The Hijack.

It was a great afternoon. We were at the Dubai airport enjoying our drinks. My family was having a good time while I had some kind of uneasiness in me. Mom told me to go to the washroom and freshen myself up. But I knew I was not tired, I had a gut feeling that there was something wrong with our trip to India.

I tried to tell it to my parents but they were too busy celebrating. I boarded the plane. I always had this nauseated feeling when the plane was about to take off. I felt a little dizzy and always had a plastic bag in my hand for emergencies. Mom would always be scared to go on a plane as she was scared that the plane would either crash or would be hijacked. She is a complete pessimist. My father on the other hand is a complete optimist. I don’t know how they get along, but they had managed that for 25 years. That was the reason we were going for a trip. It was their silver jubilee. I had no idea that the occasion would turn out to be so memorable for them, although in a bad way. We had made it half way when I became suspicious of two guys sitting beside me. They had these dark colored clothes and one of them lost his eye I guess and had a patch to cover it. I thought maybe we would be attacked by pirates but I dropped the idea quickly on realizing how stupid it was. Although it gave me a subject to giggle on, which actually helped me pass the time. I started reading a marvel comic, but from the corner of my eye I saw one of them make a sudden move towards the bathroom. I grew more suspicious. I kept reading the book. Then suddenly the lights went off and sounds of firing echoed through the compartment. I was thunder struck. Mom started screaming – ‘I knew THIS WOULD HAPPEN! That’s why I told you not to go by plane you optimist.’ I knew she was referring to dad. But dad stayed true to his optimism and shouted back at us that everything was going to be alright. I heard someone talk in an unknown language. Dad said it was Arabic. The terrorists asked anyone if they knew Arabic, in the somewhat broken English that they knew.

One guy raised his hand, but I found it foolish. He was like saying – ‘Here I am! Come and kill me! Anyways I hate this life and my kids!” The foolish person talked to the terrorists for a few minutes and then announced-‘This plane has been hijacked by the Samtha terrorists, and they are going to use it to get some hefty ransom.’ Then there was silence and then the Samtha head said something in Arabic which I could not understand, but the tone said it all, I knew he was going to do something bad. And then he fired his gun. I started checking in my body for any wounds, and that made my dad giggle. I saw the foolish man laying down in the bathroom, dead, shot in the head. I imagined myself in that place and got shivers. They all ordered us to stay down (In the little English they knew). They got into the pilot’s cabin and I heard a firing again. I thought that the pilot was shot and we would all die in a crash. But when the terrorists got out I saw a glimpse of the pilot and I took a breath of relief. Suddenly I saw a dead Samtha in the pilot’s cabin. I guess the pilot would have somehow killed him by his gun (pilots keep guns for their safety in Dubai). The terrorists were really pissed off. They could not kill the pilot as they would themselves die, and actually they could have, but that was the extreme option if govt. wouldn’t accept their deal. The terrorists raced through the compartment and reached the phone. They made some calls to the government, I guess. I knew that this news would be trending all over the news channels. The terrorists approached the pilot again. And by that time my dad was already giving a speech of bravery to all in a low voice. I warned dad, but I guess a lot of adrenaline was rushing through his veins. Everyone agreed with dad and they started making a plan on how to trap those terrorists. We all steadily blocked the way of the pilot door by the pantry cart. And then one of them took a fire extinguisher and the other one a knife. I guess the terrorists heard us and then they ran towards the door. The pantry cart was too heavy for one person to push, but three more men from the back started pushing it. It was only a second before the pantry cart was thrown.

The one with the fire extinguisher tried to hit one of them on the head, but missed by a large margin. The one with the knife made a slash towards the others face while he easily dodged that. They all attacked the two of the brave men and swatted them aside like mosquitoes. We all accepted our defeat and sat down. All the women started crying, while the babies screamed even louder. They fired some bullets to make them silent but they all were too scared. The first part of the plan was over. They all knew that now we wouldn’t try to rebel, but we had some tricks up our sleeves too!!

The pilot called the terrorists and announced that we were low on fuel. The terrorists were already pissed and the news made them even madder. They constantly had conversations on the phone but I knew they were regretting the decision of their hijacking the plane. And I guess the government was not giving them the required money, as each conversation grew more and more violent. It was time for the second and the last part of our plan. We secretly pushed a cushion inside a lady’s dress to make her look pregnant. My father gave a wink and I knew part 2 had started. The lady started screaming with all the babies in the compartment too! That made a lot of chaos. And while the Samtha were busy making the lady quiet and all the babies to shut up, we all were planning our next attack. My dad took a small yet sharp knife and the fire extinguisher person remained with his weapon, the knife person took a briefcase this time. The Samtha were all unprepared as they knew we wouldn’t dare to rebel once again and we attacked with our full force. I started throwing cups at them which mostly got swatted away. The Samtha gave a strong fight back and we were all astonished too. But we had the power of quantity which easily took over their quality. The briefcase guy charged with his briefcase into a terrorist while my dad threw a knife at his knee, injuring him. The fire extinguisher one sprayed it all over the compartment and we were all blind for a second but we knew the positions, we had planned it out. My dad threw his last knife and when the mist cleared it had got a head shot. We killed all of them with one injured. He was babbling all the time like he would take the revenge in after life or something. Although, we knew we would not be able to reach India as the fuel was running low. But we were proud that we died in honor not in cowardliness. Not every story has a happy ending….