The Life of Koru, Chapter 25
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"Hukunta" meant punishment and it was a well-deserved name. No other organization in the Black Empire punished the koru so harshly.
They were very well-organized and for them it was no problem to steal "the Stinker". In fact, the entire chain gang of about 50 koru slaves was kidnapped by no more than five members of the Hukunta coming that night in three cars.
The koru sensed the danger immediately after they saw these hooded Black Lords with really ominous weapons telling them "Good morning, piggies!" Some koru started to shout "Suh Chief! Suh Jared!" but their voices couldn't be heard.
Soon enough, the Black Lords filled the reservoir of the old truck with gasoline. Then a gang member called High Jack climbed inside the cabin, used a counterfeit key to turn on the truck and started driving.
"YEEHAW! Piggy truck! Piggy truck on the road!" he yelled.
During this time, another member called Electrofreak stood on top of the cage where the koru were. He stuck an electric prod ready to electrocute anyone inside and ordered:
"Start yoinking, pigs!"
All the slaves in the truck, including Mulo started yoinking. They were very afraid for their lives, they didn't know where they were taken, the only thing they were sure of was that Massa and the overseers would not approve of this. It was all that mattered. Massa and the overseers knew best what was good for the koru and without their guidance, the koru felt like sheep without a shepherd, headed for the slaughterhouse.
It also didn't help that Electrofreak was laughing like a real maniac while inflicting pain in the most sadistic manner...
And then there was the old truck... The slaves had never seen it move, unless they had to pull it. They had never seen it move when they had their asses in it. It felt strange, unbearable and nauseating, especially because the worn-out rattling body of the truck transformed the entire journey into a bumpy ballet. The slaves jostled in the cage like beans in a can, rolling over each other and pissing themselves in fear over each other. Several times, the driver High Jack almost lost control of the vehicle, because he was not used to driving such a shabby old truck, but he prevented an accident just in time. He was visibly excited by his capture and he kept honking the horn and flashing the lights just to express his excitement.
They reached a forest clearing where almost a hundred of Hukunta members where gathered for a sort of ceremony. The meeting was presided by a strange member called Witchdoctor, wearing an African mask. As soon as he saw the old truck stopping in front of them, he said:
"What do I see? It is a big truck filled with those lowly creatures that we call koru! Take them out! I want them all to come here by the fire! Bow down to the Hukunta, koru! Bow low!"
The koru left the cage in an ordered line and they didn't even dare to walk upright! No, they lowered their bodies and walked hunched over, their hands touching the ground as if they were four-legged animals, and when they reached the fire they assumed the obeying monkey position.
"Koru! Lower than filth! Lower than monkey piss!" Witchdoctor said. "I want them all lynched by the end of this ceremony, but not before they are properly beaten up to send a message to the slave owners!"
Two Hukunta members called Winner and Baseball Cap were using bats to hit every koru ass that was presented to them. Another Hukunta member called Triggered pressed a gun to each koru's head and asked him:
"Your name, boy?"
"Mulo, suh!", "Sleaze, suh!", each slave answered.
Someone wrote these names down, because Witchdoctor wanted to stick them over each slave after they were hanged.
One of the slaves that didn't answer was Junkhead and this was because he had muted himself from so much zirikum -- he had lost the ability to speak. Triggered didn't hesitate to shoot the gun right there and terminate this miserable slave's life. Contrary to popular belief, Junkhead did have a brain and it was scattered on the ground that night.
The koru were trembling in fear after hearing their chain gang mate put to death in such a callous manner.
"This is what you get if you don't follow the orders!" Witchdoctor said.
Beaten to a pulp, his nose broken and swollen, his lower lip torn, his eye blackened, Mulo sucked the cock of Winner, while Baseball Cap was fucking him in the ass.
"This is your last fuck, boy, so enjoy it!" said Winner, slapping Mulo's face loudly to cheer him up.
But how could Mulo enjoy the fuck when he knew that soon enough he would be killed?
When the fuck was finished, he was given a few iron nails and a hammer.
"You take this hammer and these nails and start beating them into your head, koru!"
It was a frequent punishment for a slave, but to Mulo it was something new.
He didn't know if he would still be alive after this. His hands trembled as he took the hammer and tried holding the nail on top of his head. His hesitation angered Winner so much that he said:
"Fucking good-for-nothing slave! Let me show you how to do it!"
He took the hammer and the nail and hit it hard, until the nail penetrated the skull of the slave. He repeated the procedure with the other nails.
Mulo was totally shocked and humiliated. He now had nails in his skull! Nails!
All around him, he heard the screams and lamentations of other slaves who were tortured in similar ways. It was all a gigantic nightmare from which Mulo couldn't wake up.
He was taken to a tree to have his back whipped. His back was whipped mercilessly by a Hukunta member called Scourge, whose whip had sharp bits of lead at the tip.
Then Mulo's neck was tied to a tree branch and his hands where tied behind his back. The way he was tied, Mulo could still touch the earth with the tip of his toes. The problem was that the rope was drenched in an adhesive liquid that made it shorten more and more as the liquid solidified, so Mulo was condemned to die there strangled after three or four hours of struggle.
A Hukunta member placed a sticky note with his name, "Mulo", and a pig face emoji above him, on the branch.
Mulo dangled there from the noose using his large toes to keep the pressure away from his neck. It was difficult and he was already fighting to breathe.
Next to him, he saw Sleaze hanging from a branch in a similar situation.
"What we'se do now, `bossuh'?" Sleaze said with bitter irony.
"We'se pray..." Mulo said.
Meanwhile, at the overseers' outpost Chief Tariq, Sir Jared, Sir Cane and Miss Faraja had a heated discussion about what to do next:
"We cannot announce the police!" Sir Jared said. "If Mazi or Reginald find out that we lost an entire chain gang we can say goodbye to our promotions! As for you Tariq, you are the Chief here, so they will punish you more! They will ask you to quit!"
"I am close to retirement anyway!" Chief Tariq said.
"And how do you want to retire? In glory or covered in shame for being a lousy overseer? Let me also remind you that your record is not very clean and the police will probably ask questions about it!"
"So what do you propose, Jared?" Sir Cane said. "Do you want us to go out there and put our lives in danger fighting the Hukunta?"
"They are not so dangerous!" Miss Faraja said. "Most of them wouldn't hurt a Black citizen. It is koru slaves they are after. I know them better, they belong to the elite, many of them!"
"They are in large number and we are only four!" Chief Tariq protested.
"Yes, and we also have our two slaves Smasher and Peon!" Sir Jared said.
"Oh! I forgot about them!" Chief Tariq said. "They are good boys! They should come with us to take care of any problem!"
Smasher and Peon were summoned immediately from the forge. They learned about the situation and received wooden clubs for the defense of the Black overseers.
"Do not use your weapons to hit a Black Lord unprovoked, do you understand me, slaves? It is a serious offense and is punishable by death, is it clear? You only hit a Black Lord if they are trying to hit us!"
"Yessuh!" Smasher and Peon said.
Some hounds were released from the kennels. They smelled the place where the Stinker once stood, then started to growl and indicated the way they had to go.
"Alright!" Chief Tariq said. "Let's go rescue those apes!"