See The Light

Rahbulu opened his eyes uselessly into the pitch darkness. He blinked, struggling with the choking dust that covered him. With a clatter, he pulled his arms free of debris and did his best to wipe the thickened tears from his face.

After a moment to come to his senses, Rahbulu recovered his strength and began to rise to his feet. His back pressed against the jagged remains of a crumpled wall behind him as he rose. Quickly, his head encountered unseen tatters above, halting his ascent into an awkward, hunched position. With a quiet cough to clear his clenching throat, Rahbulu straightened as best he could and began to feel for a means of escape.

Rahbulu was a good soldier, in fact one of the best of the Raelae army. He served within the elite special forces unit, chartered to infiltrate and destroy enemy bases of command. His missions often took him into the most precarious conditions, but at this moment he did not know any of this.

Kokal stood up forcefully, slamming his head hard into an arbitrary piece of debris above.

“Kawl stichoah!” he shouted into the dark.

Kokal took a moment to gather himself, softly stroking the perimeter of the fresh sore atop his head. This man was also a soldier, but, unbeknownst to him, with the Konkae army. The Raelae and Konkae peoples were neighbors, living on opposing sides of the Raekonzu river. Each year, the rainy season carried nourishing soil into the fertile delta. And the Konkae and Raelae were forever at odds over who lay claim to this rich bounty.

“Is anyone here?” Kokal shouted aloud.

Rahbulu, upon hearing this, froze in his tracks. He instinctively assessed his position.

“Anyone at all, stichoah??” Kokal screamed again in exasperation.

Rahbulu’s fingers curled around the heavy walking stick he was carrying. With resolve, he deliberately struck it against the floor three times.

“Who is it?” Kokal responded, with a spooked uncertainty apparent in his voice.

“Help, please,” Rahbulu answered.

“Where are you?”

“Help, please.”

The Konkae and Raelae peoples shared a very similar language. One could almost be mistaken for the other, without knowing better. The differences were more akin to a willful regional dialect. And though it took a bit of concentration, the two could understand each other.

“Where are you?” Kokal continued to ask as he moved closer.

“Yes, I hear you,” Rahbulu repeated, his fingers clamped around his walking stick.

The two men continued to call out, one navigating the treacherous terrain with two arms outstretched and the other holding position with stick in hand. Both men’s eyes were wide, though not a hint of light was seen. Finally, the men’s forearms glanced each other, and both immediately surged into an instinctive embrace. They pulled each other in tightly, with the clasped forearms sandwiched between them.

“Gracious Father!” Kokal interjected.

“By His grace!” Rahbulu followed. Their voices rung with relief and joy, as they clung together for a brief moment.

“Now, what is your name?” Rahbulu asked, without the men releasing their shared grip.

Kokal paused and stuttered before returning the question. “What is yours?”

“I don’t know,” Rahbulu replied truthfully. The sigh in his voice finally broke the blissful mood as he continued, “I don’t know where this is either.”

“Yeah, I don’t remember.”

“Well, we need to get out of here,” Rahbulu said with frankness. “We need to find a light or a breeze. We need to listen for sounds from outside. We are caught in a collapse here and we have to work our way out.”

“Yeah,” Kokal acknowledged in full agreement.

“Up is the only way we can be sure of. Let’s go.”

Rahbulu took a natural lead and began climbing the wreckage. Kokal reflexively followed, maintaining a sense of close proximity to his partner in the pitch darkness. In this way, the men stumbled through the broken rubble in their mutual struggle for survival.

“I see light!” Kokal exclaimed.

“What?” Rahbulu shot back in astonishment.

The two men immediately switched direction as Kokal led the way. Rahbulu eagerly followed, straining to see the promised salvation for himself. The men wove through a cluttered path of crumbled obstacles. Each tenuous handhold and unforgiving footstep led closer to the glimmer of indirect sunshine ahead. But their frenetic progress soon halted. Yearning fingers groped cracked structure, yielding only the narrowest sliver of distant daylight. Both men feverishly scratched at the tiny crevasse, but their efforts were in vain. They quickly began to choke and wheeze from the exertion, as their efforts churned a retched cloud of dust.

Rahbulu finally raised his hand and placed it on Kokal’s shoulder.

“Stop. Stop. There is no exit here.”

The words took a moment to register.

“The air is still. There is no exit,” Rahbulu urged again.

Kokal coughed, and the excited tension in his muscles relaxed for a moment.

Rahbulu added a further assurance, “But we’re close. We will find the next opening.”

Kokal’s muscles tightened again as he angrily shouted back, “I am not going back in there!”

Rahbulu’s grasp of Kokal’s shoulders firmed. For the first time, the men realized that they saw each other, if only in vague shades of black.

“We are almost out. We are on the outer wall. We just have to stay cool and keep our bearings. And one of these cracks will be large enough for us to climb out.”

Kokal relaxed again, almost slumping. The wisdom of these words was undeniable.

With that, Rahbulu turned and resumed the trek into darkness with Kokal in tow.

The path was never easy. In their course along the outer wall, the men soon came upon a jumbled pile of rubble. The splintered shards of crushed beams wove a thicket of impassability. Without a word, both men knew their best option. They had to work their way through this obstacle, rather than risk venturing back into the disorienting depths of the broken building. Slowly, they threaded their bodies among the girders along an impromptu route.

Inch by inch and step by step, cautious progress was made. But then, with a vicious suddenness, their tenuous surroundings failed them. In a collapse triggered by their own shifting weight, the mass of devastated wreckage tumbled out from beneath them. Each man was left clinging to whatever he could.

“Where are you?” Rahbulu shouted into the returning silence. Through brute strength, he managed to hold himself in place with a gaping fissure now opened beneath his feet.

“Help!” Kokal’s familiar voice called out. “Help, please!”

Fueled by pure instinct, Rahbulu knew what he needed to do. Probing with his feet, he carefully began working his way along the mesh of dangling debris towards his fallen comrade.

After an ungraceful landing, Rahbulu found firm footing on the lower floor. From there, he began his search for Kokal.

“Where are you?”

“Here!”

The men reunited quickly, with Kokal’s legs found to be pinned in rubble. But with the aid of Rahbulu’s strength and presence of mind, both men were soon free again. And both were unhurt. The scene called for a rugged embrace before they resumed their march to escape. And quickly they were off again.

In what seemed a longer time than it was, Kokal again stopped.

“Wait! Wait! I feel air!” he shouted.

And after a momentary pause, Kokal continued. “Look!!!”

Again the men shot off in the new direction, with Kokal once again leading toward an intruding glimmer of day. But this time, the light entered through a large hole straight into the open air outside. The men feverishly scrambled toward the opening. They dodged a gauntlet of entangling wires, carpet shreds, twisted joists and shattered concrete, each difficult inch forward reaching closer and closer to freedom.

“I can feel the air!” Kokal hollered in excitement.

“I feel it too!” Rahbulu clamored back.

For the men, the daytime sun was intense. Kokal barely knew when it was that he finally broke free. As his eyes adjusted to the brilliance of the outdoors, he soon recognized a friendly sight. The insignia around him was familiar, even pleasing. His mind began to acclimate.

“Gracious Father!” he exclaimed. He rose to his feet and lifted his arms, rejoicing.

“By His grace!” Rahbulu cried out from right behind, as the men joined in common celebration of their lives saved.

But a bevy of foreign voices swarmed around them, “Raerae! Raerae!”

Then a sudden shot rang out.

Kokal’s sun-strained eyes instantly burst wide, staring into the flag of the Konkae people.

“Kawl Stichoah!!!”

Writings Page

Home