She descended into town. When I asked her why she was heading into town. She said she wanted to get a frisby from a store. I was going to stay in her pod but she asked me to accompany her. I got out. She led me into an Engolo gym.

“What’s going on?” I asked planting my feet outside the entrance of the gym.

“I want you to train with me.”

“So you tricked me into coming here?”

“I knew if I told you the truth you would not come.”

“I’m leaving.” I said walking away.

She grabbed me by my elbow. “Look I don’t want what happened to you to happen again. I saw you in that Musangwe gym you still hesitate when you fight. An assailant could easily take advantage of…”

I whirled around, forcing her to let go of my elbow. “What? You’ve been stalking me.”

“I followed you the other day when you said you went to the store. I knew you were lying.”

“Boundaries Salifya! I am not a child I don’t need you following me around.”

“I was trying to protect you.”

I raised my hand upto my face. “You are easing your guilt at the expense of my space. I will not have it.” I walked towards the parking lot, my plan was to go to the bus stop in front of it. Salifya followed me.

“I can train you. You know I am better than your handler.”

“I would not subject myself to being trained by you.” I said remembering how she bullied me when she trained me in the past.

“It will be an opportunity for you to take out your anger about me.”

I stopped walking, “Is that what this is?” I faced her. “I take out my anger and we go home holding hands. All is forgiven.” I scoffed and continued walking away.

“The job that you have signed up for will put you at great risk. I can teach you to be better.”

“I don’t need you.” I said without turning around.

This time she did not follow me. I kept rewinding what had happened between me and Sali. Vilelani says I should have punched and kicked her right there and then or slammed her head against the gym’s wall saying “I don’t need to go into the gym to take out my anger.” I laughed at the idea. Her and Talilo both agree that all in all I handled it well. I said what I had to. She got the message. They are both impressed that she is trying to mend our relationship. Tali says that it isn’t like there was much of a relationship before. “So I guess this is the new Sali.” She concluded. I don’t know. I don’t know but this isn’t the Sali I knew. I see myself liking this new Salifya who puts effort into our relationship.

Two kilometres a day. Ayayayai. I had to meet her every day to train. And now this. I did not sign up for this. I signed up to be a behind the desk sort of person. I jogged by the beach so I could see the sun coming out of the lake. I had jogged for almost half a kilometre when I saw someone I thought I recognised. I ran upto him. He was doing stretches.

“Chiumya.” I said.

“Chibambo.” He said looking up at me smiling. “Your handler’s got you jogging huh?”

I nodded my head. “Yours too?”

He straightened himself. “Actually I am a handler myself.”

“Oh.” My eyes widened. “Can I ask something?”

“Shoot.” He said retying his jet black kinky hair into a bun.

“I get the combat training. But why the jogging?”

“To stay in the best physical condition. Also sometimes missions go awry you will need to run for safety.”

I nodded my head. His hair was so thick and his skin was a beautiful pecan complexion. The man bun he had ancentuated his strong jaw line. He was a handsome young man.

“The sunrise is beautiful.” I said, turning my attention to the waters of the Lake.

“Yes it is. It’s the reason I come out here. Which direction are you going?”

I answered him.

“I still have 3 more km to my ran, I can jog you home.”

I giggled at his pun. I took many breaks which embarrassed me. “I am sorry I have to stop again.”

“It’s okay. Your body is adjusting.”

“Go ahead. I will slow you down.”

“It’s no big deal.”

Chirwa sent me some more documents to organise. This was the second document she’d sent me this week. This was more involving than I thought.

“I will ease you into it,” Chirwa said buckling up the boxing focus pads. “Today we do arms only.”

“I’m tired” I lamented. We had been doing this for a whole three minutes without a break. I had been tired after the first minute but didn’t say anything because I did not want to displease her. My chest was heaving back and forth.

“Take a minute.” She said. I walked out of the boxing ring to where I left my bag. After sitting for a minute and rehydrating, Chirwa called me back into the ring. We were at it for thirty minutes. There were breaks but at the end I was beat. My arms ached.

“Tomorrow we do legs.”

I could hear my legs groaning in anticipation of the agony to come.

I turned around when I heard my door open. “Hi,” Sali said awkwardly.

I pressed the sleep button on my laptop. “Hello.”

Sali sat on my bed. “I am sorry about what happened in the afternoon. It was unfair.”

“I know you are trying to hasten our reconciliation.” I felt my hurt seep into my words. “But you need to give me time to work through this.” I tried to steady my voice to camouflage my hurt. “I am trying to forgive you. You broke my heart Sali.”

I turned to face the laptop. I hate the look she had on her face, it was the look someone gave a child about to cry. I switched on my computer and opened a tab with my personal statement. I started typing at my keyboard, to make her go away. She left. I wiped my tears.

“Tomorrow we will start with full combat,” Chirwa said.

“With the training bots?” I clarified.

“No with me. Even with your hesitations, you are too advanced to train with your teammates.” She stood behind a punching bag and instructed me to alternate between kicks and punches. After training, she took me to a restaurant. There were three people sitting at a table waiting for us. I had seen them the first time I went to the gym. There was an Akafula girl and two normate boys. I sat down. Chirwa told us we were a team.

The two normates were called David Kapito and Kamlepo Kalua and the Akafula was called Jessie Kabwila.

“You are probably wondering why we are so strict with the aliases.” Chirwa said taking out her phone. She placed it on the glass table and played a video. It showed a group of Akafula in masks holding automated rifle blasters. They sang songs in Chichewa swinging their weapons in their air. A young lady stepped forward “Motherland is calling her children to fight for her firstborns.” Chirwa shut the video.

“Aka-rebel started as peaceful protesters fighting for equality of all pygmies. But within it there was a radical faction that wanted to start a war, to reclaim ‘their’ land from the normate invaders. That’s when the government cracked down on Aka-rebel arresting everyone and anyone affiliated to it. That was over a decade ago but the government still classifies us as illegal. The aliases are to protect ourselves. If one of us gets caught we can not tell our captors anything about the other because we don’t know any personal details about each other. It’s important you don’t share any personal details. It’s for your own safety and your team’s safety.”

The food we had ordered came, the waiter-bot placed each snack next to the person who ordered it.

“Our first raid is a month from now so we will start training together a team,” Chirwa announced. My heart skipped a beat.

“Why did you join Aka-rebel?” Kabwila asked Kapito, who was sitting beside her.

“My neighbour was an Akafula. We were quite close. When she was ten, she was kidnapped and missing for months. When the police found her, her limbs were removed only her torso remained.” His voice was slow harnessing his agony and horror. “I couldn’t sleep for a long time. My mom told me I was safe because that only happened to Akafulas. That’s what made me join Aka-rebel.”

“My little sister is a pygmy. I’ve watched her deal with being starred at, not getting jobs and even being bullied because of her height. When I joined, I wanted to take part in protests to raise awareness. Then we found out about the HMs. I joined tactical because I did not want my sister to be turned into a Q.” Chirwa explained.

Kabwila told us how she joined to stand up to the bullying she had endured throughout her life. I knew she wasn’t telling us everything.

“My mother is a pygmy. She was kidnapped when I was bout ten. She managed to escape where she was being held but after they had turned her into a Q. She is okay but that experience changed her. For years, she wouldn’t go out unless she had to. It’s only in the recent years she has started returning to her old self.” Kamlepo said.

I went last. “Whoever is behind this needs to be stopped.” I concluded.

Author's Note

Take a guess, what do you think Kabwila is hiding?

Do you think she is hiding something?

thanks for reading my story. Remember my patreon account is a few chapters ahead of this one :)

what do you think of Ipyana's team?