She was almost holding her breath

Stiff as stone

Trying to make sense of it all

Was this always their plan

Were they plotting on a double cross the entire time

Were the traps the obstacle course

Would they really hurt her

It didn't make sense

She waited for hours before deciding to move

She took off her shirt and tied a broken branch to her belt loop

Using the rope she swings to another tree and another until she was closer to the ground and could jump down

She starts making her way through the trees as the sun sets

She starts smelling fire

She follows the smell until she can see the glow of a flame

There was a small clearing and several men sitting around a fire

She hears them talking but can only hear parts

tutampata

kata koo la mwanamke

Ipate

-

She recognized the word for woman

They were talking about her

And she knew kata meant cut

She started backing away slowly

She stepped on a branch and the men got quiet as one raised his hand

She wanted to cry

She looked around and found a rock and threw it as hard as she could away from her

Three of the men got up and ran in the direction of the noise

She stood still

Unsure what to do

She watched the remaining men

They weren't leaving

She started trying to back away again

She managed to stay quiet

But it was time for the bats to go searching for food and a colony had spotted her

It startled them and they went into a frenzy

She knew the men noticed but she could use the commotion to mask her noise

She ran

She had to decide if she would go back to the hut or just try to make it to another town

Then she realized

Her plane ticket was at the hut and even if she kept running

What was she going to do

Stay on the run in Africa with no resources

No

She had to be on time

She started running towards the hut

And in her head repeating the phrase

'arju 'an yarhamani allah wayukhalisani

Imagining the symbols

أرجو أن يرحمني الله ويخلصني

She wasn't going to die here

She was going to complete the mission

No matter what life threw at her

She would be ready

She would face it

She would conquer it