Akata Warrior

by Nnedi Okorafor

  They all jumped on me then. All ten of them, kicking, punching, stomping. I curled myself into a ball, trying to protect my body as much as I could. I remember being horrified but also very, very angry. I kept thinking, I’m going to get out of here. When I do, I’ll beat them down one after the other. Just need to get out from under them. But I couldn’t, Sunny! When ten people attack you . . . you have no chance. The strikes, the weight, the pain, you CAN’T BREATHE!

  They beat you like that so that you will have no mercy in the future. What I later learned is that in the bush, if an initiate died from the beating, he was buried right then and there. That place was full of bones. It’s haunted. How many dead students were watching me, wondering if I would join them in the spirit world that night? When you hear about students disappearing, this is one of the places where many of them go.

  Those guys beat me until I was barely able to gasp for air. Everything was silver blue red, but somehow I didn’t lose consciousness. I felt that if I did fall into the darkness that was calling me, I’d never return. I thought of you all. If I died, I’d be putting you in danger because Mummy and Daddy would come looking for me, asking questions. Who knows what the Red Sharks would do to them if they got too close to the truth? So I stayed awake. I watched them start walking away, one after the other. Capo was the first to leave. “Let the devil that led you here guide you,” he whispered into my ear. He firmly took Adebayo by the arm, dragging him away. Then the others left one by one. No one did a thing to help me.

  I lay there, wheezing, painfully coughing, feeling the blood and sweat seep from me, mosquitoes coming in droves to bite me and drink my draining blood. I couldn’t believe what had happened to me. It’s one thing to take a few hits in a boxing match or a hard kick on the soccer field, it’s another to be beaten down by ten big men. No mercy. No care for vital or sensitive organs. No rescue. I didn’t know where I was and I was in the dark. In the bush. I was alone, Sunny. So alone.

  I don’t know how long I lay there. Maybe about a half hour. Sometimes things were very dim; other times, I was wide awake with terrible throbbing pain. Then I heard rustling and footsteps. Someone was beside me. That someone put his hands beneath my body and helped me stand up. I groaned and whimpered. I must have sounded like a dying old man. But at that time, I didn’t care. I was barely conscious. The world was swimming, and I didn’t know up from down. My chest was a knot of pain. My legs were numb. I felt wet all over. I could smell myself . . . I may have . . . there was more than the reek of sweat and blood on me. Slowly, we started walking.

  “Never let anyone know I helped you,” he said. I started weeping. He helped me get to my hostel. It was almost four A.M. “That was the first phase of initiation,” Adebayo said, looking at me gravely. “The next will be tomorrow night. It will go up to seven days.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  “Remember when I said I was robbed by those guys that first week we were here?”

  When I realized, I gasped. “You were all bloody.”

  He nodded.

  “And cut up. Your arms were . . . That was them?”

  “If I can survive it,” he said, “you can.”

  “No,” I said. We stood outside my room whispering like devils in the night. Inside, my hostel mates were all asleep.

  “There’s nothing you can do to stop it now,” he said. “You either make it through or you die. Now you know everyone’s face. You can betray us.” He gave me a first-aid kit and quickly left. That was the first initiation.

  I cleaned myself up as best I could. I was aching all over, bleeding, cut. My hostel mates looked at me with fear, but none of them asked me a thing. I went to class that next day. No one was going to keep me down, I decided. I limped into class and stared my professor in the face as he lectured about mathematics. He acted like he was just my professor and I was just his student. He pretended that he was not one of the Red Shark members who’d tried to kill me the night before. Adebayo and I went to the Cholera Joint together for lunch. He, too, acted like nothing happened. He said nothing about my limping, but he did slow his walk for me.

  Night fell. It had rained during the day, so it was cooler. My skin was itchy from mosquito bites and from scabbing skin. I felt inflamed all over. Again, I nearly ran. I wanted to jump in my Jeep and just drive. But . . . I don’t know. I stayed. What could be worse than last night? I thought. I wasn’t going to run from anybody.

  They came at three A.M. They didn’t blindfold me or tie my hands. I knew where the place was, anyway. And I hadn’t run, so to them I had resigned myself to my fate. I wasn’t afraid. They brought me to the haunted bush where everyone was waiting for me. More than ten guys this time. Probably closer to thirty. All in red and black.

  They introduced me to “the family” from Capo to me; my new name was Yung C. Then Capo asked me to step up. When I did, Capo grabbed my shoulders. I immediately tensed up, a thousand different flares of still-raw pain went through me. But I stayed calm. Some guys came up behind and beside me and held my arms.

  One of the members stepped up beside Capo with something in his hand. Another member shined a flashlight on my other hand. Those guys holding me began to push me down. “Don’t fight,” one of them said, straining as I resisted. Another guy joined them, and they eventually wrestled me to the ground and . . . and Capo brought these clamps out of his pocket. They were holding me down, and two more guys came and held my head down. One of them squeezed my cheeks hard and said, “Open! Open your mouth!” After a while, the pain was so much that I did.

  Capo knelt over me with those clamps, and I understood exactly what was about to happen. I started bucking and trying to free myself. But there were so many guys, I was trapped.

  “One of a Red Shark’s teeth must be taken to signify he is one with the Sharks.”

  “You bite him and we kill you,” the one squeezing my mouth open growled. The guy was serious. And he looked like he was hoping to have to do it.

  “We take one of the ones near the back,” Capo said. He was grinning, enjoying himself. How many times had he done this? I think he wanted me to give him a reason to bash my face with those clamps before pulling my tooth, anyway. I could see it in his eyes. So I stopped struggling. He took the one on the bottom right in the back. See the hole? I nearly blacked out. He pulled and pulled. Then I heard it rip. I whimpered with pain, saliva and blood filling my mouth.

  “There it goes. Got it,” he said. He didn’t even wipe it off as he jiggled it about in his hand, laughing almost hysterically. Then he brought something out of his pocket and added it to my tooth in his hand. He shook them and together they made a clinking sound. Then he blew hard into his hand. When he shook it, there was no clinking sound. And when he opened his hand, my tooth was replaced with a larger, pointier yellow tooth—a shark tooth.

  Several of the members gasped at his cheap magic trick. They all let go of me and I just lay there, feeling the mosquitoes biting me—my own bite one tooth less. I glared at Capo as he grinned down at me. That Capo. He is an evil man. Him, in particular.

  I was exhausted, but there was more to come. They sat me up.

  “You see this?” Capo said, kneeling before me, holding the shark tooth to my face. “This was your tooth. You have become a Red Shark like the rest of us now.” The smile dropped from his face. “Hold out your hand.”

  The shark tooth looked sharp as hell. They had to grab me again and force my hand open. They cut me deeply on my hand. I didn’t scream, but I stamped my foot really hard and fought not to struggle. If I did, the guys holding me would hold me tighter and I didn’t want that. I breathed through my nostrils and tears bled from my eyes as a clay pot was held beneath my bleeding hand. My blood mixed with the blood of the other confraternity members who’d all done the same thing for their initiation.

  “This is a symbol of our love for one another,” Capo said. “Blood i
s blood.”

  The pact was sealed. Afterward, there was no beating. They sang traditional songs and gave speeches of welcome. I heard none of it. I only had one thing in my head at this point.

  The Capo was always the first to leave. Then it was in order of rank. With Adebayo and I leaving together last. He told me that the next night, I’d be given three tasks to complete. But, Sunny, there was no way in hell that I was going to stick around for any of it. I was sure one of those tasks was going to be that I hurt or kill someone! They are looking for me right now. Probably turning my entire hostel room upside down. I feel sorry for my roommates. I took all my things, though. I didn’t tell Adebayo. How could I trust him? He’s the one who told them about me. You see this? A medical student friend of mine gave me these stitches just before I left. I was lucky he helped me. Otherwise, my hand would probably be infected. I’ve been staying with lady friends, one night here, another night there, since Thursday.

  So there it is, Sunny, I . . . I am a member of a secret society of the most dangerous kind and I’ve just gone AWOL, I’ve deserted, run off. They will want to kill me. But if I stay . . .

  Sunny just gazed at her brother as he looked away, shaking his head. “If I stay, they’ll turn me into a monster,” he said.

  She needed a moment to get her mind around it. Her oldest brother, Chukwu, was in a secret society . . . just as she was. He’d been through an initiation as she had been. But it wasn’t the same. She loved her society; he was running from his. He could speak about it, but she could not. She blinked away tears as she felt something hard and hot in her chest. Rage. Her brother had been one of the banes of her existence for most of her childhood, though since she’d become a Leopard Person, their relationship had improved. Nonetheless, she could not ever, ever, ever bear anyone harming him. This realization surprised her as much as the intensity of her rage did.

  “I have to go,” he suddenly said.

  “Where?” she asked, grabbing his arm.

  Her brother frowned, looking at her hand gripping the flesh of his upper arm. “I have a lady friend in Aba who I can stay with for a few days. Then . . . I don’t know.”

  Sunny’s mind was so awash with anger and the pain of his story that she was finding it hard to focus. His face was so battered that he barely looked like her brother. Every motion he made was hindered by pain. On top of this, those idiots were robbing him of his future by scaring him away from school.

  Her brother got up. Slowly.

  “Wait,” she said, running to her underwear drawer. She took out the plastic box where she kept the little naira she had and twenty American dollars from when they’d moved back from New York years ago. “Here,” she said, shoving it in his hands. “Take this.”

  “I can’t . . .”

  “Yes, you can,” she said. The wheels in her head had begun to turn. She wouldn’t tell her parents. Not yet. “You have your phone?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Okay . . . stay with your friend for now,” she said. “But you’re going to go back to school soon.”

  “Didn’t you hear all I told you, Sunny? They’ll kill me if I go back. They may even come here looking for me! I can’t . . .”

  “Have faith,” Sunny said. “Have faith.”

  She gave him a gentle hug and then helped him quietly leave the house. She watched him slowly climb into his orange Jeep.

  “Keep your phone close,” she said. “Rest, eat, and . . . Chukwu, it’s going to be okay.”

  He paused, looking into her eyes. “What makes you so sure?”

  “Just trust me.”

  He smiled for the first time since he saw her. “Sunny, what’s happened to you?”

  She only smiled back.

  “Whatever it is, it’s good. It’s good.” He started the car.

  “Keep your phone close,” she repeated. Then she quickly added, “I’ll call you in a day or so.”

  He nodded. “Not a word to Mummy, Daddy, or Ugonna.”

  She nodded.

  Then he was gone. She went back inside and slept for three solid hours. She needed her rest. She had much more than school to handle come morning.

  11

  WAYS

  As soon as Orlu climbed on the okada to go see his crazy auntie Uju, Sunny took off toward home. She leaped over the open gutter, leaving school grounds, and quickly jogged along the dirt path beside the road. She ran around students on their way home and avoided okada who drove dangerously close to the path as they sped and wove between cars and trucks.

  She passed the usual shops and then the half-finished house that had been in construction for over five years. The run-down office building beside it looked even worse now that the house was almost complete. When she reached her neighborhood, she absentmindedly ran a hand over the smooth trunk of the palm tree growing on the corner of the street. She slowed down now, bringing out a handkerchief and dabbing her brow. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. Getting through the school day had been hard. Not telling Orlu had been even harder. Sunny knew he’d disagree with what she planned to do. He’d push her to tell her parents.

  Her eyes stung now. Then they grew moist. All day, she’d avoided thinking about her brother’s story and his face, oh, his face, as best she could. But now that she was out of school and away from Orlu, she just wanted to sit in the road and cry her eyes out. She walked faster. Her parents wouldn’t be home yet, but if Ugonna was home and she saw him, she’d break down and tell him everything.

  When she arrived at Chichi’s hut and saw her sitting on a chair outside, she knew she’d done the right thing. Her eyes filled with tears as she approached the one person she thought could help her. Chichi was reading a thick book and when she looked up at Sunny, she grinned. “You’ve gotta see this book! It’s a novel set entirely in the wilderness! Of all people, you’ll . . .” The smile dropped from her face. She closed the book and got to her feet. She placed the book on the chair. “Sunny! What’s wrong?”

  Sunny let her backpack drop to the dirt path that ran up to Chichi’s hut, now unable to control her tears. “I . . . I . . . I . . .” she sobbed.

  “What happened?” Chichi said, running up and taking both of Sunny’s hands. Chichi was already short and she hadn’t grown any in the last year, whereas Sunny was pushing five foot nine and had gained several pounds of lean muscle. Still, Chichi managed to hold Sunny up and help her into the hut. Sunny sat down hard in one of the cushioned chairs inside the hut, tears still draining from her eyes. Chichi knelt before her and looked into her face.

  “Sunny,” she softly said. “Did someone . . .”

  “It’s my brother!” she managed to wail. “He’s in terrible trouble! They’ll kill him!”

  Sunny told Chichi everything. Recounting Chukwu’s story between tears, foot stamping, and cursing, something Sunny rarely ever did. Retelling the story to Chichi seemed to bring it alive that much more for Sunny. It was like stepping into Chukwu’s shoes. There were three reasons Sunny went to Chichi. The first was that she knew Chichi had always liked Chukwu. Chichi thought he was pretty and liking him had always been a source of argument between her and Sasha. The second reason she went to Chichi was because Chichi could keep secrets, even from Orlu and Sasha. And the third was that Chichi would be willing to break the rules and risk punishment to help Chukwu because trouble-making and daring were in her blood.

  “Did you know that these damn societies were originally formed to make sure there was always academic freedom and to cure society’s problems?” Chichi shouted as she paced the floor. “People like Professor Wole Soyinka and Aig-Imokhuede started them!” She was as angry as Sunny. “Now these young people who know nothing are crippling the highest place of Lamb education?! The university is all the Lambs have! Without the university, they’d be intolerable. They have no other urge to learn. I didn’t know it was full of . . . of so
cial disease.”

  “It is,” Sunny said. “You can’t really be a top student there without having to join or at least deal with them.”

  They were quiet now. Chichi stood in the middle of the hut frowning. Sunny sat in the chair looking at her sandaled feet. There was no breeze outside and it was easily close to ninety degrees, yet inside the hut it was cool as a clam. The floor of the hut was dirt, the bed Chichi and her mother shared to the right and many stacks of books to the left. They had so little, yet Chichi and her mother combined were a force powerful enough to be of great importance to the Leopard Knocks elders.

  “So what do you want to do?” Chichi quietly asked.

  Sunny didn’t look up. There was a storm rolling in her mind. She couldn’t get the image of her brother’s battered face out of her head. This was his life at stake and his future. “What happens if juju is performed against a Lamb?”

  “You already know that,” she said. “Remember what happened when you showed Jibaku your spirit face? You only got off easy because you were a new free agent.”

  “No, I don’t mean minor stuff. Serious juju.”

  Chichi looked closely at Sunny, and Sunny didn’t look away. “I don’t know,” Chichi said. She cocked her head. “Why?”

  “I want to make them suffer,” Sunny said, clenching her fists. It felt good to speak her thoughts to Chichi. “Not just his so-called friend Adebayo, or their Capo leader. I want to make all of them suffer.”

  They were quiet, staring into each other’s eyes. Chichi looked away first.

  “Even if you will suffer for making them suffer?” Chichi asked, looking at her feet.

  “Yes,” Sunny firmly said. “It will be worth the sacrifice. My brother will at least be able to go back to school. Just help me with what I have to do and then step back. I don’t want you to . . .”