Born the Same by Antony Dunford

Author:Antony Dunford [Dunford, Antony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

‘I need your help.’

Fatou opened her eyes. Blinked. There was a gun barrel a few centimetres from her eyes.

‘I need your help,’ Tony repeated, offering her his hand. She took it and used it to pull herself to her feet. ‘You’ll need that.’ Tony touched the gun she’d been carrying with his foot. She’d laid it on the boards of the veranda when she’d knelt beside Agoyo.

‘We have to move him. We can’t leave him like this,’ Fatou said.

‘We will. But first we have to search the compound and all the buildings. Find out who else is dead. Make sure there’s no one injured or left behind.’

Fatou’s mind was numb. What Tony was saying made sense, in a coldly logical way. She found herself nodding. As she leaned over to pick up the gun, she had the oddest sensation of watching herself do it, as if she was still hiding in the loft looking down on them.

Tony talked her through how to fire the gun again. She’d had it explained before, but hearing it again helped. It was a series of instructions she could follow.

‘I will go first,’ he said, and led her into the rain and across the compound to the first hut. It was the medical hut. ‘Watch the compound,’ he said.

He pushed the door open with the barrel of his gun, shining a torch inside, sweeping quickly. Then he took two steps forward and the door shut behind him.

Fatou watched the compound. The gates had stopped burning. The rain had finally extinguished whatever fire Captain Rick’s men had persuaded to burn under the deluge. But the gates still smoked and steamed.

She shivered. Not from cold, but because rain was running down her spine. She was already soaked to the skin, and she’d only been out in the rain for a minute. Or perhaps two.

What was taking Tony so long?

She went to the door and pushed it open a centimetre.

‘Tony!’ she whispered as loudly as she dared.

There was no reply. She shivered again, this time from fear. She looked around the compound, suddenly convinced that Captain Rick had left soldiers in every building and every shadow.

‘Tony!’ she said again, louder this time.

‘Come in, come in,’ he said from inside. ‘It’s clear.’

She pushed the door open and went into the hut.

‘Sorry, I thought this would make things easier,’ Tony said. He was using surgical tape to fix his torch to the barrel of his gun. Fatou nodded.

The torch was still on, and she could see about half of the room. The beds Colm and Agoyo had slept in. The bed they had helped Agoyo out of not much more than twelve hours earlier. The shape left by his body was still evident in the slim mattress. The floor around the beds was covered with boxes and tools from the shelves and cupboards. Colm’s bag had been upended and the contents scattered across the floor. The soldiers didn’t seem to have taken much, if anything, though amid all the mess, it was impossible to tell.

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