What’s your name?” Anganile asked as she poured some milk into her tea.

“Akuzike.” He replied. I knew his name now and he knew mine. Through Anganile’s questions I learnt that Akuzike was 21 and studying to be a medical doctor at Mzuzu Universtity of Medicine. Chikondano asked where we met. I did not know what to say so I pushed a spoonful of rice porridge in my mouth. Luckily Akuzike replied that we met jogging.

“We will be training together starting tomorrow.” Akuzike said when I was escorting him. “If I pretend to be less familiar with you tomorrow don’t be surprised. We are not supposed to interact this closely.”

I nodded my head. I was glad Ama was not here. Her and Sali were in Mzuzu. She had never seen me interact with boys except for the under tens we had at Kaulimi.

Anganile seemed to like Chiumya. She asked me if there was anything going between us. I refused and giggled.

“Just remember you are too young to date.” Anganile said in a firm tone.

“Anga there is nothing going on,” I retorted. My eyes moved from Anga to the table in the middle of the sitting room.

“But even if something was, its okay she is 18.” Chikondano said.

“No its not,” Anganile interrupted.

“Anga, aren’t you being a little hypocritical.” Chikondano smirked. “We started dating when you were 18 actually a few months before you turned 18.” Anga bit her lip to hide a sheepish smile. “And that’s only because you dilly dallied after I professed my love to you.”

“What did she do?” My eyes darted from Anganile to Chikondano.

Chikondano moved forward, and leaned closer to where I was sitting. “She had feelings for me but she made me wait.” After he said this, he leaned back on the couch.

“I was scared to leave Kaulimi.”

“You were afraid to trust a man.” Chikondano objected, looking at her straight in the eye.

She starred down at her swollen belly. “That’s why I was afraid to leave Kaulimi.”

Akuzike did act less familiar, it surprised me then I remembered the reason. I took his cue and acted less familiar with him. He looked good in his black uniform. We met again that Saturday at the training retreat with other teams. At four am we hiked up Nkhwazi Mountain. Kabwila struggled a lot up this short hike.

“How are you not out of breath?” She panted.

“I hike a lot back home.” I said. “You told me Chirwa has to prove herself? Why?”

“She is a biotypical. Aka-rebel prefers Qs for handler jobs because they have experience from being in an H.M and are stronger.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“No it isn’t. But it makes sense.” Kabwila shrugged.

On top of the mountain they had set up obstacles like for police training. This was like a bad day of physical education. We spent the morning going through the obstacles. A short lunch and we spent the afternoon doing sims in the woods. They would split us into two groups. Both teams would be trying to get an object they put in the middle of the forest. We would shoot at the opposite teams’ people till we got to the object. It was all very exhausting I was glad when the sun went down. In the evening we played bawo and some board games while chewing on fried maize and groundnuts. I was walking towards the bathrooms when someone grabbed me and pulled me into the woods. I was about to scream when they placed their hand over my mouth. It was Chiumya—Akuzike. I had decided to stick to calling him Chiumya lest I said his real name outloud and we both got in trouble. He removed his hand from my mouth.

“Sorry, I didn’t want anyone to see us.” He said. I looked around. What if a snake bit us? “I saw you hiking. I guess your leg is better.”

“Much better,” I smiled. His hand was still on my upper arm. He slowly moved it away. “I am sorry about my sister. She likes to probe.”

“I noticed.” He chuckled. “Is she a lawyer?”

“No just an accountant. But a forensic one.” I giggled.

“She would make a good lawyer.” He said. “You should return, before your team starts wondering where you are.”

“Or if I have diarrhoea.” I instantly regretted saying this joke.

“Go first, I will follow.”

I waved and walked to the toilet.

“I can’t feel my butt.” This girl, called Seodi White, complained.

“I don’t understand why we hackers have to do this exercise. For example me, all I do is sit in the pod and hack.” Kabwila grumbled taking off her shoes and entering her bed.

“Incase you get caught.” I told her.

Seodi settled in between her sheets. “These bunk beds make me feel like I am in the military.”

“There should have been a warning about this on the website,” I joked. “Join at owner’s peril.”

“Why are we doing this training now after we have done a raid? Why not before?” Seodi asked.

“Because when we joined they didn’t trust us. They were still screening us. If they brought us and we were spies for the government or the owners of the HMs we would have a lot to report back.” Kabwila explained. Seodi nodded. “I heard they have removed some plants from a couple of teams.”

“Really?” I glanced up at her from my pillow. “Who were they spying for?”

“People running the HMs,” Kabwila answered, sinking into her bed.

Trigger Warning This paragraph contains discussion of rape. NO there is no depiction of rape but a character discusses it. If this is too much, skip to the next paragraph. You will not miss much in terms of plot.

I had a nightmare. I did not scream but afterwards I could not sleep. I stayed up and listened to some music. It always helps me relax. Kabwila was tossing and turning. She must have been having a nightmare. She woke up in a cold sweat.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She shook her head. She covered her face. I realised she was sobbing. I climbed into her bed and put my arms around her. She cried for a while.

“Let’s take a walk.” She said, when she calmed down. The air was cold outside. We walked up to a bench just outside our dormitory room. She sat down. I sat next to her.

“You are prolly wondering what I dreamt about.” She broke the silence. I looked at her. “I was kidnapped and spent six months in a pygmy brothel.”

“Oh.”

“We had umm…six clients every day on a quiet day.” She exhaled. “I was 16 at the time. There were many girls and boys younger than me and some older but all pygmies.”

“That’s horrible.”

Her lips trembled. “It was two years ago. And I rarely get nightmares.” She bit her lower lip.

I starred at the moon, hiding behind the canopy of trees. What was I to say? How could this tough girl bear all those painful scars and wounds inside her?

“The night Aka-rebel came to rescue us. Me and my cellmate were going to kill ourselves. Aka-rebel saved my life.” She wiped her tears.

“You are so strong,” I heard myself say. “So strong Kabwila. You have gone through something so horrific but yet you are cheerful, optimistic and sane. That experience could have broken you but it didn’t.”

“Thanks. In those nightmares I am back in that brothel. I am scared. I am little and I am nothing.”

“They are just dreams. They are just dreams.”

“One of the boys we were with there. We were quiet close. He killed himself a few months after Aka-rebel rescued us. He could not live with the shame.”

“What kept you together afterwards?”

“Prayer, scripture and painting.” She responded. “I put what’s ugly inside my head into beautiful colours and its cathartic.”

The next day started with a jog, and devotions with Rev Phiri. We split in two groups: hackers and the tactical team. We practiced hacking and the tactical guys practised through simulations. When the weekend came to a close I was so beat. Ama and Sali got in a few hours after I got home. They looked beat too.

The day we did our dress rehearsal for the raid at the gym’s basement, Seodi was not there. Apparently she had a stomach bug.

“I think we should call it all off till next week.” Chiumya suggested.

“No. We find a replacement.” Chirwa argued.

“To go tomorrow? It’s too short a time.” Chiumya retorted. His team and my teammates sat on the chairs down there, encircling our arguing leaders. I wanted to leave but I knew I could not.

“Then we go in with just Chibambo. Rescuing the pygmies is more important than the data.” Chirwa said.

“That’s myopic,” he objected. “The data the hacker collects is what leads us to finding more H.M.s”

“But if we delay, those poor pygmies could be turned into…” she didn’t complete her sentence.

Blue veins bulged out of his left arm. “Into what? Into freaks!”

“I did not say that.” Chirwa said apologetically.

Kabwila got up from her chair and positioned herself between Chirwa and Chiumya. “Look, we all know that some pygmies do not survive the surgery. I know I am just a hacker, but I suggest we go in tomorrow. Chibambo here is good at what she does, I am sure she can handle the data collection on her own.” She turned to face me. “Right?”

I starred at her. Her eyes beaconed me to respond. Slowly I nodded my head. I was scared but Kabwila was right we needed to rescue those pygmies. I dreamt I was back in the HM facility that night. When I awoke that morning, I was more sure of my decision.

Chiumya was calm and confident leader. His team seemed to trust him. I slowly made my way into the server room. It was harder than the other H.M I had hit before because this one had many guards. I shot the first two guards I encountered in the leg. I was sitting waiting for a file to download when a guard walked in. I raised my blaster.

“Put that away little girl.” he smirked walking to the computer.

“Don’t move.” I shouted. He was at the computer now. I shot his leg. He fell down then pulled himself and typed something at the keyboard. I could not get myself to shoot him again so I started running towards him to take him down.

“Confirm.” The computer said. He placed his palm on the computer. I was racing towards him. “Confirmed.” I hit him with the butt of my solar blaster. He went down. “Kilswitch activated.” I heard the computer announce.

Me, Kabwila, Justice Msosa (the other hacker working with Kabwi) tried to no avail to reverse this. A hundred pygmies died that night. Chiumya had put his hand on one of them when the kilswitch was activated. A voltage surged through his body.

Creator's Note

Biotypical- is a person without technological modifications.  This is my brainchild/brainword from the word neurotypical. 

Discussion:

Show of hands, who would move to Kaulimi?

Also what do you think Ipyana’s discussion about catcalling with Tali and Vilelani?

What are your worst experiences of catcalling?

Any guys reading this? Whats your take on catcalling?

Whats it been like reading a sci-fi book set in Africa?

Whats it like reading a book with names in African languages? Are they any names you fancy?

What are your thoughts about Chiumya’s views of Kaulimi?

Interesting fact, there is a village in Kenya where men are not allowed. It was founded by women who had suffered various abuses at men’s hands. The women ran businesses and have a good system going. Yes this is where I got my inspiration from. The village is called Umoja Uaso. This village was founded in 1990 by women who were survivors of rape by British Soldiers . You can find a video on youtube about it. It is a haven for child-brides, rape survivors and domestic abuse survivors.

Poor Ipyana, I wonder how this will affect her, a quick vote as you wait for next week’s chapter :) thanks for reading this far.

So I am not used to the word limit on tapas. I usually prepare one photo for a chapter. Then when i post i have to split it. So sometimes chapter .1 photo will not correlate with the chapter. This is why.