Diary From The Missing Plane

Rayhana suggested.

  ‘It is because terrorists probably do not want their identities to be disclosed.’ Ahmed tried to convince.

  ‘There is no reason they want to hide them,’ Hanif intervened, ‘it is obvious we are in a hostile territory, controlled by our captors. But I am not sure whether the captors are terrorists or something else.’

  ‘Something what?’ Ahmed demanded.

  ‘Have you noticed that the four attendants who came to provide food to us are not looking like normal humans?’ Hanif explained, they are of small heights, thick legs and seem to have distorted bodies. After all, let me mention that I am a senior policeman and have worked in intelligence wing.’

  ‘Do you mean to say that they are just aliens as we have seen in movies?’ some passengers commented and laughed.

  ‘It is possible that the captors have surgically disfigured few people,’ David thoughtfully said, ‘they might have even surgically made them dumb. Did you observe that none of them told a single word when some of us asked them.’

  ‘It is also possible that they don’t understand our language,’ Rayhana remarked.

  ‘Then what about the food?’ Ahmed stressed his position, ‘Did you all notice that the food was all raw? It was raw fish and some seaweed. I am getting the impression that we have unintentionally stuck up in an island of uncivilised but hospitable people. They are helping us whatever way they can.’

  ‘I totally agree,’ I said, ‘we are thinking that we have not been captured, and we are just confining ourselves in the caves. I guess we are self made prisoners. We should go out and discover the place. Probably we may see a way out from here.’

  ‘Please proceed cautiously,’ Hanif warned, ‘unless we are confident that we have been kept here by terrorists, we should not venture out. Patience is the key.’

  The day was spent venturing into unknown territory. However, by nightfall, any progress we had made was not fruitful. Once the daylight was over, depression started coming heavily upon almost all of us along with the darkness of the night. All my life I have been spending most part of my time in building my career and business. All the time I have thought that one day I will be successful enough to spend less time for my career and more time with my family. I didn’t realise I spent the quality part of my life in the rat race. My children are now not just little bubbly kids. Both my son and daughter are now in universities. Even if I go back to my promise and start giving more time to my family from tomorrow, I will never get those days when both were little kids and eagerly waiting to spend some time with their father. Now both of them are enjoying the company of their own friend circles better than mine. Still I resolved to spend more time hereafter when I am freed from the captivity.

  Next morning some of us were determined to explore the area.

  Hanif probably was thinking of some strategy all night and placed his plan to the core group in the morning. Core group means I, David, Rayhana, Hamid, Jimmy and Ahmed.

  ‘We need to ask those exotic looking attendants where our captors are staying.’ Hanif proposed. ‘There is no need to fear them even if they might be terrorists. They are not indubitably planning to kill us; they must be negotiating with our Government for our freedom.’

  We all agreed, but hunger was almost killing us. Last night it was early dinner, which we got just before dusk. It is already late morning, and everyone was carving for food. But there was no sign of onset of food. Silent pause slowly turned into loud protest. We were hoping that some of the abductors would appear, and we will let them know about our grievances. Hours of shouting didn’t produce result. We went from cave to cave to find some way out. Finally, a woman shouted from a cave, ‘Food is here!’

  All the hungry passengers ran towards the way the sound came and actually found food packets. The strange looking attendants might have delivered them well before dawn when everyone was probably sleeping. It was the same monotonous food; uncooked seaweed and fish. There was no choice.

  ‘I must complain about the food when we meet the abductors,’ David suggested, ‘they should at least treat us as humans. We deserve every right of appropriate accommodation and adequate quality food. If we eat this type of food for one more time, I bet most of us will suffer from diarrhoea.’

  ‘You are right Mr,’ a man suddenly asked, ‘what is your name?’

  ‘I am David.’

  ‘I am Dr. Prakash,’ said the gentleman and then looking at the crowd he loudly asked, ‘is anyone suffering from any gastric problem?’

  ‘Thank God we have a doctor amongst us,’ Rayhana said, ‘at least we can ask someone in an emergency.’

  ‘What a doctor can do without any medicine?’ I said sarcastically.

  ‘I think the time is now to explore the area,’ Hanif suggested.

  ‘And annoy the abductors,’ Jimmy said disapprovingly.

  ‘So what? Let them be annoyed.’ I said, ‘we will use the chance to see them, and we can even ask how far the dialogue with our Government proceeded?’

  We came out of the caves and found a field full of bushes surrounded by mountains from all directions. There was no sight of the plane. It looked like we are almost in the middle of the vast area with only a few kilometres between us and the towering faces of the mountain range encompassing us. It was not easy to go ahead. There was danger of snakes and other wild animals. We formed few groups and marched to different directions. Hanif warned everyone, please don’t cross the mountains.

  My group halted after walking some extent through the bushes.

  ‘Did anybody notice that our flight was going in an unusual route?’ Hanif asked.

  ‘The in-flight TVs were off,’ I replied, ‘I couldn’t watch my chosen channel – the flight path.’

  ‘I know,’ he reciprocated again like an on duty police officer, ‘what about the crew?’

  ‘We also couldn’t watch the flight path,’ Hamid, the crew member said, ‘there was probably some technical problem.’

  ‘Didn’t you see the delay?’ Hanif queried.

  ‘We could have noticed,’ Rayhana confessed, ‘but I guess I was asleep.’

  ‘What? You are a crew member, and you were sleeping on duty?’ Hanif looked like an angry boss, ‘Do you know this is an offence? You should have asked the pilots about the unusual delay?’

  ‘That wouldn’t have solved the problem,’ Hamid argued, ‘if the flight has been hijacked, the hijackers must have blocked the passage.’

  ‘Did you notice that?’ Hanif questioned in a commanding tone.

  ‘No,’ Hamid looked down, ‘in fact I must admit that I was also asleep.’

  ‘This is serious,’ Hanif reacted, ‘I must report this to your office after returning.’

  Rayhana looked disturbed, ‘I have decided to resign immediately after going back. I have small kids and do not want to miss them anymore.’

  Hamid started, ‘Sir, this is quite unique during my career. I have never slept on duty. I can confirm that not a single passenger required assistance during the night. I think all passengers were also in deep sleep. Something just doesn’t add up.’

  I asked, ‘Did anyone not sleep during that night in the flight?’

  No one answered.

  Dr Prakash gave his analysis, ‘I am sure all passengers and the crew were sleeping. It is possible that hijackers might have sprayed something into the air so that entire flight would fall asleep and they could make their activities without interruption. I vaguely remember of some unusual smell.’

  ‘Me to.’ Hanif confirmed.

  ‘So, we can safely arrive at the conclusion that whole flight was in an abnormal sound sleep.’ I explained my position, ‘and the hijackers must have flown the flight themselves to this remote location.’

  ‘Do you mean that even the pilots were made to sleep?’ Dr Prakash asked.

  ‘Now I strongly believe that they were also sleeping,’ Hanif argued, ‘and someone amongst the hijackers took over pilots’ job. I also suspect
they must have discovered this site and create a makeshift runway for the landing.’

  We were all stunned to the fact that some of the hijackers might be among us as passengers and spying on us. We slowly walked towards the mountain until we arrived at the feet of it. It was steep, not sloping, making it exceedingly hard to climb and cross the same. Hanif, who till now was behaving like a team leader, looked around his team members and asked, ‘Does anyone know mountain-climbing?’

  There was no response. Jimmy responded, ‘How can even one climb without proper gear?’

  ‘Can you climb if you are provided with the gears?’ I asked sarcastically.

  ‘No, I can’t.’

  Suddenly everyone saw Rayhana has already started climbing the mountain with her bare hands. She was climbing on trees, creepers and whatever she found on her way to the top. All of us were dumbfounded and silently watched. She came back, moments after with the same speed she climbed.

  ‘The other side is equally steep and there is a rough ocean,’ she reported back, ‘I can bet this is not an escape route.’

  ‘I can never assume that you could scale this rugged terrain,’ Dr Prakash complimented, ‘good to know that you have experience in climbing trees and mountain.’

  Rayhana looked around in disbelief, ‘I am sorry, I have never climbed even a small tree earlier. I don’t know how all these happened.’

  We started back towards our residence; the caves.

  On the way, we met the other groups who went to other sides to find escape routes.