Freetown, Sierra Leone
Thylonius-12
"This is what hell must feel like"
That's all I can remember saying to myself as I sat in my room watching all the buildings burn to the ground. It was hot and the sky seemed to be on fire. I could see real live people being burnt alive as if they were meat at a barbeque. It was a sad sight; some were running around their buildings trying to get out. Their bodies were on fire, but they still ran around clinging to life trying to find some way to put it out but, you can't put out fire with more fire. They were surrounded by it, there was no escaping it. It was sadder in my opinion to see that some people realized this fact and they just accepted it. No scrambling, no yelling, just sitting still accepting their fate of being burnt alive by those hellish flames. I honestly didn't know what to do, it didn't seem real. I didn't understand why all of this was happening. I heard all the screams and yells; but they all made no sense. It sounded like a foreign language to me. I was scared, these sights would be horrifying to any 12-year-old boy. I've never seen this many dead bodies before, this much carnage wasn't natural. The screams started to grow louder, the room felt hotter, and the air seemed to thin.
It finally dawned on me my building was next. I should run, I should run now, but I can't move. Why can't I move? This situation is dangerous, why am I still here? They're banging on the door downstairs now.
move.
They're banging on the windows.
move.
They broke the windows.
Move.
They broke down the door.
Move.
The sound of voices, gasoline hitting the floors, the apartment going ablaze.
MOVE!
"TY! ARE YOU AN IDIOT? LETS GO NOW!"
I'm being pulled backwards away from the windows and into the hallway. I started to regain feeling in my legs I stumbled and fell to my knees. I look up to see my big sisters' face staring down at me. Her big, brown, and oval eyes stared down at me as if x-raying my soul. Her face looked frightened yet annoyed as she continued to look down at me, because she was a year older than me, she was taller than me. I hated that, it made her x-ray eyes the ever more intimidating and frightening. I always thought of her as an idiot though, who chose to say whatever was on her mind. At that moment I started to see the value of that limitless confidence.
"We're going to have to jump down from the window in mum and dad's room. Going downstairs is going to be suicide the fire is spreading."
There were many problems with this plan, we were both in pajamas and barefoot. Jumping from the third floor down on solid concrete would surely injure us and limit our movement after that.
"Ni you do know that- "
"I'm aware, do you really think of me as an idiot? Its either this or experiencing a fiery death. If I'm going to die, they will have to fight for my life. It won't be that easy."
This is probably the first time I've seen her ever this serious, so I merely nodded and continued to follow her into the next room. She was right, we weren't going to be like those people across the street in the other building. They were at peace with their death and so they accepted it like they had nothing left to give to this world. Forget that, I would rather be the ones scrambling around trying to find a way out. I will fight for the life I have and there's no way in hell I will go quietly. I have goals, I have dreams, and I have people I love. As we entered my parents' room we paused for a second. It had been a mere 12 hours before our parents left for America for a business conference. It was a normal day in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was mostly sunny, we had a normal day of school, nothing odd or special happened that day. The highlight of the day was coming home to see our parents packing their suitcase. We were told that we were originally born in the states but we don't remember our time there. Growing up in Freetown CniDaria and I, always spoke of the U.S like it was a fantasy land that would solve all our problems. The place seemed so nice and clean where everybody wore jewelry and had fun all day long. It's not like we didn't have a good life here though; we lived in a decent sized apartment and pretty much avoided the slums. We never went hungry, we had plenty friends, and to my knowledge my family has never really "struggled" to survive. I guess when you're young you crave and become curious of what's foreign. New places and new experiences always seemed like a dream to me. Ni always felt the same, her eyes would always light up when she saw the lights of New York or the beaches of Miami on the television. So, we were pleading with our parents to let us join them. What we got instead was a "No, you have school" type of response and it ended (to my irritation) with leaving my sister in charge until they got back. My annoyance with them seems so petty now. I didn't even get to say goodbye because I was being such a brat.
"Knock down the door, I think there's more of them still in here"
A sudden deep voice in the living room knocked us back to our senses, Ni opened the window and I knocked out the screen.
"Listen try to make as little noise as possible even if you feel pain, we don't know their purpose but they seem to be after us as well, you got it?"
I merely nodded and continued to the window. I looked down outside and remembered how scared of heights I was. Yet again I froze paralyzed by fear, I couldn't do it, this felt like suicide to me. Before I could turn around to go back inside, I felt a push on my back and I was falling down from the window and down onto the pavement. I heard a crack as my feet made contact with the ground, it took every amount of restraint in my body not to scream about the agony in my leg right now. I managed to get myself upright as my sister jumped down as well making contact with the ground and sequentially rolling on the ground, becoming upright again without a scratch. I immediately grabbed her and whispered angrily at her.
"You witch, first of all why did you push me and second how come you didn't tell me to roll."
To my annoyance she just smiled.
"You're calling me the witch? Were you not the one who was chickening out on the ledge. Are you not the one with the balls in this situation? As for the 'tuck and roll' situation I thought that was common sense to fall with a roll but you never done it before so what sense would it make telling you? Still would of ended up in an epic fail. Come here, I'll help you walk; we have to move."
Seething with anger I accepted her help, this was not the time to hold on to my pathetic pride. The pain had distracted me from my surroundings. The buildings around us were engulfed in flames and screams of agony filled the air. I started looking frantically around me for a clear way out of this hell. There was none. Even the streets were filled with cars on fire, I couldn't help feeling that things were hopeless. Everything around us was being eaten by flames. My sister started to steer us toward where all the noise was the loudest. I guess she figured that whoever started all this would leave an escape route for themselves. We just had to find a way around it. My instincts told me that this was a bad idea, but I didn't fight her decision. I've given up, there was no way in my mind that we were getting out of this alive. We walked amongst the chaos as people ran, panicked, and died around us. Some being chased, some hiding, and some walking around on fire. I had no idea what was going on and what the cause of this was. I always felt I was old enough to have an idea of local or even national problems. In school and on the news there was never any indication of civil unrest or religious friction. This made absolutely no sense, what was to gain from burning down the neighborhood?
Lost in my thoughts, I was taken by surprise when my sister started to pick up the pace. We had finally reached the vicinity where the bulk of the commotion was coming from. Just as she expected there was a way out of the blazing fire and chaos. There remained 2 buildings untouched by the flames and apparently deserted. Happily, we rushed towards it just like the other people in front of us who sprinted towards it with just as much joy as we had. As they reached the alley that led to salvation all you could see was a rain of bullets piercing skin with blood and guts spilling everywhere. We froze in fear, disbelief, and disgust; our only way out of hell cut off. A roar of laughter ensued coming a group of twenty or so people in the alley. We didn't dare enter their line of sight.
"What the hell! Are you serious? They're just fucking with us how are we going to get out of here?"
I remained silent thinking, my sister's voice sounded shaken and scared very unlike herself. She finally lost her nerve and courage. Something I had been leaning on this whole time, I needed her to give me hope that we were going to survive this. I finally looked up to see the fear and hopelessness in my sister's face. Something about it made me feel angry, it made me forget my fear and pain. I had to focus on us getting out of this situation.
"Let's try and enter the building instead, there should be a back door that should lead to a way out."
She nodded and we both helped each other walk towards the building careful not to enter the sight of the group in the alley. I knew that this way would only end in confrontation, there was no way if their goal was to exterminate us that they wouldn't have people inside this building as well. I thought it would be easier to evade any attack inside instead of out in open in a one-way alley. It might get us killed but I no longer cared, I welcomed them to try and take my life. I was past the fearing for my life and cowering. I wanted blood for my sister's tears. Payment for my city's blood. We entered the building through the front door which I was not surprised to be unlocked. The building seemed to be deserted so we continued to walk through it towards the back though very alert. I finally recognized it to be the local gym where my sister practiced gymnastics and ballet and where I played basketball with my friends. It hit me hard that they were caught in the fire as well, we might not see any of them at all anymore. The thought that they would be already dead or that we would soon enough join them entered my mind. Either way our days here at the gym were over. To my surprise, I felt no presence of another human being as we reached the back door. I looked at my sister to see her face brighten up a bit, I smiled back. The nightmare was finally over, we were getting out of this hell. CRACK!
As I touched the doorknob, I was knocked five feet away from my sister. Excruciating pain yelled from my chest and could barely move without another jolt of pain. As I looked up I witnessed a man with fair skin staring back at me with an evil grin twirling around a wooden bat.
"Well would you look at this, a couple of rats managed to slip by the cracks. And here I thought I wouldn't have any fun hiding out in this building here. I guess even vermin can smell out an obvious trap when you put it right in front of them."
His eyes left me and started to focus on my sister. He started biting his lip with the look of wanting and inched closer to her. My sister, looking horrified and frantic backed away never letting the distance between them change.
"Well, we have a pretty rat here, can't knock your women. They're are very pleasing to the eye. If you weren't such filthy creatures, you might be worth something. I came here once on vacation with my wife because she says she wants to see an exotic place. There are plenty places she could have picked but she chooses the one body of land that's invested with filthy niggers! You can't understand the anger and embarrassment I had to endure following my wife losing her mind running around this place. Who allowed you to even have your own country, it's a shit hole. I thought I was the only one that felt this way but luckily, I was wrong. But you know what, by seeing you I can forgive all of that. I'll just get my compensation from your body; I think that's a fair trade right? Oh? Please don't shy away from me dearie I just want some warmth…"
CniDaria had finally run out of real estate as her back hit the opposite wall. Her panicked look was the last thing I saw as he threw away his bat and pounced on her ferociously grabbing at clothes and flesh. There was no way I was about to let this happen in front of me, no way in hell. With every ounce of my remaining strength and will I reached for the bat and pulled myself up, overcoming my broken leg and ribs. With my anger swelling up inside me I swung the bat as hard as I could against his skull. To me, the room shook. I fell over immediately, screaming in agony. My ribs couldn't handle it and I laid there looking back at the fair skinned man as he looked back blankly. We looked back at each other for a couple of minutes until my sister put my arm around her shoulder and carried me out leaving the fair skinned man still staring. She was crying and she was bruised. Although there was no longer a face of fear but a look of determination.
We walked as far as we could go before our bodies gave out. We found a bench to rest at as we looked back at the smoke still coming from our neighborhood. So much had happened that night and there was so much on my mind. This was the result of just racism? Where were the police? The fire department? No, it made no sense. The slaughter of human beings couldn't go uncontested that easily. Where were our parents? Were they ok? What now? No home, no food. What do we do now? So many questions but for now I allowed myself to sleep. Sleep away my agony and fear. Put an end to the night I first killed.