This one is for mariya0805
:)

F i f t y S e v e n

"A believer is not
bitten from
the same hole twice."

-Sahih Bukhari-

☆

Mashal

The flames of our fire died into ashes after consuming the little fuel we had. We were thrown into a climatic darkness for minutes when Malaika's story ended. It enveloped our expressions and I was thankful. I didn't want anyone to look at me as I glanced away at the open sky with utter disappointment. The darkness was short lived, however, Malaika pulled out a flash light to steal the darkness away.

"Now that you have tortured my brain for an hour long story, I will excuse myself to sleep." She flipped her hair and walked a few feet away from us.

"No wait I still haven't got all my answers" I protested.

"Then ask, your highness." She pulled out something from the inside pocket of her jacket and continued, "My ears work."

"Who are those men you just shot?" I asked keeping my eyes on the suspicious looking packet in her hand in case it was a bomb. "And how do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Ughhh...." She frowned, pulling the string hanging from the packet, she threw the packet on the ground. "That's another long story."

Sanan and I shared a glance and stepped back in an instant. We both had a feeling the thing was a hand grenade and that was enough to make us panic. The first thing I learnt at Alnihayya. 'Don't trust anyone, not even a dead person.'

"Seriously big man? I thought you were tougher than being scared of a bed." She laughed at Sanan and we watched with curious eyes as the previously compressed packet inflated into a mattress.

Sanan's face flushed red in embarrassment.
"I thought-"

"You thought I would keep a tiny bomb with me? Oh please! I have a reputation." She rolled her eyes. "If you ever find a bomb with me it won't be a hand grenade, it would be an atomic bomb."

I had a feeling Minahil and Malaika would make best friends.

Poor Sanan looked as if he had been told to solve the hardest quadratic equation in the history of mathematics. That too, without a calculator.
"Be careful what you make dua for next time." I whispered to him with mirth in my tone.

Malaika didn't quite seem to care that we were standing there staring at her because she casually got into bed and pulled up the sheets.
"Good night princes of Alnihayya. I promise I'll answer your queries tomorrow in sha Allah."
God. She spoke too fast to let me protest against her plan.
"And night night to you too big man," she winked at Sanan leaving the guy feeling a bit uncomfortable. No, not a bit, very highly uncomfortable.

She had closed her eyes and I thought she won't speak again but defying me, she suddenly spoke again. "Oh and if those paralysed men wake up, then shoot them again." She said carelessly throwing the paralysis gun at Sanan who caught it before it hit him.

"Nice catch big man." She commented before finally shutting up for the day.

"What on earth does she eat?" I gasped. "Or maybe something from Mars."
I shook my head and looked back at Sanan only to find him blushing red.
"Seriously Sanan?"

"What?" He looked away shyly. Me raising my brow at him made him recompose himself. He cleared his throat. "Yeah you're right. She's so......arrogant."

"That's what losers call successful people." Malaika chuckled, shifting in her bed.
I couldn't help but stifle a grin. Sanan muttered something under his breath and walked off. Men can't win arguments from women.

Later that night Sanan decided to sleep near the two men shot by Malaika so that he could keep the rest of us safe in case they became conscious again. I went to lie down beside my husband. I wanted to sleep, I was extremely tired and even though my wounded leg had started healing, it still hurt no matter how much I tried to stay strong and ignore the pain.
Yet I couldn't sleep for I just stared at Zeyara intently. Even if I had gone through half of what he had to face, I don't think I would've been able to stay patient. I would've broken down and cried my eyes out at how unfortunate my life was. I would've started complaining to Allah just like I already did once.
I'm not saying Zeyara doesn't pray or isn't religious but due to his work he doesn't get much time to spend reading tafsir or Hadith books or listening to scholars unlike me. I have spent more time researching religion than him but I still could never obtain his level of sabr. That is a clear explanation of the Hadith that 'whoever seeks to be patient, Allah will give him patience.'
I couldn't be patient because I didn't seek it. Zeyara remained patient because he sought it.

"When this all ends, we will live together in a tiny house, not big because I don't want to clean a whole big house and we will have rows of flower pots in our backyard and we will put fake flowers in the pots so they never die. There will be kids in sha Allah......." I ended up flushing red while talking to my sleeping husband in the dark. My hands carelessly went up to his hair and I countinued. "They could have our curly hair and your sabr. I hope they don't have my anger though." I chuckled, "Marwa could teach them Arabic and you could teach them how to punch so they never get bullied at school and I'll make biryani in our pretty kitchen and you'll have to say it's delicious even if it's half burnt or else I'll beat you with a rolling pin and our fathers could live with us and become best friends and......."
I don't know for how long I continued imagining my happy place before I drifted off to dreamland.

☆

The paralysed men got their conscious back at fajr time so when they got up and screamed, it was like a free fajr alarm in the middle of the desert.
Before Sanan could shoot them or even wake up properly, one of them snatched the gun away from him and the other grabbed his arms, locking them together with some sort of a handcuff.

"What's going on?" Zeyara's meek voice asked as he tried to gather energy to sit up straight.
"Nothing zawji! It's not morning yet you can go back to sleep." I hushed a quick reply to him and ran for Sanan's aid.

The noise woke up Malaika as well and she let out colourful curses in various languages for the person responsible to wake her up so early. Then her eyes fell on the Alnihayya men and Sanan in their hands. She rushed out of bed, furious. "Leave the guy alone and fight someone of your level, you lowlifes!"

"Hey!" Sanan said while trying to fight off the men locking him. "I am of their level! I am even better than them!"

These two were being stupid and I needed to interfere and use wit rather than Malaika's curses and Sanan's protests.

"We are from Alnihayya. I am Naeem Ansar's daughter! What do you want from us?" My voice was strict and demanding.

They stopped in their tracts when they heard who I was and started analysing me to see if I was telling the truth.
"We have orders to kill Zeyara Suleiman." One of them answered back. "And Malaika Zaheer."

"How dare you talk about my death?! Your bloody ord-"

I had to block Malaika's mouth with my hand to shut her up and have a decent conversation.

"Yes but that guy is Sanan, not Zeyara so leave him!"
The two exchanged looks and paused for a second before releasing Sanan. Both of them looked young and unsure and I could use that to our advantage.

Sanan walked back to stand beside me and Malaika as soon as they let him go. "I saved you and your husband from terrorists. You saved me from Alnihayya. We're even now." He smiled at me and then glared at Malaika. "I'll see you once I'm done with them."

"Why? You're blind now? Can't see?"

I ignored their stupidity and focused on my conversation with the two Alnihayya men.

"Miss you have Zeyara Suleiman and Malaika Zaheer with you. Please give them in our custody." One said.

"Who gave you the order?" I asked sternly, using that senior leader power I had.

"The leaders-"

I shook my head. "You two gentlemen are mistaken. The order was to capture, not kill."

"But-"

"But what?" I tried to portray that I was furious through my tone. "I order you to escort us all back to where the rest of the leaders are! Would you dare defy my order? The daughter of Naeem Ansar and a senior leader."

Their tone was softer and scared now. "Mam I clearly remember the order was to kill Zeyara Suleiman on sight. It was an order straight from Naeem Ansar-"

I stood firm with a fake confidence. "The order is changed now. Escort us back or do you want me to tell my father you disobeyed?"

There was silence as the two stared at each other in confusion and contemplating what to do. My fake confidence and stern authoritative voice had worked and I was glad Sanan and Malaika kept their mouths shut and didn't ruin my plan.

"Okay ma'am. We have a vehicle but it's far from here." They finally surrendered.

I suppressed my smile and continued using the bossy tone of voice. "Well go and get it then. We will wait for you here. Don't make me wait for long! Understand?"

They nodded their heads obediently and turned around to walk back to their vehicle, their black Alnihayya uniforms highly contrasting to the sandy brown desert.

Once they were out of sight, Malaika threw her arms around me and almost squeezed the life out of my body.
"Princess Alnihayya you did it!" She squealed. "It's not that I couldn't do it but I thought I would give you a chance..."

"Yeah right. Thanks."
Definitely Minahil's long lost sister.

The two men came back within an hour in some sort of a black desert jeep with the red Alnihayya bird and golden cage printed on its bonnet. It was big enough to let Zeyara lie down comfortably while the rest of us sat. Poor Tufan only had the choice to follow the car or stay behind. Zeyara kept asking questions and all I could answer was that we are going back to Alnihayya. When he lost his strength, he fell asleep again to my content.

The two men in the front, one on the driver's seat and the other next to him while the rest of us were at the back.
"How long will it take to reach there and is it safe with all the bomb blasts happening?" I asked once we had settled. This was a question Malaika and Sanan had been nagging me to ask.

Before the men could reply, a familiar voice that I had once been very fond of, answered, "According to my calculations it will take us an hour and forty five minutes Miss Mashal. There won't be any bombings today since the founder revealed that he is alive and is the new leader of a free Palestine."

"Humna! I missed you." I blurted out in excitement, completely ignoring the grave situation we were in but a look of disbelief from Sanan caused me to become composed again. "I- I mean what? Does this mean the war has ended?"

"According to my calculations missing means to notice the loss or absence of someone. Therefore I missed you too. And yes, the war has ended."

Since Malaika was from Alnihayya so she was acquainted with Humna and it didn't seem strange to her. Sanan on the other hand whispered to me with a weird look on his face. "This car can talk?"

Humna heard the whisper and Sanan got the same lecture which I got when I first met Humna.

"I'm not a car. I'm Humna, the voice for all the Alnihayya tech." She said in her robotic voice. "I am not a human with feelings. I am a software program with highly technical encoded information which provides perpetual guidance and keeps-"

"And keeps talking until the person dies?" Sanan muttered in annoyance.

"No, until the person understands but since according to my calculations you sir have a tiny brain so I have to talk more to make you understand."

Sanan frowned and muttered unpleasant words under his breath while the rest of us including the two Alnihayya men laughed heartily at this.

I wanted to ask Malaika so much but I didn't want those Alnihayya men to hear us nor did I want to let Humna hear us. She might record the conversation.

I retorted to stay quiet during the journey and glance out of the window at the gusts of sandy wind that blew in the desert. Sanan had closed his eyes to nap while Malaika had busied herself with playing fruit ninja on her phone, which I realised was the same kind of phone Zeyara had and he never let me use it. Probably because the two of them used it for secret communication to find the radiation gun.

Every now and again I would shift my eyes from the golden sand to my husband to make sure he was alright. He was sleeping soundly but all the white bandages on his body had gone black. They needed to be replaced and Zeyara needed to be given hygienic hospital care. We were finally going to the city and he could be admitted to a hospital!

The first thing I knew I would do when I meet baba is to tell him everything that Malaika told me to end the misunderstanding.
I used to think either baba or Zeyara was wrong but now I know that neither of them is wrong, it was just a misunderstand. Once it's cleared, we could start our peaceful life together in sha Allah.

Since Humna had mentioned the war ended I was expecting there to be joy, celebrations and happiness all across Palestine because they finally got their freedom but contrary to that when the desert ended and we entered the city, there was nothing but destruction everywhere. The roads were deserted, not a single civilian to be seen, only armed Alnihayya guards patrolling everywhere. The city didn't even smell right. It smelled of gun powder and death.
Malaika wasn't surprised, she probably knew this already but Sanan and I stared in shock and disappointment. The whole city looked like an old abandoned ruin with grey and black being the only colours to be seen.

"W-what happened here?" I forced myself to ask even though I knew the answer.

"Miss that's how wars work." The guy who was driving answered humbly and I gulped.

"This was not how Zeyara and I planned it! We were the ones who won Kashf and we had the right to decide-"

"Yes Miss Mashal but Zeyara Suleiman became a traitor and you were no where to be found." Humna interfered, making me huff.
"No he isn't a traitor! That's a big misunderstanding!"

"That's what the founder told us and Alnihayya is loyal to its founder." The monotone answer came.

"Baba was mistaken!" I argued, "I'll tell him the truth when I see him in sha Allah."

The 'founder' as everyone called baba had his posters and banners hanging everywhere in the the city on the crumpled walls and decaying trees. Baba's picture was printed on the banners with the Alnihayya slogan written under it in red;
"F r e e d o m i s p r e c i o u s t h a n b l o o d."
Wherever my eyes travelled there were baba's pictures.

The car stopped abruptly and I looked ahead to see there was a huge black metal gate guarded by a number of Alnihayya soldiers. One of them came up to us and the driver had to show his ID card for verification before the gate was opened and they let us in.

There was a flood of people inside, noise and commotion as they chatted away, dull and sorrow faces, emotions scattered everywhere. Parents with kids, old men, women in every corner. The whole city had gathered inside. My eyes stared in bewilderment as the car was driven towards the back where other vehicles had been parked as well. I was confused and a bit scared too I'll admit. I was scared for Zeyara.

"What is this?" Sanan was the first to break the silence.

"The founder has called everyone to address them. This will be his first public address as the leader of Palestine." Humna said.

"Take us to the founder!" I ordered the two men who got out of the car and opened the doors for us to get out as well.

They looked at me as if I had asked them for their life. "We are just soldiers. We are not even allowed to enter his residence."

"But I'm his daughter!" I argued, "I want to see him."

"Only you can go miss but the rest can't. Especially not Zeyara or Malaika. They will be shot on sight.."

I glanced at Malaika, Sanan and then at my subconscious husband not knowing what to do. I had to see baba and end the misunderstanding.

"Hey you go ahead." Malaika smiled, her hand pressing my shoulder to comfort me. "I'll take your husband to medical care."
Her eyes were so warm and friendly that I felt like hugging her but I held myself back and didn't let my tone go soft.
"Do you have a medical section here?" I asked the two men.

"Yes on the right wing...."

"Take my friends there. Don't let anyone know who there are." I said, quickly taking off my abaya. All of them watched in surprise as I wrapped Zeyara in it so he couldn't be recognised from any angle. Malaika took the lead and wrapped the scarf which was previously hanging around her neck, on her head and covered her face with it too.
"Force a doctor at gun point if you have to but get Zeyara the care he deserves." I whispered in Malaika's ear and she gave a salute in return.

I gave one last glance at them and rushed off before fear could get over me and stop me.

☆

Next chapter might be the last one before the epilogue in sha Allah. Then I could start working on the editing process and publishing because my dad's getting impatient. It's kinda his dream to get my book published. :)

Can anyone guess the ending?

-Muskaan.