***** Vol.4 Chap.8 News break *****
Feeling accomplished and seeing that the day was over, JB stopped at a nearby restaurant for a decent meal before heading home. There, while waiting for her meal, a CNN news bulletin came on:
Breaking news. This is Joseph Berterop, CNN correspondent, reporting in Qetidghe, South Africa.
A nearby village in the southern tip of Qetidghe was demolished by a marauding gang of gorillas in a matter of hours.
We have obtained an eyewitness story from a sole survivor who was so horrified and terrified that he could barely speak to tell this reporter what happened.
According to him, all the villagers were tending the cornfields in the morning, working, singing, and enjoying one another’s company. They had always been a peaceful tribe with very little quarrels among them. They farmed together, cooked together, sang together, and did not quarrel with neighboring tribes at all.
This morning as they were working on the fields, suddenly a mob of gorillas came upon them. At first, the gorillas circled them. Then, in unison, as if on cue, the gorillas rampaged the fields and ransacked their homes.
Some villagers tried to stop the gorillas and boxed in one of the gorillas with pitchforks and a temporary barricade. But the gorilla shrieked and became extremely violent. The more the gorilla was provoked, the more the gorilla became increasingly violent…
‘Oh, it was horrible, horrible. I was afraid to look. I hid inside a hay bale all this time.’
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Then, as if with super strength, the caged gorilla picked up a fallen branch, leaped up, and hacked at the villagers. A few of the villagers were injured by the sheer force of the blows landed on them. The entire group of villagers could do nothing to just one of the gorillas. Then the rest of the gorillas came and join in…
‘Oh, it was awful, awful. I covered my eyes most of the time and stuffed my hat in my mouth so I could not make any sound.’
It did not take long before the gorillas totally subdued all the villagers. In just a matter of minutes, all the villagers were struck multiple times by the branches and were bleeding profusely on the ground. Then the gorillas shouted with joy and jumped up and down in a victory dance. After a short while, a whistle was blown and the gorillas retreated into the mountains.
‘I dared not move for the longest time, as I was not sure if they would be back again. Eventually, I crawled out of the haystack and ran to the next village as fast as I could. After I had reported the incident to the men in the next village, I took some of them back to the villages. But there was nothing more that could be done for any of the villagers…’
‘Oh, this was dreadful, shocking, outrageous…’
Some men from the next village went to the mountains but found no trace of the gorillas, except some unusual tire tracks. Unfortunately, it was hard to trace the tire tracks because of the wind and the light rain at the time. People seldom went to that part of the mountains.
‘Oh, this was deplorable, wicked.’
How could something like that happen to a peaceful tribe of villagers? Now the entire tribe was gone. All their huts were demolished. It was like a ghost town there now. It was doubtful if anyone wanted to rebuild the village again.
‘Oh, I am so sad.’
‘I could still remember their joyful singing every night. I could still remember their smiles, their hospitality, their open palms….’
‘Oooooo…’
There you have it, a first-hand report from a single survivor of the village. This is Joseph Berterop reporting for CNN.”
The food came. JB had no more stomach for the food after hearing the news report. She asked the server to put the food into a to-go box and headed home. She was visually disturbed by the news report and sincerely hoped that her research could one day rid the world of violence. The tragedy helped her resolve to apply as much as possible her research to accomplish peace and harmony in this world that she lived in.