Chapter 2: It gets worse
Days went on; more people came and put in the cages. Most of them were men, women, and young children; like Zuri and Maalik. I started to recognize some people, like my old friend, Safiya, back at our village. We have known each other since we were babies; she helped me take care of Maalik and Zuri when my mother was very ill.
“Safiya! Safiya!”I yelled through the bars of the cage to where she was.
“You there shut up! There is strictly no yelling here!” I kept yelling to her wishing that she would just turn around! Crash… the whip right in front of my face
“I thought I said no yelling!” The whip strikes again but this time closer. That shut me up; I backed away from the bars.
“Kami?” I heard a whisper. I turned around. Kai! Safiya’s little sister. She’s about the same age as Zuri but she’s soo adorable!! She has dark brown skin and chocolate eyes. “Kai” I whispered back. “How are you? Are you__”
“Safiya? Where is she?” she interrupted. She looked really scared. I didn’t know what to tell her. You can’t talk to your sister because the guards aren’t letting us talk to her. But I can’t tell her no.
“She’s other there.” I pointed to where her sissy was. “But don’t ye__”
“Safiya! Safiya!” Oh no! Shhh…. But the guard didn’t turn around. It looked like he was dealing with someone else. Safiya turned around. There was blood streaking down her face. Oh my gosh…. They whipped her. Not once but twice. She looked at me and then at Kai and then at me again. And then she burst into tears. I felt really bad for her.
“Safiya, are you ok? What happened?” I asked. I couldn’t really comfort her since we were in different cages. Kai started whimpering next to me. I would be the same if Zuri was hurt in a different cage, away from me. Poor Kai. Poor Safiya.
“Zuri, why don’t you play with Kai and make her feel better?” I asked Zuri. By the way if you haven’t figured it out they untied us so that we could move around.
“Hmm…sure. Come on Kai.” Now I have some alone time to talk with Safiya. Oh I hope she talks to me.
“Safiya, please tell me what happened.” I wasn’t expecting an answer just that she would hear that I’m worried about her.
“They whipped me.” Well I got that far. “I was trying to some food for Zhair.” Oh ya. Zhair is Safiya’s baby brother. Well he is really a baby, he’s 2, but needs a lot of food for him to grow. But why did she get whipped for that.
“I got whipped because I stole some food from them since they just walked away laughing.” Whoa. Did she just read my mind or what? More days went by in a blur; we were given little to eat, just like Safiya said. I begged the guard to give a little more to the young ones, but he just laughed and walked away. Guess who was the guard who laughed? Yep the one who works for the whites! People were dying all around us. I was even more afraid. What if we get sick? The cages were filthy; we weren’t able to get out of the cage to walk around or anything. More and more people were but into these cages there were about 400 of us in total. What do they want us, what did we do to them?
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The next day, I saw people being boarded on a big boat. I was watching as people were getting on. It didn’t look that bad. Looks better than where we are now.
I met someone who speaks both languages. He has dreamy brown eyes and a dreamy name, (its Travis…he’s 13. He said he’s name is American and his ‘master’—whatever that is—gave it to him) he’s really strong and… sorry, the point is that he works for the bad guys. I turned around to see what happened. I saw a women struggling against one of the guards. I tried to see where she wanted to go. SPLASH! “My baby, my baby he’s gone! He’s gone!” Sobbed the woman. The guy threw her baby off the ship! Now I’m terrified! What if they threw Zuri off or Kai! They can’t swim! We need to get out of here and now! But how the only way what was through the door—the point of no return. And it was locked.
“Kami? Are you ok?” I turned around to see Safiya staring at me. “You look kinda frightened and thinking hard about something. Tell me. I can help.” Just to give the 411. Safiya’s little brother died I few days ago. It was depressing. The guy I was telling you about, Travis, well I asked him to move Safiya to my cage so that I could comfort her. So he said yes.
“We need to get out of here.” I whispered just in case someone was listening.
“Are you nuts? Did you see what happened to the last guy who tried to run away? Do you want that to happen to us? Huh…?” Oh yeah. There was this guy who wasn’t far from where the cage we were staying in, tried to run away with his family. Well they got out by digging a tunnel that went under the cage so that they could get out at night. Well at night fall, the guy went under and made it so when his family was going in the tunnel, he tripped over a stack of pans that were left out to dry. Long story short, everyone woke up, the family that was in the cage before they were caught, and the guy died because he was shot.
“Well, hmm… I forgot about that. But we need to find a way out! We can’t just be taken away! Did you see what happened over there? He threw a baby of the ship! What if that happened to Kai and Zuri? We can’t stay here anymore we need to escape!” There was a long silence. I don’t know if she was thinking or scared or surprised on what I said and saw. Then she broke the silence.
“You’re right, but we need a way to get out and fast we don’t have much time.” At that second Travis came by.
“Hey Kami. How’re you doing?” He said in his sweet voice. All my fear just washed away.
“Hmm… good I guess. I’m still here. How are you? How’s everything?” I saw Safiya looking at me. What? He’s adorable! Too bad we might never see each other again.
“Fine I guess. We are boarding so that we can go to the America and not wait any longer. I overheard some of the guards and that you are the last group to get on the boat, since you guys are small and can fit you anywhere. You will be boarded tomorrow morning.” Great, more time to think of a plan to escape.
“TRAVIS! GET OVER HERE, NOW!!” yelled his master. Travis stared at me, and then left without saying good-bye. I turn to Safiya. She was staring at me.
“What?” I asked.
“We’re here thinking of a plan and Travis could get us out. He said that we were the last ones on and that’s tomorrow.” So… you know how dangerous it could be. Even at night where there are guards everywhere we couldn’t do it. And what if we get caught, what would happen to Travis? He could be killed because of us. And another question, would he agree on this plan? Would he say yes? “I know what you’re thinking. I've been thinking about the guards and if we get caught. But like you said we need to get out and fast!”
“What if Travis says no? What if he doesn’t want to get us out? We need a second plan.” Once again there was silence. But this time no one spoke until Zuri, Kai, and Maalik came over. Zuri sat on my lap and looked up at me. And your eyes met. I saw fear in her eyes. This isn’t a place where kids like her should grow into. None of this would have happened if the whites came to our village and took us captive. We need to get out and fast. Sun was almost setting. We need a plan and now!
“Ok, I’ll ask Travis.”
That evening, right after food was severed Travis did his daily check up.
“Hey um… Travis. I have a…uh... question.” How am I supposed to tell? Yeah we want to escape and we need some help. Could you help us? Yeah right. He looked around as if wasn’t able to talk to us…weird.
“I can’t talk much with you right now, but what’s the question?” I breathed in and out slowly; and spoke.
“We uh… kinda of want to…”
“To what?” his eyes might mine.
“To…to…to escape.” I finally said. His eyes went wide. At this point I was afraid that he would tell his master. Was I able to trust him? Well it was too late know, I already told him of my plan. But I think something clicked in is brain because he looked around again and closer through the bars. I breathed in again.
“You want me to help you guys escape?” I nodded. “Well… I’ll help you.” I breathed out. Did he just say that he would help us? That’s great!! “But we need to leave when it’s dark so that no one will see us.” Well duh… “Then I’ll come to unlock you guys. I’ll take you to the forest. You know the way out right?” I was shocked. He is going to help us, he was going to jeopardous himself for us; he soo manly. “Uh… hello? Earth to Kami here?”
“Oh sorry.” I blushed. “Yeah we could figure our way out.”
“Great! See you later then.” And then he ran off.
That evening after all the guards went to sleep (well except for the night shift but they usually don’t be attention to us and drift into sleep in a few minutes) Travis came by to unlock us.
“Thanks for doing this.” I whispered.
“Yeah thanks…. Travis.” Zuri said in her sweetest voice. There was something odd about Travis. Something was bothering him but what? Travis didn’t reply he just nodded.
“We have to hurry up. The next shift soon so we need to hurry this up and be quiet! Make one noise and the guards will hear. Got it? Let’s go!” He said irately. There was something definitely something wrong. Well I didn’t really care just that we get out of here as soon as possible. We followed Travis turning left than right and left and right. Weaving through tents and campfires. But then we finally made it to the end of the forest. We made it!! Travis was leading us through bushes but then I lost sight of him. He probably went to help Zuri and Kai in the back. I turned to Safiya.
“Isn’t this great! We can finally go home. And don’t need to worry about no boats or cages or even low food supplies!” I whispered. But before Safiya could answer there was a CRACK. Not like a soft noise that not even a dog could hear but a loud one. I looked under my feet. It wasn’t me that stepped on something. I turned around. Oh my gosh! Zuri stepped on a twig. Did anyone hear it?
“Who’s there? If you don’t show your faces you’re going to be in trouble. I heard someone run somewhere.
“They’re gone! The prisoners have escaped!”
“They’re the ones that stepped on the bloody stick and woke us up! Good thing too or they would have escaped!”
“They have run away, stupid!” There was some arguing until they decided to look for us. They were getting closer until someone found us.
“RUN!!” I yelled. And we started to run through the woods. I thought we were going to make it until I heard someone yelling my name.
“Kami! Kami!” they yelled “Safiya! Safiya! Kami HELP!!” Safiya, Maalik, and I turned around to see Zuri and Kai being held against their own will by the whites. What should I do? I need my sister back! I can’t fight them! There are too many of them and would be back where I started: in a cage. But Safiya and Maalik ran to them. Maalik jumped on one of the guys but then got capture and Safiya put up a really good fight but lost. I was the only one left. I couldn’t save them all.
“Kami, just go we’ll be fine. Save yourself. Please don’t bring yourself down with us. Go!!!” Safiya yelled at me. I’ll be back tomorrow and I’m going to get them all out. Every single one of them in one piece. I promise. I turned around to see Travis’s face. He had a grin on his face and rope I his hands. He wouldn’t.
“Missed me?” He said. I stepped back. He stepped forward. He looked at me evilly. He backed me up to a tree.
“How could you?” I asked. I was still stunned. How could Travis to this to me? I thought he cared about me. I guess not!
“It was all in my plan. My master didn’t think I was his favorite anymore so I decided to set up a plan to get to know you that you trust me enough. I knew that you would want to escape. So that’s why I said yes.” He explained. But I knew that there was more to the story because his face dropped. And looked to the ground. I thought it was the perfect time to escape. Except that he had his hands over me.
“Travis you coming?” someone yelled.
“Yeah I’ll be there in a minute. I want to talk to her before she goes back to the camp.” Well I don’t want to hear him or talk to him. He turned back to me. I turned away. I trusted him and he betrayed me-- us!
“I’m sorry.” I turned. Where’d his evil person go? He was facing the ground again.
Well I wasn’t expecting that. “I didn’t mean to do it. At first I was, the master was going to sell me so I needed his trust by capturing you.” Well thanks for that. “But right after I agreed to help you, my master called me into his tent. I didn’t know why he called me in but I just went in hoping for good news.” I looked at him in the eyes, there was pain and anger. “He…he told me that he al…ready sold me to a guy who lived in the south of America and had lots of farm land w…. w… who needs I guy like me. And when we get to America I go straight to him.” I saw a tear rolling down his face. I kinda of felt sorry for him but at the same time not. He set up a trap that I fell into. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him, can’t trust anyone on the whites. I learned my lesson. He looked up at me, and I saw the same eyes that I first met him, the same eyes I fell in love with….wait I didn’t say that….I…I mean the same I eyes I…I trusted him with. If he thinks I would forgive him after what he did, he can forget it! “I know you’re mad.” You bet I am! “But please forgive me.” Hmm… I think I said I wouldn’t soo nope not going to happen. “Oh… come on Kami say something.” I looked at him straight into his eyes.
“I won’t ever forgive you.” I wanted to forgive him but I couldn’t, not after what just happened. He looked down again, and his muscles tensed. And looked up, stood straight and took a deep breath in. “It’s time to get back. Turn around.” I didn’t turn around. “I said turn around.” Before I could speak, he to one of my hands and roughly turned me around so that he could tie me up. I started to struggle. I just didn’t want to go back. He tied the rope tighter around my wrist.
“Oww.” I said under my breath so that he didn’t hear me. He was probably really mad at me. We started walking; well he started walking while I was being pushed. What’s going to happen at the camp?