Free The E Utopia Project by Kudakwashe Muzira Page A

clerk to hasten. She wanted to get
out of the supermarket before George because she knew if he got out first, he
would wait for her outside.
    Resisting the urge to look at
George, Sara stared impatiently at the sales clerk. To her dismay, the sales
clerks finished saving her and George at the same instant. She quickly pushed
her shopping cart to the exit, desperate to beat George to the door. He had
broken her heart and she wanted to be as far away from him as possible. Images
of the time she caught him with his ex-girlfriend in his arms came to her mind
unbidden. George had told her he hated Kyla, his ex. He said he wanted nothing
to do with Kyla after catching her having a threesome with two of his friends. Sara
was shattered to see him and his ex holding each other as if their lives
depended on it. She retreated in tears and left them to their carnal business. Kayla
and George were so engrossed in each other that neither of them saw her.
    Sara had walked only four
meters outside the supermarket when she heard running footsteps behind her. She
turned and saw George flying toward her. He knocked her down in a rugby tackle
and she tumbled to the pavement, bruising her elbows. He pinned her to the
ground with all his might. She was about to scream when she heard the sound of
gunfire.
    “Keep low, Sara. Don’t raise
your head. Follow me.”
    He rolled behind three large
concrete flower vases. The flowers had been put on the shopping centre more for
utility than for their beauty. People were more interested in the oxygen the
flowers produced when they photosynthesized than in their colorful petals.
    “What’s happening?” she squeaked.
    “You tell me. Why is that
gunman trying to kill you?”
    “What gunman? I think there
is a mistake.”
    “Mistake or not, he wants to
kill you.”
    They heard the sound of an
oncoming vehicle.  George raised his head for a split second.
    “It’s a delivery truck. It’s
our only chance of escape. When I break into a run, you follow me. Hold on to
my belt and the hem of my trousers. Don’t let go if you want to live.”
    Heart thumping, Sara slipped her
right hand into his pants and gripped the hem and the belt. George raised his
head for a split second and a bullet whizzed over them and ricocheted off the
wall of the supermarket.
    “One, two three, run!” George
sprang to his feet and broke into a run, dragging Sara behind him. Spurred by
adrenaline, she matched him step for step. George timed his run when the front
of the truck was coming between them and the gunman. They sped toward the truck
and George managed to jump and grab the truck’s trailer before it passed away.
Sara held on to him with all her strength. She gritted her teeth and closed her
eyes when she felt her shoes skidding on the tarmac. Praying his belt and
trousers would not break, she gripped the fabric and the leather with her right
hand as tight as she could, and grabbed his T-shirt with her left hand.
    “Put your arms round me Sara,”
George ordered, praying the driver would not see them in the view mirror and
stop to investigate.
    Sara put her left arm around
him but she was too scared to take her right hand off his belt. They heard the
sound of gunfire and two bullets hit trailer. To George’s relief, the driver
accelerated the truck, sensing danger. Amid bursts of gunfire, the truck drove
out of the shopping center and turned left, putting Sara and George under the
cover of the concrete walls that surrounded the shopping center.
    “Put both of your arms around
me, Sara!” George ordered, panting. He had only run for twenty meters but he
felt like he had run a marathon. He panted as his lungs sought for oxygen in
the oxygen-deficient air.
    She sighed deeply before she
released her hand from his belt and put it around him. Before they broke up,
when they were making love, there were times when she thought she held him tight
as if her life depended on it, but now she knew what it really meant to hold