Another civil war was declared, and chaos ensued. A boy, his younger brother, and his best friend ran all around town, trying to find somewhere safe. They finally decided to go to where they once bought weed—a kind of secluded place. They boarded an okada. While passing an army checkpoint where others were also passing through, they were stopped. The soldiers threatened to shoot them down from the bike if they continued going.
The soldiers approached them, and brutality unfolded. The boy and his best friend fell into a pit, begging and ducking as the soldiers threatened to shoot them. The younger brother was tortured for fun by one of the soldiers, who hit his mouth with a small weapon, told him to open his mouth, cut a thin layer of flesh from the younger brother's inner upper lip, and then ate it. All the while, the younger brother kept repeating, "Nigeria, free me from this suffering"—meaning his death here would be his freedom—as the boy begged and prayed to the soldier not to kill his brother. The soldier plugged his ears to block out the boy's pleading.
Finally, they ordered the boy and his best friend out of the pit. The soldier who had tortured the younger brother had left by this time. They were led up a nearby hill to the soldiers' base to join a group of other captured youths, while the younger brother was seated on a bench on the hill and tended to by a woman who brought him food and took a liking to him. The group was ordered to wear military uniforms like the soldiers and were then taken to a room to do manual labor—washing plates and other tasks.
Just then, the war was announced to be over. They were told to leave the hill and go home. All of them, in jubilation and instant relief, ran off. The boy and his best friend ran off too, keeping an eye out for the younger brother. As they came out from the building on the hill, they saw the younger brother still seated on the bench, up a small flight of stairs away from them. The younger brother was enjoying his meal, with the lady sitting next to him.
The boy approached him, telling him that they needed to go. The lady said he should wait and let him finish his meal, staring and smiling at the younger brother as he ate. The boy turned to his best friend and told him he could go down the hill without them and wait for them at the bottom of the hill, but if he waited and didn't see them, he could leave.
The boy called his brother's attention—who didn't seem to notice him until now—and gave him a sign with his eyes, mouth, face, and hand that they needed to leave. The younger brother quickly shoved a couple of spoonfuls into his mouth and got up to leave. The lady told him not to leave, but the boy insisted they go, and they both walked away. They followed the crowd going down the hill.
The boy turned back and saw the woman up on the hill, who had gotten a rifle and was loading it. The boy immediately knew the gun was meant to shoot them and alerted his brother. They went down the hill using a shortcut on the side of the hill—a narrow path through rocks and vegetation that allowed only one person at a time. They barely made it down the hill and ran to a corner as the woman aimed her rifle.
The boy couldn't see his best friend and decided they would meet when they got back home. He carried his brother on his back—his brother had injured his leg coming down the side of the hill. They made it to a campus where the boy began to see some familiar faces. They then entered a building, which became a maze they couldn't get out of, along with another girl. The doors they tried either led to previous rooms they had been to, or to a room where a weird, violent man was trying to get in from behind a locked glass door. He had chased the girl when she entered the room he was in, and she had run back into the room she came from and locked the glass door behind her.
Eventually, they made it out into a compound totally different from the one they had entered from. They ran after hearing someone—a tenant—chasing them, thinking they were thieves. The girl jumped the compound fence, escaping, while the boy, slowed down from carrying his brother, pretended to be a tenant taking in his clothes from the line.
The tenant who had chased them, after seeing the girl scale the fence, started walking away. He saw the boy and said he hadn't seen him in the compound before. The boy shrugged that he didn't come out often. They walked together, and the boy asked about the war. The tenant asked what war. The boy said the civil war that started two days ago and just ended. The tenant asked if he was okay, saying that war had ended over two years ago.
The boy was surprised as he looked out to a street filled with people and activities that didn't seem like it had just experienced war. And then he realised he hadn't been carrying his brother for a while now.