Among the five friends, only Rausin was single. The others were married and some had children. They were much older than Rausin, but they all respected him very much. Rausin was not only smarter than they were, but also wiser. They often came to him for advice even though he was only 23. He was actually a shy guy, especially among women and girls.

Rausin was also highly respected for his talent in Pencak (Martial Art). Young as he was, he already became a master and had apprentices, some even older than he was. Rausin still had a master though, a very old man who lived in a small hut not far from where he lived. It was said that the future of the Perguruan (Martial Art School) depended on Rausin. It was also said that Rausin most probably would replace the old master when he died.

When the VOC first settled in this area they were worried about the people from the Perguruan, and closed it down. The big wooden house that had been used to be the quarters were burnt and demolished. Unknown to them, the Perguruan still existed. They didn’t have place to gather, so they spread the martial art teaching in houses. Sometimes they learned the styles at night. The Perguruan became a closed and secret society that only trusted people could join.

Rausin and his friends were forced to live in low profile. Sometimes the people who hardly knew them very well considered them rather silly. This act was necessary to avoid VOC’s suspicion. However, the number of people who joined the secret Perguruan increased from time to time. By that time, their members consisted not only of people from Kampung Tebu, but also from neighboring village, Kampung Gula (Sugar Village) where the sugar factory was located.

Thus, they became the number one enemy of the VOC at the area. They robbed VOC’s carriages from Batavia that carried money or rice for Cornelius Janssen. The carriages going to Batavia that carried sugar from the neighboring village were often robbed too. The robbers wore black masks. They were very skilled and strong. They had killed many Dutch and officers. Cornelius Janssen suspected that they must have been apprentices of the old Perguruan, yet he could never even capture one to prove it.

Hearing about what happened in Batavia, made the five of them aware that the transportation of goods and money to and fro must had been delayed. Yet they realized that it had been two months since their successful robbery. The village people never expected anything from them, but lately they couldn’t even get rice for a descent meal. They felt that they were needed to do something.

It was decided then, that they would rob Cornelius Janssen’s warehouse as planned. The carriage robbery had to be pended until they heard more about the situation in Batavia.

As they walked out of the mosque they split up. Some went back to the plantation, some went back home. Rausin, Ardan and Rozak had to go back to the plantation where they were needed to cultivate the cane and stack them to be transported to the sugar factory in the neighboring village. They worked hard until almost dusk.

When finally Rausin arrived home, he was completely exhausted. His old mother had been waiting for him and welcomed him as he walked inside the house.

"Hello mother. Is everything all right?"

"Yes, Usin. Go wash yourself and I’ll prepare your food. You look awful."

"Thanks mother."

Ten minutes later he reappeared from the backside of the house with a much more refreshed look.

"Who carried the water from the river, Mother? I didn’t have time to do it yesterday, but our tempayan (water tank made of mud) is full."

"Oh it was Ali. He came by and asked if he could do anything for me while you were gone. He also brought some grass for our cow. Such a nice man."

Rausin smiled and started eating. His dinner consisted of steamed vegetables eaten with sambel (plundered red chilies) and steamed casava. All came from their small back yards. Their chicken had not laid eggs for the last 3 days. And their cow produced even less milk. She had given the milk to Rozak’s wife who needed it more than they did. She had 3 children to feed.

His mother smiled watching him eating. As his stomach was beginning to get full, he ate slower and realized that his mother didn’t eat anything. He stopped chewing and asked, "Why are you not eating, Mak (mother)?"

"Oh, I’m not hungry. You go on finish the meal, Usin."

Rausin stopped eating and quickly reached the glass of water on his right. He drank it quickly to clear his mouth and throat.

"Mak. This is the only thing left in our back yards, isn’t it?"

"Who said so? We…"

Rausin rose from his seat and took another plate. He put it in front of her.

"Please, Mak. Eat now. I’ve had enough. I’m gonna do Shalat Maghrib (dusk prayer) and after that Shalat Isya (night prayer), then I’ll recite Qur’an, for awhile before going to bed. I promise you we’ll have something more to eat tomorrow. You just don’t worry about it, all right?"

He bent and kissed his mother’s forehead.

Mpok (Mrs.) Ati watched with teary eyes as her son walked to the back room to wash his feet before praying. The front room not only functioned as a living room, but also as dining room, and at night as Rausin’s bedroom. All that was in the room was a large bamboo divan. Three people could seat on it. The bamboo divan was commonly used as seating place, since the houses at that time usually didn’t have tiled floors.

Ten minutes later Rausin’s beautiful voice was heard reciting the words from the Qur’an.

Fung Yin Li opened her eyes slowly. She felt pain all over her body. At first she was confused of her surroundings, but slowly the memory returned. It was dark all over her and the killings seemed to have been stopped somehow. She slowly managed to get out of the thorny bushes although the action caused more cuts to her skin and tore more parts of her clothes.

Under the moonlight, she saw dead bodies were still on the streets. She walked quickly to the direction out of the city. For a few meters she could still hold her emotion, but after a few more meters she began to cry. She saw heads scattered on the streets, some she could recognized as her neighbors. She walked faster and faster avoiding more and more corpses, not noticing her surroundings. She was lucky that no Dutch officers were on guard on the outposts of the city walls.

The street was empty. Nobody seemed to want to go out after what happened today. When she reached the canal, she couldn’t stop her crying anymore. She ran away from the scenes and ran faster until she reached the city wall. The canal was full of corpses that if she wanted to she could cross to the other side by walking on top of them, without wetting her feet. She felt her feet sticky with blood from the corpses. She wished she could reach home soon and washed the stain away. She was on the brink of panic and ran faster.

When she reached her neighborhood, she was completely out of breath. She didn’t see a root from a tree on the ground in the darkness and stumbled in to the front porch of her aunt’s house.

A woman came out and saw her. She almost screamed but quickly covered her own mouth. She ran towards her and helped her up.

"Yin Li!! Thank God you’re alive!" She whispered the words, crying.

"Cing (Aunt) Hasnah ..."

It was her mother’s sister.

"Sshhhh! Don’t say a word. Let me look at you."

"No, Cing. I have to get back home. How’s mother?"

"No. No. No. You shouldn’t go back there."

Yin Li sat on the porch, feeling very tired and hungry.

"Why Cing? Is she allright?"

Hasnah didn’t answer her. She was crying now.

"Yin Li, I think you should go out of this place now. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Go south, my dear, go away for your life."

"Cing Hasnah, I can’t. If I go, who would take care of father in prison? I didn'’ get a chance to deliver him the food today. He must be very hungry by now."

"You… you… haven’t heard?" She asked in an awe.

"What Cing? What?"

"There are no more prisoners in the city hall for now, my child. They all.. they all have been executed this afternoon. All 500 of them."

Yin Li’s face became paler and she screamed, "NO! That can’t be. That’s not fair, he didn’t do anything. He had not been tried yet. NO!"

"Ssshhh. Be quite, Yin Li. Do you want to wake the whole neighborhood up?"

She sobbed and tried to restrain herself. She had felt weak after running but hearing the news made her feel even weaker. Yet, her confused mind suddenly focused back on her mother.

She rose without saying a word and started to walk back home. Hasnah tried to stop her but she shoved her away.

"Yin Li, listen to me, my dear. You have to get out of here now. Go as far away as you can, my child."

She heard her, but she kept on walking towards her house, which was located a few more meters from her aunt’s.

As she was closing on, she saw that the door to the house was wide open. There was no light from inside the house. She started running and went inside the house, calling her mother.

"Mother, mother, where are you?" She went quickly to the kitchen, guessing her way in the dark and then lit a candle.

She searched the bedroom and found it empty. She continued to the backside of the house and walked out to the side of the house, practically circling the area.

As she reached the side she saw in front of her the big mango tree. Something was dangling from its strong branch. Under the tree she saw a wooden bench lying on its side. She dropped the candle and ran as fast as she could. Once again she stumbled and fell to the ground. Her right elbow knocked a rock and bled. She didn’t notice it and rose and ran again. Her mind focused only on the thing dangling from the mango tree.

She stopped a few steps away from the tree and walked slowly under the dangling body. She was crying and breathing heavily. She looked up and circled the body to see the face. The face was dark under the shadows of the tree, but she could see its eyes opened and the tongue dangled out of the mouth.

The strength that was only a little left in her suddenly sucked out as she recognized the body as her mother’s. She fell to the ground, sitting under the dangling body, sobbing and shaking her head. She screamed and punched the ground in front of her over and over again. She didn’t care if anybody would hear her. She would be happy if someone came out and kill her that instant. Her mother must have had killed herself after hearing about the execution. She must have had thought that her daughter had been killed on the street. Her head throbbing with pain and she felt her eyes hot and everything around her started spinning. Once again, she fainted and fell on the ground.

Rausin woke from his sleep. He quietly walked to the backside of the house and washed his face. He didn’t want to wake his mother so he tiptoed out of the house, grabbing his blade on the way out.

Once outside the house he ran to the meeting point and quickly wore his black mask. A few seconds later he heard his friends coming. In the next five minutes approximately 15 masked men already gathered. Each of them spoken out a pass word as they arrived.

Rausin gave some orders in whispers and then they were split in 3 directions. Each group consisted of five men.

Rausin and his men ran fast towards the warehouse that belonged to Meneer (Mr.) Janssen. They closed in from the north and lied down on the grown. The tall grass and some bushes hid them from the view of the guards. The other groups would take from the east and west. The warehouse had received some stuff delivered from Batavia three days ago. Among them were sacks of rice. For two nights the hired guards around the warehouse were on full alert. They were armed with pistols and guns. It was impossible to penetrate and each time they had to fall back. But tonight, they seemed a little off guard. Rausin could see that there were fewer guards tonight. Only around 8 to 10 men, and they all looked tired and sleepy.

Rausin smiled behind his mask and nodded to his friends. The five of them were responsible to take off the guards, while their 10 friends would charged the warehouse and robbed ten sacks of rice. Each sack weighed exactly 100 kilograms. So it would be hard for them to fight with the burden on their shoulders. That was the reason why Rausin’s group consisted of the best fighters, they were responsible for the success of the robbery.

He signaled his men to move and they simultaneously charged. Rausin held some stones in his left hand while his right hand held the shining golok (blade). He aimed the stone to one man and threw it with his inner strength. The stone landed on the neck and the man fell in pain. Before he could move any further, he thrusted his golok to his chest. He moved on to the nearest guard and swung his golok across his chest that killed him instantly. In the corner of his eye Rausin saw a movement from his right side. He quickly threw another stone and successfully preventing a guard from shooting one of his friends. The stone hit his temple rendered him unconscious. One of the masked fighters who stood close by finished the job by sticking his golok to the falling guard’s stomach. The fight happened too quickly for the guards to realize. They had barely enough time to defend themselves. Rausin’s four fighters were truly experienced fighters that the guards mostly got killed before they could even let out a warning scream.

The ten men had carried ten sacks and ran out of the place towards the woods. Rausin signaled his men to retreat and they disappeared in the dark as if they were carried away by the wind.

Fung Yin Li opened her eyes slowly. She was still lying on the ground under the mango tree, under her mother’s dead body. She sat and looked up at her mother with an empty stare. She began to cry. She looked down at the ground, sobbing. Suddenly she laughed. She laughed hard, but the tears kept falling down her cheeks. She tried to focus her mind in vain. Everything around her stopped and she felt like sitting in an empty room. A nice, cozy and bright empty room. All she can hear was the voice of her aunt saying, "Go south, my dear. Go away for your life."

Yin Li murmured the words. Her face showed no emotion, her eyes stared to her front. She stood up and started walking away from the tree. She walked towards the road.

"Go south. . Go south.." She kept murmuring.

Yin Li walked and walked and walked for hours, all the way to the south. She murmured the words over and over again. She walked passed rice fields, plantations, and further and further south. The moon seemed to have pity on her. It shined so brightly as if showing her the way.

"Go south. . . Got to go south . . . "

They had finished distributing the rice to the neighborhood. One cup for one head. So they just pour the rice in a corner of the front door to every house in Kampung Tebu according to the number of people living in it. At dawn when they opened the door they would find it and quickly hide it away for safety. When the rice still remained, they shared it with Kampung Gula their neighbor. Usually 10 sacks of rice were enough for both Kampung. The number of people had not changed too many for the past two years.

Rausin, Ali and Rozak who lived close by each other returned home from Kampung Gula together. They sneaked carefully among the houses as not to cause suspicions. When they were close to the cane plantation, they had to walk under the shadows of the trees because the moon was shining so brightly. Rausin signaled them to walk inside the plantation among the cane to avoid the moonshine.

Ali was a short, dynamic man. He liked to joke very much. Rausin liked him for his fresh jokes. Sometimes, when he had so many things in his mind, he came to Ali just to listen to him talking. Ali had been married for years but had no children. Twice he had tried to marry another woman to get offspring, but his wife had threatened to kill him if he left her for another woman. One night she had run after him with a blade on her hand. She said she was going to cut his manhood in half if she found him fooling around with Mirah, a lovely young girl who lived near them. Rausin remembered that night very well, for he was the one who helped solving the fights between them. All ended nicely when it was proven that there had been nothing between Ali and Mirah. Furthermore, Mirah was known to have her eyes on Rausin.

Rozak on the other hand was the opposite. He was a big man, much bigger than Rausin. He had a very thick mustache that he kept very neatly. His beard and mustache were his pride. He had two wives and 3 children. He was expecting the fourth by the end of this month.

As they began taking the path to the cane plantation, Ali grabbed Rausin’s clothes and pointed to the middle of the road.

"Usin, stop. Look there!" He whispered.