The Antelope's Journey

11. Francina's revenge

About what Jim told me in the cell, could I believe him? He told me some promising things. Apparently, I should not worry myself over the dying. He said that it all works out in the end. He said, I’ll find out more in the future. However, so far there seems to be nothing promising about this place. People keep passing on and we keep getting attacked. And apparently, I shouldn’t worry about that.

I wanted to stick close to him, but could I really? He refuses to tell me all the details, word for word on everything he knows… Or could he just be bluffing? Is he just making it all up as he goes? The question remains, could I trust him? I mean the general rule into surviving the world these days is to not trust anyone. But this is not the world, this is a game—

“Watch out, Francina!” Jim pulled her in to squeeze in his tile. He had pulled her away from a power blast thrown by the appearing witch. Jim was dedicated to keep Francina alive. He was drawn to the little fellow. He felt more closer to her than he was to the rest in the group. He believed that if anyone could survive and finish the game, it would be her. Hence, he would not allow anything to happen to her.

Eventually, one by one The Five Great witches and wizards appeared in their black cloaks. They floated above, intimidatingly. They had burning currencies hovering above their palms. They would say nothing but started shooting off.

The gamers had to start moving. They had to make a good choice on the tiles—they had to have good timing. Francina and Jim had been conversing as they squeezed in a single tile. They seemed to have reached an agreement, they nodded to each other before splitting up again. The agreement was to hide behind the two traitorous cousins—Alamson and Victor. This was a good deal for Francina considering, she had her own grudge against the two.

Francina was a vengeful little fellow. She never forgot nor forgave that time in the Safari when one of the cousins shoved her down and left her there to be eaten by the wild. Francina also remembered that her team lost a lot of members due to the two cousins’ betrayal that day. And so, she was onto them.

“What are you doing! Why are you following me around,” asked Alamson. Francina did respond while bending a little lower to cover her whole self behind him, “Shut up. Keep moving. You stay stuck in one place, they shoot at you.” He did try to push her off as he leaped onto the next tile, but she hung onto him and they leaped together once again.

Francina saw a blast coming from her side and she spun around him, exposing him instead. She kept herself detached from him so the current wouldn’t flow onto her. The blast hit him and he shook, but shortly, he was back to his self again. They had all expected something bad to happen after being blasted. “It’s the protection herbs!” cried Jim, he was reacting to what he saw of Alamson bouncing back from the blast.

They expected that he would burst and vanish but instead, Alamson managed to shake it off. Before Alamson could regain his full consciousness, Francina quickly shoved him off the tile. Alamson fell to his doom.

So, the protection herbs would protect them. This was promising news to a lot of them. Now they just had to focus on stepping good. They knew they still had so much to overcome but realizing that they, at least, had some protection did relieve them.

Kali had seen what Francina did. He was shocked at her deviousness, and more importantly, he was not impressed. Kali could also see Jim going down the same path. He had seen them get thrown into the cell together earlier on—he believed they were together. Now, he just saw a bunch of backstabbers. He was so infused with what they doing that he did not see—

“Hey, kid, watch out!” Kamo roared.

…the current blast on him. That, indeed, woke him up. He shook off the shock and started moving. Others’ protection herbs had worn off, they received a lot of blasts prior. Now, they had to try by all means to avoid any more blasts. The true nature of desperation in them got exposed. They began doing exactly what Francina and Jim were doing—they hid behind one another. A blast took one them, she vanished into thin hair. What was left was a grey smoke of her soul ascending to one of the witches.

The last cousin had seen what had been done to his brother, and he was infuriated by that. His strong emotions would not subside and to make it worse, Jim had long been staggering behind him. This pissed the last cousin off. He could almost foresee Jim doing the same thing to him as Francina did to his brother. With a quick flash, he spun around and swung his fist at Jim’s face. Jim, falling back, managed to leap onto a new tile behind himself. That was a save. As he shook off the blow to his nose, he saw the cousin launch at him once more. Jim quickly ducked down and he grabbed the man’s waist. Jim had his arms tightly wrapped around the last cousin’s abdomen; he would not let go. They started pulling and pushing. The cousin was desperately trying to release himself off of Jim grip. Meanwhile, Jim was aggressively trying to hold him still so he can lift him up and toss him over. It was an intense squabble, considering that the tile would soon disappear.

The gamers had been trying for some time now. They were closer the baobab trees ahead. Francina saw a boy struggling behind. He had been hanging with his fingers on the tile. It seemed that he had missed a step.

Kali struggled getting back onto the tile. He was fearful that the tile might vanish soon enough. He could see ahead, Kamo was far by now and there was no way he would turn back for him. Kali always felt it inside that he would not make it to the end of the so-called game. At least, he finally knew what his father was busy on all two decades of his life. The tile vanished and Kali fell off.