Risking All for Love (Wattpadprize14)

Chapter Thirty-Two

As the shaky school year wore on, people in Bolahun worked on moving their village and school to a remote location in the Bush.  It was easier to construct round huts using their traditional but proven methods.  Little by little, they set up lean-tos for classrooms.  They prepared writing tablets from 4x8 construction boards covered with blackboard paint.  Since they had a ready supply of white earth, they were able to make their own chalk. Although its brittle composition was low quality, their supply was unlimited.  They produced more than enough chalk boards for each individual student, much like schools a hundred years before. With the chalk boards they would be able to conserve their boxes of white paper and pencils, which were packed in a preservative for the tropics.

What remained was to hand carry their text books and reading books to their new location.

As the situation along the border became more dangerous, Chief Carpenter with his bolt-action rifle and a couple of hunters intercepted two of the warlords' patrols. On both occasions, Chief Carpenter killed the patrol leader and any uniformed adults.  He selected one small boy to carry news of each attack back to Sierra Leone.  Although each boy was convinced he was the sole survivor of the patrol, Carpenter had spared the other boys. They had all asked for refuge.  After the disastrous patrols, the warlords backed off.  Chief Carpenter had bought months of time for his local villagers.

Schools graduation in November was earlier than usual, and the small boys were evacuated early to the bush under the care of the Poro Society.

During November, a baby girl named Sarah was born to Lisa and David after her hard pregnancy. When David brought Lisa into Mother Elizabeth for malaria, she delivered her baby girl. Lisa's milk soon dried up, but a woman by the name of Sia had lost her baby in the nearby village of Fangunda. So Sia offered her services to Lisa as a wet nurse.

So by December of 1989, all hell broke loose in Liberia. As soon as harvest was over, Chief Carpenter and others had began to evacuate people to carve out new homes away from the main roads.  There they would escape the warring factions descending on President Samuel Doe's forces.

The Liberian forces had fortified Kolahun some eight miles away but would send no troops to protect Bolahun. So Chief Carpenter took his few hunters to Bishop's Hill to intercept the invaders. There he ambushed a makeshift motorized unit on the way to occupy Bolahun. After they turned back to the main road, Chief Carpenter advised the fathers to have the mission Land Rovers carrying the last of the mission workers and Peace Corps to take the paths around the hill above Sosomalahun and head for Kolahun.

So Lisa, David, and Sia with Sarah occupied one Land Rover with baggage while Margaux and Gary took another. Then David at the last minute took a Land Rover pickup truck with some medical supplies. So after Kolahun, David led off the mission convoy with his pickup truck. Lisa followed him.

No sooner had the two vehicles left, LURD (Liberians United for the Restoration of Democracy) forces broke through the Liberian army defenses. Cut off, Margaux and Gary could not continue. Little by little, they made their way to Kolahun.

Lisa's vehicle fell behind David's because a tire was low. After Lisa used her vehicle's hand pump to inflate the tire, she was too far behind David to catch up soon.

As David's vehicle topped a hill a few miles ahead, it was raked by automatic rifle fire. An Ak-47 round passed thorugh David's body, killing a passenger. The Land Rover overturned into a ditch. David lay in the ditch in horrific pain while ragtag soldiers of LURD approached with caution to finish off the vehicle's occupants.

"Teachuh David!" Musa shouldered his rifle and then proceeded to lift him up. "Let him be so!" shouted the uniformed sergeant in charge of the ambush.