BLOOD BY THE HAND OF GUILT

Chapter Twelve

Somewhere in Morocco….Years earlier

Dassa opened her eyes and she was in the tent but Tamara was no where to be found.

She looked around, got up and walked out of the tent searching and asking. She found Aisha who said she saw her with one of the soldiers going towards the trees. Immediately, Dassa knew something was wrong. She chased after them searching, her heart racing.

"Please let her be alive" She kept praying, scared she might trip over Tamara's body.

Then she heard whimpering then a loud voice.

"Do it!"

"Please…." Tamara cried. Dassa clenched her teeth, picked up a stone and crept behind him, he turned but before he was given enough time to make out who it was, Dassa landed the stone on his temple with all the strength she could gather and he fell with a thud right at her side.

"Come" She helped Tamara up and checked to see if the man was still breathing. Her heart stopped when she confirmed he wasn’t.

"Is he dead?"Tamara sniffed.

"I don't know, but we need to leave now"

"No Dassa, this is…"

"Our last chance to get to the border?, no, it's not, we will get there with or without any help"

Tamara was already in tears, almost sobbing.

"Tamie, where is your faith, we are alive for a reason, all these things trust me, they all happen for a reason, and although I am so mad at God right now, I cant deny the fact that we still need him to stay alive. We will make it through but for now we can never go back"

Tamara nodded.

"Come on"

"What about the map, we need to get it"

"What did I just say Tamara, to survive you can't go back, just run"

They ran for a long time till they were far from the camp. Their feet were bruised by stones, blisters on their soles but they only stopped to catch their breaths. Soon they were on the desert again, not knowing where they were going. The sun was scorching so much and they neither had water nor food.

After hours of walking without water Tamara dropped unable to go on. Dassa walked to her and took her hand.

"Get up Tamie" She said hardly enough breath to speak, her throat was dry and she was so tired. Her lips were cracked and sore,  She fell too and both girls just lay there on the desert and none of them stood till sun down.

They were awakened by the loud cawing of a crow. Dassa opened her eyes and had to shield it from the sun. She saw a few birds hovering above them. She stared at them for a while.

"We aren't dead yet" She said and weakly waved them off with her hand.

"Maybe they smell death on us"

"Nonsense Tamara, I am not dying here, not today" Dassa gathered up the strength she had left and used all of it to help Tamara up.

"I need water Dassa"

"Yea me too"

Their lips were dry and so were their throats, they supported each other till they came to an oasis. At first they thought it was a mirage but it wasn’t. It really was water. They both rushed to it and had a long drink, burrying their head into the water.

"This tastes so good"

Dassa could hear her drink.

"Lets just stay here till someone comes to find us, we have nothing to take some of this water with us"

Tamara kept talking but she heard nothing else, she had seen something. She blinked once and looked, it was still there, she blinked again, this time more than once, it was still there. Convinced she was seeing things she called for Tamara's attention.

"What is it?"

"Come see this and tell me its just the sun"

Tamara drew closer and looked once then with courage, she put her hand into the water and teacher for it. It was a diamond.

A clear beautiful big diamond.

"Holy Moses!" Dassa exclaimed.

"Is that…."

"Yes Tamara, it is a diamond" At once Dassa put her hand into the water and fetched a handful of sand from beneath and washed off the sand and truly, there were diamonds in her hand, smaller once as compared to the one she had seen.

They kept seraching and soon they had found enough to fit into the raffia bag. Dassa dropped a few into the bottle of argan oil and then they lay there happy. Evening came and it became awfully cold. Dassa found a couple of dried fallen branches and made a bed. They lay together keeping each otjher warm.

"Someday we will have all we ever wanted Tamie"

"I believe" Tamara whispered and shivered Dassa wrapped her arms around her to keep her warm and they both forced themselves to sleep under their veils.