The Devil's Tunnel

A Devil's Tunnel

The tunnel was pitch black, and the thought of us escaping from the hands of the rebels was one that run across my mind and made my flesh crawl. The sound of bullets could hardly be heard and the screams were faint apart from the panting of our own hearts, we were left with no choice but to run into a dark tunnel. The look at my sister's bruised leg was a lamp in my throat, she was off color. She sat with hunched shoulders, a furrowed forehead and her face contorted as though she was struggling not to cry. Her grey eyebrows lowered and a solemn tear fell down her. "The die is cast but time heals all wounds" I comforted her. My little brother sat in the next corner, white as a sheet. He shifted on the rough rock and let out a heavy sigh. Exhaustion reflected on his face. I made empty stares in the room,a sob rose in my throat as my eyes were prickling with tears. 

It all started when the current government decided to amend the constitution and violate human rights. People were being massacred on streets and the level of poverty was at it's highest peak. This led to the creation of various rebel groups going against the government in power. War sparked off and insecurity increased. It was one fateful day when my little brother, sister and I were playing in the neighborhood. Our relatives had sat down inside the house listening to a political program when we heard a loud bang in our compound. "Was that thunder?" asked my brother. He had never heard the sound of a gunshot. At this point, I over heard my mother crying out our names. "Davis! Pamella! George! don't come home!" This confusion of mother prohibiting us from going back home was accelerated by four more rapid gunshots. It was at this moment that we saw Uncle Phillip jumping over the mud fence. His tongue was out and he was panting like a dog. "Run for your lives, all your relatives have been taken by one of the rebel groups. I was mature enough to make that tough decision and thus held my already yelling siblings on either side and set off down hill at the fastest speed. With countless falls and screams we managed to hide in a small area that looked like a cave. "Let's rest here" I said. No sooner had we sat down than we saw rebels charging at us with weapons I had only witnessed in movies. On stumbling back in fear, we slid into a dark enclosure which was completely dark. All we heard were footsteps above us with loud roars from the rebels continuing without noticing us.

Spending a week underground was probably the darkest in my life. It was a month of Sundays since we last had a glimpse of the sun. The feel of daily coldness from the rocks was so unbearable. We had neither a torch nor a lighter and all we had was to be lions and brave the darkness. I was torpid, my stomach was empty and my heart was numb. My feet were throbbing after the long run. 

We couldn't let moss grow over thus we started trecking day and night to the other end of the tunnel. We had to sink or swim. We had a daily rat race. We couldn't differentiate between day and night. Supposedly, what seemed to be a night, as we had settled down to rest, we heard footsteps coming closer to our direction. We couldn't wait for a bell to ring for us to get on our toes again. My little brother was a cheetah, he jumped over the big stones on the ground surface of a tunnel like a hunted kob or antelope. He climbed over the tunnel walls like a lizard. I had to reduce my pace so as to leave my sister run safely in the middle. We ran until we thought that it was safe and rested. On what seemed to be another night, it was my brother who shouted from the blue. "A snake in the corner!" He screamed. It was at this moment that I realized the hidden talent my sister had. "She ran swiftly among the tunnel walls like an ant. Hardly had we stopped when my little brother told us it was just a dream. Oops! I let out a loud laughter that left my sister angry and disappointed. " I guess you're going for Olympics after all this" I chuckled at her jokingly. This even made her more hungry as we sat helpless. "What if this ruddy rock collapses?" My sister snarled. "But lightning never strikes in the same place, never say die." I retorted. We already faced the first problem and God can't forget us in this one. My sister stared at me like a preacher staring at his hungry congregation. That evening we feasted on termites, spiders snd some other insects i hadn't seen in my lifetime. This made me believe that needs must when the devil drives. It was indeed a devil's tunnel. That night we collected lots of insects. My sister crashed a soft rock and spread over our meal to give it a salty taste. We slept on full stomachs and that could be evidenced through the loud snores that echoed in the tunnel corners. I closed my eyes and waited for another day of what seemed to be a pilgrim.

Not long before I had a beaming light castigating onto my eyelids. "Could it be a dream." I wondered. The fear of losing what I thought to be temporary pleasure prohibited me from opening my eyes."One swallow doesn't make a summer." I said to myself. The sweetness of the smell around rose from dump, awkward to sweet and with all flavors. The melodious sounds of birds singing swiftly made me anticipate that the sky had opened. It was angelic and thrilling.

The piercing sound of my little brother woke me up. "Hooray the sun". I peeped through a little crack in the rock and saw a round orange ball in the beauteous blue sky. The sun shone through the grasses giving life to everything in the area. The rays on the flowers gave them a pretty golden look. We had reached the end of the tunnel and into the safe land. It was indeed a summer solstice.

Tiptoeing, with a wide smile, I stepped out into the grassland to feel the orange rays of the sun beaming on to my melanin once again.