The Antelope's Journey

5. A storm in the underground

“Where the f**k are we?” the man kept his head spinning and his eyes carefully scanning the room. It appeared much like a cave. It was all dirty and dim. The far placed fire-lanterns on the walls brought in some light. Without much talking, it was generally quiet. If one listened closer, squeaking of rats and buzzing of mosquitoes could be heard.

“It’s an underground.” One responded, his voice echoed as if bouncing off the tight passage. “Much like in our training.”

It seemed like they had been split up into groups. Francina was still rubbing the pain off her head. She had fallen on her head. She could hear the others talk among themselves. Jim finally said, “I remember our way out of here.”

Francina was surprised that even Betty and Mbali were there with her. They started matching forward, all following Jim. There were huge rats chasing below their feet. Francina saw one man grab the rats. This man saw her staring; he saw the disgust on her face. “From what I heard, it’s gonna be a long journey. That little snack…” He said to her, “you have in your backpack, won’t last you a day.” He slid his rat in his container. He collected some more. She recognized this man; he was being dragged into the boss’s home along with his friend. He looked much like a bully upfront. She was not fazed by him; however, she knew she would stay away from him.

……….

Meanwhile, Kali was with the other group. He looked for the girl but she was not part his group. He kept a very close distance to his team. He heard them talking, “Matmata. The Berber underground home of Matmata. You ever heard of that?”

Kali could hear rain from above. He wished to go up already, and possibly dance in the rain. That was his favorite part of his childhood. He could hear the storm roaring from above, it shook the land a bit. The pieces of soil showered on the passengers’ heads. Rats dashed right past their feet, almost as though running to get away.

I knew that whenever animals behaved like that, it meant danger was on the way. But what danger? We were safe where we were. Weren’t we? What could, possibly, be threatening our lives right now? If the ceiling of dirt could collapse on our heads, that would be danger. Perhaps, if water from the rain rushed in.

We proceeded ahead. A loud THUD! I heard a very loud thud, almost as if it was right near me. I saw the others switch back to look at me. “Are you hurt?” I heard one of them ask. I don’t know if I was okay or not. I froze. They continued on.

“Come on. We have to keep moving.”

Kali then turned back and indeed, he saw a giant rock of dirt. It was just an inch away from him. It had fallen from above. Immediately, he charged off and flashed past his group. They saw behind a pile of dirt was falling, gunning for them. “Run!”

Not one knew what would happen if the dirt stomped on them. This was only meant to be a game. Now they were running for their lives. Ahead, they were blocked again. They turned corners and finally, the last choice was to dig.

……….

I remember swirling into some unknown spiral after stepping into the black door. This was shortly before they had our diamond patches scanned. We had been given armer and weapons to choose from. In our backpacks, we had some snacks and few medical supplies. This was, apparently, the day our mission began. The mission was to retrieve a totem. What was it for? I don’t know. But apparently, retrieving the totem was the only way I could rescue my mom from where she was trapped.

I did not anticipate that I’d end up drowning in some underground. The heavy waters flashed in, and we did not expect them. We did hear rumbling at first, but we had dismissed it—big mistake. I could hear Mbali struggling to keep afloat and Betty trying so hard to help her. They were right behind me. I could help them but I was also trying to save my own life.

“Keep crawling out!” Jim cried. “This way!” Jim could sense that some had already been contemplating to give up. “We’re almost there!” The waters were coming from outside. The water was flashing backwards as to fill up every open of the underground. All the fire on the torches had gone off and Jim had to rely on his intuition. He pushed forward tracing the walls. “I see a ray!” he yelped, “There’s a ray of light, we’re closer!”

A gulp of water washed in, pushed them all back again, while peeling the walls and tumbling the ceiling. They were at the lower level of the underground. The rain was filling up.

……….

Kali was only surprised that they managed to dig themselves up and out. They stood on level ground panting. They lost two people behind. They began to realise how it could’ve anyone of them. Suddenly more people were emerging from underground, drenched in water and mud. Kali began remembering the story he heard the men tell underground about the 22 days of rain that took lives of people in the underground. “Monsters emerge…” he was reciting the words, “from underground and…” he began looking around and saw around was land matted with cadavers. It appeared to them that they were in a battle field where a war took place.

It all made sense now. We went back in time and our journey started in Tunisia. These people built underground homes to hide from opponents at night and at day light they emerged, and attacked! But what was the point of coming here?

……….

Betty could not find Mbali in all that water anymore. She had lost her. She cried out her name, careful enough that water doesn’t gulp into her mouth and choke her to death. One man pulled her, “Come on, we must get out. The water is filling mphhhf” the water covered all their bodies by now. Betty kept kicking at this man but he was very adamant at saving her life. They swam all the way up and made it out. Betty could almost jump back in—

“Hey, you can’t go back in there! You’ll die!”

“Why did you pull me out? I wanted to save her! I was gonna find her.”

“She’s already—”

COUGH! COUGH!

Jim and Francina had been trying to get Mbali conscious. Mbali shot up and started coughing the water out, “Mbali!” Betty ran and enclosed her woman on the ground. “You’re okay.”

“She saved me,” Mbali said nodding at Francina. “She found me on the ground, I drowned on the way.”

Francina had a bottle of water in her hand. She looked at it and was very proud to have gotten that water. She knew she was ready for her next challenge. She saw the two men also holding their own bottles of water. She wished she could know their names, seeing as they displayed good team work. One of them managed to find and pull out the stubborn Betty.

I must have them on my team. No matter what.