In that moment, the air erupted in screams as the soldiers started firing their guns at the protesters. Eric and his new companions quickly got up and began dousing Atem in their drinks as he screamed and rolled in pain, holding his face.
"We need to run!" Akeer said, panicking.
But Eric didn't hear a thing. It was as if he were underwater, and all the sounds around him were murky. The only thing he could hear with clarity was the guns firing away at the people, not just protesters anymore. He could see it: the orange light zooming across the town square, killing protesters and bystanders alike. A protester fired back and managed to injure some soldiers, but he was quickly and brutally killed by an onslaught of bullets, not from one or two soldiers but from seven, firing their guns at his already dead body. As far away as Eric was, he could see everything clearly. The man died standing up. But the soldiers were unrelenting. They continued firing their powerful guns at him until his limbs were blown off by the hail of bullets. When the soldiers eventually stopped firing, all that was left was a bloody, disfigured corpse. The man's body had only one leg left; the rest of his limbs had been blown off in bits and pieces, and on the right side of his chest was a big gash of red flesh that oozed blood down to his only remaining leg. Even after all those bullets, he had died standing up. But not for long, as a soldier shot at his remaining leg, knocking his corpse off balance. Eric couldn't think; his mind was completely blank, and the sounds were all still murky. On top of that he couldn't move. His body was completely paralyzed and shaking. He tried to move his fingers, but all they could do was shake wildly up and down. The only thought that formed in his mind was, am I going to die here?
"Eric, Eric, Eric, Eric!"
He heard someone calling his name, but his body and mind couldn't react. They were still processing the grotesque scene unfolding before his eyes. He could feel someone pulling him by the arm until his body finally registered the need to move. He followed and looked down at the hand holding him. It wasn't his father's, nor Adut's. It was a girl's hand, soft, warm, and small. Is she Adut's wife? he wondered. Then he looked up and saw a messy bun and realized it was Akeer. At her side was Thon, with his shirt off, carrying Atem. His shirt, completely soaked, was wrapped halfway across Atem's head, covering only the area above his nose. But despite half of his face being covered, Eric could see the black burns on his lower face, and some red too. Was that blood? he wondered. He turned his head back to the front and saw that Akeer was yelling something to Thon. Fear consumed her face. Thon yelled something back, but somehow it didn't reach Eric's ears. He looked around and saw that men, women, and children alike were running and tripping over each other. Eric even saw some women running and tripping over their kids. Some cried, and one didn't even get to cry, as the little infant's head was crushed by her own mother's weight. Eric could see the blood splattered on the ground. But the mother, instead of mourning and crying for her child, just ran away, even faster than before, no longer burdened by her baby. Eric saw a family. The father was knocking door by door, but none welcomed him and his family in. The mother was hushing her children as they cried against her leg and belly. Then they finally decided to run with the wave after wave of people, but it was too late for them. In slow motion, Eric could see several orange lights zooming past his right eye, and in that moment his entire world was lit in a green light. When he looked back to the front, he could see the children's lifeless bodies slowly falling to the hard concrete. Their mother, bending over to help them, was impaled by an orange light in the side of her head. She fell gracefully on top of her children, as if she were hugging them. The father, not yet processing what had just happened to his entire family, was shot in the eye by the orange light. He fell down dead, without even the privilege of dying while holding his family one last time. But even after witnessing all of that, Eric's eyes didn't well up with tears. All he could feel was his heart beating quickly and his ears ringing. The entire world moved in slow motion, and even when Akeer opened her mouth to yell as tears flooded down her cheeks, he could only see it frame by frame. Then they eventually stopped.
"Akeer, we can't go back to your house or mine. It's too far."
"Then where should we go?" she screamed, tears flowing down her face as thick saliva built up in her mouth.
Thon quickly went over to an office building and signaled for Akeer to jump in first. But before she could, Eric felt himself bumped by the stampede of people, and then everything went black.
Eric was adrift in his mind, not knowing what to make of the situation. What's happening? he thought, the words ringing across his mind.
Am I going to die?
No, no, I don't want to die.
I want to live.
I just want to see my mom. Just one last time, he thought, each thought echoing in his mind.
"Eric."
"Eric."
"Eric."
What is that sound? Is someone calling me?
"Eric."
Then Eric felt a sharp sting against his cheek. As his eyelids slowly opened, he saw Akeer on top of him, gripping his face with one hand. Eric stared up at her, at her brown eyes. And she stared back down at him. This time they didn't break eye contact. They stared at each other for several seconds until she uttered these words.
"They're so pretty."
But after saying this, she immediately snapped back to reality and got off him.
"Sorry, I just wanted to wake you up. You were sleeping for a long time," she said, wiping away the tears that still leaked from her eyes, though more slowly now.
Eric sat up, rubbing his eyes, and asked,
"What day is it today?"
"It's Thursday," she responded.
"So I slept through all of yesterday."
She nodded.
Then the memories flooded back into Eric's mind: Atem getting burned, the man and the family getting brutally killed, and him getting knocked out when he hit his head on the ground. His brain was on now; he fully registered everything that had happened.
"What happened to Atem? Is he okay?"
She nodded as tears began to leak down her face profusely.
"Are you okay?" Eric asked.
"I'm fine. But his face is completely burned, and his nose is just hanging off his face. But—" She stifled a sob, barely keeping herself together.
"He'll live," she said, her face twitching.
Eric was about to get up and give her a hug when Thon came into the room.
"You're awake."
"Is he awake?" Akeer quickly asked.
"He's sleeping. I covered his face in bandages from the first aid kit."
She sighed, then slumped down in a corner, hugging her arms and crying into her legs.
"Listen, Akeer, we need to go out and get some food and some medical supplies from a store or pharmacy, because we have nothing to ea—"
"No!" she yelled, cutting him off.
"Listen to me. I'm fine without eating, but what about Atem? He needs medical supplies. I checked the whole building, and there aren't any left. You and Eric need to come with me so we can bring back as much as we can," he said.
"Then who's going to stay with Atem?"
"We have to leave him."
"No."
"Stop being stubborn, Akeer. Do you want his face to get infected?"
"I'm not being stubborn! What if some people come in here and kill him? Or what if they come in and barricade the whole place and we can't get in? Or what if we get taken by the soldiers, and Atem has to stay here by himself, suffering in this place until he dies? I can't do it. I can't leave him," she said, her voice growing weaker.
Thon sighed, knowing he would never convince her to take the risk.
"I'll go with you," Eric said, his hand still trembling, though he hid it behind him.
"Alright. The soldiers are patrolling the streets, so be quiet and don't let them see you."
Eric nodded.
Thon left the room and waved Eric over to help push a huge shelf away from a broken window. Thon jumped through first, then Eric. They quickly ran across the street into an alleyway. Thon gestured for Eric to be quiet and follow right behind him, and Eric did. As they walked, they regularly stopped and looked around to make sure there were no soldiers nearby.
"Thon, do you know what happens if we get caught?"
Thon stopped walking and turned to look at Eric.
"No. But we're children, so they should send us to some kind of detention camp, I think. But that's if we get caught," he said.
Eric nodded.
"Are you scared?" Thon asked.
Eric paused for a moment before responding.
"Yes. …Yes, I am afraid, but I'm fine."
"I know I'm going to sound weird for saying this, but we aren't going to die. They can't kill children, so we'll be okay," Thon said.
"How are—"
Gunshots and screams filled the air.
"Get down!" Thon said.
Eric got down, and both of them crept behind two large stacks of crates at the end of an alleyway that gave them a direct view of the town square. At the center of the square there were people and soldiers, all armed with rifles. They were standing over people, both men and women, tied up and naked.
"Everybody, look at these traitors. They were planning to sell our information to the Sudanese. Not only that, they were poisoning your ears, making you believe that we were trying to enslave you. Their plan was to turn you all into their spies and disposable soldiers at their beck and call. They were trying to make you rebel against us; they were trying to destroy us. But not today, not ever," a soldier said into a microphone, his voice propelling each word.
The people tied up screamed.
"It's for the betterment of the people! It's for the people we love!"
The soldier turned around and told his men to set them free.
"This is what we will do to our enemies," the soldier said, turning to the shops and homes, smiling.
The people got up and looked at the soldiers, confused. They slowly stepped back, but nothing happened to them. Then one soldier gestured for them to go. Still hesitant, they backed up again, faster this time. Then they dashed off, sprinting for their freedom, for their lives. But Eric and Thon knew what was going to happen next. Every one of the soldiers had a smile on his face as they brought up their rifles, all firing at once, sending out an onslaught of bullets. Eric closed his eyes; he didn't want to see the same gore, just as grotesque as the day before. When he opened his eyes again, he saw people quickly drawing the curtains in their homes, and in the stores the people inside began putting up more barricades.
"We will inform you all when you will be allowed back outside," the soldier said into his microphone.
Thon sighed and gestured for Eric to be silent, pressing his finger to his lips multiple times. Then he gestured for Eric to follow him.
As they zoomed from street to street and alleyway to alleyway, Eric's arm couldn't stop trembling.
"Are we really safe?" he whispered to himself.
"Will they really just send us to camps?"
He asked himself these questions over and over until they finally reached a store that was completely barricaded, with shelves upon shelves behind the windows.
"How are we supposed to get in?" Eric whispered, his voice trembling.
Thon gestured for Eric to follow him. At the side of the store there was a door with a big hole right beside it.
"Do you think you can fit in there?" Thon asked.
"I can try."
Eric bent down and entered the hole but had trouble getting all the way in.
"Push me," Eric said.
Thon pushed him until he eventually managed to get in.
A few seconds later, Eric opened the door.
"Did you see the light switch?"
"It doesn't work," Eric responded.
"Sigh. They must've cut the power for the entire town. But I have a lighter in my pocket," Thon said, retrieving his lighter and switching it on.
"Wait. Do you hear that?" Eric asked.
Screams rang out through the shop, followed by the sound of breaking glass. Eric's heart leapt. Thon gestured for Eric to be quiet as they slowly approached where the noise was coming from. Eric was about to turn the corner, but luckily for him, Thon pulled him back and covered his mouth. He gestured that the origin of the screams was right around the corner. As they both peeked out, they saw a group of soldiers surrounding a woman with a child clinging to her. The woman knelt down, begging the soldiers. The saliva building up in her mouth only made her voice harsher and more terrifying to Eric's ears. It didn't help that the child was also crying as he buried his face in his mother's side, too afraid to even look at the soldiers.
"Please, please, I don't know where they are."
"Then what the fuck is this?" the soldier said, throwing a notebook to the ground.
"Why does it have drawn maps and plans to ally with our adversaries?"
"That's not mine. I swear. I—"
She was cut off by a slap across the face from the soldier. Seeing his mother crying and in pain, the child finally gathered the courage to defend her.
"Don't hurt my mommy!" he said, charging at the soldier and biting his leg.
The bite seemed to cause the soldier no pain. He responded only by kicking the child in the gut while his comrades laughed. The child lay on the ground, vomiting as he cried.
Eric's heart beat wildly as he hid, witnessing everything. Eric wanted to step in and help, but he knew he would only end up just like that little boy in the corner, shaking uncontrollably. But knowing this, he still debated with himself. Step in and help, or just watch this happen without the power to stop it? But if I don't step in, what does that make me? Would it make me a monster, just like them? Then I wouldn't be any different from them. If I turn a blind eye, I'm allowing this to happen. But if I do help, I'll get hurt, or even die. Is it really worth it to put other people's safety over my own? But if I put my own safety first, wouldn't that make me a coward? But I'm not. I want to save them, I do, but at the same time I'm afraid. Fear is holding me back. But why should I save them? Or rather, why do I want to save them? I've never met them, not once in my life. And the fact that I didn't already jump in to save them is proof enough that I'm not a hero. Yet I want to be a hero. I want to be strong, to be looked up to. I want power, power to be loved by people. But isn't that transactional, if I want praise and my peers' love in exchange for helping them? Then my very drive itself would make me a…faker. These thoughts detonated in his mind until they were interrupted.
"Please, please, sir, I will give you everything. Anything you want. Please just don't."
The soldier grabbed her face before she had a chance to say more. He stared deep into her eyes before saying,
"What I want is your soul. I want yours, your son's, our adversaries', and the entire revolution's souls. I want to see you all burn," he said, throwing her face to the floor.
"But if you want to live, tell us where the revolution is hiding. We've already deciphered some of the secret code you've been sending."
The woman took a couple of seconds to think before making a decision. She nodded at them and began telling them everything she knew. As this was happening, Eric grew restless. Should he step in or not? He contemplated in his mind: was it even worth stepping in? Were their lives really worth risking his own? Then, without thinking, he was about to confront the soldiers and save the mother and the child, but Thon stopped him.
"What are you doing, Eric? We can't save them."
"But we can't just—"
"We can't save them, Eric."
Once again, Eric took a moment to contemplate before nodding. He just wished the woman and her son would not be harmed any further. At most they would be sent to prison, he convinced himself. They both crouched down and moved carefully in the aisles, making sure not to make the slightest sound.
"Take whatever you think we need. We don't need water; there's plenty in the fridge back at the office building," Thon whispered.
Eric nodded.
"Oh, and here are the bags," he said, lifting the back of his shirt to reveal scandal bags tied around his belly with makeshift ropes that looked to be knotted shoelaces.
He carefully but quickly untied them and gave Eric two big black bags to store food in.
"Put in as many as you can," he whispered.
Eric nodded and did as he was told, all while hearing those sounds that defiled his ears.
"Thon, I'm done," Eric said, in a whispering, shaky voice.
"We need to take one last thing," he said, gesturing for Eric to follow him.
"There it is."
Thon pointed toward a wall with a glass box containing the first aid kit.
Thon stood up and tried to open the box, to no avail.
"Shit," he cursed, pressing his forehead against the box.
A moment of silence filled the air; the only sounds were the frequent sniffles of the child and his mother being defiled.
Thon sighed and looked down at Eric, who was still crouching.
"Listen to me, Eric. I'm going to break this glass box. When I do, I want you to carry this and run. Don't worry about me."
Eric's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened.
"No. If you do, then—"
The sound of shattering glass halted every other sound in the store. Thon quickly threw the first aid kit to Eric and shouted,
"RUN!"
Eric took the two bags and the first aid kit and ran.
"I thought you said there wasn't anybody fucking here."
"No."
The woman began screaming.
This situation sent a bolt of adrenaline through his body. He looked behind him and saw that Thon was being chased around the store by two of them, and the other three were running after him. Eric quickly turned the corner and threw the bags and the first aid kit through the large hole, then went through himself, but this time he wasn't stuck.
He could see the soldiers' arms reaching out of the hole for his legs as he backed away.
"COME HERE!" they shouted.
But at this point Eric was in full survival mode; he wasn't even shaking. His mind was completely clear. The only message his mind sent to his entire body was run.
Eric obeyed without question. He took the bags and the medical supplies and took off, running across the street. Behind him he could still hear the screams of the woman and her son.
"NO, PLEASE, NO! YOU SAID YOU WOULD LET US GO! NO!" the woman screamed.
Then shots were heard, and then the screaming stopped.
Eric knew that could only mean one thing.
By now Eric's heart was practically beating like a drum, but his mind was completely clear. He was focused on one thing: getting out of this situation alive.
"BOY, STOP!" a group of soldiers yelled.
Eric didn't look to see where they were. He just ran and ran. He crossed streets and ran through alleyways, all while hearing shots fired behind him.
"STOP!"
He ignored all the yelling and the sounds of shots firing in the air and continued running. Then he saw the entrance to an alleyway, one of the alleyways he and Thon had come out of. The map created itself in his mind: he was close, just a few turns away. But as Eric was about to turn the corner, he was grabbed from behind and pulled into a building. His captor covered his mouth and restrained him as he tried to squirm free.
"WHERE THE FUCK DID THE BOY GO?" a soldier yelled as he zoomed past.
Eric turned his eyes to look at his captor. From the shape of the person's body Eric could tell it was a male, maybe a year older than him. He wore normal clothing, and his face was wrapped in black cloth. His captor held a finger to his lips and whispered,
"Be quiet."