Tension was high while the submarine was heading to Namila, and I was particularly nervous. I was really scared by the mission, but also considering the consequences in case something would go wrong. Martha was supposed to give birth to a baby, who was also my baby, in about a couple of weeks, and now more than ever I wanted to be with her. I did not care at all about this mission.Why should I be a hero? Why somebody has to risk his or her own life just because of a stupid dictator? Nobody knows I am in this mission right now, and the average person does not even have a clue about my possible sacrifice. People just care about their job, their salary, their family and friends. Then, if somebody has to die for them, in order to keep their life quiet and smooth, that person is very welcomed. They do not care if there would be a widow now suffering just because somebody died for them! If somebody needs to die to keep them happy, they should be the ones! Well, let's think about something else. I am not going to die. I don't want to die.For God's sake, it is just a question of taking some juices out of some plants in order to take their genetic root out of them..... Well, that may implicate that a couple of hundred thousand people would be probably lead to starvation in a few months from now.... Just because of one dictator, and to protect other people from possible attacks.What the heck! Why I had to get involved into this. Why wasn't I enjoying life and playing football or chess in college with my friends, instead of spending days and days in the Lab experimenting???
"Ready in ten minutes!" Captain John whispered, shaking me up from my sad thoughts.
I was getting more and more nervous. The mini-sub surfaced very close to the coast. Captain John, Peter, Rob and myself got out of sub and started swimming toward the island. Everything seemed quiet, and nobody was around. We touched land and run immediately into the bushes. From there we started walking in our formation: first Peter, then fifty feet afterwards Captain John, I was following another fifty feet after him, and then Rob. We were moving according to the maps taken from the satellite, showing were the plantations were. We should do the job in about ninty to hundred and twenty minutes, but they considered four hours for the sub to come back, just in case of some unexpected delays.Ten minutes later we found the plantation of the first fruit. I cut one in half, took the parts I needed and stored them into a sterilized container, sealed it and placed in the freezing bag I had, so that the material would freeze and be preserved for my job later in the lab. We proceeded walking and, fifteen minutes later, we reached a plantation of the second fruit we were looking for. Again, I took the material needed, and then we continued our way to the plantation of the third and last plant we needed. This was reached thirty minutes later. I performed the usual task. First part of the operation completed in fiftyfive minutes. Perfect timing. Now we just needed to go back and hide to wait for the submarine to get back.We reached the coast in the spot were we had landed and hided ourselves in the bushes, about fifty-to-sixty feet away one from the other. I guess we were all doing the same thing:checking the ocean with our infrared device, waiting for the signal from the submarine.
Exactly four hours after we landed, a small infrared blink came from the ocean, allowing us to spot the submarine. We all raised and walked toward the ocean, while Captain John sent the confirming signal to the sub, meaning that everything went through okay, and we were coming. It was then that Hell came into reality. A lot of Namila's soldiers, probably fourty, fifty or maybe more, came out from all sides and opened fire on us. Unlike the others, I did not have a machine gun, which I would have not known how to use anyhow, but only a gun. Peter, being the first, was killed instantly, followed by Captain John. Then Rob collapsed as well, but he managed to kill two enemy soldiers first. At that point I did not even bother to retrieve my gun. These people were so fast, and also I never use a gun before in my life... I was surrounded immediately. They knocked me down on the ground with a fist in full face. Then I felt hands undressing me. They removed my uniform completely, leaving me naked like the day I was born.Then, with my surprise, they put my uniform on one of their dead soldiers and dragged me in the back of some bushes. What followed made me faint: they took some wooden poles and planted them in the sand to make like two large X a few feet away one from the other. Then they brought another long and thick wooden pole and put it on the X on both sides, to form what it looked like a clothes' stand. Then, one by one they hang on the pole Captain John, Peter, Rob and the unknown Namila's soldier in my uniform. Then they took some branches, disposed them on the ground under my companions, poured some liquid on them and also on the branches, and then put it on fire with a match. By the way everything went on fire so fast, I felt that they used gasoline. I could do nothing but see my friends burn until only ashes were left and the wooden structure collapsed. Then, they made me walk for ten minutes to reach a road where a few military trucks were waiting, and drove me to a camp. Here they gave me what looked like a bright yellow kimono, and then put me on a Jeep, escorted by a few soldiers. I ended in a prison and, for a few days, nobody came to see me, except for bringing me some food once a day.
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