The one that looks like the leader of the group gestured with his chin to one of his subordinates who stood up and sauntered to where Julianna was standing.
"What is your name?" He asked her in Hausa.
"Fatima... Fatima Abdullah" Julianna stammered back an answer.
"Where are you going by this time of the day with all this unrest going on?..."
Without waiting for her to reply he continue barraging her with more questions...
"Where is your husband?... What kind of a stupid man leaves his wife to walk around during this period?... Unless you're one of the foolish women that refused to obey their husbands in the name of civilization... Are you?"
Too scared to answer, Julianna instinctively took a step back.
"You are one of them?..." He asked and gave a wicked laugh that made her cringed in fear. He suddenly grabbed for her handbag and turned it upside down spilling the content on the dirty road.
Amongst the content of her bag, he bent down and retrieved a small white Bible that was presented to her by her husband on their wedding day and her work identity card.
"Fatima Abdullah..." He shouted mockingly while brandishing her Bible for the rest of his gang to see. "...but Julianna Daniels is your real name right?" He said to her triumphantly in perfect but heavily accented English.
He then brought out a wicked-looking long knife from its sheath that was hanging on his waist. Leisurely, he ran the knife through her qimar, starting from the side of her head and tearing the silk material in one go.
Revealing her pink shirt and black fitted trousers that were partly covered by the wrapper she used to secured her baby. He held up the qimar so the rest of the gang would see it and shouted gleefully in English...
"See what we have here boys... An infidel whore!" They all gave a crazed, blood-curdling laugh while the one that looked like the leader of the group shouted back...
"What are you waiting for? Bring her over here right now."
"Alright..." The one accosting Julianna answered and gave a lascivious laugh.
"Want to know what I'm going to do to you whore...?" He grabbed her by the back of her neck, bringing her face closer to himself and hitting her baby's head in the process.
The baby immediately wakes up and started crying in pain.
"Please... Please..." Julianna whimpered to no avail.
"Julianna Daniels... What part of Nigeria are you from... The east or west?..." He whispered into her ears, the smell of stale alcohol on his breath wafted out to assault her nose. The smell was so unpleasant, she felt like throwing up.
"I know girls from the east are very skilled in fucking. You are going to show me your skills later and you won't disappoint me, would you?" He asked and licked the side of her face before he continued.
"...after fucking you to my heart's content, I'm going to pass you over to all of my guys and finally to my dog... And then I'm going to make you watch while I barbecue your baby and feed her to my dog." He finished off his sickly words, licking and sucking on her earlobe.
Julianna wanted to throw up so bad. She was so enraged after hearing what he said about her baby and forced back the bile that threatened to rush out of her mouth.
"Why don't you barbecue this you sick bastard!" She whispered back at him and wrenched herself away from his now loose grip, forcefully head butting him in the nose and at the same time driving her right knee hard into his scrotum.
He fell in great pain, clutching at his inflamed balls. His bleeding nose bent in an awkward angle.
In the same instant, Julianna swiftly bent and picked up her Bible where he dropped it, thinking...
'This is the only thing I have left of my husband, I'm not living it behind.' Then she ran.
The rest of the men attempted to go after her but were stopped by their boss who called out to the man rolling on the ground in pain.
"Sadiq you, stupid shit! I don't care how much pain you brought on yourself, get up right now and go after her. Bring her to me alive and unscathed... And don't bother to come back if she escaped, otherwise, I'm feeding you live to my tiger, understood?"
Even though he was totally in pain and still clutching at his tender balls, the man called Sadiq immediately got up and limped after Julianna.
Julianna ran very fast then, it felt as if she was flying and not exerting her energy. She appears sweaty but not the least bit tired.
Baby Abby was still crying from the pain of the blow to her head, Julianna wished to stop and console her baby but she dear not. She ran on and on effortlessly.
'Where did this kind of super energy came from?' She wondered.
"Thank you, God, thank you Jesus" she continues saying to herself.
She finally busted out onto the highway and started desperately, flagging down vehicles that passed her by but none stop for her. She walked forward briskly, holding out her hand as she walked.
"I'm going to enjoy killing your baby, infidel whore!" She heard a loud voice sneered behind her. She looked back and saw it was Sadiq who was now trotting towards her.
"My boss said to bring you to him unscathed but not your baby, unfortunately." He sounded like he felt regret for her baby, he even had the look on his face, until he laughed wickedly and busted out in a sing-song voice "I'm going to enjoy killing your baby whore... Ready or not, here I come..."
Julianna spotted what looks like a minivan coming from afar. Since no vehicle was stopping for her, she walked to the middle of the highway waving her hands frantically up above her head while screaming "H-E-L-P!" at the top of her lungs.
Inside the white minivan was a family of five. The Bensons, Tade the husband, was driving and Shade the wife was tiredly dozing beside her husband, after going through the rush of getting out of Kano alive. Their three boys were sitting at the back.
"There's a woman in the middle of the road." The man's voice jolted his wife awake.
"It might be a ploy to rub us, this is desperate time that we are in. Don't fall for their tricks, just swerve to the side and drive past her."
Tade indeed swerved to the side, nearly knocking Sadiq down in the process. The crazy woman that had a death wish was waving with a small book in her hand and a baby strapped to her back.
"Please help me!" They heard her cried desperately with tears running down her eyes. They also heard her baby crying very hard too.
"This doesn't look like a ploy dad, their fifteen-year-old that had a clear view of what was happening said from the back seat. "Look a man is trying to forcefully kidnap her baby."
"We have to help her please daddy, please..." The ten-year-old pleaded.
"Daddy takes your gun and shot him down." The thirteen-year-old said angrily.
Tade screeched to a stop, before reversing. He took hold of the rifle he had ready beside him to protect his family and opened the cat.
"Stay in the car and lock the door from inside." He instructed his wife before coming down. He walked slowly towards the scene that was happening in front of him.
He looked around cautiously and noticed there was no threat lurking around. Besides the only weapon, the assailant had on him was a knife that was still sheathed around his waist.
Tade quickly advanced towards the man who was now trying hard to removed the woman's baby from her back.
"Let her go right now, you bastard! Tade shouted, pointing his gun directly at Sadiq's head.
"Lie flat on the ground now with your hands behind your head where I can see them." Sadiq quickly obeyed by releasing his hold on Julianna before lying flat on the ground.
"Woman, carry your baby properly, let's get out of here first." Tade said towards Julianna without taking his eyes off Sadiq.
Julianna quickly removed her baby who was crying very hard from her back before bending down to pick the white book from the ground which Tade now saw was a Bible.
They both swiftly walked down to his car and he drove off, living behind Kano state and its unrest... And Sadiq that was wondering how he was going to escape his boss's punishment.
"Fuck! He wouldn't feed me to his tiger... Or would he?" He muttered to himself.