Terrorist Tale

“I don’t know what you’re so worried about.  It’s not like you have never ridden in an airplane before,” I said.

         “I know, but I am always afraid one of these days it’s going to crash or something”, said Larry.  Even though we are friends, Larry has to be one of the most cautious and easily frightened people I have ever met.  He won’t go in the water at the beach because he doesn’t want to be eaten by sharks and every time there is a thunder storm he stops what he is doing, even if we are in an important conference with Japan, and hides under the table or whatever he can find.

         “All I’m saying is that it’s highly unlikely that something would go wrong.”

         “Well I don’t like taking the chance.  I prefer traveling by car or boat because if you crash you have a better chance of surviving.”

         “It would take too long to take a boat and I want to be in and out of there as soon as possible.”

         “I don’t understand why you are in such a rush to leave China.  I hear there is a lot of stuff to do there.”

         “I have too much work to do at home and we are going on this trip on business only.”

         “You need to learn how to have a little fun.”

         “Whatever, I say we head over to the food court.  We have some time to kill.  Our flight doesn’t leave for another couple of hours.”

         “Agreed”

When we finally found some place to eat we had to wait in line for half an hour and by the time we finished our food it was time to head to our flight. We got there fifteen minutes before it was time to board the plane. We weren’t there for two minutes before the power went out.  The backup power generators kicked on but they didn’t last very long either.  Then we were left in total darkness.

         It was chaos from there on. There were screams and people yelling trying to figure out what was going on.  I’m pretty sure one of the screams was Larry’s.  The guards had all turned on their flashlights.  Then we heard the gun shots.  I dove for the floor.  The gun fire continued for a good ten minutes and I can tell you for a fact that that was the most scared I have ever been in my life. 

         About a minute after the gun fire had stopped I looked up and I couldn’t see anything.  The guards with the flashlights were gone.  Most of the screams had turned to dead silence.  I waited a few more seconds and then looked around for Larry.  I still couldn’t see anything so I whispered his name.  “Larry.”  There was no response.  “Larry,” I said again with more of a sense of urgency in my voice.  A few seconds later I hear him. 

“Corry, is that you?”

“Yea, over here,” I make out his figure crawling towards me.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“Yea, are you?”

“I think so, but I might need a change of pants.  What was that anyway?”

“I have no idea.  I know as much as you.  At first I thought it was just a power outage but then I heard the gunshots.”

“Do you think it could have been….Wait do you hear that?  Someone is coming.”  We waited in silence as the figure got closer.  It appeared he had a flashlight.  He shone it right next to us but luckily whoever it was didn’t see us and kept walking.  We waited a minute and then Larry broke the silence.

“I do not like this one bit, Corry.”

“Me either.”  Then we heard more footsteps.  This guy had a flashlight too and this time he shone it right on us.

“Boss, I found a couple,” the mysterious man said into what seemed to be a walky-talky.

We heard a muffled response.  “Bring them to me.”  The man then pulled out a gun and motioned for us to follow him.  Obviously, it would have been unwise to ignore his demand, so we got up and walked towards him.  He got behind us and made sure we kept going where he wanted us. 

Now that we could see from his flashlight, we saw something you never want to see in your life time.  People’s bodies were scattered across the floor dead.  It didn’t matter if they were women or children. Even the guards were dead.  I couldn’t understand why when the man saw us he didn’t shoot us too.          

When we got there it turned out to be the same place we ate at earlier.  The place had some lights up and I was able to see the man who I assumed to be in charge.  He had a kind of rugged look to him.  His hair was cut short and it was spiked.  His eyes were blood shot and a devious grin was spread across his face.  He was one of the scariest people I have ever seen.  He had two guards at his sides and they weren’t much of an improvement.

“Welcome,” he said, “I am sure you are wondering why you haven’t joined the others that are lying on the ground.  Well in order to keep the police from coming in, so I can get my business here done, I need hostages.  You two are one of the selected few that I have permitted to be hostages.  Resistance is futile. You will be punished and the result will be either pain or death. Are there any questions?”  We stood there like a rock and neither of us said a word.  “Good, then I expect no trouble. Take them to the others.”

The man who took us there escorted us to gate eight. That seemed to be where the other hostages were.  There were two guards at the entrance to the gate.  They appeared to have automatic weapons.  There were two other guards walking around keeping an eye on everybody.  However, they just had pistols.  The guard shoved us toward the group of people.  We sat in two seats at the center of the group.  I couldn’t stop thinking about what he meant by business. I hope it’s not going to be another 9-11.  That would be absolutely terrible. 

“Hello,” I hear from the man sitting next to me. I look over and he had a big smile on his face.

“Hello,” I say in return. “Why are you smiling?  We are being held captive.”

“Well you can’t let them get to you. You have to stay positive.”

“I’m just having a little trouble finding the good of the situation.”

“Aren’t we alive?”

“Yes.”

“Well then there’s a reason for you.”

“But who knows how long that will last.”

“They need us as their hostages.  Until they have no more use for us, we have nothing to worry about.”

“What’s your name?”

“You can call me Mr. Jones.  What about you?”

“I’m Corry Sims and this is my friend Jimmy Hathswell.”

“It is nice to meet the both of you.”  Jimmy still said nothing.

“Sorry,” I said, “he is a little out of it.”

“It’s understandable,” Mr. Jones said.” 

“What brought you to the airport on this tragic day?”

“I’m in the military on leave and I was going to fly home to see my family.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yea, where were you two going before all this?”

“We are business partners and we were going on a business trip to China.”

“Are you two going to stay for a while after you are done doing business.”

“I don’t think I will, but Jimmy might.  None of that matters anymore though.”

“Sure it does.”

“Not if we are stuck here.” I saw him look around to make sure nobody was listening.

“I think I might be able to get us out of here,” he whispered.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yea, but it is a little risky. I would need you to help.”

“What do you want us to do?”  This got Jimmy’s attention.

“Now don’t go telling him I’m going to risk my life trying to get out of here,” he said, “you can if you want, but I’m going to wait for the police.”

“That’s ok,” Mr. Jones said “I only need one of you to distract the guards.  I won’t do it until later tonight, so try to get some sleep. You might need it. It’s going to be a rough night, though.  Since the power is still out it’s going to get cold.”

I took his advice and dosed off for a couple hours.  I was awakened by Mr. Jones with a tap on the shoulder.  I forgot where I was for a second, but then it all came back to me.  At the entrance the two guards were talking to each other and there was only one of the guards that were walking around before was there and he was sleeping in a chair.  I did what I was told to do and started distracting the guards.

“Hey,” I said, I have to use the bathroom.”

“Someone else is already using it you will have to wait,” said one of the guards. Out of the corner of my eye I see Mr. Jones struggling with the previously sleeping guard and trying to keep him quiet as they fought.

“This is an outrage,” I yelled.  I have to go and you’re not going to stop me!”

“Now let’s not do something we are going to regret.”  At this point all eyes were on me.  Perfect timing too, because the guard that Mr. Jones was fighting was now unconscious and he had the gun.

Bang! Bang!

Both of the guards fell over dead.  Mr. Jones rushed over.

“We have to get these people out of here,” Mr. Jones said.

“I couldn’t agree more, but the guard said that there was someone in the bathroom.”

“Alright, take this gun and get these people out.  I will go and get the person that is in the bathroom.”

I did what he said and ran with the others following me all the way to the exit.  When we got out, the police rushed inside.  Some of them, however, made sure everyone was ok.  The chief made his way over to me.

“Is everyone out of there,” he asked.

“No,” I said, “There are two others in there.”

“Alright, we will make sure they make it out.”

“What were those terrorists planning to do?”

“We don’t know, but it couldn’t have been good.  Without you we might have found out.”

“I didn’t do all that much.  It was Mr. Jones that saved the day.”

“Well whoever it was, they should be proud.”

After that I found Jimmy.

“That was amazing,” he said.  “I can’t believe we made it out of there alive.”

“I can’t believe it either.  That Mr. Jones is quite the character.”

“I hope he makes it out ok.”  There was a moment of silence.

“Well I have changed my mind,” I said.

         “What do you mean?”

         “When we reschedule that trip I think I will make some time and stay there for a couple of days.”

         “Why?”

         “After all this I have realized that life is too short to pass up the little things.”