blackbird

chapter 3-cold Forest Floor

We were seated, legs lay on the ground tied together with a tight rope, with my hands joined together and tied at my back, and I was made immobile.
After getting caught yester night by the famous black masked evils, I am still trying to come up with a name for them, I am sure that's what has gotten Lulu so serious, I could already see the wheels of his head turning like light speed.

He had gotten more thin than normal; I think I did lose some kilos as well, but, from where I was seated, on the misty morning grass, I felt cold and hungry. Chaos had been here and there till eating was the last thing to think about.
I glanced to where my friend was seated and I signaled him my stomach with my head, the only part which wasn't tied to the tree, he did the same, sailing on the same boat!

He was tied to the next tree where I was, but with some distance not more than a meter to be precise. The only form of communication that sufficed was through head signals, our mouths were tied with black tape, our legs and hands were tied using thin ropes, and by the way I was trying to rub my hands to create friction so I could let lose, it was becoming more tight and my hands were bruising, it wasn't doing me any good.

I surrendered to my stillness!
I wanted to tell my friend how we ended up here, with our kidnappers, who were like the cobra squad, killing mercilessly and cleared our homes, when our other loved ones were out here running for their lives, but his head was bowed down and he looked to be in deep thought or pain, and that metanoia fazed me. And I sat still, pondering how we came to be here, and in the midst of my spaces, someone kicked my immobile feet, when I looked up, I was met with a tall humongous man, maybe because I was young, or maybe because I was seated, but the man looked scary, a scary yeti. I mentally rolled my eyes, just when it could get any better.

"Get up!" he barked
His voice reverberated inside of me, and it scared me, and I felt like my spine could break any moment from the way it had been twitching. But how am I going to get up with my tied up body parts! I was screaming in my head and mentally groaning. But before I could respond, he crouched down by my back and untied my hands then my legs, he was very rough, like he was dealing with some hardcore criminals, were we? Then did the same to my friend, but before he did that, he slapped his bowed head and the sound could startle a sleeping lioness.

What a ruthless son of woman!
"Follow me!" he commanded
I am going to call him Yeti, he was ugly, and he could use a soft voice, or hide behind a soft façade, especially when dealing with children like us. People pretended to have a soft voice, all the time, when talking to the young ones. And we followed his big footsteps, did I mention he has a big head, and he had all these scars, the most prominent one was from his left jaw all the way to his big forehead, like a burn, maybe someone branded him, and his stature lacked life in it, his aura exhibits that one of a lion but when you study him closely, he looked tired, but determined to thrill his boss.

Lulu and I followed closely behind him, the forest where we were was clearing out, light was seeping through the tall trees, and there was this breeze that was oncoming by waves, soothing my tired body, lulling my sore limbs to rest, if it was any normal day, I would savor and relish in the moment, but with my mother and sister together with my other siblings out here wondering where to take refuge in the middle of the big forest, I suppressed all of it, and all these stoicism took all over me and braze the moment where I was following my kidnapper willingly.

Thoughts of just grabbing Lulu's hand and escaping these people and run into the wild were thrown into the air when I turned back and saw a large mass of them just behind us, we were stuck with our kidnappers!
We walked for quite a distance with the only sound that was coming from our surrounding was that of hungry birds seeking their fill, the sounds of wails that once covered the silent forest were no longer heard, seems like they travelled through the night and escaped from these bandits, they passed through the forest and climbed the small valley through and went further beyond.

Still following Yeti, we reached where the trees were thinning out and it was just the smaller vegetation covering small trees. Here, there were more of them, the bandits, they were all in one uniform of covered head down to their eyes and mouths, each one of them were armed with big guns, I didn't know more about armory, it is not like we were being taught such in school. They seem to be in a sour mood, might be because they didn't succeed in their mission.
We stood there with mouth wide agape, these are what we have watched in the black and white television, but here we are with these black masked people in the middle of the forest, it was like being a part of them, in their planning mission of maybe rob a bank or carry out some Rambo mission!

But when one of them spotted us, the look he threw us made me shit my pants! He strode towards us like a lion walking to its prey, he seems to be their leader, he had this aura that made you want to suffocate, black and full of scars, just like yeti, but with more scars and a slimmer built, his head was covered with a jeshi headscarf but without a mask on, I knew we were dead! But before he could reach where we were standing with Lulu, I became weak, with palpitations I couldn't put my finger on and what I remembered last was the look Lulu had on his face, of fear stricken wet puppy.