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Eleven years ago
Planet Geidi Prime Sector M408-2
The lush, fecund fields of Geidi Prime blazed with the searing, scorching heat of fire. Smoke rose up in plumes, sweeping the violet-blue sky with its sharp acridity. The screams and wails of desperate men and women filled Nyota's ears and she ran hard, long legs pumping in poetic tandem. She flew past burned out huts and blazing domiciles until she reached the familiar dirt road that led home.
She crossed the long stretch of road, her heart hammering with fear and her eyes wide with shock and dismay. She suddenly stopped short, her lungs bursting and her legs shaking as she gulped large quantities of air. The front door was hanging open, having been nearly pulled off its hinges. She cautiously walked in, her feet creeping along the tiled floor and her breath coming out in ragged gasps.
"Mama?," she called out and tiptoed past the kitchen, fear running down her spine and making her quake.
"Baba!" she yelled as she continued her quest through the seemingly deserted house. "Where are you? Mama!"
She checked the entire home, and found each room empty, and yet chairs, furniture and knick knacks were thrown in disarray, plates and glasses broken and littering the floor.
Nyota rushed outside to the garden, frenziedly searching for any sign of her missing family. She found her mother lying at the edge of the garden near the barn, her bloodied hands clutching a machete.
"Mtoto mpendwa," her mother called out softly as Nyota kneeled, her body racked with sobs.
"Mama!" she cried as tears cascaded down the length of her cheeks.
Her mother smiled sadly, "Do not cry. You must be strong, kidogo moja,"
Her mother rolled over, revealing deep gashes along her front and sides. Nyota screamed as panic began to overwhelm her.
"Nyota, sweetheart, come here," she said soothingly and Nyota came close, her sobs becoming hiccups.
"The rebels have taken your father. You have to take your sister and go. You must look out for each other. Run to the mountains and do not look back."
Nyota shuddered and her mother grabbed her hand softly, squeezing reassuringly, "Do not feel afraid, my love, you have a strong heart, a warrior's heart. "
"But I can't leave you mama, I have to get help, you need a doctor--,"
"No," she interrupted her voice stern and steady, "It is too late for me, but you and your sister can still escape. Go and don't look back. She is hiding in the barn. Take her and go."
"But mama--,"
"Please, Nyota. I need you to live. I need you two to survive. I love you, remember that."
Her mother turned her face to the sky and gave one last breath before staring sightlessly and endlessly into the sunlight.
"NO!" Nyota screamed, "MAMA!!!"
She threw herself onto her mother's body and sobbed. She then sat up and simply stared for a time, her hands reaching out to close her mother's beautiful eyes one last time. Hatred soared through her, chasing away her fear. She wanted to kill all the rebels and make them pay for taking away her mama and baba. She could do it too, no, she would do it!
She stood, her hands balling into fists, her eyes streaming angry, anguished tears. She had felt ashamed for killing the man in the cave and leaving his body to rot, afraid of what the others in the village would say; she and her sister had promised never to mention it to anyone, and Nyota had spent each day since then repenting.
But now, she began to think that it was an error to think such things. She had protected her sister, just as she must do now. I will avenge you mama, she thought as she looked once at her mother's prone body and then dashed into the barn.
"Zuri!" she shouted, "Zuri, it's me, Nyota, where are you?"
Her sister scrambled up from behind a feeding trough.
"Ny!," her sister exclaimed and ran to her, arms open and relief evident upon her tear streaked face.
They embraced quickly and broke apart. Nyota began searching the barn.
"What are you doing? Where's mama?"
Nyota glanced at Zuri and looked away, saying nothing.
Zuri began to shake, tremors coursed up and down the length of her body as she began keening, her voice high and mournful.
"No!! No, mama!!! No!!,"
Nyota tried to embrace her once more, but she pulled away and fell onto the floor in a heap.
"Mama, mama," she cried over and over.
Nyota stared down at her sister, her heart filling with pain and sorrow and at once, becoming hard and heavy.
She continued to peruse the barn until she found a cutting axe.
She gently pulled her sister to her feet. "Come on Zuri, we have to go."
They buried their mother's body in a shallow grave in the garden, a place that had been her prized possession. They hurriedly packed as much food and clothing as they could carry and after looking back only once at the place that had been home for so long, they began the trek to the mountains together.
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Mtoto mpendwa-beloved child
kidogo moja-little one