01-31-2025, 09:27 PM
The horrors of the battlefield were little compared to the scene at the re-education center. Julie expected resistance or the prisoners to scramble towards her yet it was a very different scene. A massive laboratory of horrors, bodies both dead and barely alive were scattered. The sight was unspeakable and incompressible, Julie scanned the hallways looking for her dear friend. Yet not a familiar face looked back, just mumblings from cells. Julie wanted to find Mbaye, but not here. Beghari slowly walked around, helping those who were able to their feet, those unable, and those too far gone he prayed for them.
“She’s not here,” Julie said after a few minutes
“Do you want her to not be here or is she not here?” Beghari said as he gave water from his pack to a prisoner.
“I don’t know. I can’t stand to remain here”
“No, take it all. See what the Diawara does to human beings. Beyond despicable. May the fires of damnation destroy them very soon” Beghari said as he lifted another man to his feet.
“What is your name?” Julie asked
“I am….I am…James Diouf” the man said weakly
“Do you know of a woman named Mbaye?”
“No…No…The voices” the man mumbled.
“His head is gone, and so is your’s,” Beghari said
Joseph Thinagou became worried. It was almost 11 pm and there had been no final call. The DAP stood at 35%, higher than any public poll. Rumors swirled through the venue of terrorists casting ballots or foreign inventions by Kolda’s enemies. Finally, a Diawara friend of Joseph approached him.
“The city is under attack” he whispered
“What?”
“The child, the mothers, and our leader have fled”
“Where is their destination?”
“Your house, don’t worry. Diawara had constructed a story and a statement. Trust in her plan” he said
“Is the city under their control?”
“For the moment” the man replied, before disappearing back into the crowd like a raven in a flock.
President Senghor was watching the sky from his balcony. He should be on his other balcony, the one which looked over the Great Hall. He should be speaking to the Koldan people. Had the capitalists finally caught up? No, Joseph had assured the Diawara organization would come through. They had helped before. He began to think about his defeat. In his heart, Senghor would accept it, the Koldan people didn’t want 5 years of him. Yet publicly, Senghor would cry fraud. At that moment his assistant approached him. From the Great Hall, he could hear cheers loud enough to scare the birds of the garden to briefly take flight.
“Sir, they have called your victory,” she said
“Beautiful, is my speech ready”
“As always”
Mbaye came out of hiding when night fell, she now walked across the landscape as the bush ended and turned into the harsh deserts of the border regions. The frontier was dangerous, beyond lay steep mountains with deep canyons. Yet she knew if she turned around certain death would come. Finally just as midnight came, Mbaye stumbled onto a riverbank. Dipping her hands into them, she took a drink. Her mouth was dry, her stomach was empty. Yet she was still alive. Cranes flew through the river catching small fish with their teeth before disappearing into the reeds. She was far from the home she grew up in. The suburbs of South Princeton were very different, yet Mbaye felt hopeful. She was home, a confusing and broken home. Yet she lay under the sky of her ancestors, the birds flying overhead as they had for a thousand generations before.
Julie, Beghari, and another DAP soldier named Cession led to prisoners out of the re-education center and into Cession’s pickup truck.
“What happened here?” Cession asked as he jumped into the driver’s seat with 4 survivors in the backseat.
“The horrible wrath of these vultures of death,” Beghari said
“Diawara will be destroyed,” Julie said, her thoughts and feelings in another place.
“What about your friend?” Cession asked as they drove through the city.
“..I don’t know. May my time was gone years ago” Julie said
Suddenly the street lights came on as the power was restored to the city.
“Time to leave,” Cession said as he pulled onto the main boulevard of the city.
Julie saw a group of soldiers standing around a body. Cession drove closer before rolling up the window.
“Where’s Al-Ebrahim?” Beghari said
“Gone,” a private said, pointing at a white robe covering a body.
“May he be blessed in his afterlife,” Beghari replied.
“What’s the plan, Madame” the private said to Julie
From the distance, a line of vehicles approached.
“Renforcement’s” the private yelled to his comrades.
Another soldier placed Al-Ebrahim’s body in the truck bed.
“Take his remains to the village of Ame’ana” the private said, picking up his gun.
Cession rolled up the window, before quickly speeding out of the city away from the approaching NISU forces.
They were brutal, the NISU was the most elite unit of soldiers in Kolda. Some SRF surrendered although most died fighting for their homeland and their struggle. The spirits had little distance to fly home.
Julie watched as they sped through the countryside to the pre-designated meeting spot. Although she doubted many would not make it, the attack on the power plant was already believed to be a dangerous mission
Ousmane watched the celebrations play out, cheering and hugging all around. Fat cat’s ready for another 5 years of easy money. Politicians ready for 5 years of the endless reign of the KLF-U. It shouldn’t have been this hard for them, however. Ousmane had in the past been a cynic of the intelligence of the everyday man. To blind and too dumb to see the birds of freedom being chained to trees of dictatorship. Yet this time, 37% of the population had voted for the DAP and 58% had voted for someone not with the KLF name to the left of his name. 2024 would not be the year of democracy. Ousmane wondered if it was too late, the government would come down harder. The freedoms gained during the Senghor years would be scaled back, and the military would crack down even harder.
Yet as his grandmother told him in his infancy, the birds would always return home.
“She’s not here,” Julie said after a few minutes
“Do you want her to not be here or is she not here?” Beghari said as he gave water from his pack to a prisoner.
“I don’t know. I can’t stand to remain here”
“No, take it all. See what the Diawara does to human beings. Beyond despicable. May the fires of damnation destroy them very soon” Beghari said as he lifted another man to his feet.
“What is your name?” Julie asked
“I am….I am…James Diouf” the man said weakly
“Do you know of a woman named Mbaye?”
“No…No…The voices” the man mumbled.
“His head is gone, and so is your’s,” Beghari said
Joseph Thinagou became worried. It was almost 11 pm and there had been no final call. The DAP stood at 35%, higher than any public poll. Rumors swirled through the venue of terrorists casting ballots or foreign inventions by Kolda’s enemies. Finally, a Diawara friend of Joseph approached him.
“The city is under attack” he whispered
“What?”
“The child, the mothers, and our leader have fled”
“Where is their destination?”
“Your house, don’t worry. Diawara had constructed a story and a statement. Trust in her plan” he said
“Is the city under their control?”
“For the moment” the man replied, before disappearing back into the crowd like a raven in a flock.
President Senghor was watching the sky from his balcony. He should be on his other balcony, the one which looked over the Great Hall. He should be speaking to the Koldan people. Had the capitalists finally caught up? No, Joseph had assured the Diawara organization would come through. They had helped before. He began to think about his defeat. In his heart, Senghor would accept it, the Koldan people didn’t want 5 years of him. Yet publicly, Senghor would cry fraud. At that moment his assistant approached him. From the Great Hall, he could hear cheers loud enough to scare the birds of the garden to briefly take flight.
“Sir, they have called your victory,” she said
“Beautiful, is my speech ready”
“As always”
Mbaye came out of hiding when night fell, she now walked across the landscape as the bush ended and turned into the harsh deserts of the border regions. The frontier was dangerous, beyond lay steep mountains with deep canyons. Yet she knew if she turned around certain death would come. Finally just as midnight came, Mbaye stumbled onto a riverbank. Dipping her hands into them, she took a drink. Her mouth was dry, her stomach was empty. Yet she was still alive. Cranes flew through the river catching small fish with their teeth before disappearing into the reeds. She was far from the home she grew up in. The suburbs of South Princeton were very different, yet Mbaye felt hopeful. She was home, a confusing and broken home. Yet she lay under the sky of her ancestors, the birds flying overhead as they had for a thousand generations before.
Julie, Beghari, and another DAP soldier named Cession led to prisoners out of the re-education center and into Cession’s pickup truck.
“What happened here?” Cession asked as he jumped into the driver’s seat with 4 survivors in the backseat.
“The horrible wrath of these vultures of death,” Beghari said
“Diawara will be destroyed,” Julie said, her thoughts and feelings in another place.
“What about your friend?” Cession asked as they drove through the city.
“..I don’t know. May my time was gone years ago” Julie said
Suddenly the street lights came on as the power was restored to the city.
“Time to leave,” Cession said as he pulled onto the main boulevard of the city.
Julie saw a group of soldiers standing around a body. Cession drove closer before rolling up the window.
“Where’s Al-Ebrahim?” Beghari said
“Gone,” a private said, pointing at a white robe covering a body.
“May he be blessed in his afterlife,” Beghari replied.
“What’s the plan, Madame” the private said to Julie
From the distance, a line of vehicles approached.
“Renforcement’s” the private yelled to his comrades.
Another soldier placed Al-Ebrahim’s body in the truck bed.
“Take his remains to the village of Ame’ana” the private said, picking up his gun.
Cession rolled up the window, before quickly speeding out of the city away from the approaching NISU forces.
They were brutal, the NISU was the most elite unit of soldiers in Kolda. Some SRF surrendered although most died fighting for their homeland and their struggle. The spirits had little distance to fly home.
Julie watched as they sped through the countryside to the pre-designated meeting spot. Although she doubted many would not make it, the attack on the power plant was already believed to be a dangerous mission
Ousmane watched the celebrations play out, cheering and hugging all around. Fat cat’s ready for another 5 years of easy money. Politicians ready for 5 years of the endless reign of the KLF-U. It shouldn’t have been this hard for them, however. Ousmane had in the past been a cynic of the intelligence of the everyday man. To blind and too dumb to see the birds of freedom being chained to trees of dictatorship. Yet this time, 37% of the population had voted for the DAP and 58% had voted for someone not with the KLF name to the left of his name. 2024 would not be the year of democracy. Ousmane wondered if it was too late, the government would come down harder. The freedoms gained during the Senghor years would be scaled back, and the military would crack down even harder.
Yet as his grandmother told him in his infancy, the birds would always return home.
<t>The Federation of Slokais Islands- fighting for freedom and democracy</t>