Sikiwa's Death

Sergeant Sinanda stood up in his army Land Rover and looked at the countryside around him. Behind him, Corporal Sikiwa stood in another Land Rover looking in the same direction. Captain Haniya was in command of the light tank which had stopped further up the track.

Fernando the Second had captured a long piece of land from Rulindi, the country on Bamanga's north - western border, in a frontier war many years before. Rulindi still claimed the land, and the President of Rulindi had announced that Bamanga must return the land immediately or there would be war. Gold and uranium had been discovered in the west of Bamanga in 1955. King Fernando the Third was sure that the deposits they had found in Bamanga ran into Rulindi through the disputed territory. He had no intention of giving the land back to Rulindi until all the Gold and Uranium had been extracted.

Captain Haniya's company was on patrol in the disputed territory. On Sinanda's left was Rulindi. On his right, in the distance, were the great mountains of earth that had been extracted from the gold mines.

Bamanga had a larger army than Rulindi, but there was also a dispute on the eastern frontier and soldiers were required to defend Bamanga there. The Bamangan generals did not think that Rulindi would attack, but they had moved some of their best troops up to the border. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Sinanda pointed to a spot ahead of them and to their right.

"There's a dust cloud sir,'' he shouted. ''It's probably the wind, but we should go and look.''

The captain did not like Sinanda giving orders, but in this case he was right. They would have to make sure that the dust cloud was not caused by the Rulindi soldiers.

He waved the Land Rovers to follow and slid down into the tank. It was very hot in the tank, so he kept the great round cover open to allow the fresh air in. The Land Rovers spread out behind the tank. They drove off the track and started to cross the rocky desert.

"They're army vehicles,'' shouted Sinanda. "They look like jeeps and are not ours. There are four of them.

"Spread out further,'' ordered Captain Haniya, through the radio. "I'll go straight for them. Sinanda and Sikiwa, you come in from the sides."

The tank raced across the desert, its gun pointing at the Rulindi jeeps.

"Fire when you are ready,'' Captain Haniya told the tank gunner.

The gunner fired twice, but he missed both times. The machine guns began to fire and one of the soldiers on Sinanda's Land Rover cried out and fell off the moving vehicle. He lay on the ground, his back covered in blood. The tank's big gun fired again and one of the Rulindi jeeps burst into flames and rolled over.

But suddenly there was danger. The two Rulindi Jeeps driving towards the tank passed on either side. Captain Haniya tried to close the tank's cover but he was too late. Rulindi soldiers threw three hand grenades into the tank as they drove past. The hand grenades exploded and then all the bombs and ammunition in the tank blew off. The tank became a great ball of fire.

Sinanda stared in amazement at the death of the tank and the men in it. He heard shouting in his ear. It was Sikiwa calling to him on the radio.

"You're in charge now ... What do we do?" he shouted.

At first Sinanda could not think. His mind was still full of the flames leaping from the tank. He looked around and tried to make a decision.

"Get us together,'' shouted Sikiwa in his headphones. "Use the Land Rovers as a defence. Quickly! We can still get them."

Sinanda waved his hand over his head to show that he wanted them to come together. As they slowed down, Sinanda fired his machine gun at one of the Rulindi jeeps. A tyre burst out and the jeep nearly turned over before it stopped. Sinanda was frightened, but the idea of shooting at other men filled him with excitement. As soon as they stopped the vehicles, their shooting became more accurate. The driver of the third Rulindi jeep was killed and the vehicle stopped close to Sinanda's defences. Several more Rulindi soldiers were killed before they could escape.

The Rulindi jeep with the burst tyre was very dangerous. Two Rulindi soldiers tried to fix the wheel while their comrades shot at Sinanda's defences to keep them quiet.

The Rulindi soldiers in the third jeep tried to pull the dead driver from behind the steering wheel. But every time they tried, Sinanda's men shot at them, hitting two of them.

Sikiwa pointed at the last Rulindi jeep. It had stopped outside the range of Sinanda's bullets and was preparing to fire small bombs at them. He shouted that he would stop them.

Taking one gunner, he drove one of the Land Rovers as fast as he could towards the enemy vehicle. The gunner shot as they drove. One of the Rulindi soldiers shot at the vehicle as it came up to him. The windscreen was shattered and Sikiwa fell over the steering wheel, dead. Sikiwa's Land Rover crashed into the Rulindi vehicle and both exploded in a mass of flames.

Sinanda watched in horror. He didn't care for Sikiwa as a friend, but Sikiwa was the only person who talked to him and treated him like a human being. They had killed something that belonged to him Sinanda, with a shout of rage, took one ot the heavy machine guns and ran across the desert firing at the broken-down jeep. He killed the five soldiers behind the jeep and then turned to the two men trying to repair the wheel. They started to put their hands up. Sinanda shot them over and over again. He felt wonderful. He smiled as he turned back to his men. He had never felt so good.

The two remaining Rulindi soldiers put their hands up and walked towards Sinanda and his men.

Taking his revolver, Sinanda shot each of them in the chest and head.

"That's for our friends and countrymen," he shouted loudly. "That's for Sikiwa and the others."

The stories of Sinanda's bravery soon reached the ears of very senior officers and even the king himself.

No one mentioned how he had killed the last two Rulindi soldiers. The soldiers had started to exaggerate what had happened. Sinanda had killed forty and then fifty men, and had rescued his company from certain death.

Although the stories were exaggerated, there seemed to be no doubt that Sinanda was a hero again.

Also the fight in the desert had shocked the President of Rulindi. He called for a cease-fire and agreed to sign a peace treaty with Fernando the Third.

The deaths of Captain Haniya and three lieutenants in an ambush earlier in the border war meant that the army was short of junior officers. At the end of Sinanda's seventh year in the army, the colonel called Sinanda to his office. When Sinanda left the office, he had become a lieutenant. He was now the third Timangan to be an officer in the Royal Bamangan Army.