Adam

Chapter Two (2): - Remilekun Makinde

  There was a loud thunder clapping sound and a brilliant flash of blue electricity as the man got struck by Adam’s attack.

  He rocketed backwards, the electricity charge paralyzing him and sending him back with bullet speed until he struck a truck with tremendous force and everything exploded in a blast of electricity.

  Adam sighed “Normally, I’d take the stronger guy out first, but it doesn’t matter when I’m up against much weaker opponents”

  He turned back to Remi and saw the astounded look in her face, and then smiled at her to ease her tension.

  “Sorry if I scared you by going too harsh with them. Thing is just...well, I should probably tell you when we are somewhere safe. I’ve got a few questions for you Remi. The same way you want to ask so much from me. However, you heard the guys. You’ve been put on our database and you’re worth five million. More calvaries will be coming for you, and I don’t know how strong they are. I’ve got a place nearby, would you spend the night there?”

  Remi still looked flabbergasted, her jaw was dropping and she didn’t seemed as though she wanted to cry.

  Gratitude? No, this was a look of shock, relief but mixed with an expression he didn’t understand.

  For a brief moment, her eyes turned teary and she quickly wiped the tears, then smiled.

  She was grateful, not just to him, but for him.

  “It’s you after all” she said softly, holding back tears “It’s really you Adam. God! I knew you didn’t die! I just knew it!”

  Adam froze in disbelief and instant horror ‘She...knows who I am?”

  The shock was evidently registered in his face ‘This talk of death. She’s someone that remembers me from my past life. Before my own death. But...how?’

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  Calvaries.

  A race or species, if we may call them such, of people who were thought to be long dead, but was respawned by an organisation known as the CCA.

  A calvary is any human who after death, was respawned to life by the CCA.

  After respawning, calvaries usually awaken different kinds of abilities.

  Supernatural abilities to control any element they display an affinity for.

  But the cost of this new, near immortal life, were memories.

  All the memory of their past life was wiped from a Calvary’s brain and also, from the mind of every single human on earth.

  A calvary had only 2 things left in the brain’s intellect; his first name, and the moment of his death.

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  Adam gathered his senses “You know who I am?” he asked.

  Remi was too emotion driven to be puzzled, the tears welled up in her eyes and began pouring.

  “It’s been ages Adam! Two years! Two whole years and everybody has forgotten about you for some reason! No one agrees that they even know you. Maybe it’s because they wanted to move on. But I didn’t do that. I believed you’d come back. That you didn’t die. I was right after all! Thank God! Thank God you’re alive, Adam!”

  The drizzling rain slowly stopped and the clouds parted slowly, finally letting the glow of the moon reach them.

  Adam was silent.

  Drenched from head to toe and just staring weakly at Remi, who was all teary.

  Around them, he had earlier set up a wall of electricity so no one could enter that street or leave.

  The wall of electricity also prevented anyone from seeing the fight earlier on.

  It was a business street. Shops and malls and offices, so no one was around by this time, and no one would be coming there.

  But it was necessary to take precautions.

  The wall of electricity, what Adam had earlier called the thunder vault, sparked and immediately broke apart in brilliant flashes of electricity.

  He raised his head and gazed at Remi with a smile, then stretched his palm to her “Remi. Let’s go home!”

  Paradise Continental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos

  00:55am

  Room 202

  The hot water rushing from the shower slowed and finally stopped, dripping one by one as the person in the bathroom cleaned himself.

  The door opened and Adam stepped out with a bath robe and towel wrapped around his waist.

  His dreadlocks were wet, dripping water slowly and giving him a fresh feel.

  “I needed that hot bath!” he said to himself, feeling extremely exhausted. “Tonight wasn’t really what I planned”

  He looked at the other person in the room; Remi was sitting on the bed and staring at him.

  “I see you’ve changed into the clothes already” he stated.

  She smiled and nodded, before replying “Yes”.

  She was no longer in her own soaking wet clothes, but a pair of casuals Adam had given her when they got to his hotel room.

  She had taken the hot bath first, and he had even let her stay there for close to 30 minutes, since she was nearly traumatized tonight.

  Adam scratched his head in confusion, unaware of how to really tell her to turn around.

  “Uhm..I’d love to change into something else but I don’t know if you’d want to see me doing that?”

  Realisation hit her “Oh! Sorry” she turned around quickly and he heaved a sigh of relief, then took the off the towel.

  “We can still chat while you’re faced backwards” he said as he took off the bathrobe as well “The silence in the room is awkward. What is it you want to ask me, Remi?”

   Remi was silent for a moment or thereabout, and then sniffed “A lot is happening too fast, I’m very confused. But I know that you’re actually alive and I’m going to start with that. Why or how you’re working with the calvaries can wait for later. For now, I’m just so glad”

  Adam had put on trousers and was swinging on a shirt “Remi” he said calmly as he walked towards and checked his hair “Tell me, what do you know about the calvaries?”

  Remi paused again for a few seconds “That’s an odd question to ask” she replied “We both know the same thing about them. Remember your dad and mine have been tracking them for years”

  “My memory is a bit a sketchy” Adam replied “If you’d please…”

  Remi sighed “I only just found out that they’re called calvaries tonight. When you guys kept calling yourselves that. But, what I know is that it’s an underground association of hired mercenaries. An interconnection of individuals with supernatural abilities that they rent out to the highest bidder and use to eliminate certain identified targets. What we majorly discovered is that these people might be targeting something huge, like gaining control over the whole country. We don’t know for sure what their main goal is, but it’s evident, calvaries are the bad guys, and they need to be stopped”.

  Adam smirked and walked towards Remi, then touched her shoulder “Remi. I hate to break it to you, but everything you’ve said since we met tonight, has been completely wrong”

 Surprise hit her like a reeling stone.

 Confused, she turned around and looked at Adam “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

  “Firstly” Adam resumed almost coldly “Your idea that I didn’t die, is completely wrong. Two years ago, on a dark and lonely night, I was involved in a ghastly accident, and to put it simply, I died”.

    CCA Headquarters, Maitama, Abuja

  01:15am

  A young doctor sat in front of a desk and stared into a monitor screen through his geeky glasses.

  He shook his head as if he was disappointed by what he was studying.

  Then the door creaked open and a huge fellow stepped in.

  He looked to be about six to seven feet tall, and in his late twenties.

  “Dr Kabir” he said calmly “Any call from Adam yet?”

  “Not yet” the doctor replied “He’s supposed to have arrived Lekki over two hours ago. I don’t know why he hasn’t called to tell us” he leaned back and took off his glasses, cleaning them.

  “The bastard’s too cocky to learn teleportation, so he has to use flight instead. Even so, the plane to Lagos landed before 11pm. He should have settled in by now”.

  The huge man laughed “Cocky? I don’t think Adam is cocky. You’re just jealous he left you and decided to stay on his own. He’s working for the missionaries now. He’s a big boy”

  “That’s the problem Big D” Kabir said and finally rose “Adam’s been keeping this shit a secret but deep down he knows what he’s doing is terribly wrong. He’s become an assassin, and a dangerous one at that”

  Big D walked to a coffee dispenser and poured himself some coffee “It’s not every day we get an opportunity like this doctor. Keep your cool. Adam is one of the only four calvaries in the entire world who can use electricity. Everything, every event happening since the day he respawned is part of the grinding wheels of fate. Everything has been set into motion by nature itself. This country’s CCA, is bound to fall”.

********************************************************************************************************

  Back at Adam’s room, Remi had an unbelievably astonished expression written all over her face.

  Adam had explained everything about his death to her.

  She was bewildered, maybe even more than that.

  “That...” she stuttered “that just isn’t possible”

  “You don’t believe me, do you?” Adam asked “It all sounds like a cock and bull story. But you’ve seen what I’m capable of. Considering everything that’s been happening, I think believing me shouldn’t be much of a challenge”

  Adam sat next to Remi while she registered the entire story in her head.

  He had died, woke up with no memory of his past except his name and the cause of his death.

  Was naturally respawned with the power he now possessed.

  ‘That means, all of them are dead people!’ a voice screamed inside her head ‘This is unbelievable’

  “Thing is, Remi” Adam continued “Along with losing all my memories, when a calvary respawns, every memory of his prior existence in this world is wiped. No one remembers him at all, not even his own family. Neither does he”

There was a brief silence

  “So it’s very puzzling” he continued “how you claim to remember me completely. If you’re lying to me and this is all a setup, I’ll kill you”

  Remi seemed to chuckle, but it wasn’t that.

  It was a mixture of suppressed cries and forced laughter. A mental breakdown.

  She made the sound again, louder this time.

  The tears poured from her blood-shot eyes.

  “Kill?” she asked “Kill? All they do is take and take and take from us! They kill and take, and they’ve thought you to do the same, right Adam!”

  Adam was puzzled, of course, he hadn’t believed she was a spy for an instant.

  His heart was racing from the instant she said she knew him.

  ‘Could this be real?’ he had asked himself even in the shower ‘Can someone from my past life, actually remember me? Know who I am?’

  But just for precautions, he had acted as though he didn’t believe her.

  Now though, she seemed more mentally drained than earlier, her hatred for the calvaries was quite evident.

  “First they took mom…” Remi choked “Then they took your dad, then they took you from us. Then suddenly, everyone forgets about everyone. Now they’ve taken dad too!”

  She croaked again, tears and rage gathering in her eyes

  “I swear, I swear on my mother’s grave, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll burn them all to ash. Every last one of them!”

  She sniffed first, then broke down in tears. Undeniably real tears.

  Adam stared blankly, uncertain how to react.

  Something, an emotion or memory had spark in her, and now she couldn’t contain it.

  His body was compelled to move and he found himself wrapping her in his arms and consoling her.

  “I believe you, Remi. I just...do that a lot. I’m very precautious. I may not remember you, and I may not completely agree with you that calvaries are bad guys. But I want to know about my past life. I really do. And if that means walking the same road with you, I will. You’ve lost a lot to the calvaries. It’s safe to say, you assume I was killed by them too. And now, your dad too. I don’t know who did it, but I promise to get revenge for you. Tell me, who is your father? What is his name? Let me do the digging, and bring the culprit to book”

  Remi scoffed again, pulling herself together briefly “Dad? He was quite popular. He was killed about 3 months ago. You’ll see him if you search on the net. Senator Akin Makinde. My full name is Remilekun Makinde”.

  Adam’s heart skipped a bit, he recalled his first raid as a missionary. There he had assassinated a man.

  A senator.

  He had strikingly blue shimmering eyes.

  The flashback came again.