The Scariest Journey Of My Life “Part 1”

I never knew I would be able to tell this story one day, it is one of those experiences that are hard to forget and hard to tell. But I am finally summoning the courage to tell you about the scariest journey of my life.

Journeys… traveling from one place to another for hours, stuck in a seat with strangers for hours! I hated it with passion. Watching unique landscapes as the car moves is usually the fun part of any journey for me, but it wasn’t enough to make me enjoy traveling. But I had to embark on this journey. I was finally going to see my friends after 5 years of being apart. It was the only reason I was even excited about traveling, coupled with the fact that one of my friends was getting married. Sitting on the bench facing our bus with its doors slightly open, I smiled widely as I thought about the fun we would have when I got to Lagos.

“Oga, I no go pay 1,000 naira for that small bag of clothes. If you no go collect, you leave… ah! why una wicked like this?” The angry voice of a woman jolted me back to reality.

I sighed as I listened to her lamenting to our unconcerned driver. He was smoking and puffing the smoke in her direction even though he knew she had her baby strapped at her back. I looked around the park and I was truly angry with myself for not going to a reputable transportation company. This so-called park was unorganized and dirty, and I was pretty sure their vehicles would be in poor conditions. But I couldn’t blame myself for patronizing them because they were the cheapest I could get. Other transportation companies were too expensive for my budget, so I had to stick with one within my budget.
I looked at my phone and it was almost 9. am and our bus wasn’t even loaded yet and our driver seemed so less concerned about it. I studied his face angrily. He had bloodshot eyes and a scary black face with scars all over it. He was still smoking as the woman continued to lament about the money she was asked to pay for her luggage. A man approached him then to talk to him. It was hard not to notice the man because of his bulky body, skin cut hairstyle and high-heeled boots which distinguished him from other men there. After he spoke to the driver in a low voice, the driver stood up and started ordering everyone to get into the car. The bulky man dipped his hand into his pocket and gave the driver 1000 naira note. The driver squeezed it into his pocket as he yelled at everyone to get into the bus or they will be left behind.

We got onto the bus and left the park by exactly 10am. “10am, that was freaking late, when would we get to Lagos.”I was already apprehensive because I knew we would never make it to Lagos early enough and I hated night journeys more than anything. The beginning of the journey was smooth until there was a commotion at the back of the car. It was the same woman who was carrying a child and she was dragging space with a man in the back.

“Madam, if you touch me again, I swear I go slap you for here!” The male passenger’s loud voice threatened the woman.

“You no fit try am! You no fit! Why you and your friend wan suffocate me for this seat. Why you no pay for him seat? Now, he come de drag seat with me and my baby. Abeg shift!” the woman yelled back at him.

“Madam! Madam! I go slap you o, stop to de push me!”

The quarrel went on for minutes, and others joined in scolding the man for dragging for a seat he didn’t pay for. He said nothing as they continued to inconvenience the poor woman and her baby. When the woman couldn’t take it anymore, she yelled for the driver to stop the car and change her seat. I looked back and I could see her struggling for comfort in the overcrowded back seat. There were like five men in a seat which was meant for only three people. Even though they were lapping each other, there was no way that seat would have been comfortable enough for 6 of them. The driver stopped the car then and stepped down. Everyone thought he was going to help the woman find a better seat, but he hadn’t stopped the bus to change the woman’s seat but to work on the car. “But the car was working perfectly fine. What is he doing?” I whispered to the stranger sitting next to me, who said nothing in reply. The driver was now standing in front of the car engine, he opened the bonnet and started screwing or unscrewing things. I had no idea what he was doing but I started having a terrible feeling about the journey then.

The bulky man stepped down to find out what the driver was up to and the driver closed the bonnet immediately as he saw the man approaching. They both got into the car again and drove off. The woman behind had to stop lamenting since the driver didn’t care about her discomfort and I felt bad for her but I didn’t wish to trade positions with her. The men sitting with her looked scary and dirty, I could imagine how horrible they smelt…
Since the commotion in the bus had died, I dozed off as I dreamt about meeting my friends. But my sleep didn’t last long before the weird noise of our car engine woke me up. “What is the problem again?” I wasn’t the only one already fed up of the journey, others were complaining as they pleaded with the driver to open the passenger’s door for them to come down and stretch their legs. He did not oblige their request… he simply went to the car bonnet and touched a few things before the car started again. And that was the beginning of our incessant bus palava.

Every new town we reached, our bus stopped and the driver had to come down to touch the engine before it started. The bulky man sitting close to the driver asked him to take the bus to a mechanic, which he did not heed to. We continued the journey with our damaged bus since our driver strongly refused to get any repairs. His excuse being that he was not given any extra money for repairs, so we had to cope with the spoilt bus till we somehow got to our destination. While I prayed silently to reach safely, everyone was yelling at him for such a stupid decision, but he did not answer nor did he care… As we journeyed on, there was either a loss of engine power or smoke coming out of the bonnet and the driver got down each time to repair it and we carried on with the journey. We had no choice, we were on the highway and a lot of us had little or no money to board another bus.

Some people insisted on coming down to take another bus, but the driver refused to open the passenger doors for them. So, they all had to sit back and rain some more curses on him. They couldn’t do more than that. I checked my time then, and it was past 6 and we were nowhere close to Lagos. oh no! this was about to become a night journey. I cried out in my mind as I watched the evening sun sinking low. The bus started again with the weird noise and the driver got down to repair it for the 10th time. The bulky man got down and started yelling at him.

“You must take this car to a mechanic, or we are not moving from here. Do you hear me? This your nonchalant attitude has continued for too long. Find a mechanic now!” He ordered the driver

The driver said nothing as he got into the car to start the car again and the bulky man jumped into the car as the driver almost drove off without him. He got into the car and they started dragging the car steering. The bus was swaying on the road and we were all screaming for them to stop. The driver finally stopped the bus since the man was stronger than him and he promised to take the car to the mechanic. According to the driver, the mechanic was just a few miles down the road, and if we needed to hurry to meet him before he closed his shop.

Just a few miles down the road, and there was a roadblock, there were young boys standing around, holding sticks and asking for money. The driver saw them and swerved into a small bushy path… “What was this about again?” My heart lurched in my stomach as our driver drove roughly down the path with no explanation. One of the boys was running down shouting that we shouldn’t take that path but our stubborn driver paid him no attention. We were all pleading with him to listen to the boy, but he didn’t care and the bulky man beside him was getting angrier. I looked outside the window and it was getting seriously dark. I swallowed hard, scared as I watched the long trees and bushes enveloped in darkness through the window. The woman’s baby started crying then and it added to my apprehension. “Where was the driver headed to?” I looked around the bus and I wasn’t the only one who was scared and the baby just wouldn’t shut up!

The bulky man was looking left and right as we continued to journey deep into the forest. “What are you doing young man? Where are you taking us to?” He asked.

And at that moment, the men behind stood up, yelling for everyone to keep quiet or they will be killed. They were with guns… sophisticated guns, and I wondered how they had been able to keep it hidden all this while. I was shaking as I heard a resounding slap from the back, the woman carrying a baby screamed and I knew she had received the dirtiest slap of her life.

The driver was still headed into the forest and the bulky man saw he was headed into a small dwelling in the forest; he tried then to take control of the bus and the men behind started shooting. I was screaming as bullets rained in our bus, running under the seat for cover. “God what did I do to deserve this? Please help me!” I prayed silently.

The bus suddenly hit a gigantic tree and stopped abruptly. One of the men from the back slapped me on my back and told me to stand up. He yelled for everyone to get up and the powerful stench from his body had me moving faster away from him. He dragged me back and told me to follow all of his instructions or I will be brutally dealt with. There were shouts from outside the bus, victorious shouts and I looked around to see more men with guns. And that was when I knew we would never make it to Lagos. We were done for!

Visit here for part 2 https://graceafricanstories./2022/07/08/the-scariest-journey-of-my-life-part-2/