The Maneaters of the Rail

I was driving along the Mombasa road to, well, Mombasa. It was like 1 am and there was not much traffic on the road as people here preferred not to travel at night for the sake of security and other errant drivers. I was nearing the part of the road where a sign notified me as I am reaching the infamous Maneaters location. It isn’t as dramatic as you would think as where it actually happened is like a kilometer of the road but still.

Tourists really liked coming here to try and re-live the past, but for me that was neither here nor there as my ancestors were closer to Lake Victoria than here. The lunatic express as they called it was as it was named. Many lives were lost in the name of the imperial greed. Indians were brought in from India as slaves which was ironic as my people were take as slaves elsewhere. The road was quiet, and I was making good progress and I mulled over work I was needed for in the coast.

As I passed the bridge, I kept thinking of how many people died at the hands of 2 lions who whisked them from their sleeping mats. My lights began to flicker as I drove on and I found that odd for a few minutes and I slowed down incase an animal decided now was the time to jump on to the road. At first it was erratic but then they would switch off completely and then turn on brighter than before only to dim again, I was puzzled as the engine did not seem to have the same issue. My radio then began to blare out also and I was startled by it. I quickly switch the radio off and focused on the lights, thinking of stopping I was reminded that this patch of road commonly has many animals roaming around at night and would not be safe for me to stand outside alone.

I slowed even further to like 30 km to figure out what to do and that is when I heard it. The loudest roar I have ever heard in my life, it came from everywhere as I was stunned by the volume and looked around for the source. I switched off my lights for a few seconds and turned them on but this time making sure they were in full beam. At first there was nothing but then they lit up and I looked further to see if some lion had wandered onto the road or something.

After a few meters on the road I saw them, 2 glowing orbs that were like 6-7 feet off the ground. I could make them out as they were the only thing that was shinning back. There was no moon out tonight which made my surroundings even darker. I was transfixed on them, the closer I got the larger they seem to get, I was scared to the point of freezing. My foot was not on the accelerator, so my car was slowing further, and I was totally transfixed on the orbs. My lights were not as bright as you would think as this car was old, but those orbs were terrifying.

The orbs held steady as my car moved closer and when I saw the figure is when the trance shattered, it was a lion. Larger than any I have ever seen in my life and it looked mean, it roared again and I jerked enough to step on the accelerator. The figure was a good 20 meters from the road and to this day I am still wondering how I managed to see them when they were so far from the road. As I passed the figure it turned to my car and began to run and I pressed pushed my car to move faster, I was shaking and jumping on my seat and staring wildly at the mirror as the figure seemed to get closer. It roared again and I was crying to all the gods I could think of to help me from this thing. It felt like the car was moving slowly along a river as the figure was getting closer and I started to looking around and saw another pair coming from the other side.

I screamed and pushed the accelerator even harder in hopes to moving faster, tears were flowing from my eyes and all I could think of is what was happening. They both roared and I screamed, it was then like a flash the car jerked and again and bolted forward. Immediately I released the pressure and shifted to neutral lest I loose control of the car and tried to keep it steady. Forgetting what was happening outside I tried my best to get my self into control and the car would follow. Once that was done I shifted into gear and moved on. I knew that if stopped those things would get me. Looking at the mirrors I saw nothing only dust from my tires. I rolled down my mirrors and popped my head out to hear and apart from the wind there was nothing. After I returned my focus on the road I hear them again, this time they were not alone. I heard the wailing cries of the victims after the roar and my blood ran cold and tears started to flow again. I as scared out of my mind and could not think of anything but move.

Many days after my experience I refused to travel at night on that road again and swore that if it were the case I would take the train. I decided to read a little about what happened and what I read did not really tell me about that I saw. One thing though was that many of the rail road workers were Indian and they were the ones who really bore the brunt of the lion attacks. How many died I have no idea and don’t want to know for there may have been even more as time went by.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A walk to a dinner feast

Image
I walked a set path on the park I knew so well, there on the path was bench with a stranger sitting with a newspaper. I wondered what the paper said as this stranger was engrossed so deeply, I walked past him and he did not even notice me. I walked on and on to the sunset and path of the breeze so sweet. I began to wonder who that stranger was, dressed in a black suite and a top hat out of place. I could not remember his face as it was a blur every time I tried to remember, all I could think of was a smooth face of a stone I once had as I child. I walked to the end of the path that led to a junction and a decision to go either right or left, I will go left today. That would take me to the little café that sat across a road that met the end, the trees swayed me on and there were a few birds that called out. I smelt the sweet scent of autumn in the air and the clouds above coloured themselves from blue to orange as the sunset. A colour that reminded me of a Van Gogh painting but of a d...
Read more

Old streak of Blood and Silver

Image
  “Is the camera recording?” spoke Archer to the camera man behind him. Isabella, who was the recording, held up her left hand with the thumbs up sign. The equipment was much lighter than what she used when they started, this gave her more room to move and follow Archer through their investigations. I was following both through their shoots, being the back up to Isabella I would normally be carrying the extra batteries and infrared camera for shots that needed them. We were just a 3-person crew going to places few would try to, this time round it was an abandoned silver mine. The gold ones did not have much to show, and they were mostly covered by the famous ghost investigators, with also the hope of finding some undiscovered gold along the way. We chose this one because the owner reached out to us, he mentioned that there was a ghostly lamp that would move through the tunnels. I followed Archer into another tunnel; he would shine his light around to check if the tunnel was s...
Read more

I cannot bleed anymore

Image
  The flies in my room kept buzzing around forcing me to wake up and run behind them, trying to swat them or just plain drive them out. The room I was given sits near the dumpster hence all the shitty flies. How they keep coming in despite me closing all the windows and is beyond me but there they are, this motel is for junkies who are too zonked out realise the number of them. The stink within the room is just as unbearable, the toilet hasn’t been cleaned since the day it was first used. I was waiting for Alex, and he was really late, and just to add misery the bed was a WMD on its own. I saw bed bugs galore when I first lifted the sheet that covered the mattress and then the stains from times unknown. I sat on the only thing I could clean, a simple wooden chair, and waited for the call. The phone rang and I picked it before the second ring, the voice on the other end was a woman. “Hello, are you Alex’s family?” I looked at the number and it was Alex’s number but who was this ...
Read more