Life-Line

Stranger

The pair sat in the truck, swaying with the contours of the road. Rahim clung to his fathers shirt, rubbing the worn material between his fingers. They had been in the back of this truck for 4 hours, and they had still not arrived. A thick fog clung to the dirt track, obscuring anything 5 meters out of the truck. Worried, the father kept a strict eye on the bags, as many of the strangers had been eyeing them up too often for his liking. After a tense silence that seemed to last for hours, a stranger suddenly made a grab for a piece of Rahim's clothing. The father reached out and grabbed the woman's wrist. She cried out, and dropped the shirt she had taken. A pair of pleading eyes looked at the father in terror, as Rahim looked on, confused. Rahim's father took the shirt from the floor and shoved the woman to the ground, where she lay whimpering. Onlookers turned away, and any other attempt at theft was ruled out. The hulking figure that was Rahim's father sank down, and embraced Rahim, who had a distressed look painted across his face, and they sank back into a sleep-like trance.

They were awoken hours later by the screeching of brakes. they had stopped in a warehouse, peeling paint plastering the walls. A man bearing an AK-47 motioned for all of them to get out the truck. Filing out, Rahim stared fearfully at the gun. The man saw this and for Rahim's own benefit, turned away. They stood in a huddle, murmurs carrying through the crowd like wildfire. 'What is happening Papa?' asked Rahim, eyes wide and fearful. The father looked down reassuringly, 'Nothing, just making sure we are alright to go on the boat, that's all' however a haunted look danced across his eyes, and Rahim new something was wrong. One by one people were taken into a back room, where they would walk back out with a look of relief. Occasionally, you heard a muffled cry, and no-one would come back out.