Duplus

Prologue: A new beginning

An uproar was raised in the crowd. People turned to each other, demanding answers. The crowd, originally in a neat line, had dispersed. Discipline had been finished and no one could care less. "What is going on??" Amaani asked no one in particular as she tried to look through the crowd to see the cause of the disturbance. Her eyes landed on a man in a solider uniform with a syringe in hand. A few more management officers made rounds, trying to calm everyone down.

"What happened? Why is everyone so restless?" Amaani asked again. Sufyaan, who stood behind her, shrugged. His expression was mirroring her worried one. "I don't know. I heard a few women saying something about 'unexpected rules' or something like that." Amaani nodded, showing she heard him but kept her gaze in the front. "Umm... excuse me." She managed to catch the attention of a woman.

The woman turned to her, her brows furrowed into a scowl. "Yes?" Amaani flinched at her harsh tone but waved it off thinking she was probably in a bad mood after that long travel. "Why is everyone acting like this? They just suddenly exploded." The woman's expression didn't change as she spoke. "Didn't you hear them? They're performing blood tests for Allah knows what reason. According to them; it's some sort of security precaution." The woman rolled her hands into a fist, gritting her teeth.

Amaani frowned. Thanking the lady, she turned around to face Sufyaan. "Hear that? They're performing blood tests." She said. Sufyaan brought his hand under his chin and looked at the ground as if in deep thought. "That's weird. Why would they need our blood for entry into their territory?"

Amaani looked at her cousin with a clueless look. It was a question everyone had in their minds. It was definitely fishy. The refugees weren't stupid. Sure, they had been living in circumstances that didn't allow them to know much about this place but they were pretty sure taking blood tests was never a necessary process for taking refuge in another country.

"Everyone, please calm down!" The loud voice caused everyone to stop and look towards the source of the voice. Amaani could see a short man, wearing a Kaazefaandrian uniform standing on a block. "We are aware that you are confused about the current situation but rest assured. This is just a safety precaution and we, in no way, mean harm. Please cooperate with us. The sooner it is done, the faster you can go to the tents where there are arrangements for dinner. Thank you." The man finished and stepped down from the block.

Amaani could see that everyone had calmed down a little but they were still tense. Officers had started coming up and discipline had been recovered. Then came the bad part.

Amaani and Sufyaan watched in horror as Kaazefaandrian soldiers injected syringes into people's arms. It was their turn soon enough. Though both of them had so many unanswered questions, they remained still and let the soldiers do what they had to. Once the process was complete, the soldiers instructed them to go to the tent area. They did as they were told.

Amaani was moving slowly behind Sufyaan as they made their way to the tents when something struck her. She looked behind her, ignoring the flock of people and looking beyond. She tried to imagine how far her home country would be from this region and felt tears sting her eyes. Sufyaan stopped and stood beside her. "Missing home? Me too." He sighed. Shutting her eyes tightly, Amaani shook off these thoughts.

"But we've come this far. And even if we go back, we'll just be killed like the rest of our family." Sufyaan continued. It was his weird way of consoling Amaani, reminding her about the scary life they had been living in Nuristan. "Yeah" she agreed..

"We'll just have to start anew here In Kaazefaandria." She said. Sufyaan nodded, lost in a pool of thoughts as he stared endlessly at the direction they came from. "Yeah. But I feel as if that was our only true home." He replied. Amaani nodded knowingly. "Hopefully we will get used to this place."

"It'll be difficult."

"At least we wouldn't be in a place where our life is in danger 24 hours of the day,"

Sufyaan smiled sadly at Amaani.

"Alhamdulillah" both of them murmured in union.