The Other Four

by Nsununguli Mbo

  Thabang was feeling drunk again. Dumani had tried to pick up another fight with him, but Thabang had ignored him as they walked away from the van. He hoped Dumani had taken the keys with him this time. He didn’t understand how someone would leave keys in the car in this day and era. Only fools do that. He was positive they were going to find that guy and didn’t want another trip back to the village for more “pain killers.” He just wanted to finish this job and get rich. He would move to Gaborone, get his teeth fixed, live there for a little while and start some business. He would leave his current wife and find himself a more beautiful one up there. The current one wouldn’t fit into the life of the type of the rich man he was going to become.

  He was annoyed with Dumani. If Dumani had had the sense not to throw away Thabang’s food, this job would be over by now. There wouldn’t have been any need to fight. There was no need to throw away Thabang’s chicken foot. Thabang had offered him the chicken foot in good faith because he believed food was meant to be shared. The least Dumani could have done if he wasn’t interested was to simply say so. But, no, the fool knocks out the chicken foot out of Thabang’s hand. He had paid for that chicken you know. Three chicken feet for five bucks down at his favourite shebeen in Lentsweng. And now, all because of that little incident, they were back to square one, with very little possibility of progressing any further.

  The two scourged the bush in silence, each carrying a container of Chibuku.

  “What’s that?” said Dumani, pointing.

  Thabang looked. You see, the thing was, his eyesight always played tricks on him whenever he was drunk. He looked but couldn’t see what Dumani was seeing.

  “What?” he said.

  Dumani pointed again and increased his pace, heading in the direction of whatever he was seeing. Thabang followed. As they drew closer, Thabang, too, started seeing something.

  “It looks like a human being,” said Dumani.

  It sure did, Thabang could see.

  “Must be the guy. I beat him really bad when he tried to escape, so he probably couldn’t make it that far before he fell over,” Thabang said. He really wished he had beat up the bastard.

  “That’s a woman I think.”

  The two increased their pace.

  What Thabang saw would stay in his mind forever. He had bashed people before, nearly killed some, but he had never seen anything like this. The woman’s skull had been cracked open. Both her arms were twisted at an awkward angle, undoubtedly broken.

  Dumani seemed to be crying as he watched the corpse like he was watching a horror movie. Thabang saw what could be tears welling up in his eyes, but you could never be sure with ugly fucks like Dumani. You could think they were crying when in actual fact they were smiling.

  “I think it’s that guy that killed him,” said Dumani.

  “Which guy?”

  “The guy we’re looking for.”

  “What makes you think so?”

  “It’s just a feeling.”

  Thabang decided not to argue. Instead he mused for a while then said, “I have an idea.”

  Dumani looked at him with those annoying, red (and now teary) eyes of his and said, “What is it?”

  Thabang just smiled and leaned over the dead body.

  I ran away from the corpse. I wasn’t even thinking. I didn’t care about those bastards anymore. I was confused. I was hoping this was a long nightmare from which I would wake up soon and get on with my life. In my state of panic, I had thrown away the burlap sack containing the little rock. I was crying. There were many reasons why I was crying. Somebody was after my life, three people in fact. Death was running after me like a madman. There had been recent rumours of killers lurking in this area, but I had never believed them. I had always gone hunting around here, and I had never seen any signs of them. But now I had seen not only those signs, but the killers. They had tried to kill me. And now they had killed a woman in cold blood.

  I was really tired. I had done too much running in one day. I sat against the trunk of a tree and whimpered, trying valiantly to shut out the thoughts of what I had just been through and what I had just witnessed. This was too much for one day.

  But I couldn’t sit here for too long. I had to get home. I had to report to the authorities what had just happened. The Police would have to be involved sooner rather than later. I stood up and tottered through the bushes and joined the path that led to the village. That’s where I found the van. The same red van I had escaped from.

  Although I had been a little bit disoriented when I escaped, I could tell the van had moved. I hid behind the bushes and looked around for signs of human activity. There were none. This meant those bastards were out there looking for me. And they were not going to stop until they found me. Because I had seen them and from the little I know about killers, they didn’t like to be identified, so I had to get out of here fast. I sprinted along the path. Then an idea hit me. I walked towards the van carefully, peered inside. Dangling from the ignition were the keys. Despite all the happenings, I immediately considered myself lucky. I jumped into the van, turned on the engine and drove off.

  Things were not going well for Mothusi. First, somebody saw him kill someone. Then that somebody evaded him. Then two fools came, saw the body and now they were taking it away. The fools even had the guts to finish up the booze they were carrying before heaving the body up. Mothusi resisted the temptation to charge towards them with his axe while they were carrying the body. That way, the element of surprise would be on his side. But then he quashed the idea just as soon. These were big guys. Mothusi believed they were the killers that had been rumoured to roam these areas.

  But if they were, what were they going to do with the body? He wondered if they were cannibals. What if they ate the body? He didn’t really mind if they did, but only after he had done what led to the murder in the first place.

  Or they could be good Samaritans taking the body back to the village? But the village was far, which would be to Mothusi’s advantage because that meant at one point they would have to stop and rest.

  That’s when Mothusi would strike. He just needed to bide his time. As the two fools walked deeper into the bush, heading towards the path that led back to the village, Mothusi quietly followed them.

  I had been driving for about ten minutes when the van stalled. The thing was, in that ten minutes I had only covered a very short distance — a kilometre max — because the van wouldn’t pick up speed.

  I tried to restart it. Nothing doing. Frustrated, I got out of the van and looked around it, although I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I knew nothing about cars. I had regrets. Once I befriended a Zezuru chap who wanted to teach me about cars and engines, but I wasn’t interested.

  I opened the back of the van and found a container, one of those people use to fetch water from a public water tap with. There was some liquid in it. I opened it and smelt petrol. I took the container and filled up the petrol tank. I had just finished filling up the tank when I heard voices. I whirled around, ready to fight or run. But I was too late.

  Dumani simply let go of the body and ran, leaving Thabang holding the legs.

  “Where are you going?” said Thabang, annoyed.

  The bastard didn’t even bother to answer. What was he running towards the van for? Thabang dropped the body and took a much-needed piss on a little shrub. While doing so, he looked to see what Dumani was really up to. Shit, there was the guy they were looking for, running away from the van.

  Thabang took after him without stopping his stream first. He stopped pissing himself just as he was catching up with Dumani. The thing was, Dumani wasn’t fast. Neither was Thabang. But the guy they were after was. He left the path and disappeared into the bush, jumping over shrubs like he was a rabbit. From the look of things Dumani was already getting tired. He stopped, leaned over and panted like he had just been involved in a fight. Thabang caught up with him and said, “We nearly got him.”

  Dumani, too, was
out of breath to respond, it seemed. Thabang could hear the sounds of the guy they were looking for as he tore through bushes.

  “That was him, wasn’t it?” said Thabang.

  “Looked like him.”

  Thabang studied Dumani for a bit then looked away.

  Mothusi was biding his time. His heart was beating fast as he waited for the opportunity, which he feared he wasn’t going to get. His heart sank when he saw the two men heading towards a van with the body. He hadn’t thought they would have a vehicle as they didn’t look like the type that would have one. Wonders never cease.

  Once they reached the van, there was no way he was ever going to lay his hands on that corpse. He should have brought his bicycle. That way he would have been able to chase the van, or at least try.

  He was very close to the two men as they lumbered forward carrying the body. The one wearing cargo pants suddenly let go of the body and took to his feet. The one wearing bell-bottoms let go too and took a piss.

  But then he began running too, yelling something that Mothusi couldn’t decipher. He feared they may have seen someone and were running away in fear of being seen carrying the body.

  Mothusi didn’t want to be seen either, so he crouched low into the nearby bushes and watched, but he couldn’t see anyone. But the fat men were still running.

  Mothusi hid behind a tree and looked around, his heart pounding harder against his chest. That’s when he saw the witness disappearing into the bush. The two men stopped chasing. Mothusi was faced with a dilemma. The body was now available for him to do what he needed to do with it. At the same time the witness seemed to be running in his direction. All Mothusi needed to do was hide behind a tree, wait for him to pass by, trip and hack him. But then if he did that he might lose his opportunity with the body.

  I’ve been a hunter long enough to know short cuts. I jumped over shrubs as I headed in the direction of the village. Fear kept me going although my legs now felt like jelly. I still hoped this was but just a dream. I pinched myself and I felt pain. This wasn’t a dream. At least I knew why the murderer was after my life. But what about the other two? As I tore through the bush, I thought back through my whole life, trying to think what it could be that I had done to deserve this. I could think of nothing. If those two men were the killers that were rumoured to roam these areas, then I’d expect them to move on and find another victim. But they were still looking for me, which meant they wanted me specifically. Things just didn’t make sense. Why were they taking the body of the murdered woman with them? Could it be that her murderer was working with them?

  I couldn’t keep running anymore, or else I’d completely run out of breath and collapse. And that would make things easier for those bastards. All they would have to do was recapture me. But if they were the killers, why did they not just kill me right there and then? Why bind and take me away?

  I slowed down, looked and listened. I was sure I had covered a good distance and those bastards wouldn’t catch me. I took the chance and sat in the bushes to regain my breath. My chest and calves hurt. I wanted to lie down and rest. I sobbed. I’ve always had a fear of death. I remember once back in time when things were not going well for me and I couldn’t provide for my family. I had fallen off a donkey and broken my leg, so I couldn’t work. I had lost weight. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I cried when I was alone. Then one night I wrote a suicide note and put it under the pillow. I wanted my wife to find it the next morning when she made the bed. In the note, I encouraged my wife to find another man who could provide for her and the children. As we went to bed that night, I cried when I looked at my wife, knowing she didn’t know what I was planning. I held her tight in my arms and simply wailed.

  “You’re acting strange,” she’d said. In answer, I held onto her even tighter and wailed louder.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Don’t stress yourself. It’s not your fault. Things will be alright.”

  It pained me even more to think that she wasn’t aware what I was really sorry for. I had stated three times in the suicide note that I was sorry. But I knew things were not going to be alright. The doctors had said it will take at least six weeks before the fracture could heal.

  As soon as she’d fallen asleep, I got out of bed. The guilt hit me. But I had made up my mind.

  I went to the hut that served as storage and took a rope. The moon stared back at me as I walked towards a tall tree nearby. I climbed up the tree and tied the rope to a strong branch. I was just about to put the noose around my neck when the fear of death washed over me. I quickly climbed down the tree and ran home. My wife was sleeping peacefully when I got back. I slipped my hand under the pillow, took the suicide note and tore it to pieces.

  Could I have brought bad luck to myself by thinking of suicide? Could I have invited death to myself by thinking about suicide?

  I really had no time to answer these questions. I had to get home. I wasn’t that far anyway. I stood up and started trotting. I didn’t get far.

  Mothusi knew the bush well. He assumed the witness would probably take a well-known short cut to the village to avoid the two fat men. Mothusi wasn’t going to let him make it to the village. He had to silence him. The body could wait. Then he thought of something. He crept towards the van while the two men were trying to recover their breaths. He was sure they couldn’t see him. He had a knife that he usually carried around with him just in case he had to skin something out in the bush. He tried to stab one of the front tyres. Nothing doing. He looked at the knife. It was extremely sharp. He looked around for the two goons, the adrenaline kicking hard at him. He stabbed harder. The knife went in. With renewed vigour driven by the adrenaline, he stabbed the tyre repeatedly. Then he moved on to the other front tyre and put it through the same fate before disappearing into the bushes.

  He would have liked to slash all four, but that would have been riskier. Now there was no way those two men could drive away with the body. He believed they wouldn’t be foolish enough to carry it all the way back to the village. That would be too risky for them to do so. Mothusi had bought himself some time. He was now going to deal with the witness, then return to the body. He didn’t think the two fat men would be foolish enough to alert the authorities about the body now that they had handled it. He wasn’t a cop, but he knew that by handling the body they’d left enough evidence to incriminate themselves in the murder.

  Now his task was to ambush the witness. From what he had observed of him, Mothusi was sure he was faster on his feet than the witness. He took another short cut that eventually led to the one he suspected the witness would be taking. When he got to where the two short cuts met, he hid behind a tree and waited. He hoped he wasn’t too late. As the minutes went by, he started despairing. The prospect of ending up in jail was too scary. He was sure the witness would be reporting the murder as soon as he got back to the village.

  Mothusi felt stupid to an extent. He shouldn’t have killed that woman in that spot. For some reason it had evaded his memory that the area was a favourite for hunters. But where else could he have done it? Initially he had planned to simply ambush her at her home and kill her. But that was against the rules. What if…

  Movement.

  He heard the unmistakable sounds of running feet. His heart started beating fast. He peered around the tree hiding him. The sound was getting closer and closer. Mothusi moved around the tree so whoever was approaching wouldn’t see him. That’s when he saw the witness who didn’t seem to notice somebody was waiting for him. Mothusi was ready.

  As soon as the witness passed by Mothusi’s tree, Mothusi put out his right foot and tripped him. He fell to the ground with a thud. Mothusi smiled when he saw the fear intensifying on his face. As he tried to get up, Mothusi put his right foot hard against his back. He raised his axe, aiming for his head.

  I wasn’t that far from home. The first houses on the northern part of the village were now visible and my hopes of making it were soaring. I lived on
the southern part of the village. That didn’t matter because I didn’t think any of those bastards would do anything to me once I was in the village. I didn’t see myself venturing into the bush for a long time now. In fact, I was thinking of relocating to Lentsweng town even as soon as tomorrow. I had discussed relocating with my wife before anyway, although down the line we’d forgotten about the idea. I didn’t see any reason why she would refuse to relocate if I told her of what had just happened.

  The first thing I was going to do was report the murder I witnessed to the chief. There was no way I was going to let that young man get away with it. I slowed down a little as I approached the village. Evening was approaching. I really needed food. My wife usually finished cooking around this time, so I knew that by the time I got home there would be food waiting. I constantly looked back to make sure no one was chasing me. I was just contemplating slowing down to a walk when a foot appeared out of nowhere and tripped me. The killer! I fell on my stomach.

  I tried to get up, but he stamped his foot down on my back. And he was going to kill me. His foot was hurting my back. I twisted and looked up at him. His eyes were feral. He raised his axe high above. Two thoughts came into my head. I could simply resign myself to fate and let him finish me off. Or I could try to fight him. Fighting appeared more appealing.

  Despite the pressure of his foot on the small of my back and the pain it was causing, I twisted, quickly got hold of his foot and pushed it up. He lost balance just as the axe was centimetres away from my head. It grazed my ear, leaving it bleeding. The back of his head hit the tree behind him. He seemed dazed. I didn’t want to take any chances. While he was still dazed, I kicked him hard in the crotch. He groaned and held on to his nuts. I followed up with a punch to his tummy. He cried out and doubled in obvious pain. The thought of bludgeoning him with his axe crossed my mind. But I’m no killer. At the same time I couldn’t let him go around chasing me around like this. While he was recovering, I picked up his axe and hit him on the left foot with it. I chopped off the tip of his shoe and badly injured two of toes. One of the toes nearly came off. He fell. I ran.