A few hours earlier…
“Now can you finally admit we’re lost?” said Aleena sitting upright in the passenger seat of the car, her eyes wide open looking through the windshield. All she could see was the same winding, uneven dirt road that they had been on for hours and the same set of dark trees and shrubbery passing by in the darkness like shadows, as if she was on a film set. She swiped at her long, dark hair for the millionth time to keep it aside from her vision, only for it to return to its position a few seconds later. The car shook as it travelled on the uneven road making her slightly sick.
“We’re not lost, okay,” replied Daniyal, frustrated as he began to fiddle with the radio to put yet another rock remix of a religious song, which most of them had grown frustrated with. “I told you, I’ve been here before.”
“You’ve been saying that for hours, Daniyal,” said Hina from the back, just as frustrated as her friend. “Why did you have to get away from the highway?”
“Trust me,” said Daniyal. “When you see the view I found last month, you’ll forget everything about us being lost.”
“Aha! So we are lost? You admit it,” Aleena jumped in.
“What? No, I didn’t…”
“No, you said it!” said Hina, sitting up. “Just admit it!”
“Relax, Hina,” said Faizan, her boyfriend, sitting next to her in the middle seat. “We’ll find the highway, don’t worry.”
Hina slapped away his arm as he made a move to comfort her. “Don’t worry?! We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere! Don’t tell me not to worry!”
Faizan sighed as she moved away from him to look outside the side window. Normally, he would have persisted and tried to win her back but he was starting to lose patience with her and had stopped trying. She seemed to get mad at him over anything nowadays. He had tried so many times to spend some quality time with her in Karachi but she had made sure that they had not been alone by making the excuse that she wanted to spend time with Aleena. It had frustrated Faizan a lot. Where had everything gone wrong?
He turned to his right and looked towards Khalid, an old friend of his, who was laying down in his seat looking around groggily. He clearly wanted to sleep but the worrying situation they were in meant he was too stressed to do so. Faizan knew there was no point asking him for advice because he knew he would repeat the same thing he always did, that it’s haram to have a girlfriend and that this is God’s way of leading him to the straight path. What bullshit.
Faizan sat awkwardly in the middle seat, with his hands crossed over, as Aleena and Daniyal continued to argue at regular intervals in the front. The music, the sense of dread from their being lost and the intense feelings of self-pity were all jousting in his mind and making it hurt severely. Why was she acting this way? Does she not love me? Are we even going to make it home?
Home is where the heart is, sang the radio.
God, I’m so done with this music.
He looked towards Hina and could not help admiring her. Even in the dark, her immaculate pale skin reflected the moonlight that was on her side and her green contacts gleamed, making her look ferocious with her furrowed eyebrows. The sexual fantasies he had with her began playing in his head. This only served to confuse the thoughts racing in his mind, because now he felt all extremes of emotions for her, including horniness. Maybe that’s what love is.
He watched as her eyes opened wide in surprise and she sat up, bringing him back to reality. She was looking very fixated at something and he followed her gaze.
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“Oh my god, are those buildings over there?” she asked.
“Where?” they all asked in unison. Faizan felt Khalid sit up for the first time since they had gotten lost. He was straining his neck to the side to look past Faizan’s bushy curly hair to where Hina was indicating.
“Over there, do you see that? There’s a light there and… I think I see some buildings there too. Is that a village?”
Daniyal frowned. “We would have seen a sign board or something if there was a village here. Besides, I don’t remember any being around here.”
“Oh, please, as if you know anything about where we are right now-” muttered Aleena.
“Guys, please. Don’t start arguing again, we need to stay calm,” cut in Faizan. “Just stay positive. Everything will be-”
He was cut off by the sound of the engine sputtering and the car slowing down. Daniyal let out a cry of frustration and slammed his fist on the horn.
“You were saying?” said Hina turning to him and glaring. There was venom in her eyes. Faizan understood why she would be annoyed but that wasn’t a look of annoyance. It was pure hate.
They stopped the car in the middle of the road (as if there would be anyone passing by would need space) and Daniyal propped up the bonnet and examined the engine with Khalid. The rest of them were standing near the trunk, where Aleena was taking inventory of whatever they had left. Hina was avoiding Faizan’s gaze.
“We really need to stock up on stuff soon. We barely have any water left and all we have is snacks for eating,” informed Aleena.
“Maybe we can do that at the village,” suggested Hina. “It can’t be that far.”
“Let’s hope the guys manage to get the car working.”
“At least they’re being helpful…” The subtle dig was not lost on Faizan as he clenched his fist, doing his best to control the surge of anger he felt. It was not enough.
“What the fuck is your problem with me?” he blurted out suddenly surprising both of the girls.
It took a moment for Hina to get her voice back but she retaliated with ferocity. “With me?! You’re the one who's been saying bullshit throughout the whole car ride. Why can’t you just shut the fuck up for once?”
Aleena tried to stop them from arguing by trying to tell Faizan to stop, since she knew well that Hina was too stubborn to stop. All this ended up in him being even more angry at her.
“Why don’t you tell her to stop for once?” he demanded.
She sighed and moved away from them, and was glad when Daniyal returned, making them both stop as they turned to him for some good news. He was looking between both of them awkwardly, trying to decide if he should say something about the argument but decided he was too tired to care.
“The car’s throttle is kind of fucked up but Khalid and I managed to get it to work somewhat. This means we can drive but not at more than 40 so we really do need to find a mechanic.”
“What about the village there?” said Hina.
Daniyal thought for a moment as he looked towards the village buildings and then to his phone to check for signals. “Yeah, I think we should check the village out at least. The car needs to get serviced, and we all need to get some rest too. We’ve been in the car for way too long.”
“Do you think it will be safe?” asked Aleena. “I don’t like the idea of us staying in some strange place.”
“It will be fine, don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll be willing to help us out for a fee. We’ll be careful,” said Daniyal, moving towards the front door. “Alright, let’s get moving. Back to the car.
Hina put a reassuring shoulder around Aleena, who smiled at her as they both got inside the car. Faizan felt a pang of jealousy which he quickly put away. He wished Hina would do the same with him, even just a fraction of the same affection she had for her friend. This time Faizan sat at the window seat, with Aleena in the middle and Hina next to her. He made sure that he was looking away from his girlfriend at all times.
The car trundled at a slow pace as the engine rattled making the car shake, clearly not happy about having to operate with the throttle in such bad shape. He regretted not sitting in the front when he saw Aleena comforting Hina in a bid to distract her. He clenched his fist and tried his best to stay calm. It worked this time.
As they continued following the road towards the light in the village, there started appearing small abandoned structures and fields alongside the dark green forest signalling the start of the village outskirts. Before long, they were quietly moving in the narrow village streets between the mud-brick buildings. They did not see a single soul in the darkness save for some mangy stray dogs and lizards slinking here and there.
“Who do we even ask for help here?” asked Aleena quietly. “It looks like everyone’s asleep.”
“Maybe not everyone,” said Hina pointing at the light. The light turned out to be a window in one of the few two storey buildings in the village. “Maybe we could ask them.”
“It’s a big house too,” said Daniyal. “It means the owner must be rich and must have some ties to the city. He might know how we could get some help.”
Daniyal led the car towards the house, the car engine growling softly but still not managing to cut through the silent dead of the night. All of them were quiet as they approached the house, no one daring to interrupt the silence. They eventually reached the front gate of the house, which had a small incline in front that made it barely possible for the car to be able to turn in the narrow street. No one made a move to get out until Daniyal hesitantly left the car. There was a small breeze outside that sent a chill down their spines. The smell of hay and manure could be smelt distinctly in the air, in addition to the smelly water in the open gutter streams running down the side.
Daniyal and Khalid made their way to the gate, looking for the bell with their phone flashlights, and pressed it before freezing in place. None of them knew what they were going to say. Faizan stood with Aleena and Hina, although he kept his back to his girlfriend, who did the same.
They stood frozen to their spots for what seemed like an eternity before they heard the various locks of the front door being opened one by one. This was followed by footsteps that slowly shuffled across the dusty floor to the gate, their breaths held in anticipation as they drew closer. Eventually, the small door in the gate creaked open and the first thing they saw was a glint.
Of a 12-gauge shotgun.