Chapter 2
“They found us,” Lamya said, emotionless. She pushed aside her skirt and pulled out a gun and a knife. Fiza and Nafisa did the same. Only the slight shaking of their hands gave away their nerves. Otherwise, they seemed already dead. They were completely expressionless.
“Get in the truck!” Abu ordered, pulling out a gun she hadn’t seen him carrying.
Kuol turned toward them and grabbed his cousins’ hands. That seemed to get everyone moving as Abu pulled out a second handgun and handed it to Helena while shoving her out the door.
“Do you know how to use this?”
Helena nodded and flipped the safety off. Was she really in a fight for her life?
The sounds of gunfire getting closer were her answer as Abu started the truck and Kuol helped the women into the truck bed before easily vaulting up into it.
Helena started filming as he shoved aside the top of the crate Helena had sat on and exposed a weapons cache.
Grenades, ammo, and guns—including a shotgun.
“Can I have the shotgun? I’m better with that,” Helena asked as Abu slammed on the gas.
Kuol nodded and Helena grabbed it and a box of ammo. She wedged her cell phone between her breasts as if it were a body camera and loaded the shotgun. Abu took a corner and they were suddenly in the middle of the battle.
“Get down!” Kuol ordered the women.
Helena was frozen as she watched one of Garang’s soldiers shoot a young man who was on his knees with his hands laced behind his head.
“Garang!” Kuol yelled and the man in the center of the genocide looked up from the dead body and right at them.
He wasn’t a random soldier. He was Kazim Garang, leader of the murderous opposition group accused of genocide, rape, and more. He was the whole reason she was here.
His eyes met Helena’s and he smiled—a smile that had her soul shrinking in fear. Then he raised his gun, and all while keeping his eyes locked on her, executed another young man. Next to him, two soldiers were dragging teen girls by their hair into a tent even as they unzipped their pants.
Garang turned his gun and pointed it at them.
Kuol fired. The sound of his gun rocked Helena out of her fear.
She fired, hitting one of the men dragging a girl in the back.
She fired again and took out the second man.
The girls turned wide-eyed at their now dead captors. Then they ran for their lives.
Garang fired at them, hitting the truck, inches from Kuol, who fired back.
Garang didn’t move, even as the bullet landed in the dirt no less than a foot from him.
Soldiers appeared before Helena could get off another shot and they came under heavy fire.
Kuol shoved her down and kept his hand on her head as Abu took a corner so fast the truck tipped onto two wheels.
Helena grabbed her camera and held it up just enough for it to film over the side of the truck. Fire, gunshots, and screams were all around them.
“Stay down!” Kuol ordered. “We need you to tell our story.”
Then Kuol sat up and began to return fire. Helena wanted nothing more than to hide, but she couldn’t stand the idea of not knowing what was going on so that she might help someone.
Using one hand, she reloaded the shotgun and peeked over the side of the truck. The school was engulfed in flames. The nun was on her knees with a gun to her head. Several dead children lay around her. Kuol fired. The man with the gun to the nun’s head fell backward, dead.
Abu slammed on the brakes as Kuol fired off more shots and Helena joined him. The rest of the soldiers on the school grounds fell.
“Get the kids,” Kuol said, his voice tight. Lamya, Fiza, and Nafisa sprang from the truck.
Helena turned to Kuol, but all thought died as she saw the blood seeping from his chest.
“Hurry!” Abu yelled as the sound of fighting intensified around them.
Helena was already ripping off her scarf to press against his wound as he crumpled to the floor of the truck bed. She pressed hard against the wound and Kuol cursed. When he opened his eyes, he was looking into the face of the nun.
“Sorry, sister,” Kuol whispered as Abu took off again.
“Let me see,” the nun ordered. She was in her forties and was somehow completely calm. “I’m a nurse.”
Helena pulled away and the nun ripped Kuol’s shirt as if it were nothing.
She rolled him over and he groaned. “Good news, it went through. You’re going to live if we can get it closed up soon.
Let’s wrap it up and hold pressure until we can clean it.
” She looked up at Helena and down at the gun.
“You shoot, Lamya can help me with Kuol. I’m Sister Bernadette. ”
“Helena Diakos.”
“Helena!” Fiza gasped.
Helena didn’t stop to think. She picked up her gun and instantly returned fire at another truck loaded with soldiers. This time, Fiza and Nafisa were next to her returning fire to try to protect the truckful of children and Kuol.
Helena picked up Kuol’s rifle and took a calming breath. It was just like clay shooting. If she could hit that target, she could hit this. She exhaled and slowly squeezed the trigger over and over again.
There was a ping and then a whoosh as the truck exploded.
She’d managed to hit the gas tank. Abu turned again and then they were racing out of the city with more civilian trucks and cars behind them.
There were even people simply running. If there was room, drivers would stop and people would pile into vehicles, and then they were off again.
“Where are we going?” Helena asked as she filmed the destruction of the city behind her. Fire after fire was set and growing. It wouldn’t take much with all the flammable material in the tent city for it to be completely consumed.
“There’s a more protected city an hour away.
It’s at capacity, but we have no choice but to beg for them to let us in.
We’ll regroup, and then be transported to different towns that aren’t overrun,” Sister Bernadette replied.
“My church is there. We will find refuge at the church until other plans can be made.”
“You’re all so calm,” Helena said to her as she looked around the truck bed.
“This isn’t the first time these children have seen evil, and it won’t be the last. Each time they find us, they kill or force more into their army.
I try to go where the majority of the refugees are sent so they can have a steady figure in their lives.
But Garang and his people are relentless.
President Deng is too focused on the capital and other bigger cities to send us help.
We’ve gotten used to relying on ourselves and each other. ”
Helena sat back down, keeping the guns in her lap, and watched the children hold each other. Fiza and Nafisa tried to soothe them as Lamya and Sister Bernadette worked to keep pressure on Kuol’s wound.
It took almost an hour to reach the city. Guards surrounded it and soon they were all held at gunpoint once again, only this time they weren’t being shot. They were being questioned, inspected, and finally approved, one car at a time, to enter the city. Everyone seemed to know to go to the church.
“What happened?” a young priest asked, as he hurried from the church.
“Garang struck us, Father Danny,” Sister Bernadette replied. “I have a friend who was shot.”
The priest nodded and a moment later he was back with a wheelbarrow. Keep the children here and reunite those you can. I’ll take the injured man to the hospital.”
Abu and Father Danny worked to get Kuol into the wheelbarrow.
Fiza and Nafisa went with them while Abu and Sister Bernadette got each child’s name and who their parents were.
It didn’t take long. Cars headed to the church.
Men and women jumped from the vehicles and ran to the church, calling for their children.
There was such joy at being reunited, and then such heartbreak when either a parent or a child wasn’t there.
Father Danny returned an hour later with news that Kuol was in surgery, but was going to make it.
He then worked with Sister Bernadette to make notes of every orphaned child and every child from the school that did not survive.
“Where do you keep those records?” Helena asked.
“We make our notes then send them to the Vatican. Why?” Father Danny asked her.
Helena told them who she was and how she was trying to help. “Those records would be incredibly valuable to my case.”
“Give me your contact information and I’ll write my bishop. It’s no guarantee, but if it will help the people of South Sudan, then I think they will share it with you.”
Helena dug around her small bag strapped across her waist and handed him her business card. Father Danny left with Sister Bernadette to cook dinner for the people camped out in the church, leaving Helena with Abu and Lamya.
“Would you consider coming with me?” Helena asked. “Garang saw you, it’s only a matter of time before you all are named. I can get you somewhere safe.”
Lamya looked defeated. This wasn’t news to them. They already knew they’d have a target on their back. “Where could we possibly hide?” Lamya asked.
“If I can make it happen, will you go?”
Lamya and Abu talked and then turned back to her. “Only if Kuol and his cousins can go too,” Abu told her.
“We promised to never leave each other behind,” Lamya added.
“Give me an hour.”
The next morning Kuol grumbled as the truck bounced along the road heading to the capital and its airport.
He hadn’t wanted to leave, but his cousins, stronger than they seemed, insisted.
They were going into hiding and had promised to testify against Garang.
Even Sister Bernadette had promised to testify, although she’d refused to leave with them.
Helena’s point of contact would be Father Danny, and from there get messages to Sister Bernadette so there would be no trace of direct communication.
The large cargo plane belonging to a nonprofit run by a family friend of the Diakos family from Greece was waiting for them.
“This is where we say goodbye,” Helena told them.
“You’ll be greeted at the airport by Interpol where they will take you to a safe house until it’s time for you to testify.
You all are very brave. I’m sorry if I’ve made life harder for you. ”
“It was already hard. Now we at least have a chance to live,” Lamya told her before giving her a hug.
One by one they said goodbye until young Kuol was left with his cousins waiting a few steps behind.
“I was against you coming, but I see the wisdom of it. There’s only so much we can do on the ground.
But here, on an international stage, we can take a stand.
I will be proud to testify and tell the world how truly evil Garang is.
Don’t underestimate him, Helena. I know I won’t.
My cousins and friends think they are safe, but we are not.
And neither are you. Be safe, we need you to tell our story. And thank you for saving my life.”
Kuol held out his hand and Helena ignored it. Instead, she hugged him gently. “You’re a brave young man, but your story is only beginning. You’re going to change the world, Kuol.”
Helena waved them off as the cargo plane was loaded. Then she headed to the airport and sat, waiting for her commercial flight. There would be no records of the five people on the cargo plane, but there would be a record of her flying back to The Hague. . . alone.