Passage Through Midnight Part 4

The sight that befell their eyes was unlike what they had ever seen before. People running helter-skelter, not thinking about their destination but only about getting away from the havoc that was brewing. Some tried to bravely fend off the ‘creatures’, but had to run for their safety when the creatures countered the attacks and obtained the weapons once used against them.
“Omo, wahala wa o!” Biola exclaimed as they got out of the car.
“No be small… This looks like some serious stuff.”
“Yeeeeee! Mo gbe!” A random woman running for her life screamed out. No one, besides Chika and Biola, noticed her cries as others were also running to and fro Market District 9 trying to get the little of their wares that hadn’t been damaged in the panic. Some men, with cutlasses in hand, tried to get these creatures as they were ‘foreign meat’ and would be good business for suya… but attempts to carve some meat out failed as the creatures were craftier. All attempts ended with the men screaming for their lives.
“Well… seems people are having a lively afternoon here…”
“You know B, I’d expect that kind of remark from me. But you have a point there. Also, have you noticed that these ‘things’ aren’t actually attacking people? They seem to just want to have a little fun.”
“Or are trying to escape from something… By the way, I’d expect that kind of observation from me. But you’re right there.”
“Touché.” Chika replied as he walked to the boot of the car. “Get your bow and arrows; my dagger is ready.”
“Okay…” Biola spoke as she got her things ready, “…what exactly are these things?”
“Well… from what we’ve seen… they’re about the size of chuppies, and…”
“Chuppies? You changed the nickname so fast?”
“Eh… not really. I think I wanted to say chus and teletubbies at the same time… don’t ask.”
“And you ended up with chuppies…” Biola could not quite believe her ears. At this moment, Chika comes up with another nickname…
“And… their intelligence seems about the same, or somewhat higher than chuppies.”
“An evolutionary or supernatural phenomenon..?”
“Let’s go find out shall we?”
With arrows and dagger at the ready, they forged forward into Market District 9 to face off whatever was causing havoc. Moving closer, they realized that these ‘things’ did have a resemblance with what they saw earlier in the day. Only this time, they seemed a little bigger. Like Chika had observed, they weren’t going after humans… they were either running away from something; or they were looking for something.
Nevertheless they sprung into action. Heading straight for them, the ‘things’ realized that they had enemies in their midst, and began to react by setting formations of sorts (which surprised Chika, because he was expecting that they would all run away) and got ready for the assault. Biola was the first to attack; taking an arrow out, she aimed carefully for one of them that was feasting on the fresh fish of one of the traders. This time, it was a direct hit as the ‘thing’ flew with the impact of the blow, falling limp and disintegrating into green dust. Biola didn’t notice, as she had already turned to face another creature. Chika did, but he didn’t take much notice to it at the time. He was busying himself with slicing through some of them that tried attacking him with broken stall pieces (one almost got him square in the face).

They kept the pace going; Biola using ranged attacks to get the creatures into submission, and Chika going one-on-one with them… blindly letting his hand fly at one time as one of the creatures tried to jump him from the back. His blind slash was a good one, as it went head first into the creature before plowing through its entire body and cutting one of its legs in half.
More green dust… this time Chika noticed it properly as it landed on his shirt.
‘No time to clean this up, there are still more to get’, the thought ran through his mind as he kept slashing and dodging.
“Chika! Don’t you think there are a little too many chuppies here?” She had caught on fast, just like the last nickname.
“Yeah… it’s like they’re regenerating or something.”Chika answered as he dodged a stone thrown by a rather hungry chuppie, which was enjoying a rather tasty chicken breast and didn’t want to share it with anyone.
“Mummy!!!! Muuummmy!!!!”
“Oh my God! Please someone help my child!”
Simultaneously, Biola and Chika looked at the direction the cry came from. Chuppies had surrounded a little girl, some holding knifes, others closing in on all fours. By reflex rather than intuition, Chika threw his dagger… which bagged 2 of the ‘things’ together and threw them to the wall, where they disintegrated also.
“Green dust? Green dust again?” Biola asked in shock as she ran with Chika to get the little girl.
“Are you just noticing? We’ve got their attention a bit, aim at some of them while I try and get her.”
“Roger that.” Biola got out 3 arrows. She had never tried this before, but she knew how to aim so as not to harm the child. Letting them go, one of the arrows got one of the creatures in the ear; another one flew by one’s head. Terrified, that one fled for its life… apparently the child’s meat wasn’t that much to risk it. The last arrow got one of them luckily, just as it was about to grab the child. Seeing it disintegrate into green dust, the little girl was awestruck for a bit before the sound of one of the creatures brought her out of her amazement.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Chika increased his speed. Just as another one was about to grab her again, he got there and gave the chuppie a punch in the head… the result of the impact got it dazed and dizzy as it couldn’t stand straight. Getting itself back together, it tried another attempt to lunge at the girl. Seeing Chika by her side, she summed up courage and gave it a kick… which sent it flying. Surprised, Chika looked at her as he retrieved his dagger. She smiled at him.
“Good show girl! High 5!” They high-fived. Knowing he could handle the other chuppies there, Biola focused her attention towards the mass of the market. Then she noticed someone rather unusual from the crowd. The person was in black, and it looked like she was wearing robes. She decided to get closer to see if there was indeed someone there or just her imagination. Having finished with the chuppies at the stall (and the little girl with her mother), Chika noticed that Biola had seen something and was looking for it. He decided to follow her, on the way slicing through more chuppies as they came.
As she got into the midst of the crowd, he had a hard time following her as the people kept pressing in. Crowd control would do pretty much nothing as the people were too panicked to even realize that none of the chuppies had actually injured any of them yet (as far as Chika could see). Finally getting through them, he caught sight of Biola, and caught sight of what she was after…

A black robed person… not that that was weird, but the person didn’t seem to panic unlike the others. Then he saw more chuppies coming from the enclosure she was in. ‘Must be the queen of sorts…’ He pressed on. The person noticed Biola coming and began running. Knowing a bit of Molete’s Market District 9, he took another route, to try and catch the supposed queen before she escaped… slashing chuppies that tried in vain to get him. Crossing through the market, he went through a back alleyway that joined 2 major sections of the market. Hearing footsteps, he waited behind the wall in anticipation of the black robed person. As he saw the sleeve, he grabbed and pinned the person to the wall… flinging off the hood in the process. Who he saw, was a lady; a rather fine one.
As he was trying to get the face, a chuppie tried to jump him on his left side. Using his left hand, he caught it by the throat, and without a moment’s hesitation, snapped its neck.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah my child!! You monster!!!!” The lady screamed.
“Indeed… now women are giving birth to chupacabras? What the hell do you want here?” As Biola caught up with them, the lady said something that caught both of them by surprise.
“Chupacabras? Hah… those aren’t chupacabras. What kind of delusional mind do you have?”
“Not chus? Start talking before I start strangling you…” Chika’s grip tightened.
“*gasp* you… have no idea… what’s coming.*gasp*. Let me go Fyl… I have… to escape.”
“Wait… wha…” Chika stopped mid-sentence. She was beginning to look familiar.
“Strike me! Free me of the potential disaster ahead!” She pleaded. Chika was about to strike her when his hand suddenly hung in the air.
That face… she called me Fyl…
“Chika what the hell is wrong with you? What are you waiting for?”
He didn’t seem to hear her… The lady’s face was too familiar for him to look away. Seeing that his mind wasn’t there, she tried to attack him; but Biola countered it in time by grabbing Chika’s dagger and slashing her face with it.
“Argh! I’ll get you girl!” The lady screamed out as she freed herself from Chika’s grasp. Just as she was running away, Biola fired her last arrow; which went through the left side of her body but didn’t seem to do much.
Dazed, Chika got back to his senses, watching as the lady ran off and suddenly disappeared.
“What’s wrong with you? She almost marked your face there!”
“That face… she looks…”
“What!? What did you say?” Biola asked, agitated that he froze at that point
“Nothing, nothing… I’m sorry about that. Chill, my phone is ringing.”
“You better be sorry. Answer it.”
“Yep. Hello? Yeah what’s up? I’m around… UI, what happened to it?”
“What is it?” Telling her to wait, he continued on the phone.
“Now? Wait, Argh!” Chika held his ear in pain, as there was a shriek from the other end, before it went dead.