LOVE AND JUSTICE Episode 12 – 13 by Tisa Phiri

LOVE AND JUSTICE Episode 12 by Tisa Phiri

The lights from inside the building were taken out, we had taken down the transformer that was connecting power to the building. I knew it would take an hour or even more for the power people to come to check them out. The small lighting from the gen sets was illuminating slightly showing the environment inside as I approached the main entrance, thanks to my snipper the two guards standing by the gate where taken out. I stood aside as one of the guys’ busted open the small gate and I rushed in shooting the first two guys I had seen running to the gate after the explosion from the gate made a loud noise.

“Forward! You and you there cover me” I shouted to the two guys next to me as we were approached by full fire coming right ahead at us.

Scar and the other guys were attacking from the back and they helped save us faster taking down the guys that made our proceeding difficulty.

“Clear!” I heard him shout and we matched forward our guns pointed out as we reached the door.

It was silent for a moment and I knew behind that door we were to face the hottest firing. We all stood in position.

“This is the moment guys, stay close and make sure we over each other, keep your eyes open. Take out the first lights you see and let’s use the night goggles” I whispered and we were good to go. I had to lead by example so I rushed in first and the moment the door swung open the firing started I had to stoop a little. In minutes the whole building was covered with the gun fire noise and screaming of those being shot. It was not time to see who was still alive or dead, but survival of the fittest, so I charged forward checking out the rooms inside.

I left Scar and others behind firing and walked towards the end where I could see the small deem light. The door was shut close, and it was heavily guarded I assumed that was where they were keeping either Jim and Chama or Queen.

Shooting continuously I kept the guys who were guarding the doors back. I aimed at the door hinges and shot it open. It was quiet and dark inside I wondered if at all there was anyone in there. Slowly I matched in and saw her cramped in a corner shivering and crying softly.

“Please don’t shoot” she cried her voice so cracked and scared I felt my joints go weak.

“Queen?” I asked getting closer to her.

“Steve?” she whispered back and slowly tried to stand but I could see she was too weak she went back down with a rush. “bas***ds!” I cursed inside feeling angry at what they made my precious woman go through. I held her up and embraced her assuring her she was alright.

“Am here my woman, you are safe now” I whispered kissing her forehead as she cried in my arms. I was taken away wanting to hold my woman longer and comforting her I didn’t see the guy standing behind us ready to shoot. In an instant I felt a presence behind and the moment I turned to look back he had fired.

I went down with Queen in my arms shielding her. The second gun shot came and I was sure that was the end for me but I heard it go silent my whole body was still intact. I looked back and there he was standing firm holding his gun with a smile.

“Come on, let’s go!” Scar shouted indicating with his head.

“Come on Queen, let’s move” I pulled her up and I saw it was pointless making her stand so I lifted her up and run outside.

“Did you find the other guys?” I asked referring to Chama and Jim.

“Yeah, they were badly beaten and are injured, my boys have taken them outside but I was informed two trucks filled with some soldiers are heading our way, we have to hurry am not sure we can put that off” he spoke as we trotted outside Queen on my shoulder.

We got to the vehicles a few minutes later and the moment I started the car engine we heard the vehicle engines approaching.

“We have to move now before it’s too late!” I shouted but Scar was still standing there, it seemed he was waiting for someone.

“What the hell man, we got to go!” I stepped out of the car.

“No, I cannot leave without Joe, my men told me he went back inside to get one of the guys injured. “ I looked at him and shook my head.

“Come on he will find us, we need to get out of here, you have no idea what kind of fire is coming our way” I tried to push him to the truck but he stood his ground.

“he is my man Steve, I cannot leave him. He would never leave me too” he frowned and stared walking back to the building. The vehicles were fast approaching and I could not leave him alone. I ran back to the car and handed the keys to a guy.

“go now, take them out of here as soon as you can, I will drive back with Scar and the others” I instructed him and pushed him to move faster, I watched for a couple of seconds as the truck went off seeing Queen trying to shout something to me.

“Am right behind you” I waved and quickly went back following Scar. The gun shoots where still hot on the side his man was at. We had to fight our way in and after we ran out of bullets we had to fight hand to hand to get through.

“Where is he dammit?” I asked Scar seeing we were being surrounded.

“There!” he shouted as the man he was referring to as Joe struggled to pull his friend who was badly injured. He was shot on the shoulder too. We ran to them with me taking cover on the edges of the walls for the rooms and Scar helping them both.

“Are you okey?” Scar asked Joe

“Am hit man, about 4 of our men are dead” Joe lamented wincing in pain.

“Come on guys this is our only chance to get out of here” I shouted seeing the vehicle light slights outside.

“sh*t! It’s too late let’s get to the back!” I shouted and we ran back Scar and Joe lifting the guy gasping for his life. After the struggle of dodging and shooting our way out, we managed to get out unfortunately the truck we were to ride in was parked far from where we had escaped from.

“We have to stay hidden here for a while, call your boys to move ahead without us” I told scar

“Are you nuts? Can’t you see my men need to be attended to as soon as possible” he yelled at me angrily

“calm down man, the only way to stay alive is to hide here till they assume we ae gone, it’s a full military army out there and they will search the entire area to make sure they take us all out, our only chance and that of the men by the truck is us staying put and them going far away now” I yelled back seeing his face angry and he was panting.

“My men are dead Steve, I cannot lose one more man, no. I didn`t bring my boys here to have them all die in this your war” he shouted angrily

“I know, am sorry for your men, I truly am and I want to help save as many as I can right now, please stay calm” I pleaded wanting to make him understand I was not happy about his men too. I felt my heart ache at the sight of the two men before me. They looked sad and taken aback. I was used to the kind of life, but I could tell they had never come across anything like that before. I now realized how vital the training I had undergone was, it prepared me physically and mentally and I could run into a war and come on without any shock or inside tension, I was made to overcome anything even the death of a close friend in war or else there was no surviving if at all one involved their emotions in combat.

Quickly I went down and tied the man who was badly injured tying his bleeding arm to stop the bleeding and telling him to hold it tight. I removed the drugs I had in my pockets and made him sniff some of it to easy on his pains. I gave some to Joe too. His would was not as bad so I asked him to hold it still.

“How is that?” I asked when I was down siting him his back on the stone. Scar and Joe watched me in silence

“Better” he winced

“Good, you gonna make it man, stay strong okey?” I assured him and he nodded his head before standing. We had to stay in that place till I was sure we were not spotted. An hour passed as we sat in silence each of us lost in thoughts.

“How is she?” Scar broke the silence

“She is the most amazing person I know, she makes my heart stop for a second every time I see her” I smiled not really answering his question.

He let a small laugh making me realise I just sold out what I was thinking about.

“I mean is she okey? Was she hurt?” he asked again with a soft laugh as Joe joined in too.

“Yeah I know, she seemed a little shaken up but am sure she will live” I sighed

“Good, or else my men could have died for nothing, I know there are two types of wars in this world. That which is fought for love and for power.” He giggled smoking his cigarette and shrugging casually.

“Yeah” I nodded my head at him.

“Which one are we fighting for Steven?” he asked with so much tension in his voice I could tell he wanted to have a good reason for what he was doing.

“Hm” I murmured and paused before answering

“For love” I sighed

“Both the love for my woman and mostly love for my country” I responded earnestly.

“You believe we ca win this war?” he asked the more standing up ad walking about as though he was searching for answers.

“Why do you ask?” I looked up at him my hands wrapped on my knees.

“Because I am not going to fight a losing battle, I believe in fighting for survival, but now I want to fight for my men. Am not going to lay down and watch the son of b***hes walk around freely after taking down my most loyal men” he spat and I could tell he was damn serious.

“We can win, we are few in numbers but we have the hearts of lions. We will fight together my friend for love and for justice” I smiled and he looked at me nodding his head.

“Good, game on” he responded and looked away lost in thoughts again.

LOVE AND JUSTICE Episode 13 by Tisa Phiri

I tried to pull myself up but felt my whole body numb, I was chained to a bed with my legs tied up. My hands were spread on the sides chained to some metal pillar. I looked up and noticed I was in an open room, the center of the room with nothing else inside, the lighting was a little bit too much it blinded my sight for a couple of minutes.

I was lots in my own mind trying to ascertain what was going on, when I heard some steps approaching me. I had not heard the door open so I assumed whoever was coming to towards me was already in the room, probably watching my every move.

“Finally you are up” a familiar voice spoke up making me struggle to lift my head as to take a good look at who had me. He stood there on me smiling widely his white moustache moving up and down as he smiled obviously amused with what I was going though at the moment.

“What do you want, it’s evident you don’t want me dead” I snapped looking at him

“Hm. I like you son in law, in fact at some point I respected you so much, you are a good soldier, no, you are more than that” he smiled rubbing his hands on my tied writs I felt my skin crawl with anger, I wished I was let loose for a while so I could give him another mark, I could see the one I left on his neck a few hours back was still fresh with a strip of blood clotting right on top.

“If I was to be set free from here for a second, am sure the first thing I would do is slit your neck completely this time and send you to hell” I scoffed shaking my restricted body.

“Like I was saying,” he ignored my comment

“I almost made you my hero, I mean, you have done your share of good things Ackim, you protected me and my daughter, you fought tooth and nail for us, you evidently loved my daughter of which I regret to tell you from now on you will never set your eyes on her ”

His last statement struck me I moved again my heart racing.

“What ae you talking about?” I asked looking at him my head a bit lifted up. He smiled before pulling off his phone, he played back the video clip on it.

“Daddy, what are you telling me right now?” I saw Paula crying he tears running down her chin.

“am sorry my daughter, I know how much you loved each other, but the man was a soldier, he never wanted to back down and so he has sacrificed his life for this country, am sorry but Ackim is dead, see his body lying dead there” he told her showing a pic of me laying on the ground.

“no, no, it cannot be true, how can he die just like that, no dad, I know he is alive please stop lying to me” she sobbed I could see so much pain in her eyes.

“Ackim is not dead dad, he cannot die without saying anything to me or his kids, no!” she screamed as her father told her a faked story of how I died in the line of duty.

“What have you done? I struggled to get free my eyes tearing. I could not believe he just made his own daughter go through the pain of thinking I was dead.

“I have fixed my daughter for good, yeah I know she is hurting but she will get over it, people always move on my dear, so to her you are dead and forgotten” he smiled and walked away leaving me screaming and panting in anger.

“What do you want with me you fool?” I yelled loudly but he walked on without paying attention to me.

“Well, am giving you an hour, think about it then am coming to get an answer” he smiled.

“Think about what?” I asked him seeing him from the corner of my eyes.

“Oh I almost forgot” he shook his head stepping forward a little bit.

“You are on a mission, this time you are going to take down that Steve and whoever is working with. You are the best person for the job since he trusts you, he will not see us coming. Kill that son of a b***h and get the recordings back, in short, you have been chosen to erase all this drama once and for all” he smiled.

“You must be going mad, I can see your hunger for power is making you have hallucinations” I shouted on top of my voice. He smiled again walking closer to me and touching my forehead I felt useless as I could not do anything to him at the moment.

“you will get over it Ackim, don’t worry, I know the way to get to you, so do as I say or your sister and poor mother will be the first to pay for your sins before I kill your children” he chuckled

“I will kill you first before you touch them” I screamed angrily.

“do you dare me Ackim?” he shook his head clicking his tongue as he walked away from me and before I could say a thing he had disappeared and the door shut back with a loud bang I heard the locks click and it was silent all over again.

I cried, I rarely cried but at the moment I felt so desperate and cornered, with my wife lied to about my death by her own father, my family was now in great danger and I was chained to some bed with no way out. My mind struggled to a few hours back when I was defeated.

We had arrived in Solwezi and I let Mr. Benson get out of the car first, he instructed me to carry his brief case and I followed him inside my head faced to the ground hidden in a ballet to avoid recognition.

“Take that to my room soldier” he had ordered as I stood there trying to hear what he was discussing on phone.

“Yes sir!” I responded and walked away.

I slowly sneaked in his office and started searching around for anything that would give me more information about what he was doing. My heart was racing as I continuously watched the door to see if anyone was coming my way.

“Hm, what the hell are you doing Benson?” I asked myself looking at drawn maps in a file marked with red ink. There were some parts in the western part and north western parts of the country, the other papers where showing some figures. And other information written down. Quickly I captured them using my phone and saved then on my google account in case I was caught, I knew they would be secure in case I lost my phone.

I sat on his computer and tried to open some documents but he had secured it with a password, sighing I tried to figure out the password, I typed in Paula`s name but it declined, her birthday it declined then I remembered Paula telling me about her mother.

“My father loved my mother, she has been dead for years now but he still embraces her like she is still alive” she had told me as we lay down in our bed one night.

“But love, how can you tell, I mean he might not have married again yet but he might have some woman you know” I shrugged rubbing her back.

“Monica was my father`s only love, he has her all over his files, he uses her names for the passwords and many other small details, that is not letting go” she laughed softly.

“Well” I had smiled, “ I wish to be remembered like that too” I kissed her and she smiled holding me close.

“Yes that is it” I whispered to myself looking back at the key board. I pushed back the thoughts of Paula and went to type in the password and it accept,

“bingo” I smiled and the first document I opened had a list of names and contact details, I didn’t have time to see who was on the list but I could feel it in me something was on that list and I quickly connected my phone saving the document. I was just finishing saving it in my phone as well as sent it to my mail when the door sprang open and there was Mr. Benson his eyes fuming in anger.

“I should have known” he clapped his hands moving aside allowing five men to walk in ready to take me down.

“sh*t!” I yelled in my mind.

In a few seconds I was engaged fighting the men, I managed to take them all down and Benson tried to grab a gun from his study table but I was fast throwing a flicker knife I had in my hands at him cutting his neck he held it in pain. I ran out but the entire building was surrounded in seconds, I was trapped, I tried to fight my way out but I was not strong enough to take down the entire group, they hit me hard all at once and I fall down struggling to get up. The last time I could remember was some guy rushing with some metal item and hitting my head I blacked out.

So here I was waking up in chains and getting the news I was to betray Steve.

“I have to get out of here” I looked around unfortunately there was no sign of anything I could use to set myself free. I felt powerless and I cursed inwardly.

“oh God, this is bad” I whispered to myself trying to get loose but it was all in vain, I was just draining myself of the little energy I had left in my body, so I lay back defeated and hoped for someone to rescue me or some kind of miracle.

“Hang on Ackim, hang on” I told myself looking up the white ceiling.

To be continued…

LOVE AND JUSTICE
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