Paranoia ✓

VI: Rashad - Loss

Rashad was scared. Not only was his mother and sister recently killed, but now he was being dragged into a place he had never been to before with total and complete strangers who viewed him as an asset rather than as a human being. He knew what they wanted out of him. Mama would always tell him that these men meant trouble. But as of right now, these men were the only people willing to lend him a helping hand—even if the helping hand must be paid back with two hands and probably a foot or two.

The camp was in a valley shaded by the towering cliffs surrounding it. Water was drawn from a lagoon nearby in the mountains. The lagoon drew its source from a river the men roughly called, "Trickle-Down River" or the Trickle for short. The river sourced its water up in the mountains and the lagoon was the last spot it reached without evaporating in the heat. The Trickle used to reach the valley and stop at what's now a dusty crater. Rising temperatures evaporated what little water was left in the crater. Originally the settlement could count on the water being there at least during late fall and into early spring, a short period since Yemen never really had a winter. In reality they barely got away with three seasons. That has now been cut down to two—spring and summer, where the temperature varied from 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to 80 degrees in the cooler spring.

To retrieve the water from the lagoon, young children and women climbed the cliffs with buckets and came back down with water for the settlement of over 300 people. The children did this to train. It built endurance, dexterity and swiftness. The women did it as part of their task in maintaining the household and the family. Meanwhile, men either hunted whatever game was in the valley, developed weapons that could easily be concealed, and some instructed the children in education and trained them to become soldiers for Allah.

Rashad saw the places they called homes in the settlement. He already could begin making class distinctions. The best people got their homes carved into the cliffs, the peasants—well they lived in tents and some just slept out in the open. The hooded man led Rashad across the settlement. For a small village, where people should take note of any newcomers, few even acknowledged Rashad's existence. 

There were two reasons Rashad could think of to explain this lack of introduction. The first was the companion he was traveling with; Rashad feared the man, and although he was only 14, what teenagers usually fear also scares adults as well. This hooded man commanded respect. His brown robes seemed to be made of hardened wet sand. The wind made his robes crackle, like thunder itself was booming through the settlement. Rashad could see why no one would pull him away from a man who looked like a walking storm.

But then there was the other option, the option that scared him even more than the man next to him. The settlers refused to acknowledge him because they knew he would never become one of them. A young boy recruited from another village, like Rashad—well they didn't usually stick around long enough to make any friends. They are quickly trained and shipped off on an assignment—almost all of them never return—if they know what's good for them. Better to die for Allah then to return having disappointed Him.

So either the settlers fear the man he walks with or see him as a dead man walking already. Either way this appeared to be a solitary stay. Good, he thought. Rather be left alone then to have to deal with people right now. Yet deep down inside Rashad knew he needed comfort. After all, it was in search for solace that he took the hooded man's hand. He sought people to fill in for the family he had lost.

The hooded man stopped at a tent. He pried it open for Rashad to enter and followed behind him. Once inside he withdrew his hood and opened up his dark brown robe. Underneath Rashad saw a sling around his shoulder. He whipped the sling around and revealed an assault rifle, the AK-87. Rashad knew little about the gun other than it was the choice weapon for soldiers across the country.