Twenty Two

The war suddenly ended when there was no trace of him anywhere. Many who settled in a refugee camp huddled amidst pitiful mass of broken, tired and malnourished bodies that the war had produced. They were ever willing to surrender their lives in the events of more unrest. They came out from their hidings to see the beautiful heavens again and drying their tears of many loses and death. Even after many days of the report of the missing plane, war bomb was still booming in the east and plane were still landing with relief materials. At the first bombing many persons were blasted to death; many of them were roasted alive by the heat and radiation. Even after many days victims were still slowly dying due to radiation effects.

The report on the missing plane was all a speculation. The waning nature of the war showed them all that General Kofi was no more. It was a bitterly cold morning of wind. He had been shot dead on a close range, not by a straying bullet , but by a young trained army who was really his trusted guard  _ Isala. General Kofi had issued the last command - the final elimination and backed away for the elimination of the new eastern recruits, full men in blood and flesh, hundreds in their numbers. Puffing heavily to the air to think of another deep disaster thinking he was secure. He was soon to meet his end. Isala brought his gun out ready to obey the last command in the most pretentious way ever known. He shot first round in the air, and then the second, and a bullet slammed into his chest. He fell to the ground, not quite death, but in his pull of blood. Others were watching and in the next moment would drop their guns, ever ready to. That was the prayer of many .As he lay there, Isala pumped bullets into him again and again. He waved him to drop his gun and never to do anything like that again; it was really a bad time for him. A time for him to see what it was like to die-hard and in pain. He slumped down heavily, drew air, but it was failing him. He struggled to live. He never wanted to die. He was at the tale end of his mission to capture power and manage the affairs of the state. His voice slowly dropped and trembled. He then died.

Isala had been a loyal and trusted friend to General Kofi, but from the moment he had a painful cut in his hand and was not granted leave for treatment, which required bandaging, he had a changed heart. He knew he was only used to accomplish a selfish ambition. He remembered his words always to him ' remember, you and I have a secret. Remember to keep it secret forever or then tell it and dam forever'. He remembered it. He lost his two fingers in the process. He knew that the man whom he had shown all his loyalty was a devil standing in human frame and was only conscious of himself. For the whole period the war lasted, he pretended that the cut and it pain had not impeded his handling of gun and keeping to his duty. More so, not only because of the cut, he had taken it upon himself to dismantle and to show the new government in place by General Kofi that he had done really bad in the execution of the innocent men of integrity who had worked for the government during the regime of General Sari that lasted for seven days  - the friend of General Kofi. Military life had taught him self-discipline as a virtue. The loss of those men had always weighed heavily on his heart and soul. He was at the moment he learned the many ideals of the mind prepared his mind to accept his assignment as a work to be involved with a strong sense of duty and one who would always live by the mind of his own.

 He lived in the memory of those few days and the more he fought. The more he fought it the more it continued with him. He was still a young soldier full of blood and spirit in and out when he watched his blood brother Zaro and his colleagues executed in his very eyes. He was placed on advantage over others because of his rising profile in military profession. He too would have died. He was still young by age, recruited seven years earlier in the strict supervision of General Kofi and enlisted for peacekeeping force in Dafur before the eruption of the war.

The death of General Kofi set a stage for military coup or at worst for an adoption of a new system of government. Everyone found that totally acceptable. Barking out command to the platoons standing in front of him, they were paying attention.