I stepped outside into the scorching, dry, war zone; walking through is a daily hazard with constant gun shots, heart ripping cries and the smell of blood. As I walked I saw more and more people whom I recognise who are in the Al-Qaeda group. I scurried across to them with swiftly persistently looking all around so no one can see me. I greeted the Al-Qaeda group members with a rushed “assalamu alaikum,” while I still looked around.
A rough sack then surrounds my face, pitch blackness is suffocated the light that I saw before. They dragged me, not knowing where I was going since I had no senses, as I was in pitch black it was like I was on a roller coaster with my eyes closed. At long last the itchy, nasty sack was removed from my face. I turned to a group of men, looking at me as if I had killed their mothers.
“Ay, walk over to that man there; he is the leader of this gang… the Al-Qaeda gang,” a voice I heard from behind me, I was too scared to look who said it.
I gulped; hands were shaking with sweat on them, arms tensed right by my sides. I walked over to him, becoming paranoid I was continuously itching, scratching as I walked over. “This is the leader of the biggest gang I’m part of,” I was silently thinking to myself.
When I got over I was told to do a mission, a mission that would change my life for ever, in addition if I refused to do it I would get killed…
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“Abdul-Rashid, stop day dreaming and read out the Quran verse.” The teacher screeched at me while I was re-playing the mission in my head.
“Abdul-Rashid, what’s up with you, you’ve been acting weird all day,” my best friend Baahir whispered across to me in class. I just nodded my head and kept staring and day dreaming.
The whole day seemed to go past as a blur, all I could think about was the task I was set to do. This was like the last I was going to be on this planet, but I didn’t go out and enjoy myself; I focused on the task in hand getting my mentality right like a footballer before a match. Straight after school I marched to the center of town when it’s at its busiest time of the day, police looked at me making me edgy with the bomb in my hand, even though they looked at me normally. I was getting paranoid. Thinking people were shouting my name, people wanting to look in my bag and I kept thinking I could see my family. This task I was set to do was testing my inner- strength.
As I walked over to the busiest part of town, I was having flash back moments of the best bits of my life, going to school for the first time, playing for my cricket team etc. I then felt more or less half hearted about this and went over to where there weren’t as much people. My heart was beginning to pound against my chest, the sound of the sand and rocks against my feet was making me agitated, my eyes couldn’t stay focused on one thing, and I was looking all over the place like someone craving cannabis. The on going sound of shouting, cars, horns and animals in the market were distracting from the task in hand. My hands were shaking vigorously, constantly wiping my forehead constantly and figuring out how to set this bomb up.
The time was right, the bomb was ready, but was I ready?
I looked left, then right… then left then right, realizing this was the best time I pressed the detonator…
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“A bomb went off in the centre of Baghdad yesterday, killing one and injuring 25; this was a taster what the Al Qaeda gang is prepared to do,” the sound of the radio awoken me. Wait a second, sound, radio… I’M STILL ALIVE! I was ecstatic, I yet to live another day. I checked my body and I was still all in tact. My mum was beside me praying to Allah that I would wake up; my siblings’ eyes were beaming on me to see if I was still alive.
“Abdul-Rashid! Are you okay,” was the constant question in the room, but I felt so frail and exhausted I didn’t have the energy to answer back.
At the same time while I was sleeping, I got a pain gut feeling in my stomach, like I just got attacked by a stomach bug. I sighed exasperatedly.
I put my head in my hands and slowly rocked side to side. The more I thought about it, the more I felt isolated and in complete trouble. The problem was you see, I failed the task I was set to do! Consequently, realising my actions there was only one thing I could do and that was to go back to meet the leader of the Al Qaeda gang.
“Abdul- Rashid get back to bed straight away,” my mum bellows across to me, sounding concerned at the same time furious that I carried on walking. I stride over quickly to where the Al Qaeda gang stay, I walked as if I no one or nothing can hurt me. Walking straight threw the road as if I couldn’t get hurt, people around me could tell I was a man on a mission. When I reach the outside, I look through and gaze at the unappealing, hazardous looking alley way. I pluck up my courage and go threw to get the next bomb, and getting told what to do.
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Sweat is dripping down my forehead like a tropical waterfall; falling into my eyes, causing sudden twitches and rubbing of the eyes.