Free The Oasis by Janette Osemwota Page B

closer and closer to the downtown area and she knew her chances were not good.
    As they approached, the area around them interrupted her thoughts. She began to notice a smell of rotting flesh and what had to be burning bodies. The flickering of lights in the distance confirmed her thoughts as she suppressed another gag. Her eyes tried to focus on a way to escape, but she was distracted by what she saw.
    Hundreds of others huddled around fire pits while they aggressively fought each other. It was a pandemonium of everything she had imagined and worse. They were dirty and feral. Many of them talked to themselves or fought with others about things she couldn’t hear. Although it surprised her to see them communicating at all, she was not surprised how much they resembled a pack of animals instead of human beings. The ground was covered in filth and there seemed to be nothing left of civility. No one took much notice of her. Blood and filth were everywhere.
    The buildings that seemed to house the group were disgusting, covered in mud or worse. There was no order and Lena wouldn’t have expected any. They all appeared to be male, some in various stages of what seemed to be decay. One man walked past them with half of his scalp missing. His face was bloodied and he was whispering quietly to himself, his hand rubbing his bloodied head. It was hell on earth and Lena wanted to cry out.
    “Jesus,” she whispered as they approached one of the skyscrapers. Filthy blankets were spread out on the ground and she saw some people lying on the makeshift beds. She saw her first woman there. She was surrounded by a few other men and looked close to death. Her face, what was left of it, was bruised and swollen from what had to be many beatings. Her body was naked and her flesh was covered with the same markings. The men who surrounded her pawed her flesh as she chanted in some unknown language. Lena couldn’t help but think the woman was praying.
    Just outside of this skyscraper, the man put Lena down. Her feet gave out once she touched the ground. She thought she was going to pass out as she felt the blood rush out of her head. Her vision blurred and she grabbed her head, trying to stop the spinning. It wasn’t long before the man who had carried her shoved her along. Her heart sank when she was finally able to move forwards. The area, now that she could see it more clearly, was even worse than it had seemed upside down. Luckily for her, no one seemed to even take note of her any more. By this point, the crusted blood over her head and her now filthy clothes masked that she was any different than they were.
    Pushing her along, the man led her toward the building. As they approached the skyscraper, Lena looked up. Some of the upper floors were lit. She swallowed nervously and began to regret not struggling more before they got here. The man shoved her again and into the building they went. Her heart raced as she braced for what was going to happen. At least outside she could have tried to run from the man, but now she was going to be locked inside a building. Her only hope was that she would be given even a single moment of opportunity to get out of his grasp.
    Up the stairs, Lena kept her eyes vigilant. The stairs were dark and she occasionally heard noises from the floors they passed. Her eyes scanned the dark stairwell, and she waited for a moment that the man who had captured her wasn’t within inches of her body. Instead, almost as if he sensed that she was planning something, the man stayed close. There was no more communication between them and any time they passed another person she counted her blessings that her captor was so quiet.
    Every one of the others in this community seemed to have some kind of mental disorder. Many talked to themselves while others seemed to have some kind of anger towards everyone else. What seemed worse was that these people seemed to be either violent towards each other or self-mutilators. As she had