“But they—”
“They’re going to join the rebels.”
She falls silent. Her face doesn’t show any reaction and she doesn’t miss a step, but her eyes urge me to go on.
“I heard them a few minutes before they came to wake you up. They didn’t know I was there. They’ve always intended this. They want to try and get us to go with them. If we don’t go along, they’re going to… going to get rid of us.”
“I…” Her soft voice trails off. She glances up at their backs for a long moment before looking back at me. “Are you—?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
“What… what are we going to do?”
I start spitting out what I’ve been thinking all along. “Salman has a gun. I think they’re armed too. I don’t have anything and neither do you. If I ask Salman for the gun, it’ll look suspicious. I don’t think he’d even give it to me. We need to alert Salman without them finding out. But I think Faisal might be on to me.”
“What are you thinking?”
“We slip away when they’re not looking. We can lose them in the smog. You bandaged up Amaan’s leg. How quickly can he run?”
“He can do almost everything with it, but he can’t run at full speed. He barely escaped the soldiers earlier today.”
“Then all we need to do is somehow warn Salman.”
She takes a deep breath. It’s all starting to settle in her head now, and she’s handling it better than I thought she would. Finally, Fatima nods. The sweetness that is always in her voice is replaced with a determination I didn’t know she possessed. “I’ll get him away from them.”
“How?”
Through her eyes, I see her mind at work. “Your sack. It’s been bothering you all night. They all know it. Tell them you need someone to carry it. It won’t look suspicious, and they won’t offer. They haven’t yet. But Salman will.”
I nod after soaking in her words. “Okay.”
“Don’t do it yet.” She puts her hand on my arm. “Wait at least an hour. We just started moving, and it’d look suspicious if you were already tired.”
“How are we going to warm him when he’s taking my sack?”
“Leave that to me. You focus on selling it to them.”
“What if he doesn’t believe us?”
“He will.” Fatima looks straight ahead. “I know it.”
The hour passes uneasily. All I feel is the pounding of my heart as every second goes by. I can’t tell if my stomach is nervous or nauseated. Why do I want to throw up? The longer we go, the more Faisal and Amaan’s words sink into my soul. This isn’t a dream. They really are willing to kill us.
I don’t have a watch and can’t tell what time it is, but I know every step is another closer to the moment of truth. If I can get Salman to come back, we have a chance. But if they catch on… I don’t even want to think of what could happen then.
“Do it now, Zaid.”
Hearing Fatima’s whisper and feeling her gently pat my shoulder, I take a deep breath. The other three are still no more than five or six paces ahead of us. I’ve been playing this out for an hour now with every scenario, both the good and the bad, running circles in my head. Now it’s time. For a moment, I can’t speak. But then I find my courage.
“Salman!”
My voice is louder than I intend it to be, echoing down the darkened street. At least it gets their attention. He arrives at a gradual halt after a few more steps and turns back to me. So do the other two.
“I can’t feel my shoulders.” I keep my dry throat from cracking up, but I sell the weariness in my voice. “Could someone carry my sack for a little while?”
“We’ll stop soon, Zaid.”
“Please, Salman.”
“Can’t you toughen it out?” One of his hands annoyingly lands on his hip. “We’re almost there now.”
Keeping my eyes on Salman, I sense all of their gazes. My heart is trembling; however, I ignore the fear and cast away the doubt. I’ve got to finish this. We may not get another chance.
“No.” I sling the bag off of my shoulder and drop it onto the ground. It lands with a thud. “I’ve been carrying this the whole time, and now it’s somebody else’s turn.”
Letting out an aggravated grunt, he looks at Faisal and Amaan. Neither of them says anything. I don’t know why he expects them to offer any help. The moment is long, the silence uneasy. Finally, Salman glances back at me. “Fine.”
His eyes are daggers as he makes his way towards us. Faisal and Amaan are not looking away as they watch on in silence. If they catch a whiff of us telling him, this could end badly. What’s Fatima planning?
Coming to us, Salman stops and gives me a deadly stare. He bends over to pick the sack off of the ground. As he does, Fatima crouches down, acting as if she’s helping him lift it up. With Salman’s body in front of her, she’s out of view from the brothers.
“We need to get away from them.”
Hearing her faint whisper, Salman hesitates for a moment before looking at her face. Her words were so soft that he’s trying to figure out if he really heard them. After blinking several times, he looks at me, his expression no longer angry.
Salman nods.
“Let’s stop here.” Salman comes to a halt in front of a building. My gaze comes onto the wrecked store. Like every place we’ve seen, it’s been shot up, but this building is more damaged than any other we’ve stayed in yet. The windows have been blasted out and the building is riddled with bullets. Chunks of its walls lay scattered on the walkway and road.
“We still have some time left.” Faisal puts his hand on Salman’s shoulder, encouraging him to continue. “Keep moving.”
“It’s already starting to get light.”
“We need to cover more ground.”
“Zaid and Fatima are tired. I’m tired.” Salman is selling a mix of annoyance and weariness in his tone. He readjusts my sack and his. “We need to rest.”
“No—”
“Zaid, Fatima, and I are the ones who’ve been carrying the luggage,” Salman snaps. “Unless you’re about to offer to carry all our bags, we’re done for the night.”
For a moment, a disgusted expression washes over Faisal and I think he’s about to cock back his fist and strike Salman. He stares at Salman for a moment—too long of a moment. But he doesn’t make a move.
Salman takes a step towards the entrance, turning away from the brothers. As I come into his view, he sends me a quick wink. “Let’s go inside.”
Fatima and I follow Salman in without a word. As I pass the brothers, Amaan glances at Faisal. They’re hesitating. Only when Faisal nods do the two of them follow us in.
I step over a rugged block of debris to arrive at the store’s entrance. The front door is only hanging on one of its hinges. One touch too strong and it’ll topple over. I feel the two brothers only a few steps behind me. Is there a reason Faisal was so adamant about continuing on? Maybe they have a plan of their own.
This place was a butcher shop. It’s been ransacked. Nearly everything is broken or turned over, leaving it hardly recognizable. But I can make out the meat hooks hanging off of a line. Coming inside, Salman sets both sacks by his feet. Switching on his flashlight, he keeps it aimed at the floor as he turns around to look at Faisal and Amaan. “You guys check upstairs. I’ll look around this floor with Zaid and Fatima.”
“Chances are that if somebody’s here, they’ll be upstairs,” Faisal begins as he steps closer to Salman. “Can I borrow the gun?”
“You have a knife, don’t you?”
“What knife?”
“The one you’ve been wearing all night.”
After a long pause, Faisal reaches under his shirt and towards his waistline. His eyes suddenly change when he touches something. He pulls out the switchblade and pops out the blade. His gaze comes on to me. “That’s right. Forgot about that.”