The White Feather- A story of infinite worlds

The Hunters

It was nine in the night when Jamal reached his home. The work was too much today and as a result, he was late than usual. He got out of the car and was taken aback when he saw that the lights in his house were off. His wife must be angry and probably went to sleep. He expected to hear his wife yelling at the top of her voice as he entered the keys into the main door of his house, but he was surprised when the door just glided open. It was unlocked, and the house was dark from the inside! There was no one home, or so it seemed.

Could it be a surprise? Did he forget their anniversary? Did his wife just leave with the kids? She was indeed furious at him for the past few days, but she wasn’t the kind of person to just walk out on her partner.

All these thoughts rushed through his mind with lightning speed, but these were all the optimistic ones. He didn’t think about the worst case scenario. So he just walked in and stumbled around, trying to find the light switch.

He turned the lights on, and that’s when the thought finally dawned upon him. He took out his pistol and pointed it ahead of him as he moved ahead. He silently walked through the living room, scanning it with his eyes for any sign of conflict or forced entry. But it was all clear. It was like the house was as normal it could be, but the absence of life inside it made it seem like a ghost mansion.

Jamal’s steps froze for a second as soon as he smelled the tobacco fumes coming from the kitchen. He looked around for any surprise attacks, and then he started moving again without any delay.

“Hands in the air!” He shouted in Arabic at the two men, who were sitting on the kitchen table, smoking his ancestral hookah. They wore black masks over their face and head, and only their eyes were visible.

“Calm down brother, we have already taken what we need. Now we just want to talk with you.” The man smoking the pipe said in Arabic.

They weren’t surprised on seeing Jamal. Instead, it seemed like they were waiting for him to come home. Jamal still didn’t put the gun down, he was having a hard time grasping things for what they were. He wasn't the kind of person who accepts defeat easily. In a corner of his mind, he knew exactly what had happened. But he thought that neglecting the fact that his family was gone would change everything.

“Where is my family?” He asked at last.

“Your wife and the daughters are safe, for now. Their safety depends on what you do from here on.” One of the men said.

“I swear on Allah, if anything happens to my family….” Jamal said while swinging his pistol in the air.

“We also don’t want anything to happen to them. But we can only protect them if you sit down and talk to us instead of threatening us with that little piece of metal.” A man said.

“f**k you, you face hiding coward son of a b***h!” Captain Jamal said and shot the man right in his face.

The bullet went off with a bang and passed right through the man’s left eyes. His head swung back with a force and his body fell from the chair straight to the ground. The suddenness of the moment was enough to make any grown man jump up in terror. But strangely enough, the other man didn't even flinch. He just looked at his partner for a moment, and then started the conversation again with a horrifying detail.

“Tell me where they are, or you will end up just like your friend.” Jamal said, pointing the gun’s crosshairs at the second man’s head.

“Now you just ended your elder daughter's life. Her body will be delivered to you by tomorrow evening. I am unarmed, and you can kill me too if you like. But you will not be ending only my life. Your wife will die at the same time as me.

They won’t kill your younger daughter so quickly. They will cut her fingers off one by one, and post them to you every day until she has no fingers left. After that, they will push hot bars into her eyes and peel the skin off her body while she is still alive. If my past experiences are right, I think they will crucify the body in front of your house.

And if I remember correctly, your daughter is around eight years old. That punishment will be extremely painful for an eight year old. And your family’s death will not be on our hands, it will be on yours. We are just doing what we said we will do, but you are supposed to protect them.” The man said, getting comfortable on the chair. He leaned backwards, pushing the hookah away.

Jamal was crushed. He had no idea that an act of aggression would cost him so much. He had killed so many people in the blink of an eye that he had forgotten the preciousness of life. But reality finally hit him when he realized that his daughter’s fate was now sealed by his own hands. He collapsed on the ground, and the gun slipped from his hand. The villain gave him some time to clear his mind.

Now Jamal was a loyal man. He was a peaceful cloth businessman before the Khalqs entered his beautiful city. He was captivated in the aggressive poster campaign from the terrorist side, and saw the Americans as invaders in his country’s personal affairs. On top of that, the terrorists accused the foreigners of fouling their culture and trying to convert Afghanistan into a mini America.

He was always the revolting kind, so his family wasn’t too surprised when he decided to join the terrorist army. And it was there that the demon inside him was unleashed. He quickly rose through the ranks for being extremely witty and brutally violent. He established fear in the minds of every citizen on the Khalq’s side of the city. He was funny and charming when in company of friendly people, but was an animal when it came to torture and gunfights. Well, he was just like a typical maniac.

He was so feared that when his family refused to move to the army quarters inside the base, he kept them in his ancestral home, without accepting guards to protect them. And for two years, no one dared to even look at Captain Jamal Ahmed’s family.

But now, his family was both kidnapped and under the threat of death. His ego crumbled down like a statue made of paper under pouring rain.

“What do you people want?” Jamal finally said in a low voice.

“Don’t be disappointed, Mr. Ahmed. Your wife and daughter are in very good care. We have not kidnapped them, we are just relocating them as security for as long as we work side by side. As soon as our work with you is over, they will be returned to you. Now it’s up to you whether they are returned in one piece or several ones.” The man said.

Jamal looked at him with such fury that would make the devil look down for a second. His face was scary, with a scar running down from his forehead to his upper lip. His left eye had gone completely white, so when he looked into your eyes, it seemed like you were having a stare down with the terminator himself.

But the man in front of him even didn’t flinch. He said what he was supposed to say, and he knew that Jamal would not dare to kill him in his right state of mind. At last, Jamal let out a cold sigh in defeat and looked away.

“Good, now you must help me to get my brother’s body into the truck, which must be parked in the front of your house.” The man said and got up.

Jamal got up like he was just beaten up. With a heavy heart, he held the hands of the man he had shot in the head some time ago, and lifted him. He could see the mark where the bullet had entered, and the burnt skin which had turned black around the bullet hole.

“My boss would like to have a word with you now.” The man said after they finished loading the dead body into the mini truck. He took out a satellite phone and dialed some number on it. Then he handed the phone over to the captain.

“Hello, Mr. Ahmed. I’m glad to finally be able to talk to you.” Ehsaan said from the other end.

“Yes, what do you want me to do?” Jamal said, cutting the bullshit.

“I am going to need you to keep an eye out and give me some information about your workplace. We want you to monitor the security patterns and the number of guards. I’ll give you the specifics tomorrow. For now, you should go get some rest.

And remember Mr. Jamal, we will be watching you. So if you try to pull off any stunt or try to outsmart us, we WILL kill you and your family. This is your first and final warning.” Ehsaan said.

“I will tr….” Jamal was saying but Ehsaan had already hung up the phone.

He returned the phone to the man in the van, who dashed the van into the alley soon after. Jamal just stood there, as silence overtook the silhouette skyline again. He was hoping that it was all a dream, but he knew it was not. So he just walked back into the house with heavy footsteps.