ESCAPE FROM ENEMY'S CAMP

(CHAPTER ONE) It was a beautiful luminous morning in the land of Amukwu. everywhere was quiet except for the sound of flogs and chirping of birds which filled the air. most people in their various homes were busy listening to morning news, both the young and the old who were accustomed to listening to the news were so keen to know the outcome of the just concluded presidential election. Mr Christopher was in his sitting room that morning listening to the news, he was happy by the outcome of the election though the sitting president refused to step down after hearing the result of his defeat, mr Christopher who had been hoping that one day their country which was made up of two ethnic groups, anbaji and huara would have an anbaji as president, was then happy that the just concluded presidential election was in favour of the anbaji. It was a prayer answered to mr christopher The huara people are the majority in the country and for decades they have been ruling the country, it was unfortunate that the presidential election of that year didn’t go in the favor of them even at that the sitting president refused to step down, he vowed that there rather be war in the country than for him to step down, and the newly elected president said he would give him the war if he did not step down. The news was about to finish when the two sons of christopher maduka and obinna walked in. Christopher had three children, two boys and a girl. Maduka was his first son while Obinna was the last child, chimuanya the only girl was the eldest. Christopher was a huge tall man who had served in the army when he was still young, he was dark in complexion just like his wife grace whom he met when he was serving in the army, grace was beautiful and tall, before their marriage there was a contention, the parents of Christopher refused that he would marry her, but he went on ahead and got married to her and they had been living happily and peaceful even after the death of Christopher parents. since Christopher retired from the army he had engaged himself in brick laying work to feed his family and his wife on the other hand was selling food stuffs to support her husband. When maduka and his younger brother obinna walked into the sitting room they sat close to their father, “good morning papa” Maduka and his brother said almost at the same time Obinna who was an inquisitive type did not waste time in asking his endless questions “papa why do you like listening to news” Obinna asked inquisitively “because it’s good to be informed, when you are not informed you will be deformed” “okay, what is the news talking about” “they are talking about the just concluded presidential election” “but this is not what the man in the radio is saying now” “what you are hearing now is the recap of the story, the news is about closing, the presidential election was the main topic of the news though it is not the only story in the news” “what is recap?” “recap is a summary of a story” Mr Christopher answered and smiled at him, sometimes he wondered how his boy Obinna, a boy of eight would be asking so many questions considering his age. He came to a conclusion that obinna might grew up one day to be a lawyer. “okay, can you now tell me what they are saying about the presidential election?” “the sitting president refused to step down for the newly elected president to assume office” “papa you mean the president refuse to leave the office?” Maduka who was listening to them with a keen interest added “yes my son, he refused and he vowed there rather be war in this country than for him to step down and the newly elected president had also vowed to give him war if he did not step down, so my dear this country is at the verge of going to war” “papa if this war you are talking about start what are we going to do?” “my son we better pray it doesn’t happen, because war is not a good thing, it only somebody who has not experienced war say let there be war” Mr Christopher said and there was silent in the room, even Obinna was quiet too, he had heard stories of war from their father. Maduka was in deep thought, he never had experienced of war but based on the stories their father had told them about war he didn’t want such a thing to repeat itself again, maduka was a handsome young man, tall with a broad shoulder, he was dark in complexion just like their parents, he was strong and tactical after been taught so many military tactics by their father. As maduka was still deliberating in his mind what their father told him about the eminent war that is about to invade the country, their mother walked into the sitting room “maduka go and break fire wood so I and your sister can cook and you obinna what are you doing here, don’t you know what you should be doing this morning? are you not supposed to be washing plates?” Grace the wife of christopher said reprovingly “am sorry mama” “how long will I continue reminding you about washing plates” “my dear take it easy with him he is just a child, he will go and wash them” Mr Christopher said trying to protect Obinna, and that moment his wife left the sitting room and maduka followed her behind “obinna you can now go and wash the plates when you finish we will continue with our discussion okay” “okay papa” Obinna said and left the siting room (CHAPTER TWO) The whole village was covered with thick darkness, it was some minutes pass 12 am in the morning and everywhere was silent. Mr Christopher and his family were fast asleep, the only light in the house that night was the lamp that was kept at the center of the corridor. Mr Christopher never allow any of his children to keep lamp in their rooms at night while asleep, he said it was dangerous, that was why each time they want to sleep all the light will be put off except one that would be at the center corridor. Since there was no electric power supply yet in the land of Amukwu the people were contended in using lamp and lantern and they never complained. As every familes in Amukwu were sound asleep all of a sudden there came a loud blast which put off sleep from the eyes of so many people, at that moment maduka quickly jumped out of the bed and tip toed into the sitting room which was in semi darkness, the only light filtering into the room was the light from the lamp on the corridor, he opened the window and was shocked when he saw many houses burning and people were wailing in pain, maduka didn’t know what to make of what was happening, at that same time he started hearing gun shots and foot sounds of some people, he quickly closed the window and was sore afraid, that moment his parents walked into the room carrying lamp “papa I saw houses burning and I heard people crying I aslo head guns’ shots” Maduka said breathing hard “we heard gun shots that was why we came out. You said you saw houses burning?” Grace asked curiously “yes mama the villagers houses are burning, if you listen well you will hear people crying too” “yes I can hear cry from a distance” Mrs Christopher confirmed “what is going on in the land of Amukwu?” Mr Christopher asked rhetorically and quickly opened the window and at that instant he saw some of the villagers houses has been engulfed by fire and he aslo heard people shouting and crying in a loud voice, as he was trying to ascertain what was going on he began to hear heavy footsteps approaching and then he quietly closed the window “my dear go and wake the children up we are leaving this house now” “what is going on?” Grace asked anxiously “I think we are at war, the war as we expected had begun” As they were still speaking there came another gun shots and fear gripped everyone in the room except mr Christopher who was used to gun shots when he was still in the army “my dear go and get the kids quickly” Grace took the lamp from her husband and went inside, she reappear some minutes later with chimuanya and Obinna who were still feeling sleepy”? “now we have to go through the back door before this people get here” Mr Christopher said “papa what is going on?” Obinna asked in his usual manner Son there is no time to explain, I will explain to you and your sister when we get to safe place, now let’s move” As they were about leaving the sitting room there came a loud bang on the door, and they were terrified, at that same moment the door of the sitting room was broken and soldiers trooped into the house. When the soldiers came into the house they made mr Christopher and his family to lie face down on the floor “so you people of anbaji think you can take over this country and rule us, that will be over our dead bodies” One of the soldier who was a high rank officer said angrily. It was then that it was done on mr Christopher and his family that the soldiers were haura, at that moment the high rank officer ordered the soldiers to r**e the wife of Christopher and her daughter chimuanya in front of the whole family. When Christopher tried to intervene one of the soldiers hit him on the head with the butt of his gun and he failed face down on the floor and was unconscious. The soldiers grabbed chimuanya and tore her clothes into pieces, some of the soldiers held her down while one of them pull down his trouser and penetrated into her, meanwhile as other three soldiers were still struggling with grace to r**e her, they had torn her clothes into pieces but she refused to yield to them to r**e her, all the soldiers that were in the house were eight in number, as they were still struggling with grace, there came a continuous gun shots from a distance. “wrapped it up, we have to leave this place, that gun shots might be gunfight between our people and anbaji soldiers. leave the women go and get the boy, he is going with us” The senior rank officer said and pointed at Maduka, at that instant The soldiers who were struggling to r**e the wife of Christopher let go of her and the other soldier who was already going up and coming down ontop of chimuanya jumped up and pulled up his trouser in a hurry. As the soldier were preparing to leave, there came a loud explosion from a distance, at that instant the soldiers hurriedly lifted maduka from the floor and dragged him outside, by then mr Christopher was still lying on the floor unconscious, when his wife tried to stop the soldiers from taken their son the senior rank office gave her a slap that sent her to the floor. When the soldiers got to where they park their hilux pick up maduka refused to enter into the vehicle just then one of the soldiers kick him on the head with his boot and he fainted, they dragged him into the vehicle and zoomed off. (CHAPTER THREE) The room was in semi darkness when maduka woke up, he had been unconscious since the soldier kicked him on the head, when he woke up he was terrified by the kind of place he found himself and by the faces in the room. The room which serve as a cell was small and stinky, the only light coming into the cell was the sun light which was penetrating through the small window. The cell was smelling of urine and human faeces, because the young men who were abducted by the haura soldiers used to pea and defecate there. All the people inside the cell were seven in number including maduka and they were all in the same age bracket. Madduka stared at the faces in the cell in confusion he was trying to understand where he was and who they were, it was until one of the young men spoke and told him, he was brought in last night that was when he understood he had been locked up in that small room called cell, when he tried to stand on his feet he felt a lot of pain on his head and he didn’t try to get up again “what happened to you?” One of the young men named kamsi asked inquisitively Maduka looked at him but he couldn’t say anything at that moment because of the pain in his head, the boys waited for him patiently for what seemed like forever then finally he spoke up “the labels attacked us in our house, they r***d my sister, injured my father and took me captive” After maduka had finished telling his story others took turn to narrate their own ordeal “now that we all know we are suffering because of the same enemy soldiers we have to look after each other here and be our brother’s keeper” One of the young men whose name was kelechi spoke out and others agreed “my name is maduka am from Amukwu” Maduka introduced himself and others as well took turn to introduce themselves too and it happened that each and every one of them were from the same town, the rebel soldiers captured all of them from their villages and brought them in their camp. It was about 6.30 pm in the evening when the door of the small cell was thrown open and two soldiers walked in and ordered them to follow them, when they came outside maduka noticed they were surrounded by thick forest, the camp was a big one surrounded by forest, soldiers were stationed on strategic places to be watching out for anbaji soldiers. The two soldiers that brought maduka and other boys out ordered them to start breaking the wood that were pile up by the corner of the forest, later one of the soldiers later left leaving one behind to keep watch on maduka and the rest of the boys while they work. Maduka and the other boys were so tired and hungry even to lift the axes was a challenge but because they were afraid of the soldier they went on to break the fire wood. It was around 8.pm when they finished and the soldier took them back to their cell and lock them up. Nothing were giving them to eat. “they want to starved us to death” Kelechi complained bitterly “you mean they have not been feeding you since you came here?” Maduka asked curiously “most of the time they don’t give us anything to eat even when they give us it will be very little like food meant for a baby” Kamsi retorted “I really don’t mind let them give us that little it will keep us going” Kelechi said “we don’t have to stay here we have to find a way out” Maduka said and the word hang on the air for a while before chekwube broke the silent “how do you think we can accomplish that, this whole place is surrounded by soldiers, if any of us try to escape the person will be shot before he had the chance to escape, it’s too dangerous to start thinking of escaping” One of the young men named chekwube commented fearfully “so you suggest we should stay here and die of hunger” Kamsi asked angrily “that’s not what am saying, am suggesting we should wait, I believe one of this days anbaji soldiers will come and rescue us” Chekwube said defensively “day dreamer you better wake up, there is nothing like rescue mission here, this is not movies you see in cinema, this is real live so start thinking with your head straight” Kelechi added “maduka do you have plan on how we are going to escape from here?” Kamsi asked curiously “ am still working on it” Maduka said abruptly “any plan you people have, just count me out, if you get caught don’t get me involved” Chekwube said anxiously “shut up you fool, if I hear your voice again, you will be sorry for yourself, someone brought a suggestion for us to escape from here and all you could do is trying to discourage us, one more word from you and you will see the other side of me” Kelechi said angrily and thrust his finger on chekwube’s chin. Kelechi was a tough guy, tall and fair in complexion he had a muscular body like a wrestler, he was in-between ugly and handsome. As he thrust his finger on the face of chekwube He got up from where he was seated and faced the little window that was fixed tightly on the wall, he was lost in thought, he was thinking of the possible way of escaping from the soldier’s camp, his thought was interrupted when maduka spoke up “we will make a run for it” Maduka said “what do you mean make a run for it” Kamsi asked inquisitively “I mean we will have to run” “run! is that your plan, what kind of nonsense plan is that, you think the soldiers will just allow us to run without shooting us at the back of the head” Kamsi complained in low tone “relax, now here is the plan, you all know that it was only one soldier that was keeping watch on us today while we were breaking the wood, if it happen that its only one soldier that is going to keep watch on us next time we are taking outside to break fire wood then we will have to knock him off with log and escape” Maduka suggested “that’s the most stupid plan I have ever heard, how do you think we can over power a trained soldier who is with a gun, where is this idea coming from” Chekwube queried anxiously “I have told you to shut your mouth, the next time you will say something without offering a solution I will beat the living hell out of you” Kelechi said bitterly “ kelechi its ok, he has the right to voice out his opinion but here is the thing chekwube, if we don’t leave this place while we still have the chance we may not live to tell the story, we have to be courageous and brave, if we have to do this we will have to stick together, I know each and every one of us doesn’t know what have become of our families and I know we all want to reunite with them again so let’s find a way to leave this place, if my plan is not okay let someone else bring another suggestion that is better” Maduka paused to know what they would say but no one was coming up with any suggestion so he continued “since no one has a better suggestion lets stick to my plan and let’s hope it works” “ maduka am with you, but who knows when they will take us outside again because it’s not every day we break the fire wood which their women used to cook, sometimes it will take upto two to three days before they will take us outside to break another fire wood, but as for the soldier that oversees our work, I believe we can take him out. Maduka you and I will do it, once we knock him off every one of us will make a run, if any one delays and the person is killed his blood will be upon his head” Kelechi concluded “okay. then let’s pray they take us outside soon, and please when they do let no one show any sign of panic so that the soldiers will not suspect anything” Maduka said and every one of them agreed. And it wasn’t long darkness took over the whole place (CHAPTER FOUR) It has been three days since maduka and the rest of the young men had not been outside and since then only few times had the solders given them little food. That morning all the young men in the cell were embittered and despaired because one of them whose name was anayo had been seriously sick since two days and the soldiers had refused to attend to him. The young man was lying helplessly on the ground, he had no strength left in him, his breath was slow, maduka and the rest of the young men in the cell were confused on what to do, every one of them were quiet, no one even has the strength to talk because they were hungry, it was kamsi who later broke the silent “what are we going to do, we can’t leave him like this and watch him die” Kamsi said sympathetically “what do you want us to do. The soldiers had refused to do something even after seeing how critical he was, they don’t care whether we live or die, there is nothing we can do rather than to pray that God restore him” Kelechi said but what he said did not satisfy kamsi so he turned to maduka who was standing by watching the sick young man “ maduka are you not going to say something, suggest something. What are we going to do to help him?” Kamsi asked concernedly “ kamsi there is nothing we can do for him except to pray” Maduka said calmly “okay then lets pray for him” Kamsi voiced out and then everyone in the room knelt down and started praying for Anayo. They all prayed with all their hearts for God to restore the young man. kamsi was the one who led in the prayer. after what seemed like forever he concluded the prayer and all of them sat down waiting for what would happen next. .............................................................. The time was 1.30 am in the morning when maduka suddenly woke up from his sleep, he had a terrible dream where Anayo died. Maduka’s dreams always come to pass. When maduka woke up he was terrified, he looked around and he noticed everyone was still fast asleep, but he couldn’t see Anayo very well because there was no light in the rooand xcept the flickering light from the moon penetrating through the window. Maduka got up from where he was and went to where Anayo was lying, he touched him and noticed his body was cold, he pushed him gently but his body was then stiff, he put his ear on his chest to check whether he is breathing but to his greatest shock, Anayo was not breathing, then Maduka shouted in a loud voice and everyone in the cell woke up abruptly. “ maduka what is it, why are you shouting?’ Kelechi was the first to ask. Maduka didn’t say anything at that moment because he was still terrified “ maduka what is it, talk to us” Kamsi said and maduka who was still terrified pointed at the lifeless body of Anayo, just then they all craw to where the body of Anayo was lying helplessly and they noticed he was dead, they started crying in a loud voice which attracted the attention of the soldiers. Two of the soldiers came to the cell and examine the body and when they had certified Anayo was dead they carried him out of the cell and locked the door behind them. Throughout the night none of the boys were able to sleep, they were terrified. “ maduka we have to leave this place before we all die” Chekwube said fearfully “ was that not what he said earlier and you were trying to discourage us with that your myopic mindset” Kelechi said amidst anger “ okay I agree with his idea, we have to leave this place, we have to run but how do we do that since soldiers are not yet planning to bring us out to break the fire wood” Chekwube stated “ chekwube relax, patient is a virtue, we will be out of here in due time, just be patient” Maduka said assuredly “ you want me to be patient when one us has died, who knows who will be next, we have not eating since yesterday and we are not even sure when they will be feeding us again and you are telling me to be patient” Chekwube retorted angrily at that very moment kelechi grabbed him on his neck and and hit him on the wall “I have told you when you open your mouth, you should offer solution than talking nonsense, the next time you open your mouth and talk nonsense rather than offering solution you will regret saying anything” Kelechi remarked and let go off his neck “ chekwube I have told you to relax, we will get out of this place, all you guys have to do is to run when I and kelechi knock the soldier down, run and don’t look back” Maduka said in a low tone. No one said anything again until sleep invaded them again. (CHAPTER FIVE) Early in the morning that same day maduka and the rest of the cell mates were brought out to break fire wood, they all knew that was their one-time opportunity to escape from the soldier’s camp. Immediately they started breaking the fire wood one of the soldiers left leaving one behind, by that time every one of the young men were at alert. The soldier that were watching over them was behind kelechi, his gun was hanging loosely on his shoulder, he was smoking cigarette and blowing the smoke into the air, immediately kelechi noticed he was not watching him, he picked one of the log from the wood and hit the soldier at the back of his head and he failed face down, at that instant kelechi and maduka started running towards the thick forest with the rest of the cell mates. As they were running to enter into the forest one of the wives of the soldiers who came to pick some fire wood saw them and started shouting to alert the soldiers, then the soldiers invaded the scene and saw maduka and the rest of the young men escaping and they opened fire on them. Maduka, kelechi and kamsi were running ahead of others, they were fortunate to ran into the forest and escaped but chekwube and the other cell mates were gun down, the soldiers then ran after maduka and the rest of the inmates but couldn't catch up with them. After a long search in the forest the soldiers could not find them so they returned to their camp. ................................................................................. It has been a week since maduka and the rest escaped from the soldiers’ camp, they have been wandering inside the forest looking for something to eat, many of the trees they saw had no fruit on them some were dried up, but fortunately for them as they were wandering in the forest that evening they saw a mango tree full of ripe mangoes and they were so glad, kamsi climbed the mangoes tree and started unpluging the mangoes, after gathering much they all sat down and started eating the mangoes. “we have been wandering in this forest for over a week without seeing a soul, why don’t we go outside and see what is happening, we don’t know what has become of our families, we don’t know if they are still alive” Kamsi said anxiously “listen to yourself, do you think I don’t want to see my family too, do you think I like to be here. I am worried day and night for my family, but the point is, what use is it if I go out there to look for them and ended up been killed. There is war going on out there kamsi, we hear bomb blast and gunshots every now and then and you are talking about going outside, you should be thanking God that you are somewhere that is safe, all we should do is to pray for God to keep our families alive till this war is over” Maduka remarked “sometimes I wonder the kind of person you are. Do you think any of us want to be here, in this dangerous forest in the midst of wide animals? You are free to go, if you die, die well” Kelechi said sarcastically and