By: Aditya Dharmawerndra Barki, Secondary 2

It was the early morning of August 22nd, 1986. The sun was just awakening from the murky clouds; it peaked up from the steep and darkened-emerald mountains that surrounded the horizon of the village of Nyos, Cameroon. Ephraim Che, a father of four lived in a distinct upper section of Nyos. The majority of the population inhabited the lower section including most of the livestock. Every day, the residents of upper Nyos wake up to view the astounding scenery of a wide, Kombu Lake.

Ephraim woke up one day, as usual, but something behind his mind bugged him. He looked outside of the window of his small, mud brick and thatch house and struggled to recall the events of last night. It was as if holes were violently punched through the fabric of his mind till his memory was partially unavailable. No matter how much he tried to jog it out, he couldn't piece it together the last night or day but there was one thing he did distinctly remember. That night as he was resting under his roof, a sonic thunder threw him off, guard. It was louder than anything he had ever heard of before but Ephraim did not think much of it.

Sliding off his makeshift bed, he instantaneously falls back over, catching himself with his arm. Something about him was off, he thought. An impenetrable fog seemed to be blocking him from further thinking and his body didn't quite comply with what he intended to do because the moment he took the first steps to check on his four kids, he realised he had meandered outside of his house and into the open air.

I might as well start looking for other people now, As Ephraim began scanning for fellow villagers but he quickly realised that there was not a single soul present in his village. The birds were not chirping, the crickets were not singing. It was a detrimental silence.

Leaving his kids and wife in his hut, he slowly limped down to lower Nyos to look for any individuals that he can discuss with. Gradually descending down a hill that got closer to Lake Nyos, it became clearer that the world around him was in utter quietude. There weren't baboons that barked morning, or little mosquitoes that fought to get his knees.

Suddenly, Ephraim whipped his head behind him to hear the shrill shriek of a woman. She was one of the locals, a friendly neighbour of Ephraim but now, she was barely dressed since her bloodied arms were ripping her clothes off as she stared right at him with her cold, glazed eyes. The woman screeched for help, whereupon, he launched himself in her direction, in hopes she could possibly give him any insight as to what happened. As he came closer and closer to her location, he couldn't help but notice the strange shapes littered all over the ground, they were round and had appendages that lay limp on the soil.

Once about 20 feet from the screaming woman, he stopped to finally look at the shapes around him, and his eyebrows raised. All of the shapes lying all over the hill were all the woman's family and their livestock. Ephraim wasn't panicked at first, in his shattered mind, he presumed they were in peaceful sleep but he noticed the dried blood marks that came from their ears, noses, and mouths and it finally dawned on him. No man could sleep so still and soundly.

These people and animals aren't sleeping, they are all dead.

His attention switched back to the woman as she fell onto her knees and yanked hard on her father's arm, begging him to wake up but by the looks of it, there was nothing she could do.

Her desperate yells for help triggered a wave of fear to engulf him. He could have stayed to console the woman but a feeling of fear and concern ushered him to return to the main trail which he followed.

The shrieks became softer and softer while Ephraim marched down closer to lower Nyos. Lower Nyos was typically a very lively village. Residents lived in tin-roofed huts that were concentrated together. Birds would be gliding up in the air, people would lively schmooze with one another as traditional music wafted through the busy roads and alleyways. But like upper Nyos, there was not a single chirp, word, or other sound present. No people, no birds, no animals. Just complete and utter silence.

The same despairing apprehension pursued him. It began to prod him to the point where he was hastening, scampering, hurtling to the corner that leads straight to the main road. But once he turned to the other side, he was met with the putrid smell of decomposition. Numerous large animals laid on their side. They thoroughly covered the fields, the streets, and the sidewalks.

Overwhelmed with the piles of dead cattle, Ephraim bolted right into the first hut he saw and kicked the door in, and promptly stopped. On the floor was a bowl of corn that had scattered all over and right next to it was the body of a woman. She was very clearly deceased. He looked up and realised that her bedroom was in perfect eyesight where he saw her family in their beds. Oh, they're sleeping was the thought he found temporary solace in but it evanesced. Through the doorway, their chests were not in ebb and flow. She and her whole family have perished as well.

Lashing his head out the front door, a piece of his mind appeared and he made a gruesome discovery. Only a few livestock were reposed, the far majority of them were the villagers of lower Nyos. One person was slumped on the side of a wall, another was subsided on the handlebars of his motorcycle and many more were piled on top of each other. They all had a similarity though, they were all naked or partially clothed. Shreds of cloth and fabric surrounded their bodies as if they had tried forcefully to rip their clothes off such as the woman earlier, but the catch was that none of them had any cuts or bruises. They almost looked like they were just going about their day when without warning, they dropped.

Continuing the run past the remains, he finally saw the second and third living people he had seen. A father and son ran side by side but only with a thousand-yard stare. There didn't seem to have anything behind the windows of their souls, subsequently tripping and dodging corpses. Even with Ephraim's calls, the pair ignored him and jogged into the forest.

And that's when he carried on with his quest to search for any other survivors, barging into doors and leaving disappointed. Until, after walking up to a particular house, the door opened ajar before him. The owner of this hut was none other than Joseph Mkwain, a fellow father like Ephraim except when he awoke on this fateful day, he felt the chill of his daughter's lifeless hand. An unspoken handshake was given mutually before Joseph, in a total daze, trudged to his neighbour's while Ephraim started to gallop once more.

When Joseph swung the door open, he was met with the same sight that Ephraim found. It's just that the disparity was that Joseph hardly reacted to the scene. He was too numb to be able to even muster up the will to fear but somewhere in his fractured mind, he knew he had to look for help.

Taking a few tries, he rode his motorcycle to the next major village and that's when he saw people who were alive and well. Blundering and spitting, he attempted to retell what he had seen but all he said was complete nonsense and the times when he was coherent, the villagers brushed him off. 'A whole village suddenly dropping dead? You mustn't be serious.'

Fortunately, a day later, a few people did come to Nyos and noted the exact things that Joseph said the other day.

All of the villagers and cattle had mysteriously perished.