Free Ntshona by Matthew A Robinson

was present somewhere in Lon’s consciousness, hiding, only partially showing its face. What it was bugged him. It felt as though it was playing a game with his reasoning. What was it?
    Lon tried hard to think. It was a memory of something. With all the thoughts flowing quickly through his mind it was not easy to differentiate one from the other, old speculations from new feelings. At the same time he was trying his best to be wakeful of danger, as well as trying to navigate through thousands of people, and find some cafe he had never heard of.
    Something poked its head into his mental awareness. He remembered the man on the news the previous night, the one who had jumped out of the window of his father’s building, Somebody Winters. Although he could not remember the man’s name, he all too easily recognised his face, and could still recall how distinctly angular his features had been, in addition to how unnatural his blonde hair had seemed.
    “Fuck!” exclaimed Lon.
    Realisation had hit him like a brick wall.
    “We have to leave here now,” he said alarmedly, and again grasped Eve by the wrist to quickly pull her across the field in the direction contrary to the parliament complex and its masses of surveillance.
    “What the hell?!” said Eve suddenly perceiving danger.
    Lon’s heart was racing and he felt sensation recede from his face and limbs. “Remember that man on the news last night who killed himself?” he was breathing hard and fast.
    “Yes, why?” sad Eve in utter confusion. Why was he bringing this up now?
    “I know why we recognised him,” continued Lon in a panicked voice. “The reason we recognised his face isn’t because he was the son of a famous banker,” he paused his speech to inhale deeply, “the reason we recognised him is because we saw him last night at the shopping centre!”
    This hit Eve hard as she instantly remembered who the man was. He had been standing with the man who punched Marcus. She and Lon had presumed that every other person in the shopping centre had disappeared or had been taken away, but this man, it would seem, was a survivor, just like her and Lon. However, the fact that he had been found dead after the event instantly implied to them that he did not commit suicide, but in fact was murdered, presumably as a silencing measure.
    “Then who killed him?!” asked a frightened Eve.
    “I really don’t know,” said Lon, still holding onto Eve’s wrist and pulling her across the field, “we don’t have time to think now, we need to get away from here first”.
    “Where are we gonna go?” asked Eve.
    “I don’t know, but we just need to get away from here,” said Lon.
    “Do you think whoever did it will be after us?”
    “Probably”.
    “Do you really think the government has something to do with it?”
    “I really don’t know, but it’s possible, and it’s better to be careful,” said Lon.
    They had almost reached the road on the opposite side of the green when two patrol cars slowly rolled past their immediate field of view in the traffic.
    Lon pulled Eve away from the car so their faces could not be seen. Analysing their periphery, they noticed that there were in fact several police patrol cars around them on each of the four roads which enclosed the small field.
    “This is hard!” said Eve, beginning to panic more, “Maybe you were right, maybe there are more police around today”.
    “It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” said Lon. “Why are there more police around today?”
    Unfortunately for the pair, the crowds surrounding the two greens, as well as those passing by the parliament complex, were thinning and probably not large enough to blend in with completely, therefore a different form of camouflage was necessary. In another stroke of bad luck, the two were not wearing any clothing with hoods or other items that could have been used for masking their heads or faces.
    “What should we do?” asked Eve.
    “First of all we should try to