The Price of Freedom

Chapter 1 - The Slaves life to be

Mudah could feel the heat of the sun beating down on his back. He could feel the salt crystals forming as his own sweat evaporated before his eyes. His hands were blistered and bleeding from holding the scythe, as he used it to cut down the sugar cane for transportation to the Mill.

That place I will never forget, the death bed of many a brave soul. The loud clattering noises coming from th ill only a demon could make. We are not working for the white man but satan himself. I remember when they took me from my home, carrying there long, thin silver coloured barrels, much like the poison darts back home, except these ones created huge clouds of smoke before spitting death over a hundred yards away.

 A sharp pain in his foot brought him back to reality. The jagged, rough edged stones that littered the floor were cutting into his feet, adding to the many scars that already covered half his body. His most severe scar which he owed a gratitude to the driver. His right eye had been crushed by the whip when he had refused to do any more work, receiving the most vicious of whippings.

 Mudah was used to the pain though, the heat and the workload, he had done it for so long that he had forgotten what It was like to live in his home country, he had grown to accept the punishment his masters inflicted upon him. When looking upon a cut he would think ‘just one more scar to add to my collection’. Mudah would play games on the masters which would undermine their brutality, these games were done whilst in the field. These would annoy the master, play throw and catch with the cotton with other workers, or impersonating a monkey behind the slave drivers back. But if he was caught out, it would result in a whipping and a possible stay in the hole.

 The Hole, they have many names for it, for it is a place of many crimes against Mudah’s (what had come to be) friends and family, the master would lock them up in a metal cage which had spikes pointing in from all directions. This forced the slave to keep awake all night, if he did fall asleep, he would lean on the spikes, inflicting serious injuring, more likely resulting in infection and later death. It was after one of these stays in the hole that Mudah met the love of his life, a would be beautiful African ex-queen. At first he tried to subdue his feelings, for the likely pain of losing her to a whole number of factors would be to much for him, he feared he was not strong enough.

 His love for her reminded him of the wife he was engaged to be unified with, the wife's name was Udayah, who was from another tribe which Mudah's father had hoped would form a strong alliance by doing so. They both shared the elegant features of a queen, both had perfect facial features, how they differed though was in the eyes, Udayah's eyes were a dark brown, kind of plain, with no excitement to them.

However, Amira's eyes were a light brown, with a mixture of blue and grey. When ever she looked at Mudah, it would seem as though her eyes were dancing, yet seeing deep into his very soul. Both had short hair and were of a similar height, though, Amira's arms were thicker and more muscular from living a slaves life for the last 5 years.

Her job as a house maid, was to carry around on silver platters, little china cups that contained the light brown liquid, the white folk so greedily divulged them selves with.Along with scones, cakes and other various bread like substances. A crack of a whip, a yelp of pain, followed by several more whips, a laughing master and a crying slave. 'Those savages' Mudah though, they with all their brutality and intellectual abilities no not of how we do not forget so easily the hardships of the past.

 That night when all was quiet from the disruptions of humans, except for the croaking of the fogs, the barking of the stray dogs and the rattling of the crickets. Mudah was waiting in the bushes, he had not known for how long, but what he did know was that his leg was starting to cramp up, he was waiting for the single light in the drivers hut to turn off, this would signify that the driver was asleep.

His whole plan rested on the driver being asleep as his escape route went near the hut, after what felt like an eternity to Mudah, but was actually only 10 minutes, a shadow appeared at the window before disappearing, along with the yellowish tinge the flame of the lamp produced. This was the moment that Mudah had been waiting for, after a year of planning, this was his moment, his time to escape, to free.

He looked left then right before bursting from the tree like a cheetah, using his fast speed, he quickly made to the high wooden fence that was surrounded by rock hard dry ground. The wooden fence had spikes on the top pointing inwards and outwards, to stop those inside getting out and those outside from getting in. This gargantuan fence that towered at 10 foot tall, would normally have deterred slaves from attempting to escape, but not Mudah, he had come prepared. The bamboo poll that he heald in his hand was twice as long as he, about 12 foot, it was sharpened at one end to piece the rock hard floor, surrounding the base, coupled with the small divot he carefully scraped out during the previous night.

Mudah steadied himself, readying himself for the task that lay at hand. '1...2...3...' he counted in his head, almost as if he had been struck by lighting , Mudah shot off towards the Fence, the divot in the ground could be clearly seen. He lowered the pole and hit the divot on target, however, it was not clean and caught the divot to the left a little, the bamboo now bent to and impossible angle befor catapulting him over the fence with inches to spare. He flew through the air for a split second before making his return journey to earth, unfortunately the mistake with the pole had sent him hurtling to the left, away from the soft grass, away towards the cobbled road.

This was mudah's worst nightmare, he braced himself for the pain that was about to come. His feet smacked the stone first, the pain reverberating through his legs, up his pinal chord and into his head, he yelped in pain but did not have time to recover as his knee's buckled under the pressure, causing him to land on his right shoulder, which took most of the strain. Mudah lay there, for a couple of minutes, stifling his cry's of agony and trying to regain his focus, when he did though, he looked up at the night sky. He never remembered the moon so bright, the air so clean and the night so peaceful. It would have been easy to just lay there for the rest of his life, but these thoughts were disturbed, when Mudah noticed something new, that something was missing.

The frogs were no longer croaking, the crickets no longer rattling, and the dogs no longer barking. The silence was only replaced by a low growl, Mudah slowly turned his head and then his body, into a half kneeling, half standing position on the the balls of his feet. What lay before him was a dog, however it was not a stray dog, this dog had a leash, and upon this leash was a hand, a white hand, the hand of the driver. Both stared at each other, a stare off that would have scared even the most steadfast of men.

The driver was the first to move, releasing the dog which sprinted towards Mudah, who appeared to the driver as though he was defenceless and scared. This is exactly what Mudah wanted him to think, what the driver had not seen was that Mudah was holding one of the jagged, rough edged stones that had littered the floor of the plantation. Once the dog was in range he brought the stone down on the dogs head, killing it instantly, the driver was stunned, never had a slave killed one of his dogs before.

Before he had time to react, Mudah lunged towards him, knocking the driver off his feet, whacking his head against the stones in the process, causing an instant concussion. Mudah scrabbled his way to his feet, expecting the inevitable retaliation that was sure to come, but when he looked down, nothing could have prepared him for the sight before him. The drivers eyes were rolling around uncontrollably, whilst humming 'Rue Britannia, Britannia rules the waves', Mudah could not stop himself letting out a small laugh, a laugh that had been long long from his beleaguered face, Mudah could not remember the last time he had laughed.

With his hands he clasped the delirious driver's throat, slowly squeezing, the man began to choke and cough as he desperately gasped for air as his wind pipe closed around him. Then he let go, as the winded driver lay completely unconscious on the floor, with his right foot he stamped down on the drivers face crushing the skull and delivering the final death blow. A smug smirked was on Mudah's face, then turning away he ran towards the forest. he did not look back, when he ran, disappearing from sight as though nothing had happened. From behind the tall wooden fence, the love of his life looked on, tears of happiness and solitude steamed down her face, for she was happy he had escaped, but sad that she had been left behind, for she knew her task was the most important of all.