The Last Insurgent

Daughter of the devil, it is time to die

Leena heard the door get opened. She thought it was Mufty but the three brutal looking men she saw got her trembling.

The man in front split his wide face into a devilish grin.

“Daughter of the devil.” He said. “The time has come.”

“What?” She demanded with fear.

“You are an evil. You destroyed Mufty but we are glad you did because you gave the chance to do what we have always dreamt of.

“Please don’t kill me.” She cried but the evil smile they wore scared her the more.

One of them removed a knife.

“Are you going to slaughter her in here or outside?”

“In here. Wait, where is Mufty?”

“He went out.” Leena replied in trepidation. “Please shoot me instead.”

“Where is Mufty?”

Boom!

There was a sudden loud sound which was obviously from a bomb blast that shook everyone there.

“Ya Jabar! What was that?” One of them pondered.

Boom!

Another explosion which raised soil, flame and dust. From the loudness of the sound, it was very close and that meant there was an attack on the camp.

“You!” An insurgent pointed at Leena. “You brought them here. You brought the military!”

“Shoot her!” Another one said.

Bang! Bang!!

Two bullets escaped through the barrel and slashed into the heart. Blood, moans and death followed at once.

The two men watched in horror as Mufty came in fully armed while their colleague lay dead on the floor.

“Mufty.” The leader said. “Peace be upon you. There is an attack.”

“I know because I am the attacker. If not for the innocent kids and women in this camp, it would have been settled at once but at least, some of you will die.”

“Muf…..”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He killed the two men.

Leena got up, crying and nearly hugged him subconsciously but he declined. He was now wearing that mean and dangerous expression. He rushed into the inner room and pushed the mattress aside. He had a secret hole underneath. He pulled the cover open and brought a backpack. He hung it over his back and carried his guns.

The AK47 hung over his shoulder; a pistol in his left hand while he put some ammunition inside the bag.

“Come on.” He said before he peeped.

The camp was in a pandemonium. Women and children screamed.

Jahl looked calm but his brain was in turmoil. How did the military find them?

He looked meaner than ever. He was standing in front of over five hundred armed men.

“Troop A: Ma’awiyan Battalion, get the children and women in one place and get ready for evacuation. Troop B: Salahudeenan Battalion, make sure the gates are sealed. Let the arsenal be opened and move the weapons inside the trucks. We don’t know where they are. The satellite can’t pick anything. Mufty! Where is he?”

“I think he is dead.” An insurgent said.

Jahl frowned. He had forgotten that he ordered his execution. This was a time he needed him most. Why did that daughter of evil come into his life? She was nothing but a fame fatale. But wait….the men did not come back to make a report. Was he really dead?

“Open the arsenal!” Jahl ordered and the men went in. About three hundred of them began to move the heavy weapons. Most of them wondered how they could acquire such weapons. There was no doubt that there were high powered men behind this.

Mufty and Leena were hiding under a truck. He asked to wait and then he crawled out. He could see the men going in and out of the arsenal, loading the weapons into a truck. He felt like laughing. They did not know that he was the one who set all of the bombs and he got them from the arsenal. There was no single military man out there.

He saw Jahl and three men go into his cabin, probably to confirm his death.

That was the moment he had been waiting for.

He pushed his thumb on the detonator and the scary sound emerged.

Boom!

The flame that followed the blast lit the camp momentarily , then a cloud of dust and scattering of particles.

Jahl was dead. Mufty grinned.

He pushed his thumb on the second detonator and the arsenal was blown. Most of the men had no time to scream. They were reduced to mere tiny particles. Some of them who were outside but within the arsenal were also blown off, with body parts loitering, while some escaped the blast.

“This is what you do them. Have a feel.” He whispered. “Come on, Leena.”

She crawled out and they got into the truck. He started the car and sped off. He knew he to face the men guarding the gate.

He stopped before the gate, set his gun and fired three shots. Two men fell down and he ran the car with an incredible and crashed the gate. The bumper of the car pulled of and one of the headlights broke.

Leena screamed out of fear. Mufty did not stop or waste any time. He pushed his leg on the gas pedal and the truck receded into darkness.

“Are you okay?” Mufty asked Leena who was sitting on the edge of the bed in one of the rooms of a hidden lodge located in a sequestered area in Maiduguri.

She nodded.

“I am okay.” She said. “I just can’t believe we made it out of that place alive.”

“We thank God for that.” He said and heaved.

When they got out of the forest, he carried his weapons and dug a ground to hide the AK47. He had buries three of them there, marked the place and put two pistols in his pocket.

It was very late so they slept in the car. He did not sleep   but sat watching over her.

At dawn, after they woke up and prayed, he set the car to fire and they took a long walk before they got a cab to Ring road. They now took bikes and stopped some kilometres before the hotel. He wanted to avoid any track.

He looked at her. She had just woken up. They lodged in around 7:00 AM. Both of them need a sleep so they slept off.

Mufty woke up two hours later while Leena just woke up. It was 11:00AM.

“I got toothbrush and tooth paste.” He said. “I had my bath already.”

She looked at her dirty clothes and felt disgusted. What was she going to wear after the bath?

“I got you some clothes too.”

“Did you go out?”

“Yes, while you were asleep. There is a boutique down there. There is brunch over there.”

“Where are the clothes?”

He opened the wardrobe and brought out a gown.

“Here. It is just something to cover your body.”

“Yeah…anything is better than this grubby thing. But it is cool. A typical Borno gown.” She chuckled. “Let me wash myself up. I stink.”

He went out of the room and stood on the balcony. That was what he used to do while she lived with him in the camp. Anytime she wanted to use the bathroom, he would leave the room.

 While standing on the balcony, having a view of the beautiful trees, sky and city, he felt something different but yet, very uncomfortable.

Everything seemed strange. The life of insurgency had taken a lot from him. He did not feel comfortable with the normal people. In the past, he had seen the normal society as a world of infidels and dirt. He hated the system and felt it was only them who were truly worshipping God and fighting for him. Now it was from a different perspective. He felt everyone looked at him as a killer.

He was filled with guilt and regrets. Now he was not sure if he would ever be normal again.

“I am through Mufty.” She said from behind him. He turned and saw her.

“It’s no more Mufty.” He said. “ Moore.”

She nodded.

“No. It is MM.”

“MM?”

“Leader Moore.”

He smiled.

“Yes.”

Oh no! He had one of the most cosmic smiles she had ever seen. He looked so different when he smiled. There was life in his eyes and somewhere beneath those hard features of his was that mildness she craved for. She was in love with him and never wants to leave him.

Then she thought of Dammy. She did not want to hurt Dammy either. She could not just bring herself to discard Dammy just like that. They had a history. It was not going to be fair.

“Come for brunch.” She said softly.

He went in and they had breakfast. After the breakfast, he sat on a chair and looked at her.

“You know you have to go back home today, right?”

“Yes.” She said. She was happy that it was all over but scared that there may be a drama ahead. She was confused.

“And that should be soon.”

“Are you getting rid of me?”

“I am getting rid of the troubles and pains of your family, friends and ….fiancé. They would be worried. They need to know that you are safe and if they know this, then you have to leave at this very moment.”

She felt her heart thumbing.

“And you?”

He paused without a word for the meantime.

“I don’t know.” He said. “I don’t know what to do with my life, if it could be called a life, or what to do.”

“Do you plan to leave?”

He nodded.

“I need to time be alone for a while and figure out what next. I just want you to know that you are one person that I can never forget. I still can’t believe you came back for me after everything. I mean the risk you took. No one ever showed me such love after my ……my mother passed on.”

“I am sorry about her. May her soul rest in aljanna.”

“Ameen.”

She wanted to more about him but did not want to force him.

“I had to do what I could. You did the same for me.” She said but she knew it was more than just gratitude. “You saved my chastity and life. I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me. I got you into the mess. We set up the bomb in the first place.”

“Let us not go there. I am happy you got the chance to realize your mistakes before you die.”

“Yes and you are instrumental to that.”

“So…does that mean that after I leave here, you will be gone forever?”

He said nothing.

“What about the love you said you have for me? Do you think of how I will feel?”

“Leena, I must confess to you now. I had fallen in love before but since I met you I feel not just in love but I’m made of love. Even when my heart was protected by a three kilometre thick steel door that repelled all girls, you passed through with an ease that melted the door and turned it into a golden door where only you have the key. What I had before was just a fantasy but with you it’s a dream.

The sword stuck in my back can only be removed by the Diamond Princess. I was in the lands of the Diamonds but none of them could remove it so I stayed with the pain. You came without the diamond crown, but just a smile and the sword was removed. I now saw the diamond in your heart and realised you were the one.

You took me out of discomfort, pain and literarily made me smile again. Can’t you see that you are something out of a different world? If I say I love you that could be an understatement. What I feel for you has no words of description. But I have to leave because I am not good enough for you. I find it hard to act normal. And when I said I thought you would have being married, it was just a blind shot. But I realized that you have a fiancé and I can’t ask you out. But there is one question I need to ask you and that would facilitate my final decision. Your boyfriend, has there being any formal arrangement? Has he come to formally seek your hand in marriage?”

Boom!

This time, it was not a bomb blast but blast Leena felt in her mind. She was in a dilemma.