The Flame Grows

Chapter 1

          You wake up to the sound of screaming and yelling, your mother is shaking you, telling you to get up.As you step outside, you are shocked by the scene unfolding in your eyes, the whole town is in chaos. You see a group of jets with the US flag painted onto the wings of the jets, you quickly realize that the US is bombing your town. 

         You hear calls for help, as you approach it, there is a large explosion that throws you to the floor. Your life flashes before your eyes, your ears are ringing, and when you get up you find yourself covered in blood, and then you see what has happen, your house was destroyed, its in flames, the roof caved in, limbs and debris litter the floor. 

You go inside the smoldering ruin of your home to find you mother crushed under the roof, she is dead, then you here moaning, its your 5 year old sister, she looks fine at first glance, then you see the piece of wood in her stomach. You start shaking her to wake up she looks at you, her brown hair covered in blood and ash,  

"Help... me",she says, struggling with each word. She then coughs blood all over your face and dies. 

               You try shake your sister, begging her to wake up, your face becomes hot and tears begin rolling down your face.As you shake you sister, knowing that it has no effect, your sisters eyes open and looks directly at you,"get up Sayid,get up", she keeps repeating this over and over again until you find your self on your cot. A unknown figure is shaking you, " wake up Sayid, wake up", you then realize that it is your friend Ali, he becomes relieved after seeing your eyes open. 

             " Are you okay, you nearly woke up everyone else", you look around seeing the others getting up from there cots and looking at me . " Its okay everybody, go back to sleep I got this", nobody needed to tell them twice, they all went back onto there cots and where out in seconds. " Now that's over" Ali mumbled to himself, " What happened, you where screaming and thrashing the whole night". " I dreamt that was in the village, when it was getting bombed" you say in sad tone. "Oh I see" Ali's smile turns into a frown, " Dont worry, we will get our revenge soon" he says has a grin crept up his face. He wanders back to his cot and you fall back to sleep. You look up at the ceiling and you start thinking about your life and how it became that way. 

             Its been two years since your family was killed when the US bombed your village, which was the location of the compound of a ISIS leader,  many thought was the reason of the airstrike. Your father died a year before the attacks, which caused your mother to become extremely depressed, you used to live in a small village in Syria. 

        You where satisfied with life and lived happily, you had good grades and you where learning English, then everything changed when ISIS came. They brought war and death, and the fighting caused many to leave Syria. Then a ISIS leader by the name of Abdul Mohammad came and transformed the old compound at the edge of town into his own home and barracks for his solders.

       The whole village was taken over by ISIS, and shortly afterwards was when the village was bombed. After the bombing of the village, you had nothing, most of the population either left or where dead, and you had no money, home, or family. After two years of struggling to survive, you find a job as a clerk at a market stall. You where treated like shit by boss and customers, and you where paid next to nothing. 

          Your life then turned around when you where approached by a group of ISIS fighters, you ask them what they want. But what one of them says next makes your heart skip a beat. 

" We know who you are and your story Sayid, so are you ready to join us"

 You look up at him, confused, " Who are you , and what do you want" you respond to him.

         He smiles at you and says " Oh you'll learn everything, as long as you join us he says, and my names Bahir " You smile as you realize this is the only chance of avenging the death of your family, so you humbly agree, and you are taken to a nearby ISIS training camp.

         For the next two months you are in training, you learn how to shoot, throw a grenade, operate several types of weapons such as a ak47, RPG, and you learn how to shoot a machine gun that is mounted on top of a technical. 

          "Focus, imagine your in a actual battle, every move you make is a life or death situation" your trainer hollers at you, teaching the recruits hand to hand combat.

           After completing your training, you are sent to a large ceremony where the other recruits line up and you see Abdul Mohammad walk up onto the stage and gives a big speech about how we are the salvation of Islam, and all those who oppose us will be crushed.  He then tells us to go to the debriefing room as he has a important task for all the recruits. 

            While you are walking to the debriefing room, Ali catches up with you, you became friends with him during  training, he was a refuge whose family was killed in Syria. 

             "What do you think the special mission is?"

              " I not sure , but it seemed important, lets hope we are ready" you reply.

               " Will be ready,  lets just hurry up so we don't be late". When you get there, you wait for 2 hours for Abdul Mohammed to come. When he does arrive, he informs the mission, " You all have trained for this moment now we will test your loyalty, tomorrow, all of you will attack the US embassy".

                 You hear the sirens blaring, and you open your eyes and bolt out of the room your heart is racing. You know whats happening, its time to attack the embassy.