The water was getting cold, I felt cold too. As much as I was fond of soaking, hippo time was over, I had to get out to let Thandie also bath. As I rolled the towel around my breast area, the way mama taught me, Thandie stormed in holding her phone and pushed it in my face.

“Cindy, they have taken S’gubhu, look at the sent message,” she was in the community teenagers WhatsApp group, they updated each other on situations like these.

We would normally share the phone but I figured Thandie preferred it to herself, so I let her have it. The message read: “Guyz they hv tkn Sgubhu in for the torture,”

“Then hurry Thandie, we have to save S’gubhu before the Matjitas kill him,” I said.

The message really hit me hard, we knew if he was put under tremendous pressure he might say something about Pheli’s death and we would have another funeral soon. S’gubhu said he knew something that linked the Matjitas to Pheli’s murder and if he talked the only people who would get hurt were our parents, after the Matjitas wiped S’gubhu’s friends off. And damn I was a part of them. We had no choice but to retrieve S’gubhu before he sang like a canary.

“We are going to save him, pack and meet us at the tree,” I texted on the group.

They replied, “copied,” I really couldn’t understand why we spoke like secret spies but it was it was a natural thing.

At least mama wasn’t going to be home until Friday night so we had three days in our pocket. We packed ourselves knives and torches, we had to, just in case the Matjitas lost their cool and we had to defend ourselves. When we got to the tree, only Zoe was there.

“We can’t wait for the others Thandie, its risky, tell them to be our outside ears, we leaving,” I said.

“They must also go and check our house, the key is under the big rock next to the far,” Thandie added as she typed.

Thandie was the only one who knew the Matjitas’ rat hole because Zaka, her boyfriend was in the gang. The group Lord and money-making machine. She hoped that one day Zaka would quit the gang and marry her so they could be the ‘it’ couple. Now, we were strong courageous black girls, risking our lives to save our friend’s life.

As we got closer Thandie pointed at the house. It was an old wrecked double storey house with a few missing windows, that were now replaced by paper bags of all colours. I could smell the crime from where I was. In that moment my nerves were kicking in and strong, I could feel my asthma awakening again since yesterday.

It happened a lot when I was overthinking things. The rest of the girls were quiet and clinging onto their backpacks for dear life. Not even the wind as mighty as it was, could break the silence.

I could tell the weather also sensed the tension in zone six because there was a heavy storm brewing. I could tell that everyone also felt the tension in the township, by looking at their homes. All curtains were shut and there wasn’t any TV flushing images, even in the houses hooked with satellite dishes.

Tell us: What do you think is causing tension at zone six?