Dreaming for freedom

Chapter 3

We crept along the tunnel silently, our path lit up by my candle. I shuddered at the sight of those cold, black walls surrounding the prison we call our home. I really wanted to meet the world again so, driven by my own selfish needs, I lead them on. 

" Assalamualaikum Sarah, Yasmine, Nadia, Karima, Basma, " it was Rahma, the one other girl my age at thirteen. Thing is she liked to keep to herself, tend to her siblings and help out Ms Kaur. She looked surprised to see us all together.

" Where are you all going? " She glances at us once more, then at the candle, probably thinking we're rich.

Yasmine's eyes lit up at the sight of her, she really admires Dr Kaur and would do anything to help her out.

No, no, I already knew she was going to tag along.

Even though Nadia loves weasling information from people she's really good at keeping secrets but really bad at pretending there isn't a secret.

" Nowhere of your concern. " Nadia said airily wagged her fingers," Now why don't you hurry on home and let's keep our meeting a secret. "

She really does have a weird way of making people feel important when they're not . . .

Rahma's eyes shone with curiosity and I knew I'd have to bring her along or she'd probably go nuts.

" Shut up Nadi, " I said a little sharper than I meant, then added more softly," She can come along if she has to. "

Yasmine jumped with excitement and immediately sidled towards her, nattering on about where we were going.

I ignored Rahma's squeals of delight, Karima's sighing and Nadia's face-palming and tried zoning out on Basma huffs over 'terrible clothing '. . . But she was impossible to zone out - 

" Shut UP! " I mutter loudly," We're almost there and are going to attract - "

attention

We were going near the most risky part of the journey, the 'town square', where adults have meetings that are strictly children free. Those 'meetings' are crucial to our survival and if anyone uninvited hears them we could all perish.

But obviously it was too late and adults swiveled around to our general direction. Karima blew out the candle and we froze, with bated breath. A man with a lantern whispered something to a collegue and raced towards us. The lantern lit up our faces.

" Karima! " A voice that I remembered vaguely yelled. Yaccoub . . . Yaccoub's friend! " Yasmine, Sarah, Nadia, Basma and Rahma! "

There was nothing left to do. There was no point in going back and getting severe tellings-off. Might as well go into the blissful world then face reality and it's consequences. They might not even know we went outside because only one anonymous person ( unincluding me ) knows the exit to this place so that he/she can collect the food/drink/stuff we need every month, the old one we all came through was blocked so the English didn't get  in and a new one was built for our survival. I found out by chance as I was trying to snoop by the town square a few years back and found a huge parcel filled with food, drinks and candles. I did some investigating and found that some some of the black wall was an optical illusion and it led to a gunky alleyway.

The others raced after me through the endless darkness until I paused because I couldn't here the larger footsteps echoing on the walls of the tunnel like I did before. I lit the candle.

" What happened? " Karima whispered.

Basma looked uncertain," I - I don't think we should go on Sarah! "