If you stay hidden, turn to scene 3.
To read a fact file on Somalia click here, then return to this page to make your choice.
You scramble upwards, out of the hole. Rahama’s hand snatches at your ankle and you hear her hiss, ‘No!’ but you kick her away and leap from hiding.
Two men whirl to face you: one of them is holding Zayd by the throat, and the other one immediately drops Zayd’s mother and reaches for his weapon.
You run at the man reaching for his gun, and throw your full body weight into his chest. He stumbles, and out of the corner of your eye, you see the lime lady reach down to her little cooking fire and grab a hot pot of tea. She smashes it into the man’s head, and he screams as scalding tea runs down his face. You try to snatch at his gun, and the two of you tussle for control of the weapon.
Rahama has now also climbed from the hole. She picks up a chunk of broken concrete and charges at the man holding Zayd. She is aiming to smash the block of concrete against his head, but he throws out one arm and shoves her sideways into the wall.
The man you are wrestling with gets his finger to the trigger and fires indiscriminately. Chunks of concrete burst open at your feet, and the sound deafens you.
With ringing and dim shouting in your ears, you see Rahama holding her leg and trying not to cry. Blood is rising between her fingers and beginning to soak her clothes. Zayd manages to get free of his captor, but, unsteady on his broken leg, a single punch to the jaw unbalances him and he slams into the ground at your feet.
The lime lady, defiant to the last, is calling the men every horrible name she can think of. ‘You dogs! You savage, ignorant, flea-bitten dogs of hell! You child-murderers! You poisonous snakes!’
One of the men uses the butt of his rifle to knock her out, and she crumples to the floor.
The men grab you and Zayd by the throats and begin to drag you from the room. You kick and fight the man who has hold of you, but he is so much bigger – you may as well try to punch a boulder.
Zayd is gasping: ‘Leave the boy! He’s done nothing wrong! It’s me you came for. Just leave him be!’
Rahama is pleading too: ‘Stop! Put him down! Take me instead!’
The men don’t reply, and when Rahama staggers after them, they push her to the ground.
The men bind and gag you and Zayd and toss you both into the back of their van, like goats to be slaughtered. You bump away from the ruin, past Lido Beach and through Mogadishu.
An hour later, you are rattling through the desert, your limbs crying out to be loosed from the ropes.
Where are they taking us? you wonder. Why haven’t they killed us yet?
You wonder if you are being taken away for training, to end up on the frontlines of an unwinnable battle, like the boys from Bright Dream Orphanage did before you. Then suddenly – wham!
The car hits a pothole and veers off the road. The world flips, and ground and sky whirl past the windows. Your body ricochets off the floor, windows, car seats, and the ceiling. Up is down, and down is up. Smashed glass and rocks fly through the air; your body is being thumped from every direction.
With a final crunch and a hiss, the car comes to a standstill. You are buried underneath the body of one of the al-Shabaab men. His blood is trickling down onto you. The other man, the driver, is slumped over the steering wheel, not moving.
As you struggle to get free, you see Zayd sit up. Still gagged, he manages to free himself from the ropes that bind him. He climbs out of a jagged hole in the van’s smashed window and begins to stumble away from the wreckage.
‘Zayd!’ you try to shout. ‘Zayd, I’m alive! Help me!’ You are still gagged, but you make enough of a noise that he turns and notices you.
He starts to hobble back towards the vehicle to save you. He stretches out a hand. Just at that moment, you hear a boom as the petrol tank ignites. A ball of flame throws Zayd backwards.
You struggle against the heavy man on top of you, but the flames and the smoke are too much, and you collapse.
You feel as though your soul is rising out of your body so that you can look down on the bonfire wreckage where your body lies burning. Zayd staggers away from the scene. You saved his life, but his chances of survival as a man with broken bones in the middle of the desert are slim.
Your soul seems to rise even higher, and you can see the city of Mogadishu. You can even see the ruined theatre by the sea, where two women sit crying. Your Aunty Rahama has revived the lime lady; next she will struggle home despite the bullet wound in her leg, determined to find out what happened to you and to investigate the mystery of Bright Dream Orphanage.
You float away from the earth, the coastline of Somalia now coming into view, like a silver thread on the edge of a ragged skirt. You can still see the orange spot where the car burns in the desert. It’s just a pinprick of brilliant light.
Then you are gone.
To return to your last choice and try again, go to scene 1.
No, you reason. Even with the element of surprise, an attack could never work. You’ve lived in a war zone your whole life – you’ve seen gunfights and dead bodies – and it’s made you very realistic about the chances of a thirteen-year-old boy against two fully
