Cherreads

Chapter 14 - Smoke Behind the Bars

Location: Off-grid Detention Facility — Gembu Mountains

The rain is heavy. The sky, darker than usual.

VDM crouches behind a rocky outcrop, staring at a facility not marked on any map.

Guards with no insignia.

No Wi-Fi, no signal towers.

Just a steel compound pulsing with secrets.

He slips through.

🔒 Inside the Ghost Prison

He moves like a shadow through the hallway.

Past caged teenagers still in protest T-shirts.

Past bruised men labeled as "online threats."

A girl — no older than 10 — drawing on the floor with charcoal, muttering: "I miss TikTok."

And then he sees him.

David Moses — his cousin.

Emaciated. Alive.

But too quiet.

🩸 The Truth Hits Hard

In the infirmary, VDM uncovers something else.

A ledger of "extractions" — names and dates.

"Talent reallocation."

Influencers. Coders. Activists. All removed from the public — and made to work in silence.

They build fake news bots.

Design deepfakes.

Script fake accounts supporting Korex's regime.

VDM stares at the screen.

Among the names: One of his own tech guys from the early movement.

⚠️ It's a Trap… and a Message

As VDM helps David escape through the back gate, the sirens wail.

Korex knew he was coming.

The guards let him in — just so he'd see what's really at stake.

A voice crackles over the prison speakers:

Korex: "You can free one. But you'll never free the whole lie."

💣 The Broadcast Clip

Before VDM disappears again, he leaves a burner device with a trusted bike courier.

Inside: raw footage from the prison.

The bruises. The kids. The "reallocated talent."

The courier delivers it to Glassroot.

Halima watches it in horror.

"He's not just fighting for himself anymore," she whispers.

"He's fighting for the ghosts."

Tayo nods.

"Then we better make sure the ghosts are heard."

Location: National Telecom Control Tower – Nightfall

The city grid shudders for three seconds.

Phones freeze.

TVs flicker.

Billboards go black.

Then — a sharp buzz. A jarring silence.

And suddenly…

Very Dark Man is on every screen in the country.

🎥 The Broadcast

He's standing in front of a shattered flag. Behind him, faces of the imprisoned youths flicker.

His voice is calm. Controlled. But beneath it, the rage simmers.

"I was never supposed to be more than a meme.

Just another masked protestor.

Loud today. Forgotten tomorrow.

But I saw what they did to our future.

And I swore I wouldn't stay silent."

He cues the footage:

Children coding propaganda.

Wounded journalists in shackles.

Mothers crying outside unmarked detention gates.

"This is not just Korex's doing.

This is what happens when silence becomes policy.

When influencers dance while their neighbors disappear."

📡 The Country Reacts

Phones explode with hashtags:

#ReckoningFeed

#GhostPrisonExposed

#VDMWasRight

Protesters fill the streets by midnight.

Soldiers hesitate — for the first time, some even remove their helmets and join in.

⚠️ Korex's Counter

Within the hour, the regime responds.

A forced press conference. Korex tries to twist it:

"It was a faked set. Foreign actors. A manipulated illusion."

But the people aren't buying it. Not this time.

The final blow comes when a former guard at the prison goes live on Glassroot, confirming everything.

🏃‍♂️ VDM's Escape — or Final Stand?

As the feed ends, VDM speaks one last time:

"You have everything you need now.

I was never your leader. I was just the warning shot."

He removes his mask.

It's the first time his face is shown willingly.

"My name is Victor Damilare Moses.

And I'm done hiding."

The stream cuts.

🎯 Cliffhanger

The government issues an immediate kill order.

VDM becomes enemy number one.

But the people?

They start chanting his real name.

Location: National Intelligence HQ — Korex's War Room

The silence is suffocating.

Korex lights his first cigar in weeks.

"No more media games. No more narrative wars," he growls.

"We find him. We finish him."

He signs the order.

By sunrise, the entire country sees it:

🟥 WANTED 🟥

Victor Damilare Moses (aka Very Dark Man)

₦100,000,000 Reward

DEAD or ALIVE

🧨 Chaos Unleashed

Street gangs turn into bounty hunters.

Rogue officers set up illegal checkpoints.

Civilian militias arm themselves.

Even everyday people start hunting — not out of loyalty, but desperation.

Old friends look over their shoulders.

VDM's past acquaintances are rounded up, questioned, beaten, vanished.

Anyone who ever posted #WeStandWithVDM is now a suspect.

🥀 Glassroot Under Siege

Halima watches the bounty spread online — faster than any of their campaigns.

"He turned the whole country into a weapon."

Tayo: "We need to move every node. Every safehouse. Right now."

One of their own, a medic in Warri, is captured. His last message:

"Don't come for me. Just finish what we started."

🔥 VDM on the Run

Hiding in the border mountains, VDM patches himself up in a candlelit room.

A bullet grazed his side two nights ago — a teenager tried to take him out for the bounty.

He's exhausted. Alone. Weak.

And yet, a voice note from his cousin plays in his ear:

"They're scared of you because you made them visible."

"Don't let them disappear us again."

⚠️ Korex Tightens the Noose

Behind the scenes:

Korex calls in foreign mercs.

Buys new spyware from overseas.

Places a bounty on Halima and Tayo too — though not as high.

"Crack the roots, and the tree falls," he says to Babajide.

And then Korex appears on national TV — calm, chilling:

"Victor Moses is no hero.

He's a virus.

And we must cure this nation of him before it dies."

More Chapters