CHAPTER 18: SARAI
2019 Words
There were many days of calm for the son of Eli, as he sailed the seas towards the southern tip of Africa.
It didn’t take him long to realize that he loved the sea and loved sailing. He rarely ate because he could go long hours without food, so he made good time.
His only sad moments came when he saw the corpses floating on the surface of the sea. Sometimes they were Searots stuck in the sea or people who had died at sea after the horror of the Meltdown.
The sheer waste sickened and made him angry. And the more he saw it, the more he was certain that something diabolical was behind the Meltdown, and that it was located in his hometown, the Kingdom of Eden.
He loved the sea, particularly at nights when he could sit on the deck and gaze at the stars in the sky as the waves lapped gently against the side of the army boat. It was during this time that he discovered the delights of a cold cocoa drink. There had been some provisions in the storeroom of the boat, and tins of cocoa powder had been in there.
The instructions on the tin said warm water, so he boiled water and liked it. However, there was a day he had wondered in a silly way what would happen if he drank it cold. So, he took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and prepared cold cocoa, and he was hooked to the drink.
Thus, most nights, he sat on the deck with a cup of cold cocoa drink and hard biscuits, or mouldy bread, or just drank it like that.
It was on one of such nights that he met Sarai under very dramatic circumstances. That night, he opened a round metal can and found it crammed full of cookies and wafers. They were no longer crunchy because they had long expired, but they tasted good, so he prepared a jug of cold cocoa drink, killed the engine, and went to the deck with the tin of cookies and wafers.
The sea was calm, the air was cool, and the moon was full of stars. It was on such nights that he missed Jo and Nancy so much. Poor, sweet Nancy! Oh, how he missed them! And yes, he missed Kate too, although she had been so different from Jo that sometimes it was difficult looking past her unhealthy desires and needs.
Filled with cocoa drink and expired cookies, the young man belched and yawned, seduced by the calmness of the sea and the tranquil beautiful sky. He stretched out on the deck, drowsy, and soon he was fast asleep under the stars.
The screams woke him up.
They were savage screams from the throats of many people, and it seemed to be coming from all around him. The son of Eli opened his eyes slowly and found himself surrounded by many men and women. They were wild and uncouth; their dark faces made more evil-like in the sheen of the moon. Eli saw that they were badly-dressed and that some just wore boxers or cloth coverings around their middle.
They were wild-haired and wild-eyed, screaming as they bent to look down at him. They were holding knives, matchets, swords, clubs and metal spikes. Some had knuckle braces. Some had horrible rings in their ears and metallic bangles around their necks and wrists.
A few of them had slim metal spikes through their noses.
At first, he could not understand the language they were speaking, but as was the case with him, his mind processed their cadences and gestures, and slowly he formed an understanding of what they were saying.
Their crude, violent and uncouth behaviours angered him greatly, but he saw them as fellow humans, so he fought down his temper.
One of them was a tall, strapping young man around Eli’s age, and he was wearing leather trousers and boots. He had jangling chains around his neck, and he was holding a savage, spiked club in his hand. He was chewing some purple leaves that had turned his lips a deep shade of black.
He pointed his ugly, spiked club at Eli’s face.
“Get up, pig!” he said with a snicker. “Our God requires the services of your boat. Do you want to be thrown overboard, or do we bash in your head first? Your choice, pig. What baffles me is how you came by this fine vessel?”
The others laughed raucously and rough hands held Eli’s arms, and they dragged him to his feet.
The young youth smiled nastily and put the tip of his club on Eli’s shoulder.
“Your clothes, shoes and weapons are mine!” he said harshly. “Just want you to know that before we kill you. But come, I will take you to shore and introduce you to God, and he will decide what we do to you! Take him to the side!”
Eli’s fury was soaring but he remained resolute in his resolve not to resort to violence until he knew what they were really about. They pushed him to the side and he looked across the sea.
First, he saw three long and big canoes bouncing on the sea beside the boat. Each had an outboard motor fixed. The canoe nearest to the boat was white and had a crude mattress made from raffia lying in its middle.
And what he saw finally maximized Eli’s wrath and forced him into action even though he had so far managed to control the fury tearing him apart.
Lying on the raffia mattress were two people, male and female. The male was huge and muscular, his back covered with sinew even in the bright moonlight. His trousers were bunched up around his ankles. He was lying between the open thighs of the woman and pumping his waist with obvious enjoyment as the ruffians in the boat screamed, applauded and laughed.
At first, Eli thought it was a couple having consensual s*x in the open, then he saw the female’s hands. They were rolled into fists and she was pounding the back of the man futilely with her little blows.
He noticed how her legs were jerking in a frenzy as she tried to dislodge the man from her thighs. Finally, her head slipped to the side, and Eli saw her face for the first time.
She was a beauty.
He had never beheld any girl this beautiful since he was born!
Even in her obvious agony and torture, even with horror on her face, a scream locked in her throat, and tears of anguish running down the sides of her face as she fought her rapist, she was beautiful.
Her eyes locked with his, and he saw the desperate plea and agony in them.
Eli’s young heart boiled with savage rage!
Who could do this to a helpless girl in the full glare of these animals? Who was this beast visiting a perverse sickness on a girl so fair, so innocent, so beautiful?
“That’s Bouteflika, my senior brother, taking in some dunga!” the despicable man beside Eli said. “I’m Amir, and I’m going to command this boat once we kill you, baba!”
As the others guffawed with laughter, the son of Eli swivelled swiftly and dug the fingers of his right hand into Amir’s throat and ripped outward savagely, severing the gullet!
Amir gurgled with horror and took rapid steps backwards. He dropped his metallic club and clamped his hands to his throat as blood gushed out in torrents, blackened by the moonlight!
The savages looked on with terror and screamed shrilly.
Eli disappeared and appeared behind Amir, then he lifted him up and tossed him over the side of the boat so that Amir crashed onto the pumping back of his senior brother!
Eli looked at the savages without mercy as they raised their cutlasses, machetes, knives and swords! One of them rushed at Eli swinging his machete. Eli spun on his heel, caught the arm of the beast, broke it, pulled the machete from the nerveless hand, and smashed it into the skull of the man!
The others wailed with horror as Eli picked him up and tossed him over the side, sending him hurtling towards a startled Bouteflika who was cradling his brother’s body in his arms and bellowing with sorrow and rage!
When the man with the machete in his head smashed into the canoe, Bouteflika screamed and got to his feet, and he stared with horror when he saw what was happening on the boat!
There was a young man, very tall and huge, his face regal and yet cold with brutal fury, facing down his people! The young man had picked up Amir’s club, and he was moving like a ghost as he smashed his attackers with such deadly precision and savage debilitating brutality that the people were now beginning to move backwards from the rage of the boat owner!
The son of Eli bellowed!
His scream was of savage rage, and as he whirled the club in his hand, covered with the blood of those he had just crushed, terror finally descended on those who had tried to take over his boat!
Bouteflika watched with horror as the people began to jump from the boat into the water and swim desperately towards the canoes!
This could not be happening!
Who was this boy? Why was he laying to waste the army of God?
With a savage snarl, Bouteflika drew up his trousers, the girl he was raping forgotten. He zipped up, then walked to the head of the canoe where a rifle was lying. He picked it up and swivelled towards the boat as he aimed at the young man in the boat!
He fired rapidly!
And the boy – dear gods of Talanbule – the boy moved like an obeah!
One moment he was on the boat, and the next second he appeared in the canoe in front of Bouteflika!
“Oh, oh, oh, gods of Talanbule! Who is this?”
He aimed his rifle and as swift as air Eli closed the distance between them and snatched the rifle from his hands. His dark eyes drilled into the rapist. Bouteflika, quivering with terror, held up his hands.
“Don’t!” he whispered. “Please! Don’t!”
Eli grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and threw him down savagely at the foot of the naked girl on the raffia mattress. She was cowering, sitting up with her arms across her breasts and her legs shut as she quivered with terror, tears still raining down her face.
“Apologize to her!” Eli hissed savagely.
The other savages had filled the other two canoes and were beginning to paddle away furiously.
Bouteflika bowed his head over his hands and crouched at the feet of the girl.
“Sorry, please, sorry, sorry, I’m sorry!”
The girl moaned and moved away with horror.
Bouteflika looked up as Eli loomed in front of him.
“Sorry! I’m sorry!” he screamed, scared by the savage look on Eli’s face.
“Yes, you are, you damn toad!”
He held Bouteflika by the shoulder, lifted him up, sank his fingers into his neck, and tore off his head with one savage, ripping movement!
He stood at the bow of the canoe, huge, savage in the moonlight, holding Bouteflika’s head in one hand and his body in the other!
In the moonlight, he looked like a demon, and in fact, that was exactly what he was!
The surviving savages screamed with terror even though they were getting away, and many of them crossed themselves as if they had witnessed the face of the devil!
- Writer
