The Antelope's Journey

15. Man, she is heartless!

Man, she is heartless. So, she actually left her friend behind like that. First, she got those two cousins killed and now, she abandons her friend so easily. Is this what life is outside my father’s walls? Could this have been what he was actually protecting me from?

They found themselves in tunnels. They could only depend on their torches for light. The tunnels were spacious but also stinky. They stuffed their nostrils, pinched their noses, they did the most, but the smell was just still there. In the end, they only had to get over the smell. Kali was also preoccupied with his monkey. Monkey was shivering, she did not take kindly to the place. The place was all too dark and closed in. Monkey curled up inside Kali's jacket. She was being balanced on Kali's arm. He kept caressing her and rocking her in his arms, as he remembered that Monkey was still a baby. It had been long hours since they started walking. Their legs were already beginning to get wobbly, a hot wave washed over their heads and their grumpy stomachs were grumbling by now. It was fatigue and hunger. It was a silent common wish to finish the journey already among all of them, however they could not do much without rest. At some point, they took a rest.

Their numbers had reduced all the way from 40 to just 5 of them. They had watched others fall prey to the environment of the game but it was unheard of what had happened to the rest. Where were they still alive? Have they given up or were they trapped? They could only guess. For the sake of their mental health, they chose not to let their minds ponder too much on that. At this point, all of them were in critical condition with regards to their mental state. At this point in time, they were unstable and emotional. It was likely that they would continue to question and doubt if they were going to make it in the end.

Resting. They sat in their pairs; Betty cuddled with Mbali at the fire, joining them was Kamo and Kali. Meanwhile, Monkey was fascinated by the fire, she kept throwing tiny stones in to see how the fire would react. Only Francina wandered around a bit more, trying to explore the area. She did not go far—she was only trying buy time as the others rested. She just knew that she was not welcome anywhere near them. She could sense the tension, the entire journey there. In fact, she had picked up on a few observations the entire time. None of them spoke to her—they only talked among themselves. From time to time, she wanted to throw in a few comments but the hostility was too aggressive towards her. She had also seen them throw silent signals between themselves whenever they said things she wasn’t supposed to hear. She felt outcasted, and she knew that this was about what she did back then—she left her close friend, Jim, behind. Atop that, she had shown no remorse.

At some point, Francina agreed withing herself that she, too, needed to sit down and rest. If she was to proceed with the game, she had to regain her strength. Francina thought that she would brave herself up and go join the circle by the fire. But seeing them paired up like that drew her back. Betty cuddled with Mbali, and Kali sat very close to his father figure, Kamo. Seeing this, Francina did not want go into that circle to be the lonely one.

“Yeah, that was my son. He means everything to me,” Kamo had been sharing his story with the rest. They were sharing the reasons for what their illusions may had meant.

“My wife is falling apart, my son is dying and I am here, uncertain of my outcome. If only I could win the money…”

Betty leaned towards Mbali’s ear and whispered, “You were married,” Mbali was laying with her back on Betty’s chest, “to a guy. Is that what you truly want? Husband?” It was only fair that Betty gets the explanation of that was about. When she saw Mbali with a man, she got jealous and mostly angry. For a long time, Betty had always felt safe with Mbali but now things changed. Now, Betty felt threatened after seeing what she saw. For the first time, she felt on guard.

“Betty, I wanted a family. I wanted a child most, but I also wanted just someone to share that child with me. I wanted a co-parent, not a husband.” Mbali continued, “Maybe, that is what Francina wants… A father.”

In the prison cell, Jim told me to leave him behind if I had to. But then why do I feel bad? Maybe, there’s a chance I’ll also get stuck in here and I’ll never manage to get him out—

“You’ve been awfully quiet since we left that delusion hole.” Kali found her at her own corner. He drew down next to her. “Well, you never really talk much, but lately, you’ve been kind’a worse.” A moment of silence, and still the dissociated girl said nothing. He was trying to converse with the girl. The others had warned him from getting too close to her—they used the example of Jim as a teachable lesson. Anyone who got close to her, would fall to their dismay—according to them. Kali thought he should try and make the judgment himself. He believed that he knew the girl more since her saw her first compared to the rest of them. He saw her for the first time sitting by the side of the road all drenched and disconnected. He also saw her tip-toeing in his father’s house. It was enough for his for him to think he was much more familiar with her than the others.

Francina would spit no words. She sometimes struggled with social cues. Where there was no question, she knew no response. The boy decided to talk more. Maybe, throw in a question for her to answer. “You’re feeling guilty for what you did to your friend?”

Still nothing. She would not bring herself to answer that. Kali started removing his jacket to see his chest scar. He had just gulped down his remaining portion and he wanted to check the scar he obtained from the heart operation he was made to have in that ‘delusional hole’. Francina saw on his biceps, there was no patch.

“Where’s your mark?”

“I don’t have it, I actually snuck in here.”

“That’s not possible, we were all scanned before we got here.”

“The guards did get distracted at some point and I took my chance.”

“Why would you come here? How did you know about any of this?”

Kali was glad to finally be talking to her. He still had mixed feelings about her traitorous nature, but he felt pleased to get to talk to her still. “That man, The Boss, is my father. He had been working on this project for years and so, I wanted to find out what it was so badly.”

“You must feel like an i***t now.”

Wait a minute. Is she taking a dig at me? She’s poker faced, so I can’t tell if that was sarcasm or a straight-out shade.

“Actually, I am kind of glad. I never got more than a minute from him my entire life because he was always busy.”

“Is that what your illusion was about? Your desperation for a father’s love?”

“Hey, I don’t like your choice of diction!”

“I was desperate for both parents. I feel like an idiot.”

Ow… Ow, okay.

Francina had her arms wrapped around her high knees. She continued, “I hear they are somewhere in here, though. But I don’t know where and I don’t know if I’m going to find them.”

“So, that is why you live in the streets? You don’t have a family? Aren’t there orphanages or something? I mean, every month, my father donates large sums of money to such organisations. Shouldn’t they have helped you out? Are they corrupt—"

“I don’t live in the street. I have my own house. Well, not anymore. He’s no longer my father—”

Clicks, click, click! Loud squeaking noises were approaching. And what sounded like wings flapping. The people got flustered, not one could guess what that was. They all launched up and looked out to see what that was. They waited eagerly. A heavy cloud of bats washed in and headed straight for their heads. Their skin particularly. The group dunked and continued to wave away the little slugs. Kali copied Francina, who only remained calm. She took off her jacket and covered her head. She pulled over her sleeves to cover all her skin, and she paced forward. Kamo had been struggling to fight off the bats, he was constantly getting bitten. Betty and Mbali raced forward as fast as they could away from the chasing bats.

They were finally away from danger. “When the f**k are we gonna get out of this damn tunnel?!” Betty was frustrated, “Quite frankly, I’ve never seen a tunnel this long.”

They all heard grumpy noises behind them—more like moans. They saw Kamo in a condition unkind to his regular posture. He was bent over, his arm wrapped around his waist almost as though holding himself together and a very vivid grimace across his face. He was struggling to keep on his feet. He held onto the wall while the other arm held tight on his body as if cold. Mbali rushed over. She put his giant arm around her shoulders, and started pulling him along. She was removing him away from the small dirty pond he was standing on. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Mbali gently placed him down at a much drier spot. He began shivering and looked very fatigued. Kali was worried and had a look of concern on his face. He’d always seen Kamo strong and indestructible. Now, he saw him frail and on the verge of death. This was scary for Kali. His role model was in the condition of despair.

Kali took off his jacket and blanketed Kamo to keep him warm—his shivers had gotten worse. By now, Kamo had a skin like silver, dark circles around his eyes and chipped lips. The man was wilting away. Kali started examining him while the others waited. “He has rabies… From the bat bites.”