Burning Palm 2

At the roundabout, Bello sits on a slab, gun in hand, along with two other men. They are silent. One currently doesn't even sit, but lies on the ground, as if asleep. Soon, a truck comes over. Seeing the truck, the alert men have their hands slide towards their triggers. The sleeping man also gets up, though he stays crouched. But soon, they recognise the occupants of the vehicle and relax momentarily. The vehicle comes to a stop and Bello's trio enter the truck too. No words are said. The vehicle's engine ignites, and they're off. The journey is silent, save for the sound of the birds and night creatures. The date palms on both sides of the road play host to various animals, animals who find the night more peaceful due to the absence of humans.

The vehicle keeps moving and soon, a settlement comes into view. As they enter the settlement, they find two vehicles. Bello's crew looks at the occupants of these two strange vehicles and alas, it's the exact people they're here to stop. The occupants of the two vehicles seem to have been waiting for something, and that something was what they thought Bello's crew was. Seeing the faces however, they understand these aren't their comrades. Bello also understands these are the enemies, so he immediately opens fire on them.

Taken off guard, some attempt to escape. Others return fire, albeit sporadically. The area instantly is thrown into chaos. Bello's crew disembarks, taking cover immediately in the surroundings, and behind their vehicle. Bullets fly freely.

Bello gets worried. Though he opened fire first, he had only managed to hit two of them. The opponents still outnumber and outgun them, and the village is still in trouble.

His men exchange fire with the terrorists, proving themselves as experienced fighters, yet Bello sees they're getting out flanked. Bello grits his teeth and commands.

“JADIM! YEJI! FOLLOW ME!”

He begins to move left and towards the settlement. His senses functioning at maximum settings. A figure peeps from behind a tree in front of him. Bello's eyes catch its nigh ethereal motion. His mind processes the figure's clothing, its shape, and immediately, he fires. The figure falls. Bello's team continues moving, behind the trees, approaching the houses slowly, but surely. By now they can hear screams, villagers overcome by fear and deep anxiety. Sensing the direction of the altercation, some villagers rush out of their houses, choosing to run in the opposite direction.

One villager had only moved by a few metres when a bullet hit his leg. The villagers stalls, falls,begins to scream in pain. Bello sees this, his eyes sharpen as they scan the region.

There!

He spots it; a figure hidden by a house, its cruel fingers on its weapon. Bello fires at it, misses. The figure retreats behind the house. Bello's stomach churns in displeasure. As much as he doesn't enjoy killing his fellow humans, yet one more moment any of his opponents isn't neutralised is one more moment an innocent is in danger. Bello begins to circle back round the house, trying to see if the figure still hides there.

Bang!

A bullet travels from a point beside him. He tracks where it flew towards, and sees a figure drop behind a tree. Beside him, Yeji still has her hand on the trigger; it's obvious she's the one that neutralised the target. Two more bullets fly out, and the target no longer moves. Bello takes a deep breath, then continues.

They get to the edge of the building and pause. Bello gives a sign and Jadim moves stealthily to a tree almost adjacent to their position, then begins to move forward, hiding his form behind trees. Soon, he gets to a tree that sits exactly beside them, and slowly, he spies. He sees some figures moving, but these figures look familiar. Squinting his eyes, his brain tells him these are his comrades so he whistles.

Sui. Sui. Sui. Sui.

The comrades hear it, and one of them whistles back.

Sui. Sui. Sui. Sui. Sui.

Hearing this exchange, Bello and Yeji understand their crew has successfully handled both sides of the block, so they emerge. Bello sees his comrades. Some are still missing, as there are only four present here, and one of them is being carried by the others, obviously injured.

“They scattered into the trees. Tanko, Lami and Auta went that way, we spotted a band of them coming this way, so we followed. Lami already alerted the commander; hopefully we'll be getting backup soon.”

One of them reports. Bello scans the injured one.

“How're you holding up?”

The injured one replies, his breathing slightly laboured.

“I can shoot a few more animals.”

Bello's gaze remains on his body for a while. It's not certain if it's the state of his comrade or his comrade's designation of their opponents as animals that fills his mind right now. After a short while, he takes it away.

“Jadim, Yeji, and I will go in that direction. You four…”

Bang!

A bullet travels through their midst. It misses them, and quickly, they drop to the ground.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

The intensity of the bullets suggests one thing; they might be in a sticky situation. Before they can decide on their next course of action, the situation escalates. Bello's nose twitches. He perceives it, a familiar smell, the smell of burning palm. He looks to the sky, and there, thick smoke ascends into the heavens.

“BACK TO THE TRUCK! MOVE! MOVE!! MOVE!!!”

With his order, the men begin to crawl in the direction of the vehicle, that is, northwards. Bello spots a few figures behind them, ready to end their retreat. Instantly, he stops. Releases a few shots. The figures duck, or fall; it's not certain. His men stop, ready to engage the enemy, but he doesn't let them.

“TO THE TRUCK! NOW!”

“SIR!”

“I SAID MOVE!”

The men understand he aims to provide covering fire, and not wanting to waste the time he's provided, they begin to retreat. Bello shifts closer to the wall, out of the open field. He fires a few more shots, then forcefully breaks into the door behind him.

“Ahhhh!”

A sudden scream from behind him makes him turn around. Behind him is a family of three, shaking uncontrollably by a corner of the room. Bello takes in their appearance, they remind him of a certain duo he left at home. He involuntarily looks in the direction of their vehicle, his heart getting a resolve to survive. Quickly, he makes his decision. The army has already been alerted. The best he can do is join up with his colleagues and hold off the attackers for now. Coming to that decision, he says.

“Shh.”

He hears the sound of people rushing past the door, rushing towards the vehicle where his comrades are. He stays hidden. He breath held. The fire fight continues at a point north of him, most likely where his comrades are. He listens. Around him, it seems there are no other people at his location. He steps back out, staying glued to the walls as he moves, slowly, northwards. As he gets to the edge of a wall, he spots three fighters lying on the ground, firing in the direction where his comrades are. He opens fire, taking them by surprise, hitting them three in one clean pass.

The fighters’ comrades immediately understand they've been out flanked, and an enemy is behind them. One of them turns, Bello dashes towards the trees right of him. Bullets fly after him.

His distraction gives his team mates relief, as, in addition to the fact that their opponents just lost three fighters, they also are now split between two fronts, which is enough to cause enough confusion to perhaps break them.

And it does. The opponents quickly make a decision; to run north east, away from Bello's crew at the north west, trying to escape the precarious position they now find themselves in. Immediately, they move. They fire at Bello, Bello fires back. The goal of both of them isn't so much to neutralise the other party, but to hopefully scare them away. The more Bello moves for cover, the closer the heat of the flames. He looks behind him. The fires are spreading dangerously fast, and of course they will; it's dry season in a sahel region. Bello turns to face his opponents. He fires again. One shot. Two shots. Then nothing. He's out of ammo.

Quickly, he hides behind a tree, throws away the exhausted magazine, and fetches another one from one of his pockets. As he does this, bullets hit the ground floor beside him, kicking up sand and dust. He fetals up, trying to hide as much as possible behind the tree. The reality of his current situation suddenly kicks in.

He's alone, behind a tree, amidst burning trees, with bullets dancing around him.

Bello breathes in, frantically. He suddenly becomes nervous. Every second he spends here is a second he could meet his end. His state of mind begins to seep through his actions, making his reloading action clumsy. The new magazine just somehow won't fit in. Then, he hears it, the sound of shoes on leaves. He lifts his head. His eyes make out the outline of a figure approaching his direction. The figure spots him, opens fire.

Bello rolls to the right, missing the kiss of the bullet by a hair. He stumbles to his feet and runs, his new magazine falling to the ground. The figure follows, probably excited at the prospect of hunting a scared prey. It fires again. Bello keeps running. His breathing fast and hectic. He finds a tree with a wide girth and moves behind it. The figure keeps approaching, firing. Bello tries as much as possible to hide his frame behind this tree. The figure keeps approaching when it suddenly trips over and falls. Bello hears it and forces himself to look. There, on the ground, is his opponent, its weapon fallen a short distance from it. Quickly, he gets up and runs towards the figure. Before the figure can catch its gun and fire again, Bello pounces on it.

Quickly rotating himself, he locks the figure in a chokehold. His grip is tight, and desperate. The figure gasps, struggles, but there is no release. Bello holds his position, determined to end this life, when his eye catches the figure’s form a little better.

Perhaps it was the heat of the battle, or the fear of death, but he's only just realising; this opponent is just a child? As that thought grips his mind, he lets go and the figure falls. Though shocked by the apparent age of the opponent, he's still quick enough to grab their gun and get up, pointing it squarely at them. The figure recovers from their nigh death, coughing and wincing as they turn around. Bello sees their face; it is a child. A boy, perhaps not more than twelve. Bello pauses. The boy's image overlaps with that of his son.

Why?

What sort of monsters will do this to a child?

He holds his gun at the boy with hands slightly trembling.

“Don't move! Surrender!”

The boy coughs once more, looks at Bello's form, smiles, bearing no semblance to a defeated foe.

Then,

He rushes as Bello. Bello, still conflicted, refuses to fire, his momentary pause granting the boy access to his body. Hugging Bello, the boy produces a knife from his clothes.

Shu. Shu. Shu.

Three consecutive stabs enter Bello's abdomen, ripping apart his skin and muscles. The boy looks at his shocked eyes with victory in his own, pleased with his performance. Then,

BANG!

A bullet hits the boy directly in his back, shocking his nervous system. Before he can process this, another bullet enters him, then another one. He loses grip of the knife, his legs lose strength, and he falls to the ground, his expression a mixture of the twisted joy he felt after stabbing Bello, and the surprise of getting shot thrice.

“Sir! Sir!!”

Someone calls from ahead of them. Bello sees the person. It's one of his comrades, not one of the four he had met earlier.

The effects of the stabs begin to kick in. Bello feels his world begin to blur, then fall. After what feels like an eternity, he feels the forest floor, rough and hot. The embers of palm leaves fall slowly around him, smoke drafts across his vision, the world seemingly having slowed down. Then, a hand grabs him in a fireman carry, pulling him out of the forest. For a moment, Bello can hear no sounds, then, a sudden jerk by his carrier knocks his ears back into function.

Screams. Burnings. Gunshots. Cries.

The environment a mixture of pain and gore. Though Bello can hear these, his mind can barely understand it fully. He sees the trees, then houses, then a group of people. A part of his mind tells him these are his comrades, and he should not feel threatened by them. But even if he should, can he resist in his current state?

His eyes catch it. Their worry. Yeji's fear. Jadim's panic.

CRINNNGG.

The sound of the truck's suspension enters his ears as he's gently carried into it. He hears faint cries.

“Go! Go!! Go!!!”

The turn of a key ignites the truck's engine and the it begins to move, away from the settlement, on the same path they came from. Lying down on the open vehicle, Bello's view is a mixture of burning palm trees on both his sides, and the dark blue sky above, covered occasionally by thick dark smoke.

Bello hears in his ears, his own cries, his cries for his mother on a similar night, where palm trees lit the night with their fires, offering their smoke to the high heavens.

This sound, mingled with the ambience of the chaotic night, climaxes to a high, then they begin to recede, even as his vision gets clouded by a creeping darkness. Then, nothing. His senses pick up nothing.

Then,

His view changes. A ceiling, concrete and bare; that's all in his vision. He turns to his left and there's an array of beds, some occupied, some empty. At his right is the same thing, and understanding hits him. He survived, and he is currently in a hospital.

He tries to get up, pain assaults his belly. He grunts. Grimaces. Holds his abdomen in pain. A nurse notices him and moves over. The pain blurs his mind for a moment. She seems to be saying something as her lips are moving, but he simply can't hear it. She lowers him down slowly. He lets her. His mind tells him this is a nurse, someone more knowledgeable at keeping people alive than him. Lying on the bed, he takes breaths, slightly rapid at first from pain, but then they slow down, his mind easing from the pain that's reduced a bit. His mind clears up. He hears her now. She says medical things, things he doesn't understand fully. Another nurse approaches his bed. They say things, he only gets one.

“How are you? How are you feeling?”

How should he answer this question? Yes, she's asking to find out the state of his body. But he's not sure what to say. Then, he finds himself whispering.

“Naku. My wife. Where is she?”

The nurses take that as a good enough response. His situation isn't too bad if he can still remember that. One of them smiles.

“It's okay. She's fine. We'll let her know soon that you're awake.”

Bello nods slowly, and rests his head. His gaze stays on the ceiling, his mind travelling to the events he had just experienced.

“The village. What happened?”

One of the nurses takes a deep breath. The other one answers.

“Due to your intervention, they failed at their plans. Yet…”

She sighs. Then continues.

“At least eleven were killed that night. Your crew lost one too. One called Jadim.”

Bello turns to look at the nurses. He reads their faces. Their words are most likely true. There's no need for them to lie about something like that. He returns his gaze to the ceiling. The name escapes his mouth as a whisper.

“Jadim.”

Then, grief creeps up his soul, his face twists in pain, a tear escapes his eyes, then another one, and another one. He shuts his eyes. Yet, for some reason, he holds it in, choosing not to cry at this moment.

Why?

He hears the voice of his wife, and child. He turns his head to look. They both are currently rushing towards his bed. He forces a smile.