Free Free Fall by Catherine Mann

they found him, they would make him join up again. Shoot people. Get shot at. The punishment for disobeying…?
    His throat burned with puke.
    Sweat trickled down his head and into the mud, sticky from the perspiration pouring off his body from more than heat. A scorpion scrabbled past him fast and he didn’t so much as flinch. He was scared to death. Not of the lethal sting. He was scared to hope he could escape today.
    No more beatings. No more blood.
    He’d been taken from the orphan school eight months ago, forced to join their “army.” His first kill had been with a knife. Then they’d rewarded him with a gun. Every time they made him shoot, made him kill, he vowed to be the best so he could turn the weapon on them one day. He imagined what it would have been like to have this gun earlier to protect his mother, his sister, and little brother before they died, along with his father. He would have used that gun to take his family somewhere safe.
    Ajaya came from a Sanskrit word, jaya , victorious. Unconquered.
    What a joke.
    He was cowering in this stinky cubby like a scared rabbit. The past eight months hadn’t made him stronger. They had only made him desperate to escape this kind of life. He would do anything to make that happen. Even if that meant letting them go through with their plan to murder hundreds of people at the embassy? Right now he thought yes, he could even do that.
    The American soldiers that stormed the compound speaking English and shooting guards, they didn’t know what they’d taken with them. He’d watched through a crack. They’d stuffed stolen artifacts in their clothes and packs, maybe to protect themselves, maybe to sell. The Americans had no idea what the bastards would do once they realized what the Americans had really taken. It wouldn’t be long either since it would be the first thing they looked for. They were already tearing apart the compound now, searching for it, the key to their plans to set off something horrible at the American embassy.
    Except it wasn’t here. If he could find it, he finally would have something of value, something he could sell, a ticket out.
    He was scared, but he had skills now and he had an advantage. He knew which way those four Americans had gone. If he could find them first, he could get what he needed and barter it for enough money to get away. He would leave Africa and go to India and study Sanskrit. He would be a student, not a soldier.
    Although first, he had to be a soldier just a little while longer. Ajaya clutched his rifle to his chest and focused on images of his mother, his sister, and little brother. He envisioned them alive, leaving with him.
    A lot more comforting than remembering their dead, bloody bodies as he’d hidden in the scrub brush, stuffing a fist in his mouth to stifle his screams.
    And he realized he wasn’t a scared rabbit now after all. He was a cornered lion, ready to kill.

Chapter 4
    Stella curled up with the woven cloth around her, determined to sleep, knowing she needed to store strength in case they had to evade for any length of time.
    Her head resting on the crook of her arm, she hugged the cottony fabric tighter around her again. It seemed wrong to use something so beautiful, so carefully woven, for protection against night crawlies, but she was practical. She needed to rest, so she cocooned herself in the rectangular kanga.
    Not that sleep came easy. She could have blamed it on her micronap earlier, or the fact that violent forces could stumble on them at any minute. Except she knew the real cause of her restlessness sat a few feet away. Jose. The feel of his arms around her lingered. His unexpected hug had rocked her to her toes, making her question all of her so-called resolutions to stay away from him forever. Even trying to clear the air had her heart in her throat and she’d balked.
    She’d held strong against the urge to contact him for the past month because she’d known seeing him would hurt. A