Lucky's African Journey: Triumph Over Tribulation.

"The day will come that I may die, but I do not fear death."

-Lucky Manning

October 7th, 2065. Reqo and I had walked for hours in search of a village called Mlubet. It was a small town about 100 miles north of the capital city of Naminga. The journey was to be dangerous, but we were willing to take the risk in order to help an old friend of ours. His name was Kobangwe, and he was a farmer who lived in a nearby village. Two weeks ago, Kobangwe had fallen from his roof while fixing a leaky roof tile. He had suffered severe internal bleeding and a broken leg, which made it difficult for him to move about easily. He was also near death and asked us to find his nephew Eigenga, who lived in Mlubet. We knew the journey would be risky because the war was still going on between the rebels and government soldiers, but there was no way we were going to let him die.

We walked up a steep hill until we saw two men standing at the top of it. They wore blue uniforms with red emblems on their chests, so they were probably government soldiers. Reqo signaled me to duck behind some bushes and stay hidden while he talked to them. I heard one of them say something like "How many more hovels are there?" The other answered and said "I don't know but it's all jungle over there," pointing towards my direction with his rifle. From what I gathered from their conversation, they must have been looking for rebels hiding out in the jungles nearby. As soon as they finished speaking, they walked away from our area so we quickly ran down the hill towards Mlubet.

Reqo looked exhausted after running up and down that mountain all day long, so we decided to take a rest before moving on to Mlubet. He took off his backpack and sat down beside a tree while I went further down into the valley to hunt for food. Few minutes later I returned with two wild chickens that I had killed with my knife. Reqo's eyes grew wide when he saw the dead birds in my hands. He said: "You mean you weren't just stretching your legs? How did you manage to kill those birds?" Reqo thought I could never hunt anything bigger than a squirrel or rabbit because I wasn't very good with my knife or bow and arrow; he always said that hunting is a skill that most Americans can never learn because they live sheltered lives in cities where hunting is illegal, citing my inability to catch prey as proof of his theory. He was quite impressed by my skills that day because he thought we were going to starve if we didn't find any food by nightfall; he even offered me half of his beef jerky as a reward for killing those birds so quickly.

We continued walking until late afternoon when we finally arrived at Mlubet village; it had been reduced to nothing but ashes by the rebel fighters who raided it only three days ago. There were bodies scattered around everywhere; some were lying face-down on the ground while others lay sideways against trees or houses which no longer stood after being torched by bombs dropped by fighter jets flying overhead earlier that week. Several other corpses lay atop scorched remains of wooden structures now turned into charcoal black piles by flames; others still lay near trenches filled with pools of blood slowly drying under hot African sunrays looking almost as if they had been sliced open like sausages ready for grilling over coals - blood oozing out slowly from their wounds soaking into dry dirt beneath them coating their skin red except for several parts that had turned greyish-blue from lack of oxygen making them look lifeless like dolls without any life left in them waiting for death to carry them away from this cruel world forever...

It was hard seeing all these dead bodies lying around everywhere; some mutilated beyond recognition while others made me wonder how people could be so cruel as to brutally butcher unarmed civilians who never did anything wrong except living under President Pupa's oppressive regime where everyone is suspected of being an enemy soldier even though they don't even own any guns! In fact most people here can't afford buying guns because they are too poor and starving to afford basic necessities like food and clothes! But you won't see any pity here today because they make sure everyone obeys their rules or else...! These bloody tyrants will murder anyone who dares oppose them including children! They don't care if you're young or old as long as you don't agree with their rules then you're just as good as dead!

"My God..." I whispered under my breath while shaking my head in disbelief at such senseless cruelty inflicted upon innocent people who just wanted freedom from this horrible tyranny! While thinking about these things, I saw one body lying face-down on the ground covered in blood with only its back exposed making it easy for me to recognize him: It's Kobangwe! There's no doubt about it because I recognized his shirt immediately... It's exactly like one he used to wear every time he visited us at home during Washington Dc's hot summers when we used to spend our holidays together...

[END.]