SQUASH – Episode 5: The Resuscitated Virgin and the Bandit Mole

SQUASH – Episode 5: The Resuscitated Virgin and the Bandit Mole.

I lay in the pool of blood that leaked out of the deep hole close to my shoulder. I was half dead and it was like my soul was trying to leave my body. I was drifting in and out of consciousness.

The cold flesh on my bones felt like they were not my own. I saw dimly as a blanket covered me while my body finally shut down.

When I woke up, I was looking up at sliced two-inch by two-inch palm tree wooden frames of what made up the scaffold of a thatch roof.

As I tried to turn to my left towards the light, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. The pain made me cry in agony. I tried to fold my hand upwards and something pierced deep into my skin…I let out another sharp cry from the pain. I looked at my hand and saw a butterfly syringe sticking into my veins.

The syringe has busted my vein and pierced deeper into my flesh. The syringe had some blood in the transparent tube that connected it. The shock was so severe that I pulled it out.

A very dark black man entered the hut because he must have heard my shrieking screams of pain.

He quickly sealed the needlepoint with cotton wool, then proceeded to use plaster to keep it in place.

He tried to calm me down. He held me like his child and gently laid me back to rest on my back. Then he spoke.

What is your name?

I coughed faintly. Amina. I replied.

You were shot four days ago in the desert by one of the bandits.

My name is Squash.

I recalled the incident in my mind…

I took off the blindfold on my face for the first time since we left the school compound and walked in front of the bandit who escorted me to ease myself.

He hung his AK 47 rifle in a cross-style across his back.

When I was done, the bandit came very close to me and grabbed me by the arm. He managed to tear out some part of my clothing so he could take advantage of me.

I tried to fight him off to no avail. He proceeded to remove his trousers with his left hand. The moment he pulled them far down to his feet, I kicked him straight in the nuts.

He moaned in agony while I broke free from his grasp, I ran in one direction and he chased after me, dragging his trousers up as he motioned towards my direction. This guy’s balls must be made of steel. I was surprised how he could recover at the speed of light.

The moon was out that night and I was fast on my feet. He couldn’t keep up with my pace, so he stopped and watched me run as he brought his AK 47 to his side, cocked it, and aimed at me.

He pulled the trigger and it was as if something lifted me and smashed me to the ground sideways and my strength started to fade into weakness.

Squash looked at my shoulder as I was lost in thought.

He gently unwrapped the bandage.

The night he picked me up from my pool of blood from that warm desert floor and brought me here, he donated his blood directly from his veins into mine. He struggled very hard to keep me alive.

He had heard the gunshot and tracked me in the desert to see if I still had a chance to live. He was taking a risk of being exposed. He covered me and walked to a very safe distance carrying my cold body in the blanket while putting pressure on the bullet hole to stop the bleeding.

When he got to the hunter’s hut, He laid me down on the makeshift bed on the floor and scrambled through the items in a wooden box. He found some medical equipment in the box and had to make do with it to save my life.

He watched over me and prayed that I wouldn’t die.

You have been unconscious for most of the four days I have been here. I removed the bullet and stitched you up. He said. I thought I lost you.

You are a strong girl.  Your heart kept beating and that was all the hope I needed.

I am part of an elite force investigating the systems the bandits have created to commit crimes against humanity.

We have planted more than fifty spies among the bandits. Three of us are among the group that came to abduct girls from your school.

I asked him; will they not look for you?

He replied; They will notice I am not around but two of my guys within the bandit camp know how to cover up for me. They will probably say that I went hunting for the group and I will catch up at the rendezvous point at the border.

He brought out a satellite phone and dialed some digits…he gave some geographical coordinates over the phone and disconnected.

He told me that help was coming for me. They will come to take you to a hospital.

I held on to his hand as I heard the sound of a helicopter closing in on our location.

In a few minutes, two men holding a stretcher came into the hut, one of them was carrying a first aid box on his left shoulder.

Squash gave them some space.

The man with the first aid box knelt beside me and gently lowered the first aid box to the ground. He opened it, took out an already prepared injection, and injected me on my shoulder. I started feeling dizzy. He lifted me with such gentleness and precision and placed me on the stretcher.

He closed his first aid box and signaled to the second man.

They both lifted me up with the stretcher at the same time and walked out of the hut.

The helicopter blades were already starting up when they put me in the Red Cross helicopter.

Squash followed them holding the first aid box with his left arm and his rifle on the right. He placed the first aid box in the helicopter right beside me as the men prepared for take-off.

All the while I was taking notes of the details of the face of the man that saved my life.

As the helicopter lifted off the ground, Squash walked away from it very quickly and the desert dust that rose from the lift covered him. He held his turban over his nose as he moved away.

Within one hour, we were already landing on a Helipad of the Red Cross Hospital somewhere in Niger. People were waiting with a bed on wheels.

They were wearing white uniforms. They transferred me onto the bed on wheels and wheeled me into the emergency room. I got more injections than I have ever had in my life in one day.

Including blood transfusions and drips.

She is a very strong girl… I heard one of the nurses whispering to her colleague.  as I fell into deep sleep.