SOMALINZE: THE GREAT RIVERS

ANO: THE HIDDEN WORLD

Somma sat as still as she could. it was almost becoming impossible. They have been in the air for about four hours. James had woken up screaming and erratic. Now he was gagged. he just stared at her with apologetic eyes, and she couldn't find the strength to talk to him.

Minutes later, they heard a thud. The bird shook violently. The screens blinkered on and off. The floor seemed to shift. The force jolted the passengers, Somma clenched her stomach at the pain, the others as well. But James, James's seat belt had broken. He was flung to the opposite wall and back.
Somma, after a moment of intense pain, turned to James to make sure he was alright. He was bleeding from his head. Somma quickly tried to undo her straps, but before she could, they felt another jolt. "kushie! " Bronze head shouted. James was caught mid fling, mid air, by stabilizers shot from the opposite walls.

"Onye?!... ", Bronze head screamed. "Ówù Ndí óhí! ", a pilot replied. "Ha'anyi da'ga da'ga! ", the other said. Somma clenched her rosary and began praying. She could hear them, they were crashing, shot down by thieves. She was even more terrified.
"Guide us down! ", Bronze head ordered. The rumbling got more intense. Somma looked at James, suspended. She closed her eyes, crying and waited for the worst.

CONTACT

The left wing of the bird was shot with a harpoon. It could no longer keep afloat. The damage was extensive, as the burning wing parts hit the hull of the craft.
Down below, the assailants waited for the craft to fall. But as it did. The passengers chamber detached, and the burning body of the aircraft dropped violently on the ground.
The passenger chamber had four thrusters, two front and two rear, that fired seconds after it detached from the rest of the craft. They violently  brought the chamber down.

Somma held her throbbing head. smoke was everywhere. "James...James!" Somma called out. Though her ears were ringing, she could here sounds like gunshots. people fighting in the distance. "Jay..." She was calling out again when she sighted James where he laid. She crawled towards him slowly. He was bleeding from his head. As somma was about reaching him, a hand grabbed her, pulling her up. It was the woman she hit. The ringing in her head was almost gone. She could see the people fighting now. The woman dragged somma violently away. "James!" she screamed. "James!"

James jerked to consciousness, breathing heavily. He held his hurting head squealing in pain. The woman used her other hand to cover Somma's mouth.

"Shut up you... ". As the woman was talking, Somma bit the woman's hand hard. And as she withdrew her bleeding hand, Somma screamed... "We're here! Help us... ". She was grabbed again more forcefully, and as she resisted, she felt a not too strange thud on her temple, followed by a searing pain for a second, then time slowed down. Somma collapsed to the ground.  James, seeing Somma fall, got up quickly. And even though he wasn't seeing or thinking clearly he attacked the woman. But the soldier held him back, pushed him to the ground and began punching him in the face, James raised his hands in pain trying to block the painful blows.

As Somma laid on the floor, dizzy from the head trauma, she could hear screams, gun fire sounds and she could see bodies dropping. A few seconds later she saw a blurry figure coming up behind the woman still punching James. And knocking her out.

"James", she called in fear. "we need to escape, let's go". She had the will, but her body betrayed her, she couldn't move, and the more she tried, the more the pain. So she stopped and faded away, from the carnage around her, oblivious of the world as the flies that hovered over her shoes.

A NEW MORNING

Somma woke up screaming. To her, barely seconds after everything went dark. She felt the bed around her, gathering more information about her current situation. She touched and looked at her body. She was wearing new clothes. 'It was all a dream! I've been home asleep?' she thought. "Mom!" she called out as she jumped from the bed. But she noticed it too late. she was face flat on the floor and hurting a lot. "What the he..mmmarr!" She said turning back in anger.

As soon as she did she realized she wasn't home. The bed had no legs or any support on the floor. Rather it was attached by three beams about four feet from the floor. It had a wooden staircase attached to the end. Somma hissed at the sight of it.

She turned around the room, standing up, then walking about. The walls were lit up. Though she didn't see any light panelling. They just glowed. There was what appeared to be a bathroom, a study, a small library, a living room and two other rooms Somma didn't know what was for. The 'rooms' were divided by brightly lit walls. But the rooms had no doors.

"It... really happened. If I'm not home then, where am i ?" She whispered slowly to herself. Now she was frightened again. She was back in the 'bedroom' now. She looked straight at the wall and noticed what looked like a knob. She walked up to it and turned it. Nothing happened. She turned it again, nothing happened. She turned it again and again, each time more violently than the last. Then something happened. The lines of a door frame began appearing on the wall. When it was complete, the door opened wide.

Somma quickly ran out. It led into a hallway. Somma ran towards the end of hallway, there she saw a staircase. She ran down the staircase, there was another one. She ran down again. Soon she was in a huge empty room with two chairs in the middle, set apart by a table. A man sat on one of the chairs, he appeared not to have noticed her. On the table Somma could see two steaming cups filled with a brown liquid. Somma tiptoed silently, trying to sneak across the room to the door, but.

"Ah! Somma, i've been expecting you." The man said turning to Somma. Somma at that point would've run, but for the fact that she didn't see a door. And it didn't hurt that he was unarmed and he appeared friendly.
"Come, sit." The man said beckoning to Somma. Somma sat slowly down, looking suspiciously at him. "who are you? and how did you know my name?" Somma asked.
"Well, my name is Eji. I'm your welcome party. Sorry, we were supposed to be five, but something came up. And i think that answers your second question. And now before you ask any more questions, drink up, you need your strength. Don't worry, it's just hot cocoa."

Somma sipped her drink slowly, " Well, so where am i? are you going to take me home?" She asked.
"Of course, you can go anytime you want. After the orientation. You see, you're in a place some of your people call the 'Old world'. Don't be confused, very few people actually know of our existence. we are the purest line of Igbos unaltered by colonialism." He was interrupted by Somma's expression. "No, i don't mean your tribe is impure. We are one tribe in every sense in fact. What i mean is we are a huge chunk of that great tribe that remained...in a sense great. You know, i think it's better if i showed you. Come with me." He said getting up Somma took one huge gulp of her cocoa and got up as well.

She followed him toward a wall had what looked like the same knob in her room. Her feet clenching the warmth of the floor with every step. "Oh! right, before we go outside. you'd want to put on some shoes." He said looking at her feet. He picked a lone pair arranged perfectly by the wall and gave it to her. It was like it was kept there for this moment.

She wore it quickly, it was just a pair of expensive sneakers. "You'd think with their metal bird. they'd have flying shoes." Somma thought.
When she was done, he turned the knob to the left and pressed it in. The door in the wall opened and they both walked out.

Somma held her mouth as they walked out. There was a wall of stone way up above them. "Where's the sky?!" Somma screamed. "Are we underground?" Somma asked again. Eji walked slowly forward. Somma looked at him and walked angrily towards him. "Answer me!...O my ..." She was interrupted by what was  down before her. A city spread out beyond. Somma was in disbelief.
She could see far away, a wide hole spread above the middle of the city. sunlight shown through the hole. " A city in a cave..." . She said slowly. She walked forward taking it all in.
"Like i was saying" Eji began. We are the part of our tribe that was unaltered by foreign presence. We maintained the continuity of our culture, never bowing to alien masters, neither did we let them change what we believed in. In all the right ways. Somma, welcome to the 'Old world'.