Love and justice Episode 1

LOVE AND JUSTICE
EPISODE 1
 
 
To serve for my country bec@m£ not only p@rt of my duty but my pas-sion too. I felt an obse-ssion towards my country and I knew anytime, anywhere I was s£nt I would go and fight ha-rd to serve my beloved Zambia. Now I had another thing to live for, I had found love.
Yeah, many are the times that people would say a woman makes a man like myself fall and lose focus, well, at the moment I didn’t care about focus as my heart felt at peace knowing I had served my country and the special unit guys I gave the intel on the people that wanted to ruin my beloved country would do everything to save our nation, well at least that is what I thought.
Here I was driving at a speed of 140 KM/H letting my sweet thoughts rush throu-gh my mind, I found myself smiling. The wind b!owing r0ûghly in my face made me feel excited, not only with the wheels but the thought that I was going to see the woman that stole my heart.
“Go and serve this country and come back to me. I love you” her voice rung throu-gh my head.
The loud ringing of my cell phone placed on the seat next to me took me off my fantasy and I sighed pu-lling the head sets and placing them in my ears.
“hey what`s up?” I asked seeing the call was coming from Chama.
“Hey man, how far?” he asked straight away.
“approaching Chibombo, must be in Lusaka in less than 40 minutes” I responded looking ahead and ma-king sure I pas-sed the truck ahead of me before a Toyota Spatial coming the other way didn’t crush in me.
“What’s up?” I asked hearing him sighing de-eply.
“That woman you kidnaped from the General escaped. She managed to fool one of the boys and he was carried away giving her a chance to escape. One of the boys just called me” Chama added
“Well, I was about to go and re-lease her anyway. After today there is no nee-d for me to pursue those guys. Am done and now the unit will take lead of everything, from now on” I responded holding the steering with one hand whilst the other searched for the half cigarette I had left and lifting the lighter to set it on.
“That’s what I thought until I noticed something on the trackers had on Mberere`s vehicle.” He spoke sounding a bit uncomfortable I hated that he was not going to the point and tell me what the hell was going on alre-ady.
“Spit it out you are not a woman dammit!” I scolded him now placing the lit cigarette on my mouth.
“A squad of vehicles are heading to the hide out. If these guys where alre-ady cornered they wouldn’t be going there especially with such kind of vehicles. The guys at the junction told me the trucks are loaded with guys and from the look of things, they were armed.” He stated and I lost control for a second the vehicle swaying away from the road for a couple of seconds till I managed to put it in control reducing the speed.
“What was that?” I asked wanting him to be as clear.
“You got me right man, they know where we were and am sure they are going to destroy the entire place killing everyone in the camp” he added.
“fv¢k! fv¢k! fv¢k! I cursed hitting the side of the steering avoiding the horn.
“Damn, those fools my woman is in the camp and if that b*itch managed to get away, she must have looted us out and they know exactly where to go. How long ago this did happen and why am I getting it now? “I yelled trying to find someone to vent my anger on.
“She escaped about 2 hours ago and the boys just called a few minutes pas-sed, they said the boy on guard was knocked out and they didn’t know till ….” He could not finish his s£ntence and I cut in.
“Tell me how far they are from getting there. Maybe I can cut throu-gh using a short cut and rescue Queen before they get to the camp” I panicked increasing the speed and getting rid of the bu-tt.
“About 20 to 25 minutes out” he responded.
“Keep me on them and call the idiots back there to move out as soon as possible. If my woman dies so will everyone in that camp!” I shouted removing the head sets and concentrating on the road ahead.
Now I was mad, how I hated being put on the urge and feeling useless. Just when I was thinking I would give myself some rest from all the pressure they made me go back to being wild. I didn’t mind the horns sounding at me as I pas-sed throu-gh the vehicles ahead. Now was not time to pl@ygentle, it was a matter of life and death and for a moment the only life I was so concerned about was Queen`s.
“How far off?” I called Chama again as I was approaching the camp a few minutes later.
“10 minutes out” he informed me.
“Dammit, they must be right ahead of me” I spat cutting the call. I was seeing the house we camped on a few meters away and my heart raced as I cruised to get there.
I was just a few meters away and I saw the whole place b!ow in flames with a loud ban-g that s£nt my eyes into instant blackout it took a minute for me to recu-perate my vision, it was dark everywhere but the fire coming from the place made an area of about 5 meters lit like it was day light.
“No!” I heard myself yell and placed my leg which was struck on the br@kes at the time of the ban-g and accelerated it driving throu-gh the small gate and to the front of the burning house and the sheds around.
I looked up and saw the last vehicle disappearing on the other end. I just missed them by an inch and I felt powerless. My hope was that Queen and some of the guys were not in the camp at the time but to add to my wounds, I saw some bodies of dead men laying around the place. Some were sh0t and others were burnt by the fire. I ran around trying to call for Queen like a mad man but she was nowhere to be seen.
“No, no, it can’t be. I told these idiots to move, why are they here?” I asked myself as I tried to search my phone for to call Chama. Remembering I left it in my vehicle I rushed back and went throu-gh the alre-ady open door, pu-lling the phone out.
“Did some of the guys move from here?” I asked him before he could even respond.
“I don’t really know I told them to. What happened?” he asked
“The boys are dead and am not sure of Queen yet. I was a few minutes late man” I told him my hand in my head I paced around feeling mad.
“Can they be that she is …”
“don’t dare say it man, don’t even mention that sh*t to me. She cannot be dead” I almost yelled but I saw a cloth from the other end.
“hold on a minute” I paused walking to the point I saw a cloth I knew belonged to Queen cause I left her wra-pping it around her n£¢k. The piece was half burnt and I was still looking around when I saw a b©dy lying next to it burnt. Slowly like I was scared of the dead form ahead of me I stepped forward and seeing the b©dy looked feminine I went down on knees my mouth stuck.
“Steve, what is going on man, what is there?” Chama was asking from the other end and I kept my eyes on the dead b©dy feeling drained and so frail I had never felt that shaken before.
“Steve, talk to me man, what is going on there. How many men have you lost, is Queen among them?” I heard Ackim asking me taking over from Chama.
“The bas***ds got to her, I was too late and now she is gone. I killed her man, I brou-ght her out here and put her in harm`s way, I f*****g killed her!” I screamed this time I felt something we-t my face and I t©uçhed my face laughing between my cries feeling so stupid.
“Am so sorry man “
“They f*****g killed her and I am crying right now. I don’t cry dammit! I don’t cry for anyone but they have made me cry those bas***ds!” I screamed the more steeping away from the b©dy and staggering down like a drun!kperson.
“Calm down man, we will get them, you have to calm down and don’t you dare do anything stupid” Ackim warned but I was not listening. I was so pissed it was aching my che-st I felt would bur-st any minute.
“plea-se listen to me, I know you are hurt and probably going f*****g crazy there, but I nee-d you to stay focused. If you have to avenge your woman you nee-d to stay calm or they will kill you” he spoke but I put the phone down not wanting to hear him say another word.
“Steve, don’t hang up dammit! Listen to me! Steve!” I heard him shouting but I cut him and turned off the phone. I didn’t nee-d his advice, I was not in the mood to hear him and now I was burning like a furnace, I nee-ded to let out the fire inside and I knew exactly where I was to go.
 
 
To be continued.
©Tisa Phiri