She groaned softly and opened her eyes, but it was pitch-darkness; the warmth of Jonah’s body next to hers reassured her of his presence and reminded her of where they were.
“Did you sleep as well?” she asked him absentmindedly, not really waiting for an answer.
“Yes, I fell asleep after you did, but now we must keep moving, Ash.”
“Yes, yes,” she agreed and they both helped each other stand to their feet.
“I love you, Ashana.”
“I know,” she said. “And I love you too.”
The way she held onto him told him how she felt and this made him feel like a man with a divine responsibility; a responsibility to protect a divine woman. This feeling reached down in his bosom and loosened the bottled will to overcome, conquer and survive; emptying it into his bloodstream. For the first time his steps were bolder and more determined than ever.
As his right foot came down, he noticed it took a longer time than usual to reach the ground but it was too late to retrieve it; he buckled and plunged forward. “No!” they both screamed as his grip around Ashana’s wrist loosened and he plunged into a pit. A huge splash went up and a piercing scream from Ashana joined it; “Jonah!” The sound of violent struggle in the water scared her to death. What else could Jonah be struggling with if it wasn’t the monster snake—the thought almost stopped her heart. “Jonah! Jonah! Jonah!” she cried uncontrollably, until the thought that Jonah been eaten by a monster snake became too unbearable and caused her legs to suddenly give way, sending her slumping to the ground.
Jonah’s his fear wasn’t about the possibility of drowning in the terribly foul-smelling, muddy water; the water was too shallow to drown him. His fear was rooted instead in the possibility that he might have fallen into the territory of some deadly reptile. If the reptile wasn’t too pleased with the idea of sharing its space with some intruder who was not only very noisy but might very well be a good meal, then he was in big trouble. No one could tell what might be lying at the bottom of the muddy water next to his trembling feet. What if a deadly creature was approaching his feet at the moment, he thought, wading through the water hurriedly. But his immediate fear was suddenly replaced by a greater fear—Ashana had suddenly gone quiet.
“Ashana!” he screamed out, pushing his lungs to a near tearing point “Ashana! Ash!” he continued, floundering as he struggled to climb out of the muddy water. “Ashana please,” he cried out; his heart completely wrapped in crippling fear. Each time he called out, only echoes of her name returned to greet him; the lack of response flustered him and seemed to shoot energy into his legs and in no time he was out of the water and sweeping the ground with his palms like a mad man. When he touched something and realized it was Ashana’s leg, he breathed a sigh of half relief. “Ashana! Wake up! Please my love, wake up,” he begged, completely lost as to what might have happened to her, what to do to bring her back, and what to do in the event that she didn’t come back. Fear mixed with anger ran wildly in his veins, causing him to scream until his lungs emptied of air but nothing happened; Ashana remained motionless.
After several failed attempts to bring Ashana around, Jonah leaned his back against the wall of the tunnel. He was soaked in his tears and drained of all energy and will to continue breathing; he moaned, sobbed, and wept bitterly before slipping into a deep slumber.
“Jonah,” Ashana called out weakly; she had been out for over an hour and half. She jogged her mind, trying to remember why things were the way they were. Why was her head resting on his lap, why weren’t they on their way, and why was he motionless?–her tired mind queried. “Jonah!” she called again, still very weak but there was again no response.
She slowly gathered herself together and sat up next to Jonah, then running her hands over his body, she found his shoulders and began to shake him gently. “Jonah wake up, wake up,” she begged. His body was wet and littered with small pieces of debris. “Jonah!” she shouted at the top of her voice, giving him a jerk that shook his body and caused his head to make a violent contact with the wall against which his back was leaning. The sharp pain caused Jonah to jump to his feet, knocking Ashana over and sending her sliding towards the ditch. “Jonah!” she screamed, and grabbed his leg, Jonah lost balance and hit the ground, landing on his bottom. He let out a sharp cry from the pain and was on his way sliding towards the ditch as well but Ashana wasn’t letting go of his leg. Her legs were already half in the water and she was yelling, kicking, and shouting like a possessed woman when Jonah caught hold of what seemed like a tree stump and stopped the slide.
“Get me out, pull me up, Jonah!” Ashana yelled, completely terrified and still kicking.
“Just hold on tight, don’t let go of my leg,” Jonah said very calmly, tightening his grip around the stump and slowly pulling himself up, along with Ashana. But the move was too slow for Ashana; a good portion of her legs were still submerged, and she could swear she felt a movement in the water. “Hurry Jonah, there is something in the water, get me out! Get me out!” she cried, starting another round of violent kicking.
“Give me your hand,” Jonah called out, holding tightly onto the stump with his right hand and offering his left to Ashana.
“I can’t, I can’t let go,” she protested.
“Ashana, please just grab my hand quickly, I can’t hold on like this for much longer, please give me your hand,” Jonah pleaded with her. He understood her fear but wanted to get her out before he lost his grip and ended up in the water with her.
Their fingers were within an inch of contact when a sudden violent move in the water startled them both. “Get me out! Get me out! Please get me out Jonah,” Ashana cried, kicking harder; whatever made the move in the water no doubt wasn’t offering a gesture of friendship. Jonah quickly leaned forward, barely holding onto the tree stump, caught Ashana’s hand, and pulled her out. As soon as her feet were out of the water she quickly crawled up to Jonah and buried herself in his arms, trembling convulsively.
“Shh!” Jonah whispered into her ear and they both listened to the loud splashes in the water; it was as though whatever was in there was seriously protesting Ashana’s escape. After the splashes and movements in the water died down, they quietly got to their feet and hurried away.
“Ashana!” he whispered, after they’d left the muddy ditch several meters behind. He was completely overwhelmed and exhausted but he was too happy to care, “Ashana! We are alive.”
She sank into his arms, his wet muddy body and the foul stench of his soaked clothes wasn’t anything to bother her; neither did hers bother him. “Are you OK? Are you hurt–are you cold?” She shot every question that came to her mind at him, without waiting for a response to the previous one.
“I am OK Ashana, I was worried about you, what happened?” he asked.
“I don’t know, I guess I passed out, I was so scared for you, what happened?” She replied.
“I slipped and fell into the ditch and when I finally climbed out, you were passed out and then I fell asleep not knowing what to do and then a bang on my head woke me up and you know the rest of the story.”
“There was something in that water, Jonah. I could feel the water moving behind me, it was coming towards me, I was so scared, so scared,” Ashana sobbed.
“I heard the splashes, I know there was something but I am grateful to God we are safe.”
“Oh Jonah, I was really scared.”
“We are safe now, we'll have to walk close to the wall of the tunnel and stay away from the centre henceforth…,” Jonah instructed.
“OK, OK ,” Ashana replied before he could finish, as if to say, ‘Don’t say much and don’t bother to explain; whatever you say is what we will do.’ “You think they'll send a search party after us in the morning?” she asked, suddenly steering the conversation in different direction.
“Maybe, but we are far ahead, by the time they do we'll be very far gone. Don’t let it bother you, OK ?” he said, caressing her shoulders reassuringly.
She nodded.
“When we exit this tunnel onto the other side, there is no way they will be able to catch up with us; we shall be on our own, we shall have our future in our hands to shape however we want it. And when we get to the other island, we shall be happy like free birds riding on the winds, and then we will have our own family.”
Even though he sounded more like someone hopelessly lost in a world of fantasy than one facing the reality of the tunnel in which they were presently imprisoned, she listened to him attentively, smiles breaking out and spreading all over her face like a stubborn set of rash. It was one of the many reasons why she loved him so much; he was full of hope and plans and dreams and he was going to lead her into the dream they both shared. She held his palm and squeezed hard; she was happy, happy to be with him.
“Your mother, she will be OK , right?” Jonah asked. She paused for a good while; she had thought about her mother and asked herself the same question times without number but she hadn’t being able to come up with an answer. Now that Jonah was asking the same question, she wish she had something to say but since she didn’t, she decided to let him know what she hoped for instead of attempting to provide an answer that she clearly didn’t have.
“I hope and pray so.”
She never wanted to tell Jonah anything that would discourage him; it was the reason she never told him about her mother's last minute suggestion. If Jonah knew that her mother at the very last minute had tried to convince Ashana to reconsider her decision to escape with him, he’d hate her forever. The last thing that Jonah expected from Marecia was an attempt—no matter how small, to convince Ashana to abandon the plan to escape with him and instead become Nathan’s woman. If Jonah knew, he would be so disappointed and saddened and the journey would be more tedious than it already was.
But Ashana understood her mother very well; the woman didn’t mean anything bad and it wasn’t because she didn’t love Jonah; she was only afraid for her daughter and the possible outcome of the escape. She knew her mother very well and wasn’t mad at the old woman but she knew that Jonah would have seen it as betrayal from her mother for whom he had great respect.
“Do you think PaNene knew the condition of this tunnel? You think he knew how dangerous it is in here?” she asked finding an easy way to change the topic and at the same time letting out another question that had been bothering her.
Jonah took a deep breath, it was one of those questions Ashana was very good at asking; the type you weren’t expecting. But he knew he had to give her an answer, the only problem was that he’d been asking himself the same question but he was willing to share what he had found comfort in with Ashana.
“I don’t think he knows how dangerous it is at this time or what it has become over the years, however if he did know that it is dangerous and still sent us in, then it’s only because he believes we can make it through and because he knows that the other route that I had originally planned for us to travel is a lot more dangerous.”
Silence.
He knew she was taking a moment to digest his reply; it was a good sign. “He is a very good man,” she said.
During the times that the same question bothered him, Jonah had no other choice but to convince himself to believe what he had just told Ashana. They continued to talk for a long time and it wasn’t too long before they both dozed off the second time for the night.
Chapter Sixteen
T
he rays of the early morning sun tapped gently on Jonah's eyelids like a mother trying to wake up her sleeping child. Rubbing his eyes with the back of his palm then slowly opening them, Jonah realized where he and Ashana were. He wanted to feel happy but instead a wave of fear hit him, which then gave way to disappointment and then anger; each taking turn at squeezing him before handing over to the other. They had fallen asleep for too long, he thought quickly, scrambling to his feet. Then he allowed his eyes some time to adjust to the dim light. Raising his head, Jonah looked ahead and noticed that the tunnel made a slight left turn. He followed it; he had to find the source of the sunlight that was shedding the small amount of precious light into the tunnel. After a few meters he stopped, quickly turned around, and returned for Ashana. There was some excitement building up in his stomach but he wasn’t going any farther without Ashana. His heart bubbled; if sunlight could find its way into the tunnel then there was bound to be a way out for him and Ashana, and that way would the same way the sunlight came in.
He returned just in time to catch Ashana opening her eyes for the first time and watched in admiration as she yawned, stretched, and worked her eyes to adjust to the dim light. “We must leave now Ash,” Jonah whispered, with an urgency-saturated tone. “Look, you see the sunray? I think it came in through an opening somewhere; if we follow it we will find our way out.”
“Look!” Ashana half screamed like someone who had just recovered her sight, as she pointed to the open ditch they’d fallen into, the previous night.
“Yes, I saw it already but we must get going now, remember Pa warned us to make sure that we were at the exit by morning. Well, it’s already morning and we don’t seem to be anywhere close,” Jonah said.
“Yes, I remember,” she replied, staggering to her feet.
“Let’s go!” Jonah said. He offered his hand and they ran excitedly, jumping over dead branches, animal skeletons, and small puddles. The tunnel had suddenly become warm and friendly, a complete opposite to what it had been just hours ago, when it was as dark as the corridors of hell. It was almost impossible to believe that they were now running, laughing, and holding hands like two kids who just discovered a secret playground in the very same tunnel.
“Look!” It was Ashana who saw it first, “Jonah look!” she repeated, pointing at the wall right ahead of them. The end of the tunnel stood right in front of them—it was a wall with a hole in it. The rays of sunlight were entering the tunnel through the hole; this caused their feet to embark on a running spree towards the wall. Jonah stopped just a few feet from it and tilted his head towards his left shoulder as he approached it, examining it as if in utter disbelief of its actual presence.
“Looks like they covered the wall up with logs and branches to hide the exit,” he said between breaths.
“OK” she replied. Their freedom was right in front of them. She smiled and her mind toyed with what she would do on the first day of their freedom. Jonah slowly stretched his hand and touched the wall then pushed it gently but it was solid and sturdy and his heart sank.
“It is solid rock,” Jonah whispered in a disappointed tone as he pushed his index finger through the slight opening in the wall. The hole in the wall was about eight inches long from top to bottom and no more than an inch and half wide; it was the source of the sunray that attracted them. And the first time that Jonah saw the wall from a distance, it had the appearance of several logs standing tightly together and plastered with clay. He assumed that the crack that let in the sunlight was simply a space between two logs exposed after the clay that was covering it had fallen off.
Ashana had crumbled to the ground on her knees, her head buried between their legs. “What are we going to do now?” she asked, her head still buried between her trembling legs, her heart still free falling down the bottomless hole that was created the minute Jonah announced that the wall was solid.
Silence
‘How do I know?’ Jonah wanted to scream but simply said, “We’ll keep looking, there has to be a way out.” His head was bowed, his deportment was that of defeat and his tone was sad. Slowly looking around, Jonah noticed that the road split in two from where they stood; one to his left and the other to his right. He peered into the road on his right; it was dark but he felt an urge to walk into it. Ashana followed from a distance and they walked cautiously and quietly until they ran into another wall.
“Another wall!” he said exasperated and turned around.
“Touch it,” Ashana encouraged gently.
“Why? It’s t
he same like the last one,” he replied giving the wall a hard slap before turning around to return to the other road but a load of dust and debris rained down on him before he took his first step. He swung around immediately and gave the wall a hard kick and it budged.
“It’s moving,” he shouted excitedly. He expected Ashana to join his excitement but she was quiet, quietly praying for a miracle and saving the excitement for later. Jonah’s kicks intensified and soon enough, the wall collapsed and an opening a little shorter than his six-foot height and just wide enough for a person with his slender size to fit through, was revealed. A flood of light rushed into the tunnel and the two stood staring at the opening with mouths agape.
Chapter Seventeen
A
s soon as the curtains of nature were drawn back just a little, allowing the sun a sneak peek of the earth, PaNene got up from his tattered mat. “Blessed be this day,” he prayed as he struggled to his feet in a careful, almost mechanical manner that seemed like a well-rehearsed routine. The night had been one of the longest and roughest ones he’d ever had; he’d spent the entire night worrying about Ashana and Jonah. The more he courted sleep, the more the fear about the safety of the young lovers kept sleep at bay. After a few minutes of steadying himself on his feet, PaNene let go of the wall that had offered him support and stumbled outside the hut, still exhausted from sleep deprivation, a night of nightmares, and constant tossing. Standing in the early morning sun, he allowed his frail body to absorb the rays of the sun as they permeated his wrinkled skin. It was simply a matter of very little time before everything in the Fort started coming to life. The chickens would soon start scratching the ground for food, the insects would start fluttering around while watching out for the lizards, and the butterflies would start dancing from tree to tree. The birds would fill the compound with beautiful songs and the slaves would line up to be counted. But by the time the first round of counting was concluded, all hell would break loose because two slaves; a male and female would be missing.
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