Hey reached the border fence by early sunrise. There wasn’t a hole in the fence that they could climb through so they all had to climb the fence to get to the other side. It wasn’t an easy task, they had to watch out for security guards and climb without making any noise. To make things worse, their clothes and hands were torn by the barbed wire at the top of the fence.

All three of them made it up and over with only their clothes and bruises as evidence of their tough journey. They entered South Africa at the Borwa border. At that moment, they heard a truck approaching and ran into the nearby forest.

Blah Jonz had no idea where they were walking to, but since they had reached their destination it didn’t matter to him. Prosper, on the other hand, was a frenzy of excitement as he tried to contain himself. The endless possibilities he had dreamt and thought of were now a possibility. Cliff was happy to have made it into SA unscathed but thought of his friend who died as a result of trying to achieve what they did.

They made camp on a small clearing that night and slept better than they had the past couple of nights. Having crossed into South Africa marked a transition of everything, meaning everything even the air they breathe was totally different. It was around 5 a.m. and Blah Jonz would say they couldn’t rest now; they needed to get to a safer place and rest there.

The next morning they set off again under the instruction of Blah Jonz. Cliff was only a couple of years older than Prosper, therefore, both of them were under the command of John as he was the only adult. They didn’t think of the guards patrolling the forest. Gunshot went off; all three of them fell to the ground at the same time.

“Where did that come from,” Blah Jonz asked.

“I have no idea,” Cliff answered. “But we need to get away from here or else we die,” he added.

Prosper was silent as a mouse, he had been through so much on their journey that he didn’t know how much more he could stand. Before anyone of them could move, they were surrounded by a group of armed men who wore military gear.

“Stand up!” One of the men ordered.

All three of them stood quickly for fear of being shot. Looking at the men, Prosper saw that the leader was the one who wore a different coloured uniform.

“Do you know what we do to trespassers,” the man asked.

None of them answered.

“You,” he said pointing to one of his men that stood the closest to them, “restrain them and then lead them to the camp.”

“Please, don’t kill us,” John said.

The man ignored him and started walking in a different direction. They arrived at a camp 15 minutes away from where they were captured. There, Prosper saw, were other people held prisoner as well; women, children and men.

Once they were thrown in a manmade sell along with the others, Blah Jonz spoke, “They aren’t police officials,” he said.

“No, they’re not. They’re called the ‘Gumagumas’,” a boy close to Prosper’s age said from behind them. “We were all captured when we tried to get to a city close to the border after we crossed. Some of us have been taken but never brought back,” the boy said with a sad voice.

All three, John, Prosper and Cliff were speechless.

“We need to get out of here,” John said urgently.

The other prisoners looked at him as if he was crazy.

“Let’s wait till nightfall then we try and make our escape,” he added.

***

Tell us what you think: Do you think the escape will be successful?