Chapter 18 (Part 2): Blood in the Sand

 

By the fourth week, they officially crossed into the unclaimed territories, the lawless expanse of Kalahari sandveld that stretched toward the Etosha pan. 

The food rations were dwindling. The women’s empty baskets were slowly filling with omunkete roots, but the landscape was becoming increasingly barren. 


The first attack came at dusk. 


They were setting up a cold camp when five omakwandjala (starving bandits) who had lost their cattle to the drought. They rushed towards them from the tall grass. They were desperate, wielding hand crafted wooden spears with bone tips. 

The two weeks in the kraal paid off instantly. The women dropped low. Shaningwa and Mukoya formed an iron wall. Shivute didn't even blink; he drew his bow, put an arrow through the neck of the first bandit, and smoothly nocked another. Amutenya guarded the back of the group against a full encirclement, his bow half drawn and loaded the entire time.

The skirmish lasted thirty seconds. Two bandits lay dead, including their leader, whose skull Shaningwa had crushed with the butt of his heavy spear. The remaining three fled into the dark. 

Amutenya’s hands shook slightly with the adrenaline, but he forced himself to move. "Strip them," he ordered, his voice cold as he put away his arrow and bow.

Haufiku and Kadhila looted the dead. They recovered two sturdy wooden spears, a massive upgrade from their rusty village weapons, and a small pouch of dried meat the bandit leader had been hoarding. It wasn't much, but it was fuel.


The second wave hit them two days later, and this one was not driven by blind starvation. It was a calculated ambush.

They were moving through a narrow ravine when eight bandits dropped from the rocky overhangs. These men were hardened killers, exiles from the Uukwambi kingdom. They had bone-tipped spears, hide shields, and a ruthless coordination.

"Hold the formation!" Amutenya roared, his hands shaking slightly as he fired his bow at point-blank range, catching a bandit in the shoulder. 

The fighting was brutal and chaotic. Nangolo took a shallow cut to his thigh, dropping a grain sack to defend himself. Ndapandula narrowly dodged a spear thrust, sinking her rusty iron dagger into her attacker’s ribcage exactly as she had been trained. 


The bandit leader, a massive man with a scarred face, lunged! Time seemed to freeze as Amutenya's trembling pupils captured the crazed-blood soaked man emanating cold killing intend, thrusting a broken bloody spear at his heart.


Pang!


Before the leader's lethal strike could land, Tate Mukoya intercepted him, parrying the bone spear and driving his own heavy iron blade deep into the leader's stomach. 

Seeing their leader fall, the remaining bandits broke and ran, leaving three bodies in the dirt. 

Panting heavily, Amutenya looked at his party. Nangolo’s leg was bleeding, but Meme Kauna was already applying ash and bound leaves to the wound. They had survived, but the reality of this world had fully set in. 

It really was a killed or be killed world, he was mere seconds away from ending up dead as not even a footnote in history. In this strength conquers all world, he a mere villager with no power, no army and is so held back by his 21st century ideologies and morals, that he can't even muster the courage to spill enemy blood, is basically a pig waiting to be slaughtered.

He has to deconstruct his lawful mindset if he wants to survive and protect those he wants to protect, there are no laws out here only power, and he needs to start gaining some if he is ever going to survive this cruel world.


Mukoya knelt beside the dead bandit leader, inspecting the man’s hide sandals. He looked up at Amutenya, his scarred face grim. "He has fresh, grey mud caked between his toes."

Shaningwa’s eyes narrowed. "If there is fresh grey mud, there is a permanent water source nearby."

Amutenya looked south, toward the vast horizon. He slung his bow over his shoulder, his eyes hardening as his mind rapidly took stock of the looted weapons and rations they had just claimed. 

"Wrap the wounds," Amutenya commanded. "We found the hunting grounds."

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