall.
She opens the door to find the room unsettling—messy and filled with an unpleasant smell. She hears a loud thud, and she turns to a large wardrobe across the room. She goes towards it and opens the wardrobe door. The wardrobe is a walk-in wardrobe with a little window that is open. Opening the door, she is shocked to discover two albino boys, thin and sickly, lying inside. One has yellow curly hair, and the other has straight white hair. One, with yellow curly hair, is unconscious, while the other, with white straight hair, clings to her, tears staining his face.
She helps them out and places them on the bed gently. She goes to open the bathroom door just for her to be greeted by a hung and unsettling sight of a decaying body up on the roof. She finds another room upstairs, where she tends to the boys, cleaning them up and trying to revive the unconscious one. After some time, she provides them with water and the best fruits she can find. As the rain subsides and the music stops, the children fall asleep. She later falls asleep next to the children. She stayed in the house until the children were strong enough to walk and talk.
Before she decides to leave the house since food and medical supplies are running low, she searches the house for anything useful. She discovers a basement and finds weapons and two robots. One is humanoid with wheel-like legs and a small storage compartment in its stomach, while the other resembles an animal with four limbs and a basket-like back also with a small storage compartment.
She activates the robots and loads them with supplies: weapons, food, clothes, and camping gear. After uploading files into them via flash drives, she hands the boys stuffed toys to play with and prepares to leave. The weather outside is sunny and calm, and they step out of the house, the animal-like bot leading the way, the boys beside her, and the humanoid bot bringing up the rear.
They get to the gate of the house and they all step out of the house premises. In front of the house is a unique camping vehicle. It's large, with tyres covered for protection, and its black and green colour is designed to blend into the environment.
"Awéléwa..." the two boys call to her.
"Yes, boys?" Awelewa answered.
"Why is your car that ugly colour?" Asked the boy with straight white hair.
Well..." Awéléwa replies as she opens the vehicle's door. "I don't want bad people finding us. These are dark times, so it's better to be safe than sorry. Right, Atticus?"
"Yes."
"Are you comfortable, Zion?" she asks the second boy with curly hair, seating them in the vehicle.
Zion nods. Awéléwa moves to the back of the vehicle to set up the robots and assign them new names, claiming herself as their master. Once everything is ready, she sits in the driver's seat and starts the engine. The screen in front of her displays the surrounding area—destroyed homes and abandoned cars. The body she had seen earlier is gone, but the screen now detects three heat signatures: one cold, the others hot and large, indicating they are feeding on the cold body. The only thing on her mind now is to leave the place and get out of danger.
She begins to drive off, passing the bodies as quietly as possible. Just as soon as they pass the bodies, the two large figures begin to run toward them. Awéléwa noticed them in the side mirror, moving at full speed. She activates the vehicle's defence systems and uses the gun system to neutralize the threat.
"Awéléwa. What are those?" Asked Atticus his voice filled with fear.
"They are zombies. " She replied flatly. "They are really dangerous."
"Do they all run?"
"Many different types. Just know they're bad news."
"I thought they did not exist because I was told by my parents at the time that they did not exist. This happened a long time ago before you found us here. One day when my parents picked me up from school was the day that we were attacked by zombies. That was a long time ago. Zion and I were found by my auntie after my parents got killed by someone, and that is when we came here, the y house we had just left. She told me and Zion to stay in the wardrobe with some food and water, but after she had left us, we did not see her again. "
"Well, I'm sorry, kid." She says to Atticus. "We just got to have faith and try to stay alive. Okay?"
Atticus nods, and she smiles at the boys before focusing on the road. They drive out of town, leaving the destruction behind.
Later, they got to their destination safely. Awéléwa parks the vehicle beside a tall tree. Night has fallen as the kids are asleep and the robots are still active. As Awéléwa sits to relax, one of the bots approaches.
"Master?" the humanoid bot, Apple, asks."Where are we?"
"We are at my place," Awéléwa tell it. "Is there any problem, Apple?"
"Not really. I noticed that there is something wrong here."
"Like what?"
"Something is unsettling here," Apple says. "About four trees away, there's a massive zombie, and it seems to show signs of intelligence and speech."
"..."
Awéléwa pauses. She sits up, grabbing a gun from the fridge compartment.
"What is it saying?" Awéléwa asked with no emotion in her face.
"It says 'help...down...want to...home...end it.'"
Awéléwa steps outside with the gun, quietly moving to the tree. She shoots the zombie four times, the gun's silencer making no sound. She returns to the vehicle and scans the area. Everything seems clear. She makes something to eat and goes to sleep.
The next morning, the boys wake her up to a mess. Food is splattered everywhere. She opens her eyes to the horror of the mess the boys had made with the food she had.
"Good morning. " Said Zion with a smile on his food-covered face.
"Who's idea was it to take food before permission or waking me up?" Awéléwa demands as she sits up.
"It was Atticus's idea. He said he was the oldest. "Said Zion putting at Atticus who is stuffing his face.
"Just because your older than Zion does not mean that you can bully him into doing your dirty work. Okay?"
They nod in response as she gets up to check the remaining food. They will need to stake up again. She instructs them to clean up as soon as they are done. She checks on the robots.
"How are you doing Apple and Zip?" She asks.
""We're fine," Apple replies. "How was your night?"
"Alive." Replied Awéléwa grabbing two buckets. "Watch the place while I go get some water."
She steps out while putting the buckets in a wheelbarrow. She heads down to a river bank to fetch water. After she was done fetching water, she headed onto the vehicle and placed them down. She poured some water into the vehicle; some went into the water tank and some into the fuel tank. She then steps into the vehicle with the other bucket, poring some of it into a well-secured barrel. But suddenly, a loud bang echoes from outside.
*BANG!!!*
Atticus! Zion!" she calls, but there's no response. She calls out to Apple, and the bot responds—but it comes from outside.
She steps out to see that some people have tied up the boys and have one of the robots with them. They are all surrounded by them.
"Hello, dear." Says a woman.
"I no want any trouble, " Awéléwa says, raising her hands. "Watin you want?"
"The teenager standing behind the woman presses a gun to her head. "That's not a nice way to say hello."
"Doesn't matter," the woman replies coldly, aiming two guns at the boys. "We want your vehicle. It looks well-kept, and there's probably plenty of food in there."
I just got back from fetching water, and we're running low on food," Awéléwa tells them. "You won't find much."
As she speaks, she sees the second robot—Zip—charge from the bushes, but it's quickly shot and struck with a bat.
"We don't have all day, lady. Are you handing it over, or are we doing this the hard way?" the woman demands.
Awéléwa hesitates. "You can have it."
"Smart decision," the woman says, smirking. "We won't leave you with nothing."
The woman released the children as they ran to Awéléwa and hugged her as they cried. "Also we are taking your robot. It should serve us well, right?"
The group raids the vehicle, throwing out supplies—clothes, camping gear, flashlights, cans of sardines, and a butter knife. Before leaving, the woman stands at the door with a wicked smile.
"Thanks for dealing with that bastard last night," she says. "He was a terrible person. He got bitten by a Sprinter while abusing me and my daughter. He climbed up that tree for safety, but we made sure he'd never come down. My oldest son wanted to keep you, but you've got mouths to feed, so... goodbye."
The door slams, and the group drives off, leaving Awéléwa and the boys with nothing but a wheelbarrow. All she can do is hug the sobbing children, whispering, "I'm right here."