I hear gun fire, and run through the front door of our home. I see many men in dark green clothing shooting at the people of my village.  Keza, the young girl who lives next door, comes running by, but before she can reach her home a bullet rips through her chest, spraying blood on the dirt and clay walls that made up her home, and throwing her now lifeless body to the ground.  Everything goes silent, and all I can see is young Keza’s body in front of me; laying on the ground with her eyes open, yet no life left in them.  I stare at her for what feels like hours but could only be seconds, because I continue to be vaguely aware of the waves of bullets that continue to fly around me. 
Suddenly I am hit with a force that knocks me to the ground, and I am thrown back into the reality of what’s going on around me.  I roll over to see Ntwali, my husband and Keza’s brother.  He has tackled me to the ground and when I look up I see why.  There is a bullet hole in the wall where my head was just seconds ago.
“Come.  I must get you out of Maison before they can get you,” Ntwali pulls me to my feet, but puts his hand on my head to keep it lowered as he pulls me around the corner of my home, and into the tall grass behind it.
We start to run, but before we can get very far I hear a blood curdling scream coming from behind us.  It is not the sound of the scream that prompts me to stop, but what comes from the scream: “Mutoni!” My name.
Ntwali shakes his head.  He knows me.  He knows I cannot just leave my friends and family there to die alone.  I pull away from his hand and start running back to my village. 
Before I run out of the grass, I am pulled to the ground.  It is Ntwali again, “If we are going to do this I want to make sure there is at least a chance you leave here alive.  So you follow my lead.”
I nod, and we turn to look at the village.  I immediately find the owner of the scream that brought us back.  It was Gasore, my younger brother.  But we were too late for him.  The men in green have already killed him.  He is laying face down, but I can see where the bullet left the back of his head.  I remember years ago when that head was smooth, not yet with hair, and I helped to raise him.  I remember teaching him the ways of our people.  I remember saying goodbye to him when he was to live with another family so that he could learn from men, because our father had died in battle.  I turn away from him and look for anyone else I love. 
There are bodies everywhere.  Mostly men, but on the outskirts of the village where people were trying to escape, there are women’s and children’s bodies too.  I see a crowd on the opposite side of the village from us.  The men in green have surrounded the rest of my village and are pushing them towards the temple.
“They are going to lock them into the temple and burn it,” Ntwali says.  He keeps looking at the scene unfolding in front of us.  His entire body is stiff, like a lion watching its prey, but holding back for the perfect moment. 
Suddenly he gets up and runs behind the closest house.  There are weapons there, but nothing that will oppose a gun.  He grabs the hache (much like an ax, but sharper and swifter), and moves to the side of the house to see the men in green again. When nobody is looking, he runs back to me.
“Come, Mutoni, we must hurry,” he runs further into the grass and I follow him.  We start to make a circle around the village.  We are far enough in the grass that I can just barely see the men closing the doors to the temple.
We come around the back of the temple and Ntwali hands me the hache, “Stay here.”
“Would not think of going anywhere else,” I say as he runs to the side of the temple and slowly slides towards the front, hugging the wall as he moves.
I hear a lot of cheering from the men and Ntwali watches them for a few minutes.  While he is at the front of the temple I try not to listen to the screaming and crying coming from inside the temple.  Coming from my people.
Soon Ntwali returns to me and says, “They set the temple on fire.  Most of the men are leaving…,” Ntwali lowers his eyes, “but they have taken ten of our boys with them.  It is to train them to be in their army.  If we ever see them again they will be fighting against us.  Not for us.”
My chest feels heavy.  I have taken care of almost every child in this village.  And now one by one they are being ripped away from my grasp.  I look back to Ntwali, “What else?”
“They have only left four men here to make sure nobody escaped the temple.  They are heavily armed and there is no way into the front of the temple,” he looks back to the temple.  Flames coming from it are now licking at the sky.  Wanting to spread and devour more and more.  Everything it can reach.  Much like the men who set it loose, it only wishes death and destruction in this world.
“Ntwali, you cannot fight your way to the doors with just this hache.  They will kill you before you even get close enough to have a chance,” I put my hand on his arm, “Thank you for returning with me… but I do not know what else we can do for our people.”
He looks at me and shakes his head, “I understand I cannot fight my way to our people, that was never my plan.  I chose the hache because I am going to try to break into the back wall of the temple and have our people escape with us through the grasses.”
I had not thought of this.  He was right to hold me back before. I could not do this without him.  I nod and we both make our way to the back of the temple. 
He begins to chop away at the wood.  This is the only building in our entire village made of wood.  As wood begins to fall away from the small hole Ntwali is creating I pull at the rest of the wood and it begins to fall away. 
Ntwali stops and looks around the corner of the temple, “The guards are still at the front of the temple.”
We now have a good size hole, but when I look inside everyone is at the front trying to get out.  I glance at Ntwali who is watching around the corner, and I climb through the hole into the temple.
The moment I am inside the air thickens and it becomes hard to breathe.  I begin tapping people and pointing towards the hole.  In the middle of crowd I find my mother and younger sister and push them towards the hole.  Person by person, section by section, the temple clears and I am the only one left inside.
I look for anyone left inside and when I see nobody I leave through the same hole I came in.  Ntwali is the one who helps me out and when I look at him his eyes are as threatening as the fire, “Do not ever do anything like that again, Mutoni.”
I nod and he pulls me into the grasses again.  I can see where others were running through the grass to escape.
As we are running I think of my mother and sister and how thankful I am we went back for them. They are safe and I can breathe and focus on getting Ntwali and myself to saftey now. 
But in our final run through the tall grass there is a shot and Ntwali releases my hand.  He falls to the ground at my feet with blood pouring from his chest.
“No, no, Ntwali, hold on, please,” I kneel down next to him and grab his hand.
He pushes me away and says, “Go. Now.” I look up to see the men in green coming towards us and Ntwali pushes me again before his chest goes down one last time and his eyes close.
I stand back up and run.  Did saving most of the people I love just cause me to lose the person I love most?