Chapter One: Road to RIYA

Prologue

RIYA – RAISING INNOVATIVE YOUNG ADULTS. This years RIYA program had been hijacked by a secret billion dollar company known as IBED. Being alive is not luck but natural intellectual survival skill

CHAPTER ONE – ROAD TO RIYA

   The meeting was stated for 6pm and it was already 6:15pm yet Roxanne walked on comfortably down the busy street with no intention of hurrying down there clearly because she knew that the members of the youth group were born late comers–on the streets eyes stared at her, she was used to it already, it was not the first time, a lot of times guys have reminded her of how beautiful she was. 

   Roxanne was a light skinned girl, so you would easily notice her complexion from the distance then her beauty throws men off guard but she never cared, Roxanne was an intelligent introvert who avoided people, she had very few friends but no best friend, those who knew her described her as one who knew quite a lot–a very knowledgeable young lady while those who saw her from the distance saw her as a beautiful girl with rude pride and snobbish. Which ever way they had chosen to describe her she didn’t care, she only had two major objectives in life, become the best fiction writer there is and live rich and happy. 

   Getting close to the meeting venue she spotted the car of Pastor Victor arriving the premises, she quickly hastened her foot steps, it dawned on her that he must be here for the meeting too. He had not informed them of his coming as he usually didn’t, he was a little of an unpredictable person; Roxanne got close then looked into the premises and saw a few youths already gathered and seated, she felt relaxed because she had earlier expected that she would be the only one present, she walked into the meeting which appeared to be in a circle then took a seat but pastor Victor was not present there.

   As the discussion went on, five minutes later Pastor Victor walked out the building then headed for his car

“Roxanne” he called out while standing beside his car, she looked back to see him looking at her, she got up and walked over to him

“Good evening Sir” she said. “Good evening, how are you doing?” he asked

“Very well sir” 

“Have you heard of RIYA?”

“Raising Innovative Youths Adults?” she said

“Yes”

“Yes sir, I heard it’s a learning place for passionate people”

“Yes… I want to send you over, are you interested in learning any skill?” 

“Yes sir of cause, I would love that”

“Great. ..its started two days ago, so you have to leave early tomorrow morning”

“No problem sir”

“Go over to Dr. Kelly, she would give you some cash with which you can register and have enough to last you for the 2 weeks program”

“Thank you so much sir”.

“You’re welcome”

   As early as 5am Roxy hit the road–less I forget, did I mention that she hated being called Rox or Roxy? Well now you know, she was quick to warn people not to shorten her name, neither you nor the people in the book have the right to call her Roxy, I alone have the right to address her as Roxy, now let’s go on. 

  Roxanne hits the car park at about 5:20am, got a car that took her to the bus terminal downtown and there she found a bus heading for her location, the bus didn’t leave until 7am. 

   While at the bus station, Roxanne was busy with her phone, going through the internet, replying chats and ignoring chats, after a while she took a break from her phone and focused on the environment, she watch the activities happening around her, the market women arranging their goods for the day, the bus conductors yelling out to incoming passengers, the early morning sausage roll sellers, women selling breads which they carried on their heads, while she looked on she saw something that got her pissed–a woman blowing phlegm out her nose then used that hand to clean the bread she was selling, Roxanne felt disgusted and while that happened she noticed a man selling buns put down the box full of buns, he was sweating after a long walk then suddenly he cleaned his sweat with the fork he uses for picking the buns, Roxanne shook her head and looked away from him. 

  The bus got filled up and the driver hit the road, the bus was full of different types of people, the one eating, the one pressing phone, those chatting, a man looking at the faces of people in the bus like he was searching for a missing person, the one talking about the bad road and the bad government even though no one was responding to him he kept talking with so much confidence, Roxanne looked at him and wondered how people like him got their boldness from, the boldness to speak on even when being snubbed, the lady beside Roxanne kept eating different things from her bag and at some point Roxanne was irritated by her unguarded appetite, she had no choice than to endure. 

   Roxanne made it to her destination then called Pastor Victor and informed him before heading on. It was a large estate with gates opened wide as cars kept going in and out, security men stood at the entrance observing, she asked for directions to the RIYA program, she was told to board a cab that will take her down there which she did, She successfully found her way to the place, the environment was so quiet as the sun shined down, she entered into a large compound, she looked around, up north in front of her were  buildings in the distance, on the north west was a large building like a hall and on the outside of it RIYA was boldly written. She walked on but somebody called her back 

“Hey mumu come here” she looked back and saw no one, she only saw a small building like a security post 

“Come inside here jor” the voice said, obviously It was coming from inside the small building, she looked pissed then walked back and entered the place to see a man sitting with a table in front of him 

“Don’t you know you have to write your name?” he said and dropped a pen on a paper for her, she walked close picked up the pen and wrote her name amongst other names then dropped the pen and was about to walk away 

“So you can’t even greet” he said, she stopped and turned to look at him 

“You want respect when you seriously lack respect for others… if you want greeting go and get it from the children you kept at home” she said and walked away, he couldn’t say a word.

  She walked towards the large hall, there were two large doors leading into the hall, a flight to stairs lead up to the entrance, the hall had no doors just door openings–she walked in to see a massive hall about 150 meters long or even more, it’s wideness was about 40 meters, the roof was far up like a warehouse, she had never seen any hall this large, she looking down the hall where she saw people separated into groups, each group was learning a different skill from the other. 

  A flight of stairs led her down, she walked forward to a table of registration where she met a guy and a lady

“Welcome” he smiled at Roxanne but she didn’t smile back 

“Thank you” she said as she moved closer, he passed her a form to fill which she did then paid the sum for the skill she was there to learn, he typed into a computer then printed some info and made it into an ID card then handed her the ID card that had her name and number, the course she was learning (Catering) and below was written Group: Overcomers then her State of residence

“The ID card must be with you at all time, you will be sent back to the hostel if you fail to come with it” he said to her, she examined the card

“Thank you, where do I go from here?” she asked and he pointed to the north east of the hall

“Those ladies over there are your course mates you can go join them, have a nice day” he said 

“Thank you and you too” she walked away. The lady beside the young was wondering why he was so nice to her

“Why were you so nice to her?” she asked

“What do you mean?” he asked

“You were so nice to her like you knew her before now”

“I don’t know her”

“Or is it because she is beautiful?” she asked

“I am not going to listen to you say that” he said and she laughed. 

  Roxanne walked down the hall, it was quite a long walk down, at the end of the hall was a large screen on the wall but it was not ON. She made it down to the point of destination, some of the ladies looked at her as she joined them, she quietly sat down as a female facilitator taught the class. 

“Hello there” the female facilitator said to Roxanne with smile

“Can we please know you?” she said, Roxanne got up, all eyes turned towards her

“My name is Roxanne, I stay in Lagos” she said

“Roxanne, that’s a lovely name” the facilitator said

“Thank you” Roxanne replied “Okay tell us why you chose catering” 

“It’s more of a passion… I started cooking since I was 7” 

“Waw… really?” 

“Yes” 

“That’s beautiful, I have never heard that before… it’s nice to have you here, please put your hands together for Roxanne” she said and they did

“You can have your seat” she said “Thank you” Roxanne sat down

   Just like Roxanne everyone else was there to learn and have fun but it was unknown to everybody that the learning program they had come to was about to become blood filled mystery program…