Home - Eniyan

Life on the Island

Eniyan stood on the summit of a great hill, gazing at the sunset wishfully; he had now been on the island for more than two years, at least that was how long it is when he last counted. It took him a few months to find his way around the island and even more time to explore the hidden catacombs beneath the ancient city.

His wrongful imprisonment had turned out to be the most interesting event in his life, one that he is glad to experience. Over the past few months, he had discovered the ancient forges hidden within the city, and he had unfolded the legendary technique of forging the divine steel. The legacy of Ogun the Yoruba alchemist of iron,

There was a sudden movement within the shrubs closest to him, which made him reach for his Ida (An ancient, enchanted Yoruba blade) instinctively. As his grip tightened on the handle of his self-made blade, he smiled within himself, basking in the achievement of manufacturing his own weapon, the divine metal of Ogun. It was a blacksmith’s alchemical dream, an aspect of Yoruba knowledge that died with the ancient civilisation.

The things a man can achieve when he has a lot of time and considerable resources, and above all ‘information’. He had plenty of time to scout the ancient city and scroll through the old records; it was only a matter of time before he discovered the secret of steel, with his prior knowledge in smelting and the tools left behind by the ancients. He is now the proud owner of a homemade sword, a weapon worthy of the monsters on this accursed island.

The movement within the shrubs occurred again, and this time more consistently. Eniyan turned towards the plant, feeling a slight uneasiness. There is definitely something hidden within and whatever it is, he should get ready for an interesting fight. A moment later, a buffalo emerged grazing peacefully on the juicy leaves, oblivious to Eniyan’s presence. The boy instinctively reached for his weapon, tightening his grip on the handle, preparing for a fearsome battle, but the beast simply grunted and turned away. He chuckled at the beast’s instinctive response after all its only natural for a monster of this nature to know when it has no hope of surviving a brutal confrontation, though the beast would have been quite delicious had it attacked, it would have fed him and Jagun for more than a month.

“Eniyan! Eniyan!!” Jagun called from afar off,

“I wonder what he wants from me now”, Eniyan thought as he walked towards the direction of his friend’s voice.

“Eniyan..!” Jagun called again, and this time with far more urgency than he had called before. This caused Eniyan to hasten his footsteps. Something was very wrong for Jagun to be calling like that. So he quietly walked towards the place where his friend waited, hoping that Jagun would not have something foolish or absurd on his mind.

As Eniyan walked towards his long-time friend, he wondered if there would ever be a time when he would be free from the evil island. If only there were a small opportunity to leave the island, he would take it, even if it meant abandoning his close friend Jagun. Much to his relief, he found his friend Jagun sitting in front of a make-shift stove with a pot of boiling meat ready for consumption. So it seems like life on this island is not a complete hell after all, if you are able to adapt to the harsh conditions and survive the beasts, then it is not such a bad place. The meat was exceptionally good, and the overabundance of natural resources for a population of two makes it close to heaven.

The island was still hell all the same, after all, there is no grid network, no entertainment, no one to talk to but Jaguna, and worst of all, there is the continuously building dread that something is one day going to hunt them down and finish the job of ending their lonely lives.

“Another boat arrived yesterday with some new prisoners,” Jagun voiced as Eniyan arrived

“Did any survive?” Eniyan asked even though he knew the answer to that question.

“Every one of them was a criminal all the way to the bones” Jagun replied with a cold scowl on his face

Eniyan nodded in acknowledgement as he helped himself to a sizable piece of meat “Seems like we’ll just need to settle for the food that they leave behind”

Jagun grunted in reply, Eniyan could tell that his grumpy friend had had enough of the accursed island.

“What’s wrong now?” Eniyan queried, as if he didn’t know the reason, but then it eases the tension to talk about it.

“Stop pretending as if you don’t know, Gba!” Jagun growled, carelessly allowing pieces of his frustration to leak out “We’ve come this far, what’s stopping us from escaping this hellhole”

“The wild unknown,” Eniyan replied, “They might have upgraded the island’s containment tech, it’s too dangerous to attempt an escape,”

“I don’t want to die here,” Jagun voiced crushing the wooden cup within his firm grip.

“I believe that one day, something will happen, and, that will cause our release, but we must be patient” Eniyan Observed

“For both our sakes, Oga! I hope you are right,” Jagun said in a defeated tone “I want real food, a real bed and to at least touch a real woman and have children, I want to live a real life”

“We will, we just have to wait for a miracle”, Eniyan replied calmly “God never abandons the innocent, it is not in His nature. I believe in God”

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Bionic Monstrosity

Like an answer to their prayer of hope, the ground suddenly came alive; it trembled uncontrollably. At first, the two boys, unschooled in the art of war, assumed it to be two buffalo locked in intense combat, but they were wrong. The sound exploded in sequential intervals creating the illusion of a drumbeat or footfalls getting louder by the moment. Then the two boys became very uncomfortable, and all the genetically enhanced beasts started to run through their camp in pure terror.

“Something’s coming!” Jagun cried in an alarmed tone “And from the sound of it, it’s huge”

“Should we run or fight?” Eniyan asked.

“I don’t know” Jagun replied as he strapped on his weapons “it might be one of the local beasts here or it can be something else”

“Let’s hide and wait for it,” Eniyan whispered as the sound of the approaching entity’s footfalls got louder

“NO!” Jagun blurted out “Whatever it is, I will not hide like some coward in the sewage gutter; I’d rather face it with whatever dignity I have left, Gba!”

“Then we fight”, Eniyan voiced in determination. He tightened his grip on the sword and prepared for a great confrontation.

They didn’t wait long, because the object of their concern suddenly emerged from the trees, and now they can tell why it’s making so much noise on the earth. The beast was Massive, and its form was twisted beyond recognition. Eniyan and Jagun stood transfixed for the next 3 minutes, completely taken aback by its form. They did not expect the devil to send one of his most fierce demons to finish the job that Kirikiri couldn’t, and they could never have imagined that a monster of this magnitude existed on this cursed place.

“Targets acquired!” the beast said quite suddenly “Requesting further instructions”

The two boys snapped out of their spellbound state the moment they heard the monster's mechanical voice. Someone with a twisted mind must have created this thing for the purpose of pure destruction. Whoever built it must have combined both biotech and engineering to make it perfect, a living body for power speed and agility and a mechanical mind for obedience and control.

“Command accepted” the beast continued and then it faced the two prisoners “Convicts of the Island of Kirikiri you are now the property of the science department of the federal republic of Lagos, surrender yourselves to the country or be executed”

Eniyan and Jagun looked first at each other, and then at the monstrous nightmare. They knew what they wanted, and they also knew what the beast was offering. They both drew their weapons and prepared for combat. It would be better to die here and now than to spend their lives as lab rats.

“This is your last warning” the monstrous nightmare growled “further resistance will end with you losing your lives”

“Then we will die with smiles on our faces”, Jagun shouted as he attacked, closely followed by his friend Eniyan. Yet the terror lingered, for some reason they sensed that this might be a battle that they might not be able to come out of alive but it’s better to die in a battle than to die like a dog

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The Metal Giant

Professor Ayorinde laughed at the thought of this new challenge, the thought of his precious herbivorous hybrids designed to kill men being killed tickled his imagination. To begin with, Kirikiri was a prison facility designed to kill a normal man in less than one week, yet these men have been surviving for years. Secondly, the buffalo he genetically enhanced for the sole purpose of hunting down stubborn inmates was found dead, and to make things worse, the enhanced ones he developed to replace the old ones are filled with such fear that they have begun to subconsciously reverse their own evolution.

The violence and savagery that he had programmed into their genes were being repressed. The foolish beasts must have reverted to their previous instincts, all because of a stronger force known as the influence of man, which threatened their existence. He, the professor who once taught that he could break the fundamental rules of the food chain by creating a beast more powerful than man to take man’s place, has been humbled by the ever-evasive instinct of man’s ability to survive and adapt. The professor growled in frustration, for a genius of his calibre to be humbled; it would be better if he eliminated the external variable.

That’s the only way to ensure that his hypothesis on life and man’s ability to manipulate life can become a full-blown theory worthy of the highest scientific award: to destroy the external variable, and this time, he is not going to use a biological method. Those convicts have proved that they are more than resourceful at handling his enhanced beasts; now, he is going to use something far more technical and far more deadly.

It only took the professor about 3 weeks to identify the two convicts that are responsible for the damage to his research, but hid the information from the higher-ups. The problem of the two wild convicts is his to handle and his alone. He pushed the access button to activate the latest military acquisition with a sinister smile on his face; the mechanical monstrosity is, in its way, a work of art. Equipped with some of the latest weaponry that the country has to offer, including a built-in shell with Carbonion/Lead plating to ensure that the energy waves that make Kirikiri a Techno-dead Zone fail to affect the mechanical killing machine

“Terminal two awaiting instructions” the robot said, revealing the presence of a highly developed A. I programme

The professor smiled with glee. This is a mechanical machine with the ability to think, reason and predict the next move of its prey before the prey even has the mind to conceive it. A true pinnacle of AI technology, if only his goal is to destroy these two inmates then it would be easy; but his ingenious mind came up with a better idea. The idea of two prison inmates surviving on the island is nothing short of a miracle, or the manipulation of nature proving man’s ability to adapt to the most extreme of situations, and this situation is extreme, because he’s the mastermind who designed it. He needs those two subjects caught unharmed, so that he can subject them to tests and dissection, who knows, within their evolved bodies can lie the keys to immortality.

“These are your instructions Terminal Two, proceed to these exact coordinates and apprehend the test subjects at that location unharmed”

“Instructions acknowledged, engaging in 3 hours” the mechanical robot replied

The professor laughed, he felt his entire being tremble with anticipation at the thought of experimenting on his unsuspecting victims, who knows he might even manage to win another award.

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The mechanical giant marched through the forest of Kirikiri loudly with the intent of creating fear in the hearts of the two human beings it was sent to capture. It had considered this strategy after going through its psychology files. If this strategy works, then it would be easy to make the two men follow its orders quietly, but if not, then it intends to use its arsenal of tranquillisers to neutralise them. Then, if the second strategy didn’t work, it would result in far more lethal means, which might damage the two assets, as long as it is able to achieve 70% success rate, any strategy is allowed.

The two subjects were located close to the ancient village of Jariki; the reason for the foolish name was not included in its database, but it seems the village was named after one of its first leaders. The mechanical giant purposely pushed aside a large tree in order to continue its attack on the minds of its targets; easy, docile subjects are easier to carry than aggressive, resistant ones.

The robot then analysed the heart rates of the two men, seeing if they were overcome with fear. The HR(heart rate) in both seems lower than normal, which is theoretically incorrect. How can they not be afraid of its very appearance? Or they are simply puzzled by its twisted form, and the years they have spent on this horrific island have robbed them of the emotion known as fear. That would be the logical conclusion after all, to survive in a place like this requires the ability to either overcome fear or to embrace it, both of which would force a man to evolve to the next level.

“Why haven’t you engaged?” An angry voice demanded over the beast’s communication device

“Psychological strategy failed awaiting further Apprehension tactics”

“Use any method necessary,” the professor shouted, “I want them here now”

“Command accepted”

The two subjects immediately drew out strange but crude weaponry, the robot decided to depend on the biological aspect that screamed with caution, even though it knew that such tools would not even be able to put a dent in its metal defences.

The two seemed abnormally large for human beings, and even though they lack combat experience, their hunting experience more than makes up for it. The switched into attack mode, its weapons adjusted to non-lethal and its speed dialled to a hundred percent. In an instant, it charged the one closest to it with the sole intent of knocking him unconscious; thus, the battle began.

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Watch tower

Not too far away was the watch tower, well outside the techno dead zone but still close enough to spot anyone trying to escape the prison island and high enough to notice any irregular activity. The watch tower was built by the 5th king of Lagos, who believed that the criminal element of the country should not be underestimated. Over the years, the watch tower has been quiet, with 5 guards posted in shifts. No one likes the job because practically the same thing happens every day, but the pay is more than generous, so a lot of lazy men practically fall over each other just to get posted as one of the watch tower guards. The Lagosian government has since built 4 other towers around the prison island to ensure maximum security.

The events of that day will forever change the nature of the tower duties because none of them had expected it to happen. There was a sudden explosion around the south side of the island, followed by another and then the explosions started occurring in waves.

The shocked tower guards simply stood with slackened jaws for the first 5 minutes, wondering how such a horror could happen during their watch, and then they all stumbled around in search of the rulebook. The men practically cursed the situation because of their inability to respond like trained security guards. Once Prince Kurumi finds out about their incompetence, he will certainly order their immediate execution. They found the rulebook and immediately sent an SOS to the Lagosian army, ready to await further instructions. Meanwhile, there was a series of explosions occurring on the island for anyone’s comfort, the supervisor sent the engineers to check up on the anti-tech generator to observe if the engines were malfunctioning.

Then the supervisor ordered the space satellites to conduct a thorough analysis of the frequency of the field to see if there were any errors, but the result of the analysis came out with 100% efficiency. So, why is there so much technological activity going on on the island, or have neighbouring nations come to set up a resistant camp on the island? It just doesn’t make sense. Why did this have to happen during his watch?

The response was immediate. Kurumi is not the kind of prince who likes red tape to interfere with his operation speed, and information is the only thing that matters to him, the information to manipulate great men of power and men of common blood alike. It makes no difference to him that the prince has always been strict and would not mind killing any of his men just to get his objective achieved.

“Your message has been acknowledged” the radio replied after a short pause “Send video evidence to confirm your unbelievable story”

“Listen, there is serious military activity going on, on the island inform the elder prince immediately”

“We are not going to send a response to the prince until there is substantial evidence”

One of the guards arrived holding the recorder with a close-up recording of the scene in his hands “Quick, help me plug this in”, he said to the one on the radio, and then they both fumbled with the wiring of the device.

“Sending you the video footage now,” the other said in a matter of urgency thankful that his partner was smart enough to record the scene.

“Good work team” a different more authoritative voice commended from the other end “I will make this the top of my priority, we will be there in 2 hours, and these are your orders switch off the technology dampening generators in one hour”

“Yes sir”, the guards replied with a respectful salute. They don’t need anyone to tell them that it was the prince who had just addressed them. The moment they were off the radio, they immediately commenced with the shutting down of the techno-dampening generators against the prince’s arrival.

⏪Chapter 4

Chapter 6⏩