Myths: Fatherland

Chapter 2: Damnation

We were led down some steps to the ship's hold below the deck. All around the wooden walls of the hold were other metal structures to which our chains were attached, each captive to their respective restraints.

The sobs were growing louder, men and women, old and young, all surveying the dimly lit hold with tears in their eyes. I couldn't stay on my feet any longer and slid down to the wooden floor, and hot, uncontrollable tears sprang forth! Again, I thought of the home I was been snatched away from, the family, friends and the lover that I was never to see again, and the foreign pit I was being shipped away to...to be used as appeasal to some gods of the long nosed people. 'When would we face these foreign gods? In a day or two or longer? What would happen to us if we were rejected? If I was rejected?!' Suddenly, joy leapt into me at the thought! 'Then they would have to bring me back home as I would be a burden to them', I thought happily. But this euphoria died away after a few minutes as I looked around. No one had ever been brought back! Captive were never rejected, explaining why they were always coming back for more!

Over the next few weeks, I and others lived lives we never thought possible.

We were given bowls of brownish yellow liquid that were, apparently, supposed to be soup, with some sort of solid cake which I have come to know to be called bread, to go with it. In the liquid soup handed to us by our cruel captors were bones, some from fishes, others from other animals, scattered in it. We'd learnt to eat, despite ourselves, hungrily and hurriedly after a man few years older than me had pushed aside his bowl, rejecting the meal, and tried to spit in the face of a captor who had passed the bowl back to him. He was dragged up to the deck while he struggled to be let go of and shooting nsults at them. After a few minutes of howls of pain from the man, admist jeers and laughter from the captors, he was brought back down and chained. I couldn't recognise him immediately. His face was bloodied, the left part of his face so swollen that the eye was almost invisible. He curled on the floor, holding his side and shaking as tears flowed down his only visible eye with blood dripping from his opened mouth. In the coming days, many others would meet the same fate as he did, and with time, we pushed away our manna no more!

The female captives had been separated from us the day after we were led aboard, and they fared no better than we did. Most nights, we would hear screams from the female holding as they were led up to the deck, and we could only try not to imagine what was happening. At times, we'd hear them being led in groups of 5 or 6, as their screams usually suggested, or in one's, the next being taken after the previous one had been brought back in pains, screaming or quietly sobbing. Sometimes, a few never made it back, we'd hear shouting and laughing and then, a loud splash from something hitting the water and after a while, the screams would fade away and eventually die out.

An incrediblylong amount of time had passed now, and while we were out on the deck, scrubbing it, there was a lady, maybe as young as I was, tied to the mast with ropes around her waist and hands tied at the wrist behind her, sobbing quietly and shaking. She had only her loin cloth on her while her chest laid bare. Her mouth was bloodstained like she had bitten into a blood filled meat. Across her cheeks, chest, arms, and legs were whip marks. The now familiar sound of whipping came from behind me, and I could see a captor beating a slave who had laid down his brush to rest. The left ear of the captor was wrapped in white clothing around his head, and I could guess why the lady was tied to the mast. Looking to the man being whipped, I recognised him! That man was...!!

A whip to my back cut off my thoughts, the searing pain emanating from where I'd been branded caused me to curl on the deck, another whip came at me, hitting the same spot. I could swear my flesh was being torn off, then a kick to my abdomen forced me to slide on the soapy board and hit a bucket filled with mopped up water and its content turned down my back. "Get 'em back to work!" shouted Mr Percy as he stepped out of a small cabin on the deck. I was raised and thrown back towards the brush I had dropped.

The man with the bloodied ear had gone to stand by the bound woman and was staring down at her with a twisted smile on his face, and without a thought as to what the future might hold, I launched myself at him albeit the stinging pain I felt in my back. I had wrestled many times before with the youths in my village, and so taking him down and pounding his face, hard, was easy. I got pulled off of him and thrown to the ground and held down. The man stood up with his face battered, and I felt contented. But that wasn't to last. He began to kick the bound lady, casting slaps after slaps across her cheeks as she screamed and flailed. He took out his belt, lashing her exposed body. I struggled against the arms of restraint holding me down. After a few more lashes with her body now swollen and bleeding, he gestured to a man who brought him a whip. I thought he was going to go at the lady again until he started towards me with malice written all over his face. The whip came down on my back for the last time that day, I felt my flesh moving apart! I was in danger of being flayed! I struggled and thrashed, screaming as I got whipped to high heaven.

I don't remember the events that led to my being back in the slave hold later that day, but there was something I had seen in between that I could never forget. That face! I had seen it again! That inhuman and handsome face I had seen at the port was now staring at me from behind a door that stood ajar. It was looking at me, like it was sizing me up, I blinked, and it was gone again. Now, I was staring to wonder what it could be when I heard my name being called! It was the man who was being whipped by the bloodied ear man. It was Arinze! Arinze my right-hand man!

"Chibike! Chibike!" he called as he stared at me wide-eyed, "I tried to run when you gave the command, but then I saw you fall, and I was coming to help when I was wrestled and held to the ground by two of this he-goats and knocked out." His arms were still bleeding from the profound whipping he had gotten. "I woke up to your shouts as you were being branded with the rod," I winced at the memory. He pressed on, "The slave master, I know him. He trades with your father." He finished. I knew he had recognised me on that day at the port. "Do you have any idea where we are being taken?" I asked. "No, but we will be getting there soon," I sat up straight against the stinging pain and waited for him to continue, which he did, "I could make out what they were saying from having been around them during trades." I nodded but didn't say a word. He licked his b****y and swollen lips and continued, "They said," he raised three fingers up, "in 3 days, we would be arriving..." he was going to continue, but the noise from the deck cut him off. There was laughing and hailing and screaming on the deck. This continued for a while, and then something hit the water. We turned and looked at each other, and he said quietly, "You tried your best, your father and the village would have been proud." Tears welled up in my eyes, I hadn't thought that I would ever hear anyone mention my father again. I shifted closer to him and asked, "Since you have been here, have you seen anything or someone very strange?" He knew what I was talking about, I could tell from the look of fear in his eyes. He withdrew backwards a bit and gestured to a darker corner to an empty chain hanging from the metal attachment on the wall. He was now more visibly scared. 'What was there to be scared of? What was worse than this?' "Arinze," I called, "talk to me!" He was still fearful even as he began to speak, "Two days ago, while we were cleaning the deck, a group of captives and myself were led to the back of the ship and down to the lowest part of this ship, lower than this hold and we were handed buckets to use to scoop up water and pour into a large barrel, and were split into pairs. The man who was branded after you were and the man who is supposed to be chained to that empty spot were paired up, and they worked close to my partner and I." He stopped and looked around, and then up, trying to peer through the cracks in the wooden floor of the deck. I had a feeling he was going to stop, so I stretched my arm, whilst enduring the pain of doing so, to pat him on the arm and nodded to him in encouragement. He settled a little and continued, "They both went to investigate a noise coming from the back of the ship. The noise stopped, but they didn't return, so I decided to go and check on them." He stopped abruptly, looking around frantically and breathing heavily. "Arinze! Arinze! Be calm! The men of Opobo are born braze and bold!" I called to him, trying to restore his courage. He didn't stop shaking this time, but he pressed on, "The other man was laying on the water logged floor, he looked dry, his lips were grey and cracked, the skin on his cheeks, fingers and toes were sunken. I could see two other people in the back," Arinze's breath was heavy now, "the man who stayed in that empty spot was close to one of these captors but I couldn't see his face well, he had it buried in the neck of the man and he seemed to be holding him upright. The man was starting to go pale, and his skin was drying up quickly. I ran back, yelling to those bastards to come, and when they saw me, they knocked me out!" "Maybe they thought you were going to attack them? What happened after?" I nudged, "When I came around, I was laying in one of those cabins. Three men were there, and they asked about what I had seen. I told them, and two of the others looked confused, but the third, he didn't even look disturbed, though Icouldn'treally see his face," He swallowed hard and continued, " I was brought back to the deck to continue with the others. When I came back here, I saw that two spots were empty, and then I heard something hit the water, twice," he was crying now, "they were dead, they killed them, they are killing us!" He finally stopped, slumped down, and sobbed into the wooden floor. I didn't know how to connect that with what I had been seeing but before I could ask, he whispered softly from where he laid, "In the water on the floor back down below," he raised his head to look at me, "there was the most handsome face I had ever seen in the reflection from the water where both men stood!"

Morning came, and again, we were presented with our manna of liquid with bones swimming in it along with moulded bread. The pain in my back had not subsided but appeared to have gained ounces of strength, and there was whitish liquid coming from the lacerated skin of my back. The same I could say for Arinze, as he was still bleeding and swollen. We were led back to the deck for another morning scrub. The mast was now without a neighbour, confirming what made the loud splash we had heard last night. The men seemed happy and cheerful as they strolled around with their whips, scanning for offenders. I could only guess the euphoria was due to the journey that was soon to end, and to us, the beginning of a life sentence. I could see Mr. Percy watching Arinze and I, and then he strolled over to two guards and gave them commands before returning to his cabin. After a while, the guards walked over to us, took long looks at our backs, and barked at both of us to stop. I looked at Arinze, shocked and half expecting pain to be inflicted on my back for an offence I was yet to be aware of. Instead, we were asked to get up and follow. They were headed towards Mr Percy's cabin. While close to the entrance, I thought I heard an argument inside which stopped immediately we got the door. We were pushed inside while the guards remained outside by the closed door. We still had our hands and feet bound, so they were sure to stop us before we could attack Mr Percy. His cabin was spacious with a brown polished wooden table that had carvings on it. On the right were two shelves, one with books, and the other had jars containing some tiny creatures in it suspended in some liquid. On the left wall was a large sword with the sigil of a bat on the handle, and beside it was the head of a beast with a dog like appearance. Mr Percy gestured for us to take the two cups on the table. We got up and moved closer. The cups were made of glass with silver markings and contained a deep red coloured liquid. I looked up at Mr Percy, and for the first time, I noticed how extravagantly handsome he was, even with the hat covering most of his features. Arinze had noticed this also and was shaking. Again, he gestured for us to drink. I went for the cup first, and Arinze followed with shaky hands, we raised the cup to our mouths and started drinking. Halfway through, I saw that face again in the dark corner of the cabin. I choked on the drink! Arinze had also seen it and had dropped his cup and curled up on the floor, screaming for help from our gods who I now believed were deaf! The guards rushed in and bundled us out, and again, I could hear the argument resume in the cabin.

The night came, bringing along with it the most painful experience. It felt like I was on fire, my head throbbing and joints aching, a heat rose in me and fell like the tides, and I would get extremely cold and again feel like I was being boiled. The skin on my back was loosening and tightening painfully. I looked over at Arinze in his new corner, rolling in the pain and agony just like I was experiencing. 'Had they poisoned us? Had they decided to kill the two people who knew what had happened down below in the ship? How had they found out that Arinze had told me?' But as I pondered in pain, something strange was beginning to happen, I was starting to feel strange movement all over my body. I could feel the blood coursing through my vessels, every resistance and turbulence. The feeling of my bones loosening and hardening over and over again, like it was being melted and shaped. This continued until morning, though neither of us slept, I didn't feel weak, although, the pain remained and persisted until nightfall. We were not fed nor taken out to work with the others. Instead, we were left to suffer the effect of the poison. Now, it made sense how they could e*****e us. How they bested us in the lands of our ancestors. Their gods were not wooden or carved, not moulded or shaped, but their's were alive. The handsome faced man was their god, and Arinze and I, along with the two others, have been sacrificed to it! 'Did that mean that Mr Percy was a god as well?' 'I wouldn't know, I'd find out after leaving this world.' I still could feel my blood flow throughout my body, but I finally felt my bones settle. I could feel almost everything, the waves of the ocean against the ship's hull, the cold air as it blew, and the heat coming from the various compartments in the ship. I could also hear every intake of breath, the pounding of hearts, and I could smell things, a lot of things. Finally, the pain was subsiding, and I drifted into a deep sleep, I thought I had left this world finally. It was late afternoon, I awoke, as did Arinze, the hold was empty save Arinze and I. There was footstep coming down the hold, and there he was, the handsome face God. He held sacks in his hands, walked over to Arinze, placed it over his head, and then did the same to me. The chains on my neck fell to the ground, and suddenly, I felt cold air against my skin, and it stopped just as suddenly and I fell onto solid ground. The sacks were pulled off, and we seemed to be in a wooden structure. He handed us flasks and told us to drink, which we immediately did as we were thirsty and weak. Whatever liquid was in the container restored our strength, and a sense of euphoria crept up in me as it poured down my throat. After we finished, we laid down our flasks. I turned to look at Arinze, and it was like seeing another handsome face god, but in a skin just like mine. I guess he could say the same for me as he had the same look on his face.

Then the handsome face god spoke for the first time, "I'm sure you both are feeling great now after the tumultuous journey you've been through. Now, I'd ask for yer' names but... er' seeing as I'd not understand nor be able to pronounce them. I'd rather I give you names instead!"

He turned to Arinze and said 'Philip', and then turned to me and said 'Daniel'.