[Published Malawi News 3 March and 14 April 2012]
Asilo had hardly stopped the Mercedes Benz when bullets sprayed it. He jerkily and powerfully stepped on the accelerator. The car protested and violently jerked before fearfully surging forward. It cruised dangerously on the deserted street; missing an electric pole by a fraction, but a bin nearby was not spared. It was left distorted, its contents scattered allover. The car swerved dangerously as the barrage of bullets continued. Asilo panicked but never removed his foot from the accelerator until the cars of his attackers were a distance behind. But later he was desperately scared. The road led to a dead end. Drains, piles of quarry and soils, and stop signs glared at him. He quickly got out and ran, badly craving to know why instead of some client welcoming him, masked assailants had. But first he had to save his life.
He swiftly climbed a wall and his mobile dropped from his pockets and crashed to the ground. He never minded as the cars behind surged forward. He clambered over and his left leg landed badly with a thud. His knee felt numb and piercing pain gashed through his body. For seconds he froze. He then tried to run but stumbled as the injured leg made his every step a struggle. The attackers’ noises were closer now. There was a building corner to his right that was within reach. He lunged, crashing on the hard pavement and somersaulted into disappearance as his pursuers climbed over the wall and came into view.
He zigzagged his way for minutes before reaching a crowded street. He broke his run and tried to walk fast, keeping his composure. ‘In a group of people’, Lino, leader of the group, had told him during drilling, ‘make every effort to attract less attention when you’re on the run’.
Asilo painfully hurried in the crowd. His left leg was getting worse. He tried as much as possible not to limp but failed. He never bothered. All he wanted now was to get away from his attackers. He headed for the taxi rank. ‘As much as you can, avoid crowded public transports,’ another survival skill of Lino echoed in his head. ‘You can endanger innocent lives, and fail to use a weapon effectively to force a non-complying driver as the other passengers might attack you’.
He reached the rank but stopped. His alert eyes had spotted one of the cars of the attackers. It meant they were lurking somewhere. Their zeal in tracking him down puzzled him. ‘Why such passion?’ he wondered. He quickly perused the vicinity and saw it. The forest invitingly lied just ahead; if only he could reach it. He dashed forward and the corner of his eye caught movement in the crowd. The attackers had spotted him.
Asilo ran in the dense forest without stopping until his ears picked no trace of noise. He sat down facing the direction he had come to rest a little bit. He took off his shirt to cool off. The left knee was now swollen and burning. Thoughts madly raced in his head, but tired and paining he was, he failed to focus.
The distant sound of twigs strongly breaking made him jump and he instantly started to run. The branches shredded his face and bare skin. His body ached with excruciating pain, and every step was complete torture. And the thought of dying when fate had smiled on him worsened his perplexity. ‘What the exact wrong have I done?’ he almost cried as he turned to the left and headed towards Mkwivi River. Semi-automatic gun fire broke through the trees. A bullet hit his right leg. He let out a scream as awful pain ripped through his body. In a last effort at survival, he hurled himself towards the river, but it was never to be. His body hit a log and stopped.
He heard clicks of bullet magazines. Asilo closed his eyes and waited for his fate. A kick to his stomach made him gasp in pain, his eyes fluttering open. And the hurting of betrayal that tore through his heart was more than unbearable. He could not believe it. The attackers, unmasked now, were his own gang members, among them Awong’o, leader of operations and his best friend, who had coaxed him to join the group four months ago when he failed to secure employment after graduating.
What Asilo did not know, however, was that he had become a burden when he had excitedly in a show off rushed to purchase the abandoned Mercedes Benz and some fancy household items from the proceeds of his first successful operation. The community had raised eyebrows over a jobless young man affording luxuries. The police were alerted and started to hunt for him; a development unknown to him. But wind of it did not miss the prying ears of Lino. He told the other members that Asilo was to be eliminated before the police laid their hands on him. For the survival of the group, the burden had to die. The following Sunday Awong’o sadly sent Asilo to the deserted street to meet a ‘client’. And Asilo drove into his trap.
Lino aimed his Danuvia VD-01 pistol and pulled the trigger. The bullet came the other side taking Asilo’s life with it.
