Recoil

3

I carried on down the valley with Yin and Yang stumbling behind. I caught sight of Crucial up on the high ground to my left, inside one of the sangars. He was pushing a long thin branch into the ground; it looked like it had just been gollocked off a tree. A soldier stood alongside, a bundle of similar branches in his arms. At first I thought it must be some sort of camouflage, then realized they were arc-of-fire stakes, sited each side of the sangar. Crucial wanted to make sure that when these boys squeezed the trigger, they didn’t take out some of their own.

As I walked on, a young head emerged from a hole in the ground in front of me, carrying a lump of rock the size of a watermelon. A couple of old guys sat and broke it into baggable lumps with two-pound ball hammers.

A volley of shouts in French came up from the valley entrance and people started running. Seconds later, the ground rumbled and shuddered under my feet. A mass of logs and wood shrapnel bounced into the air and I dived to one side, ready for an attack. Then I looked around. Everybody else had gone back to work. Life went on; they must be blowing another hole.

As the rumble subsided, I heard an urgent yell from Sam, up on the knoll. I couldn’t make out what it was about, but he was pissed off big-time.

I carried on to the re-entrant. Some of the sick from Nuka were still straggling in along the valley floor. Silky and a couple of MF guys were immediately alongside them, doing their caring and sharing bit. Tim was further back, putting a blanket over an old woman who lay motionless on the ground. He finished off by drawing the end over her head.

I walked through the throng to Silky. ‘We’re leaving.’

She didn’t bother looking up. ‘What? We can’t move them again.’

There was no more time to fuck about. I gripped her arm to let her know I’d drag her out of there if I needed to. ‘Otherwise you’ll die here. I’m taking you to Rwanda, to safety.’

Tim approached, his face etched with concern.

I pointed a finger. ‘You can shut the fuck up before you start.’

But he still kept coming. I let go of her and headed his way, part of me wanting to front him and see what he would do. It wouldn’t be difficult to blow him over.

Crucial jumped down from the high ground and landed between us. ‘Nick, hey, it’s OK.’

Tim walked round Crucial, ignoring the pair of us completely. ‘You should go, Silke.’ He spoke softly to her. ‘It’s dangerous and it’s only going to get worse.’ He swung to face me. ‘I have a duty of care here. The miners, the LRA, everybody’s done enough damage to these people over the years. I’m not going to desert them now. But you’re right. She must go.’

I turned back to Silky, annoyed at Tim for being so fucking honourable.

He placed his hands gently on her shoulders. ‘It’s futile staying. Please, go.’ His hands stayed where they were a while longer. Finally, she lowered her head and nodded. They hugged, then he turned and walked into the crowd. Clearly he wasn’t big on goodbyes either.

‘Good, let’s go.’

I shoved the tin can at her as she took one last look behind her. ‘Get this down you while we’re moving.’ I grabbed her hand and headed for the river.

Crucial yelled after us, ‘Wait, man, the bridge – they’ve already blown it.’

‘We’ll get over, mate, don’t worry.’ I tightened my grip. ‘And I’ll think about what you said, yeah?’

I gave Yin and Yang a nod and they fell in behind us.