The Enemy Of State

The alarm was so loud that my wife had to jump out of bed and thought someone had broken into our house.... Yeah she always has nightmares and I'm sure that was just one of her many episodes... Abruptly, she lashed at me: "Get up!!! Get up!!!!... You're going to be late for your journey. Remember you are to be at the mission site by 8 AM today and we're now 6 AM already." "Ahhhhhhhh!!!!" With a heavy sigh I reluctantly pulled myself from slumber, hating the fact that she is always very time conscious... "I'm gonna make you some breakfast, something very light so you can eat and carry the rest with you." She said as she gave me a kiss on my forehead... Well you don't know me, so I should introduce myself! I am Egbe Darlington Junior. I work for one of the Telecom Giants here in my country, and, of course, I earn very well... Actually, my company is having an issue with the antennas at one of the sites in the South West Region and being the chief technician, I was called to go check out what was the main issue. My mission is usually supposed to be for 1 week or so... I'm sure gonna be missing my wife... But again, hey, the South West Region, precisely Buea, is known for its beauty and all the little cute girls you'll find around!!! Wow!! Well I'm not insinuating that I am gonna cheat on my just beautiful wedded bride lol... But you know we are men and s**t can happen at times (chuckles) "Hey Darling, it's ready, please hurry up, you don't wanna be late ok!!! Remember today is a Monday and it's supposed to be a Ghost town down there, even though it's not very much respected nowadays... I somehow feel worried, but anyway it's work, so you gotta go!" Now, I will explain something happening in my country... My country is caught in an internal armed conflict between the government and part of the population who opt to separate themselves from the state. This section has imposed certain forms of control, such as civil disobedience tactics like ghost towns, wherein the people in those areas will have to abstain from any activities on such days... This explains why my wife was urging me to be careful and leave the house early enough since it was one of those days... "Hey also, for my new post at the Home beauty company, I was called on to reorganize the designs and a lot of other things.... Wow!!!! It's so amazing. I can't believe this is actually happening" My Wife said.... My wife works for a Home and Interior design company here in Douala and she has such a great eye for beauty that she has quickly been elevated to a managerial position and I am so proud of her. You have no idea... She's called "Sonkey Kizita," a lovely name I like to shout out when I wanna disturb her and watch her protest at that like a nursery school kid who doesn't wanna allow the parents to return home after dropping them on their first day at school lol! "Hi Sweetie, I am done and, wow, your home-made sugar balls are crazy with the baobab drink...!!! "Thanks Honey" she replied as she blushed, moving towards the bathroom to take a shower. "I guess we can go now" I heard her say after about 30mins, standing by the door. "Ok! Let's get on" I replied as I picked up my little bag and my cell phone. She accompanied me to the park and gave me a little bisou to my chick and kissed me good bye as she watched the personal car (clando) I had taken disappear onto the new bonaberi bridge before she kicked start the car and left for work... I was just having a little chat with some of my IT friends, we had started a small start-up tech company together as usual online, to get an update on what everyone else had accomplished on their various tasks and set new objectives before we reached first control... "Salut, I am Police Officer Ahmad Mohammed of the 3rd Brigade Buea" a voice said in French while he asked us to present our papers of identification. He was a very tall, extremely dark man, the kind of Muslims we typically refer to as "Toupouris" Well, not so sure why they are referred to by that name, but we all grew up hearing that and, of course, it's not an abusive nickname as they themselves find fun in it when addressed like that. Everyone had their ID cards on them and showed him while he stared at each of us with such an intimidating look with his face so dark that you easily noticed the white areas of his eyes so visible and made him look so scary. Then, he took the driver to a little corner. Of course, knowing my country, I just understood it was to collect a little daily bribe, which has become part and parcel of road control nowadays... Pathetic though.... We continued the journey and it was a truly awesome Monday morning with a very bright sky and great sunrise. The trees were passing so fast as the car speeded along the road and on some of them I made animal shapes with my eyes lol... Some of those childish things we did as kids and you know what, they never go away... They will stick around forever.... When we finally arrived in Tiko around the big round about, there was one more check and we were asked to get out of the vehicle while they made a thorough search of everyone and things inside... We first of all protested, then again, in a country where your rights don't really matter in front of a military or uniformed person, at the end of the day, you'll end up being the loser if you don't corporate... We hesitantly stepped out of the car and watched the man in uniform. This time around, the control was made up of military men, completely unlike the previous ones which were just police and gendarmes... I also started receiving phone calls from my colleagues in Buea asking how close I was, since they were waiting for me at the meeting hall already and it was 45 minutes to time. I stood there worried and just so uncomfortable while the military men performed their slow but thorough search. I thought to myself, maybe I should approach one of the Officers and lay to them my complaint about arriving late and how critical it's going to be for general network coverage for the town.... I tried, but somehow I was turned down... No surprise, they only think about themselves these guys!!!!! After a little while, I noticed a set of people walking in a group and coming towards the round about but, something wasn't right about their way of moving and the energy didn't feel right too so I began to worry in my mind... Then, without warning, I saw one of them pull out a long AK (Machine Gun) and the rest followed suit and then they began spraying the entire military patrol team shouting " Return to where you belong, we control this city." The military, in retaliation, started shooting back at them and, since it's a guerrilla warfare battle, they couldn't exactly know who had a gun and the scene became a c*****e full of bloodiness. Both parties had huge casualties, including innocent civilians who happened to have been around. The gun noises were so heavy and deafening and the confusion of where to run to was the order of the moment. I fought to save my life, at least knowing that I couldn't run in any direction in the open shooting, I decided to dive into one of the highway gutters and lay my head down as the shells from the bullets fell on my body. Gradually, I began to crawl inside the gutter looking for a safe place to stick my head out and hide from the war scene just like what you will see in strategy action movies. All vehicles coming in that direction deviated and took to safety and the adrenaline rush was very high. After a long deafening shooting period, there was little silence and it felt like the resistance forces had fled into the quarters considering their mission was complete and their message was passed. I heard faint voices of people struggling from bullet wounds and begging for help, which apparently seemed so distant and I wasn't so sure yet to stick my head out of my hiding hole. Around me was a small pistol which probably would have fallen off one of the military officers in the course of the battle, so I picked it up just in case I got into any trouble when I came out of hiding. After a moment of silence and military officers talking and shouting to each other what I seemed to be asking to finish the resistance forces who happened to have been left behind due to injury, I felt a little safer and thought to myself it was a good moment to show my head out. Just before I could come out of hiding, a military officer closed up towards where I was. I wasn't particularly sure why he came that direction. He saw me and I immediately screamed thank God I was safe and asked him to help me... He turned and looked at his colleagues from a distance and shouting to them in French: "I just found one here. He's still alive and has a pistol." Immediately, he tried to load his gun to fire and knowing my fate at that particular moment, I immediately rushed the pistol without any basic knowledge of how it works, just what I had seen in movies before, pulled the trigger and there, 3 shots, the Soldier fell right on top of me. Alerted by the gunshots, his colleagues looked in my direction and shouted in French: "They are still around take cover... One Man down... We repeat One Man Down!!!" I knew there and then that my fate was sealed so I jumped quickly out of the gutter and rushed to a little entrance I saw right close to me with bullets from AKs rushing towards me...