Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey From the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games Read Online Free

With each passing day the place stunk worse and worse.
    Some changes began to take place around me though. The strong boys, who started out as captives like me, became more and more like the soldiers who brought us here. The way they walked, the way they talked, and the way they looked at the young and weak became indistinguishable from the soldiers outside the hut. I could tell many of these boys liked the idea of becoming rebel soldiers. The guards did not have to separate us each morning. These boys were up waiting to go out and train and shoot.
    My three angels were not like that. They went outside for the training just like all the rest, but it was just an act.
    For others, though, it was not an act. The transformation for these boys was nearly complete. Soon they would be soldiers, ready to go off and fight. The question now was, when their training was complete, what would become of the boys left behind?
    What would they do with me?

THREE

Escaping with the Angels
    Y ou’re going to see your mom again.”
    “What?” I nearly shouted.
    “Shh, not so loud,” one of my three teenage friends said. “You can’t tell anyone.” He looked around the room. Most of the boys had settled down for the night, although one or two were up walking around. “This is our secret, okay, Lopepe?”
    “I won’t say a word.”
    My friend gave me a look.
    “No, really. I know I talk a lot, but I won’t say anything. I promise.”
    “Good. You won’t have to keep the secret for long,” he said with a grin. “Come here.” He motioned for me to come between the three of them. “Sleep over here between us tonight.”
    “Okay,” I said. Since we slept on the floor, one spot was about the same as any other. By now, I was used to sleeping on the cold floor.
    However, on this night, I was so excited I could hardly go to sleep. I’m going to see my mom again! It felt as though I had not seen her in years, when in reality only three weeks had passed since the soldiers invaded our church service. It won’t be much longer! I told myself over and over. The more I thought about home, the more excited I became and the harder it was for me to sleep.
    Because I was six years old, I did not think to ask the obvious. Even at six, I should have asked how I was going to get to see her again. How did not matter. My friends, my three angels, told me I was going to see her, and that was good enough for me.
    My eyes finally grew heavy and I slipped off to sleep. I awoke to someone shaking me. I opened my eyes and started to speak, but my angels held fingers over their mouths. “Shh, don’t say a word,” one whispered so softly I could hardly hear him. He motioned for me to stand. I did what I was told. No one else in the hut stirred. The air was full of the sounds of deep breathing as all the boys slept very soundly.
    Even though several boys had died during the past three weeks, we were still packed tightly in the hut. Once everyone lay down, there was barely room to move. That did not stop my three angels. The first stepped over a sleeping boy, gently placing his foot on the far side, and then he pulled himself over. He reached out his arms. The second boy picked me up and handed me across. The first boy set me down in the small sliver of space between the sleeping boys. The next one stepped over to us and then climbed over the next sleeping boy. They passed me across and repeated the process again and again toward the door.
    Over the next ten or fifteen minutes, we worked our way across the room. Once we reached the door, we stopped dead still. My three friends leaned with their ears toward the door and outside wall. After what felt like an eternity, one nodded toward another. He reached over and opened the door ever so slightly. Normally, any time the door moved so much as an inch, it whined with a loud creak. Not on this night. Real angels were with us. God kept the door from creaking.
    One of my friends poked his head out the door for