CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was not too far ahead.

It was a sight that screamed impossibility. And impossibility was a word that must not be allowed to exist in Joseph’s vocabulary.

It was a marshland that stretched through fifty feet of their path. It ran parallel with the brook, actually it was in itself a disappeared river's course whose source was cut off many years ago from upstream and it became a lake that soon dried into a marshland.

'How can anyone walk through that without being buried?' Lawrence asked.

'We walk on the log,' Kotara ordered.

It was a highly perilous terrain and stepping on the marsh was unthinkable. It could swallow one up to the neck or more and keep the person stuck in the multilayered sedimentation of atrociously smelly decayed matter.

The only good news was, there were log of tree trunks scattered along it from dry ground to dry ground but it was not a desirably perfect runway. The closest the logs were to each other was five feet, some were ten while some others had totally sunk into the marsh.

'How can one possibly walk on these?' Lawrence frowned at the log of wood near his feet.

'I tried it earlier. It is possible but difficult and would be dangerous too.'

'You go first,' Joseph told him.

'Certainly,' Kotara hung his rifle to his shoulder then took a gentle step on the first log. Before he found his balance on it, he took a quick half calculated leap unto another which was six feet in front. Surprisingly, he landed squarely on it and was immediately negotiating his next leap.

He made a gesture to beckon his partners.

Joseph looked at Lawrence, 'Are you ready for this?'

Lawrence shrugged.

'Come on, let us do this now,' Joseph patted him on the back.

'A stroll in the park, right?'

'Like a sexy model on a run way,' Joseph smiled, 'okay, see the trick, you only have about five seconds or less to jump off a log before it sinks, so you might as well want to map out your track right here before you set out. And try not to land too heavily on the logs.'

'Yes, that would be as easy as trying not to get too pregnant.'

'Whatever.'

Kotara was half way through by the time Joseph began his own rope walk. The extra pressure from the fear of failing where Kotara had succeeded made him take a few shaky first steps till he managed to subdue the urge to look up at Kotara to see how he was doing.

Then he began to do exactly what the situation demanded. To take the few seconds he has before his boots begin to touch the marsh and use it optimally.  Meaning he had to steady himself on a log while at the same time judging which log would be next and then taking the last second and the log's last holding strength to sink his body lower so as to gain the force to spring into the air.

Nearly impossible task, but it had to be attempted.

He was doing fine and was hoping to catch up with Kotara who was by now just three logs to safety until he looked back and saw Lawrence.

Lawrence was a cause for concern. He was staggering on a log that turned out to be slippery. He had made the costly mistake of choosing a log without its rough back. His left leg slipped off to his shock. Though he managed to keep his right leg on the log, his body balance was a big trouble.

Joseph looked on in apprehension as his friend struggled for his safety; while his own log was gradually disappearing into the marsh, leaving him with less and less time to make his own crucial leap.

Luckily, Lawrence's log was taking longer than expected to sink but he wasn't taking advantage of this little piece of fortune.

He couldn’t. He was not finding his feet any sooner. His fall into the marsh had become inevitable to him. All he would have time for was to quickly decide what landing position would be least deadly and best leave him with a better chance to launch a fresh fight for his life.

Meanwhile, Joseph had found just enough time to find the nearest log of wood. He was lucky enough this log was not about to sink any time soon. It was at the top of a pile of woods submerged into the marsh. He figured he could take 30 seconds on it before it begins to give way.

Lawrence had decided to take a fall forward with his face to the ground. That would allow him take a partial dive in an attempt to reach for a nearby log. Peradventure that would help him keep his head above the sludge. He quickly dropped his rifle on the slough, knowing it wasn't dense enough to sink.

Then he took the ineludible plunge.

Joseph screamed his name from his position.

He reached the log and began to struggle with it. His legs, up to his chest were slowly being engulfed in the quagmire but his arms grabbed the log firmly as he began to put up an effort that was destined to fail. He was pushing his legs backwards hoping he would push against something solid enough to propel him forward.

It was at best a futile struggle and he was wise not to waste more energy on it.

'Are you okay?' Joseph asked with a loud voice.

He needed not answer. His body was slanted in the slough and he was afraid of attempting to stay upright for fear that it might be too deep and swallow his head. He looked ahead; Kotara was at the edge of the woods yelling some words at him. Joseph looked confused and was making gestures and saying things rapidly to him.

It was clear to him he needed a miracle. If he was going to live to tell this story, then he needed to attempt something that defies the odds. A firm looking heavy log was just four feet to his left. If he could reach out by some magical means to the log, he could continue from there but the odds were staggering.

First, his body was trapped and he was feeling its weight like never before. It meant that if he was going to do a leap or jump by any means, he would have to overcome gravity in four folds.

Secondly, because he would now have to pull his body up from under in an attempt to climb unto the log instead of simply walking on it or leaping off it, the log would have to be a concrete beam rooted deeply into the firm ground for it to withstand such force without sinking.

Finally, if he found all the magic he needed to conquer those odds and suddenly finds himself perched on the log, jumping from one log to another would never be as easy as usual for all the muddy earth that would be stuck to his body.

'Hold on Law,' Joseph was looking around to decide what log to leap unto in reverse direction.

'You cannot go back there Joseph,' Kotara called.

'We have to do something.'

'Come over here.'

'What are you talking about? We cannot leave him there alone.'

'There is no way you can help him there, you would never find a place to put a foot firmly.'

'I have to go try, he has no time.'

'Join me over here quick. We cannot go and help him, we have to help him help himself.'

Kotara began to gather tree trunks that had been cut into logs of four feet and five feet. They were too heavy for him to lift so he was rolling them closer to the edge of the marshland.

'Hang on a minute, Law.' Joseph yelled.

Lawrence was yet to move an inch from his position despite all the efforts and prayers for a miracle. The only movements he was experiencing were in his limbs and torso.

They were descending deeper by the second.

'What is the plan?' Joseph had now joined Kotara.

They were to haul the timber into the bog where Lawrence was. They would keep at it till they throw in as much that would line his way out of the bog.

'What if we mistakenly hit him with one?' Joseph asked, concern in his voice.

'That is what we will try to avoid.'

The first log they flung into the air landed with a huge splash that sent multiple chunks of the slough to the air and all over Lawrence's startled face.

It did not fall close enough for him to make a go at but it landed with a splash of hope with which he looked forward to the next one.

The next one landed farther away and then came the third. The moment it was launched into the air, Lawrence had a bad feeling about it. It was hauled with an increased thrust with the intent to make it do better than the first two. As it spawned through the air towards Lawrence, he reckoned it was aiming for his head.

'Oh God of Moses, we are going to bury him alive,' Joseph threw his mouth agape, watching in stark apprehension as the log spun and thrust its way through.

Lawrence never had this much fear for his life since he left the army. He shut his eyes and ducked as if that would freeze the log mid air.

If this rescue plan that could be ultimately calamitous was all the hope he had of getting out there then he thought he must be in the worst predicament imaginable.

The log landed heavily just behind his head on the point where his hips were submerged. Because his lower body had sunk in quite deeply; he did not feel the impact harshly enough to cause any reasonable trauma.

That was his closest chance of getting out.

He took it quickly, he swirled his torso to reach the log then pulled it closer to thrust himself up out of the quagmire.

While he was at that, more logs had lined in close proximity that would allow him make a hurried but by far more convenient exit.

'That was scary,' he was taking off his sludge covered pants and now had only his boxer shorts. A foot of his boot was stuck in the marsh so he abandoned the other and went on bare footed.

'A walk in the park uhnn...?' Joseph patted his shoulder.

'A beautiful model and her runway, man.'

'I doubt we can ever catch up with them now, we took too much time,' Kotara said, despondent.

'We go back now?' Joseph turned to him, 'after all these?'

'Or we can chase shadows till we are ready to tell ourselves the truth,' Kotara said. 

'All these cannot be for nothing.'

'Returning will be easier; we just have to throw in a few more woods over there.'

'Not now,' Lawrence said, 'if this place slowed us down this much how much more fifty people? They might be around the corner.'

Joseph began to walk into the woods, 'Come on men, let us go and get them.'

The heart thumping thought that he might be fighting the fight of his life to wrestle his son from the LRA right there lingered in his mind. He would agree they’d had it tough to get to that point’ but if it was all they had go through then it was way too easy a task.

All he cared was that the LRA was nearby. It would be a hell of a combat, he knew, but one he was willing to do.

They continued their trail in hurried steps with their rifles to their backs. His Mosunga moment was near, he had to keep reminding himself.

'From this point I cannot tell their direction,' Kotara said gloomily.

'Tailing fifty people through a forest should not be difficult, there will always be signs to follow,' Joseph assuredly said.

'Not when those fifty people are trained LRA fighters.'

'Do they train them to seize to be humans?'

'Do they act like humans?'

'Let us just move on, we might find something,' Lawrence said.

They continued to search hard for signs as they went forward. Fifteen minutes into their walk, yet nothing told of a fresh path of a single human let alone a band of fifty fighters. The only signs of note were the ones they were leaving behind them. No trampled plant ahead, no item from a person laying on the ground or hanging from a branch.

No sign whatsoever.

'Am I the only one thinking it is preposterous of an escaping LRA group to take a straight path?' Joseph turned to Lawrence who was moving wearily behind him.

'Why should we take a different direction out of a mere guess?' Kotara said loudly.

'Our current direction is out of a mere guess as well.'

'A more intelligent one.'

'I say we turn a different direction and see if we can find a trail after some minutes,' Joseph persisted.

'The more time we waste beating around this forest, the further they move away from us. That is unacceptable.'

'Hey,' Lawrence called, 'look here, somebody.'

Joseph and Kotara drew back some steps to inspect a point on the ground Lawrence was kneeling over.

'Does this not smell like fresh urine?' Lawrence looked up at them.

'Animal urine perhaps,' Kotara said uninterestedly.

'Hey, hey look up,' Joseph said in a hush tone.

Kotara and Lawrence responded, looking into the distance Joseph was pointing.

'Mother of God!' Kotara threw his mouth open.

They were precisely forty eight in number and moved in an orderly formation that ensured they do not leave a trail and making sure no one was following.

They made four neat rows of ten men each, well spaced apart by two yards to each man's side. The next row behind was also two yards away. The fifth row had only five men while three men moved freely ahead of the formation, keeping a much more advanced distance.

Apart from the three in front, each man carried a light baggage of a stuffed bag containing their loot. They carried the bag on one hand and a weapon on the other. A little more than twenty had sub-machine guns while the rest had machetes. The five at the back were constantly looking back and sideways.

Occasionally, the three in front would run forward and take three strategically positioned trees to climb on to and do a survey of the surroundings.

Joseph and company watched them with a reasonable measure of marvel. They'd been often underrated as a barbaric group of unintelligent and sparingly thinking fighters who would find discipline hard to come by. Now it was however clear to Joseph there's a reason they've survived for decades.

'We should space ourselves,' Kotara suggested.

'And try very much not to be seen,' Joseph added, speaking in low tones.

Lawrence did not keep his eyes off the moving troop, 'We need to be close enough to communicate.'

'We shall keep our eyes on each other at all times and communicate by hand gestures only,' Joseph said like he was commanding a special force carrying out a black op.

Kotara nodded and began to move away.

Joseph held him back and said in a whisper, 'Let us apply all the skill we can, we have to make sure we remain unseen till we find out where they are going.'

They dispersed on that note. Kotara took the extreme right and moving far wide to cover the width of the ten man expanse. Lawrence went left and Joseph was following at the centre, acting as the central communication point for the team.

They tried to maintain a fifty meter distance from the last five men and Joseph often gave a hand signal when he thought any of Lawrence or Kotara was going too close.

He also made sure he alerted his men whenever the surveillance three in front climbed to a tree. Joseph and his crew would instantly take cover behind the closest fat tree trunk and stay there till the men climbed down.

Things began to look bad when Kotara broke away from the routine and began to move closer to the LRA fighters. He did not look back to give any signal or communicate with the team, neither was he moving in the sneaky manner they were moving to avoid being noticed.

It was as if the very opposite was his goal. Joseph was at a loss what he was doing and could not raise his voice to call him back.

It could mean doom, Kotara was helping his team bite more than they can chew.

The surveillance team in front took to their routine once again, hugging the trees in an attempt to begin to climb. Kotara was in a clear position to be picked out by them.

'Shit!' Joseph cursed under his breath as he took cover behind a wide trunk.

To his relief, Kotara did the same but had cut the distance between them and the fighters by half and the nearness could hurt them.

The men on the trees were taking so long this time.

Joseph kept his eyes on the one to his far right eighty meters away, he was the one more likely to pick Kotara. The man took out his gun, An AK-47 and began to aim. He wasn't aiming at Kotara's direction but at Lawrence's.

Joseph looked Lawrence's way and thought he couldn't possibly be aiming at Lawrence. Lawrence was well behind his trunk but at the aimer's vantage point it was hard for Joseph to be sure what could be seen or not.

He was torn between two decisions, to signal Lawrence so he knows he was being aimed at or not. He didn’t want to cause Lawrence to make any movement that would be inevitably noticed. He decided to stay calm and watch how things unfold, hoping he wouldn’t regret that later.

After a short while, the surveillance man sitting limply on the tree branch took down his gun and began to climb down. At his command, the other two on trees also started descending.

At that instant a gun went off from Kotara’s side and Joseph looked quickly. The man climbing down the tree was now in an involuntary free fall.

After the gunshot and the sound of the man hitting the ground hard, there was a hush; only the sound of the wind and his own heart beat was heard by each man. Joseph was certain it wasn’t going to last. The fighters went to the ground and took cover, Joseph could not see any of them but he knew things would never return to normal again.

The degree to which things would escalate was only yet to be seen.

It was like they were counting to thirty before they reacted, before they opened fire on Kotara’s direction.

The bullets were flying in so thunderously and continuously that if Kotara had moved an inch away from the tree trunk to which he glued, he’d have without fail entered the path of a torrent of pellets.

Joseph pondered for a minute before he reacted to Kotara’s situation. He took a while to monitor where the shots were coming from before he took a well educated aim. He could locate two men clearly.

He took out the first man with one clear shot then quickly shifted his aim at the other man’s direction with five shots.

Five frenetically taken shots.

He wasn’t sure if he got the second man but they sure seized fire. That gave Kotara time to change position quickly.

Joseph knew they would soon open fire at his direction so he did same. He made for a decaying tree stomp as quickly as he could. He laid flat behind it and placed the barrel of his gun atop the stomp.

To his shock and horror, someone began to shoot at his new position. The gunfire he was receiving was heavy and from close range. The first one missed his elbow by a quarter of an inch. The following shots were more on point; they were hitting his shield, taking out a quarter of the seemingly heavy tree stomp.

Each hit from the submachine gun blasts bits of wood and other debris into the air. It forced Joseph to bury his face into the insect infested soil. He had to be frozen in that position if he did not wish to take the place of that tree stomp.

Something needed to be done before he losses what was left of his shield which seemed to be seconds from falling apart.

Meanwhile, two or three fighters had resumed firing at Kotara’s old position while his new position remained unknown to anyone.

Joseph was trapped, he couldn’t even afford as much as raising his head to aim at anything. He’d not managed to take a comfortable firing position when he started to receive fire.

He slid his index finger to the trigger and began to fire aimlessly. That did not deter his enemy and the limits of his bullet did not encourage him to go on aimlessly.

He realized what he just did was suicide, but he wasn’t thinking straight. The LRA man on him was in close range and could certainly get a clear shot. It made Joseph wonder why he hasn’t hit target and preferred to tear his poor shield away first.

He must enjoy seeing his victims die a long torturous and horrible death.

That was his biggest undoing.

Just as Joseph was expecting, Lawrence was provoked into action to begin to take his characteristically precise shots. His first act was to take out the LRA fighter firing at his friend.

Now he could breathe again. Joseph stood up and rushed out of there, this time he chose a tree shield.

Lawrence did not seize fire. As Joseph was suspecting, when he was quiet he was taking his time to pick out all the LRA men where they hid and when he began to take them down, there was no stopping him.

He was giving out two shots for each man.

Lawrence was generous like that. He would fire at two or three of them then move forward swiftly behind a tree trunk ahead then shoot some more, on and on till he got real close.

He was having fun.

Kotara had stolen enough time to sneak closer to the LRA side and was now taking close range shots but was deterred by the out-numbering fire power they returned so that he couldn’t take more than three shots without stopping to dodge a hundred.

He raised his eyes and saw five LRA men climbing hurriedly on trees. The last thing they could afford was having someone firing at them from a tree top. Kotara wasn’t relaxed enough to take a decent aim at the climbers, but the random shots he fired at them served the vital purpose of alerting Joseph and Lawrence of the climbers.

Joseph took out two climbers after nine shots then Lawrence took a second away from his killing spree on the ground to take down the other three with three precise shots.

Joseph grinned in Lawrence’s direction. He couldn’t be happier to have him on his side.

Just then, the remaining LRA fighters stood from their hiding positions and took to their heels in retreat. They were about fifteen of them with no single weapon on them.

Kotare took down one and then ran out of bullets.

He cursed and threw down his rifle in frustration, and then he turned to Joseph, ‘Get them, man. Quick’

Joseph shrugged and raised his rifle at him, ‘Empty too.’

They turned to Lawrence.

‘What do you expect me to do? Shoot them at the back?’ Lawrence hung his rifle to his shoulder, ‘if a man values his life enough to retreat from a fight then you should summon the decency to let him keep it. That is what it takes to be human.’

‘Bullshit,’ Kotara hissed.

Joseph’s eyes were on the escaping men, he was brooding on how close he came to having his head blown open by those heavy shots. Anyone would think again about this mission but he was not allowed to. He must go on without looking back; he must pay for his carelessness.

He’d gone past the excitement of planning to face Kony and the LRA, now the danger therein was unwrapped. 

He realized it was like in his childhood wrestling where the reality of a perilous bout in the grand finale never quite replaces the excitement of having a chance of becoming a village hero by defeating the strongest fighter from the rival village until the heavy and unbearable punches begin to descend on faces and backs thrown to the ground.

The reality of this mission and what it meant will remain vaguely taken in until bullets begin to fly all over the place and once powerful men begin to breathe their lasts.

Those moments he was certain would come aplenty.