The Escape

By
Jason Clark

The small village of Bilene, Mozambique, is where the children would play and families would
meet. The sun would set over the ocean behind the hut of a young boy named Kanye. At age
seventeen he was walking home after meeting with his girlfriend, Saidi, for a picnic. When
Kanye pulled back his dreadlocks, all of his muscles flexed. When he was younger, his dad was
killed because he was a warrior for his village. His mom never got over it. Kanye has no kids nor
a job, he is just a simple man with simple ways. He loves fishing and swimming and sitting by
the beach and wants to build a hut by the river or ocean because he finds them relaxing. Kanye
loves the smell of the ocean and the river. He has two younger brothers and their names are
Pedro and Diego.

June 11,1834
After a day of swimming in the ocean Kanye started to walk back to his hut, but when he
reached his door, he saw a bunch of white people.
Now what do they want? wondered Kanye.
He hadnt seen white people much in his life. The only time he had seen them was when his last
village was attacked, and his dad died trying to defend his village. This time he's more alert and
ready to take action. As he ran back into his hut, yelling for his brothers and family, he starts to
tell them to pack what they can and leave. Kanye goes back outside and sees other huts
burning. Kanye knows its just a matter of time before his hut goes up in flames. He starts
packing up everything that he can. He runs out with the rest of the family and village. Finally, his
hut goes up, and his mom starts crying. You can see the whole village burning. The village

leaders meet. they have a look of panic on their faces when they notice that one of the village
leaders is missing. They run to the edge of the hill and they could see the village and a there he
was running to them. Out of nowhere, there was a shot. Everyone was quiet. There was the
other village leader lay on the ground with a bullet through his head. The whole village was in
agony. The village people ask someone to see if he is really dead. Kanye volunteers; he will
later regret that decision. As he tells his mom it will be ok, he starts to walk down the hill. He got
closer and closer to the dead body. Another shot went off, and hitting the dirt right next to his
foot. He stopped. Right in front of him was a soldier. He had his gun pointed right at him, but he
was shaking. Kayne thought to himself, If I run I could get shot; but if I don't I could get
captured and become a slave. All the village people saying, run!. But he didn't run. Before he
knew it he was surrounded by soldiers. He heard his mom yell. Some of the villagers had to
hold her back to make sure she doesn't get killed. The soldiers took Kayne away to Xai Xai.

June 15, 1834

Four days after his separation, they are outside the city of Xai Xai the other side of the river.
Kayne is now thinking he should have run. On the way to Xai Xai, Kayne could never get any
sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about his family and the village people. There were about
ninety-nine people going to Xai Xai and thirty guards to take them there. They arrive in the town
of Xai Xai, and are not well greeted . People are tossing things at them. As he approaches the
auction building Kanye tries to run away but doesn't get anywhere. They drag him to his cage,
kicking and screaming. An hour goes by, and half the people have left already. The guy on his
right was still there, and the kid on his left was there, too. The person on his right, Filipe Nyusi,
he is a nice man but very simple and keeps to himself. This would be Felipe's second time in the
cage. He escaped from the first farm he was on by killing his owner but, one year later he got
caught and put back in. This gave Kanye the idea that if he killed his owner, and he run back to
his family. however, the problem with that idea would be he doesn't know where they are. He

keeps thinking about them and wondering about what's going on with them. Five hours, later
after listening to Filipe stories a guard walks in and grabs Filipe. One hour after Filipe left,
another guard came in and grabbed Kanye. He doesn't know where he is about to go nor who
he will be with. What he does know is that it won't be fun.

June 16, 1834

As he arrives at different building and is put back in a different cage, Kanye doesn't see anyone
next to him nor does he see any guards. What he can hear is a loud coughing and yawning. His
cell has nothing. Just a lot of blood, and the place smells like dead bodies. A couple hours later,
a guard comes in with a small tray of food and just throws it down. All of it almost spills but most
of it was still on the plate.

June 17, 1834

One night has passed. He is ready to get out; suddenly a guard walks to his cell, and opens, it
and grabs him.
Where are we going? said Kayne.
Nowhere you need to know, replied the guard. As they walked outside, there was a wagon
them full of other slaves waiting for them. They all started talking, but Kanye never joined in. He
just sat there thinking about his family, wonder if they're ok and what theyre up to. He can only
hope for the best. As the wagon came to a stop, there was a train waiting for them. and the
guard walks up to Kanye and literally throws Kayne off the wagon. He lay the ground for awhile
as the guards laughed at him. The other slaves would just walk around him until one helped him
up. It was Filipe. Kanye was glad to see someone he knew.
I guess we are going to the same place, said Filipe. Kanye laughed but he didn't know why.
As they boarded the train, Filipe and Kanye couldn't stop talking. It seemed that they both were
happy, for once on their journey. But they still don't know where theyre going. When they stop

talking, they smell the air and Kanye throws up. Filipe Laughed, but he too, knows it is
disgusting. As night comes they fall asleep. Five hours into the train ride, there was a sudden
stop. It woke up everyone. It gave three people a heart attacks so they threw them off the train.
When they stopped, the guards call 20 people to come forward; this would be their new home.
There were 20 stops like that but Filipe and kanye were never separated. The journey lasted
about a week.

June 26.1834
They arrive to Pemba. The guard called out their names. Filipe is the first. Then five more gob.
By the time Kanye's name is called, The train is leaving. They don't know where pemba is or
how far it is from home. A wagon pulls up, and they hop right in. It takes an hour to get to the
farm. The farm it has barbed wire fences all around it. There was a big sign that said , The
Duke of Durham. It was a tobacco company that was developing on the first machine-rolled
cigarette. Filipe and Kanye pick out their bunks and they are right next to each other. They have
not met the person who is in charge yet. Night has fallen, and the other slaves have come back
from a hard day at work.

June 27, 1834

A big horn goes off and wakes up all the slaves from their sleep. The new slaves don't go to
work while all the other ones go to work as they do everyday. Kanye and and Filipe go out to the
field to help harvest. They don't know what to do until one of the other slaves who has been
there the longest shows them the routine.

After half a day working, a slave stood up stopped working, and started stretching.
Apparently, he had a bad back. One of the guards saw him. A shot rumbled across the field and
the slave fell crashing into a tobacco plant. Kanye felt bad because all the man was doing was

stretching. The guard yelled, who's next?! The slave who told Kanye and Filipe what to do said
this happened at least three times a day it is like we are not people in their eyes.
Kayne already had a plan to get out. Every day a wagon would come in and out of the plant
around late noon. Hes thinking about hiding in it, until they get into the woods. Then he would
escape. However he didnt know how to get to the wagon without being shot before he even
gets close to it.

As night fell, they all returned to their bunks. One person was cleaning the drainage system.
Kanye started at the drain in the middle of the floor. A light went off in Kanye's head. He started
to talk to the people in the cabin to see if they wanted to build a tunnel going under the fence
and into the woods. They all were excited and ready to get out of this place. Their cabin is near
the south fence, and they had to dig about 100 feet to get into the woods. They examined the
hatch. They got it open and Kanye went down into the drainage pipe. It was small and cramped,
but he got through pretty easily. When he went to the bottom of the drainage pipe it was muddy.
Then Abdul went down, as he was the most experienced digger they had. Abdul never had an
easy life. Alway moving around, he never had a dad or mom. Abdul was raised by his older
brother and sister. By this time there were 30 people in his cabin some old and some new. They
were all interested in getting out of this place.

June 28 , 1834
They go to work in the fields all day from 7am to 6pm the tunnel hard work and that makes
digging a whole lot more dangerous. Night has fallen, and they open up the drain leading to the
tunnel. Abdul, Filipe, and five other bunk mates go down. To start digging with shovels that they
had stolen. After digging for and hour, a guard walks in; but the people in the cabin have a
system. They have a lookout, and he would signal to one person who would run and jump on
his bed while two people would close the hatch. When that would, happen there was a guy

under the hatch where he would blow out the candle light, and that was a signal to the diggers
to stop digging. After the guards would leave, they would dig again. They would end up just
digging three hours a night, so they don't get too tired which would show during their field work.
There were fifteen, diggers and they would take turns: five people a night while the others
would get to rest. The other fifteen would be look-outs, or they would steal supplies with Kanye.
This was a dangerous project, but it had to be done if they want to get out.

July 28, 1834

After one month of digging and going to the fields, it was done. The tunnel was finally ready. It
was a long journey, getting it finished after four people have died two in the fields and two
having heart attacks in the tunnel. The tunnel is a 100 feet long and 10 feet wide. It was 11 feet
under the ground. Filipe and Kanye are discussing when to escape. If they go to soon, or go, to
late they might get caught. So they pick tomorrow at midnight.

July 29 10:43 pm
while the guards are doing a routine check. There cabin is asleep trying to get rest, before the
escape. At 11 oclock rolled around and Kanye and filipe woke up the people in their cabin.
Everyone packs two jugs of water that they have stolen and Abdul packed the shovel the open
the tunnel. It was time to go. Abdul went first, then went Kanye, Filipe, then followed the rest. As
the last two guys are about to go down, three guards walk in and three shots rumble through the
tunnel. Someone has tipped them off. An alarm went off; it was too late to go back. If they did
go back, they would all get shot without a second chance. It was a 30 minutes crawl to freedom.
Abdul finally reaches the end at 12:30 and starts to open the tunnel. Filipe and Kanye reach the
end of the tunnel, they see other people coming, too. They don't know what is up there. It could

be a guard or a tree, but the only way to find out is to open the top of the tunnel. They hear
more gunshots in the tunnel. Abdul opens the tunnel there nobody's there. It all clear. They get
out ok but right after Filipe get out, a shot goes off and Abdul falls back into the hole on top of
some people, bleeding out his head. Six people make it out before guards get to the the exit of
the tunnel. There are still shots going off in the tunnel. People are screaming for help. Filipe
and Kanye are part of the six people and they stick together, they make it into the forest and
decide to split up. Kanye, Filipe, and a bunkmate go south as the other three go north. They
can still hear the shots and yelling at the camp. Abruptly, they stop really quick they hear guards
coming toward them, yelling. The other bunkmate that is with them stays and says, I'll stay and
distract them. Filipe and Kanye evan farther run south still and three minutes after they have
left, a shot goes off. They start running down a little hill, and Filipe take wrong step. Boom! It
was a land mine. He goes flying through the air. The explosion throws Kanye in the air,too. As
he falls through the air he hits a tree that knocks him unconscious se for about a minute. When
he wakes up all he sees is a hole in the ground, and guts and blood everywhere.

June, 29,1893
As Kayne comes to, coverd in dirt from the explosion, he tries to forget what has happened to
his friend. When he got up he felt a big pain in his side. Kanye looks down. It's a big branch
pierced his side he must have gotten it when he hit the tree. As he hears footsteps coming his
way, he tries to run but, just falls which drives the stick stuck even further into his side. He
screams out in pain. Kanye panics more and more as the guards get closer and closer. If only
he could run. They stop, and Kanye sees his mother. When she sees him she just started to
wail. He gets up, crying and wondering how they found him; but before he can ask Saidi runs
up to him with the village doctor. To take out the stick. Saidi is so happy to see him, but he can
see his brothers. Kayne starts to panic, but then finally they come and they greet each other

with big hugs and he cries a little. When he can get up, he sees all the aftermath of the
explosion.