society
BANTU IS GONE. TWELVE CHICKS ARE NOT.
By Kọ́lápọ̀ Ọ̀nàbánjọ · 10 July 2026
Recovering
Sergeant Danladi “Second Shift”
Danladi Sulaiman
The guard who reached Coop Two first and has walked the same fence line every night since, including the nights the Ministry of Health formally ordered him to rest.
- Tribe
- Noiler
- Age
- Young adult rooster
- Laying status
- Not applicable
- Office
- Coop Guard, Second Shift
- Favourite food
- Dry maize, eaten standing up, on duty
The story so far
Danladi was Bantu's shift partner. The younger bird took the far end of the perimeter, the older one took the coops, and they met at the water tank halfway through the night to complain about the cold. This arrangement lasted a long time and suited them both.
He was at the water tank when the alarm went up. He got a wing injury going through the gap in the fence rather than around it, which Dr. Amara has described in her bulletin as 'the sort of decision I would like never to have to treat again, and would expect him to make again.'
He is on light duties and ignores this roughly twice a week. The Minister of Security has stopped pretending to be surprised and has instead simply shortened his patrol route, which Danladi has noticed and has chosen, for now, not to mention.
He does the whistle at dusk. He has not missed one.
Life events
22 June 2026
Something in the drainage channel
Second shift reports a track in the soft ground by the east fence: clawmarks with a drag between them. It is driven off twice more over the following fortnight. Nobody yet calls it anything.
9 July 2026
The night of Coop Two
The grate moves shortly after midnight. Bantu gives the alarm and holds the doorway while twelve chicks go out the far side. Every one of them gets out. Danladi reaches him in under a minute.
Coverage in The Coop Times →
In The Coop Times
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