Somehow I'm Alive (part 11)

This part is my second favorite part. It comes in second only to the part where they all escape from the plantation. I hope that you love this part too!

Are you happy or sad that Jaslina finally knows that Ryan is M.S.G? Please do tell me. As we get closer and closer to the end the more dramatic it gets so be prepared!

Created by: Topaz
  1. What is your age?
  2. What is your gender?
  1. ***Ryan's Point of View*** I'm sitting here on Frank's couch eagerly waiting to see what Jaslina's new appearance looks like. Frank said that he could make her look like a real Middle Easterner. If he can really turn the blonde hair and blue eyed Jaslina into a dark skinned Saudi Arabian then he's got skill. The bathroom door creaks opened. I'm stunned. She really does look like she's from here. After a long moment of silence I say,“I didn’t think it was possible, but Frank actually made you look like a Middle Easterner. At first I doubted Frank but now my confidence is getting built.” Jaslina gives a smile and says, “If Frank did so well with me, then I can’t wait to see how Rayla turns out.” Ironically Rayla walks out the moment after she says that. “Wow.” All I can say is wow. Frank is a genius. Rayla’s disguise is almost more convincing than Jaslina's. Frank cut her hair short, but feminine and it’s now bleached very blonde. It’s blonder than Jaslina's natural hair color. Also, her tan is gone. Oh, and I mean gone. It’s as if it were never there. On top of that she wears glasses with a rectangular frame over her new blue contact lenses. Okay, now I'm certain of it. He can definatley do that well with me. Frank says, “Okay, Rayla, you should be able to keep them in for a week at a time. These are specially made contact lenses. Before you take them out wash your hands very good. You can just throw them away once they’re out and put in another pair.” “Okay,” says Rayla removing the glasses. To Jaslina says “Wow Jaslina, I hardly recognize you. Where’s your real skin under that tan?” “Her real skin color will show up by tomorrow evening,” says Frank. “Every morning you’re gonna have to replace the spray tan.” “Should I be able to do it?” I ask. “Yup. If you wear that cloak you’re wearing right now all you should have to do is your face and hands. That’s all I did and look at you.” “Alright.” Just as I'm about to say something to Jaslina and Rayla Frank calls me into the bathroom. I guess it's my turn.
  2. ***Jaslina's Point of View*** I sit down on the couch next to Rayla and remove my wig and take out my hair tie. All we need are our fake ID’s and we’re good to go. Well, Ryan needs his makeover too. Personally, I’d think it best if Ryan stayed behind; however, by the way Ryan’s talking, it doesn’t seem like going in search of Tammy and Landon without him is an option. So I guess Rayla and I are stuck with Ryan for a while. Frank clears his throat. “Ryan, come with me so we can fit you for your wig. You already told me yesterday that you didn’t wish to dye your hair.” Ryan gets up and exits the room with Frank while Rayla takes his place from beside me. She is busy fiddling with her glasses and feeling her hair. After looking in both directions she speaks. “I take it that Ryan is coming with us,” says Rayla scowling. “Yes,” I say. “He’s coming with us. Maybe not the smartest idea, but it’s the most accurate if we’re planning on finding Tammy and Landon. He’s the son of a slave hunter, and he is a computer genius. That may work out well for us.” What else could I say? It couldn’t hurt to give him some support. “I guess you’ve got a point there. Ryan could be very useful. But what if he’s trapping us, Jaslina! We may be blindly heading straight for disaster!”
  3. “Calm down, Rayla. God hasn’t failed us yet. If Ryan is trapping us, we’ll be protected. Or if Ryan is for real, then he is a blessing to our group. Besides, we could always use another guy in our group.” “Jaslina, you’re talking like he’s your friend. You just found out he was M.S.G yesterday! How can you possibly be defending him?” I don’t know why I’m defending him. I should be doing everything possible to keep him from coming with us, yet I’m not. I really want to trust him, but I’d be stupid if I did. So how is it possible that I’m starting to trust Ryan? Where is my self-control?! I clear my throat. “What else can I do but defend him? We sort of need him right now. The people that most likely took Tammy and Landon are his blood relatives. Trusting him could be in our best interest. If Ryan’s for real, then we got the best source of info about the enemy there is.” She still doesn’t look convinced. Personally, I’m not convinced either, but at the same time I know what I’m telling Rayla is true. Ryan may be our only hope. “He saved both our lives, Rayla. We could be in heaven right now. Why would he save our lives just to see them taken away in the end?”
  4. ***It’s the next morning and two hours before dawn. We’ve got transportation, money, and all of the stuff we need to make our disguises affective. We’ve each got six pairs of contact lenses, I’ve got three cases full of spray tanning stuff, and Ryan has both of our wig cases. Frank was right about Ryan’s skin tone. Brown really could be his natural hair color. To top it off, he gave Ryan green contacts and a very convincing dental appliance. Frank really does read “Left Behind”, I’ve gotta give him that. “We ready to go?” asks Rayla. “Yeah,” says Ryan. “I just want to check inventory one more time. We can’t lose our fake ID’s.” We got our aliases too. Frank gave Rayla a German name, me a Middle Eastern name, and Ryan an American name. Here they are: For Ryan, Vince O’Bryan; for Rayla, Steffi Katrine-Pure; and for me, Zaynah Shenouda. “We got everything, Vince?” I ask using Ryan’s alias. “Yup, sure do, Ms. Shenouda. Hey, can you ask Steffi to make sure she has her glass case?” “Hey, Rayla, you got your glass case. We want to go.” “Yeah, I got it.” “Alright,” says Ryan from behind me. “It’s time to hit the road.”
  5. This time we have a truck with a back part over the trunk. Frank told us to sleep in the back part to keep us well hidden. He says that he doesn’t want us captured by Ryan’s folks. I saw Ryan grimace at the mention of his folks. I hate confessing this, but I think that Ryan is for real. He seems honestly terrified at the idea of running into Sapphire and the White-dressed Woman. I see him grimace at the very mention of their names. As dangerous as forgiving him is, I do forgive him. Last night before I went to bed, I thought long and hard about it. I don’t know why, but I felt the need to forgive him. I don’t know how I know Ryan’s for real; I just know somehow. I can somehow feel that he isn’t lying to us. I just pray that I’m not being foolish. “Where are we going to look first?” I ask. “I don’t know. I was thinking maybe you and Rayla could help me think on that matter. I think that we should start looking in Iraq but the thing is where in Iraq.” Those were my thoughts exactly. Where in the country should we look? Landon and Tammy could be anywhere by now. Sure it’s only been three days since the fire, but three days is plenty of time to flee the country. They could be in Iran, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Kuwait, or any of those places. We could spend years searching and not find a single trace of them. I can easily tell that Ryan and Rayla are thinking the same thing; however, I do think that starting in Iraq would be the best. Perhaps in Baghdad. If we don’t find them there, we escalate to the other major cities. Maybe Ar Ramadi or Samarra would be the best. I tell Ryan and Rayla my idea, and they think that it’s brilliant. We’re also planning to make a few stops and ask around on the way there to save us from added searching. “That sounds good to me,” says Rayla. “So do we use their names or just describe their facial features?” “A description of them would be the best. Plus, giving out their names might not be safe. By using their names we’d be giving ourselves away as well. No one knows where my mother and Sapphire might be. They’re probably looking for us to do us in.” “They’d really do you in?” I ask. “But you’re the woman’s son and the twin brother of her daughter. Doesn’t that have to do with anything?” “Nope. I’m a Christian. I’m their enemy. As long as I’m a Christian and as long as I’m helping you guys, if they find me, they’d do me in with the rest of you. They don’t care if I’m part of the family.” Ryan looks very serious when he says this. If he’s lying, then he is one excellent actor; however, I don’t think he is lying. I can tell by the look on Rayla’s face that she doesn’t think he is either. She isn’t as hard-hearted as she likes to make me think. I’m still planning on watching Ryan closely, but I think that Rayla and I both know that he can be trusted. After a long period of silence, I clear my throat. “So, they’d really do that. Ryan, I don’t know what to say.” “I don’t know what to say either, and I’m the victim. My mom and sister are pretty messed up when it comes to stuff like this. They get some sort of sick joy out of seeing people tortured and killed; especially when they are the cause of it.” Ryan lets out an involuntary shudder. I want to give him a hug. Normally I wouldn’t believe a word of what he said, but I’ve seen Sapphire and the White-dresses Woman. They are meaner than snakes. I can believe that they’d do Ryan in without remorse. I have a hard time believing that Ryan’s the evil reincarnate of his mother that Rayla thinks him to be.
  6. ***Ryan's Point of View~The Next Day***“Describe them again to me Mr. O’Bryan. This time more slowly if you please.” When we finally arrived here at Baghdad, we decided to start at the hotel where the fire was at. This is the best place we can think of, and it’s the only place where we might be able to get at trace of Tammy and Landon. Now we are in the manager’s office with the hotel manager and the police chief. So far it’s going well. We told them we’re looking for Rayla’s brother (Landon) and my sister (Tammy). Rayla and I are cousins, and Jaslina just an old family friend. “My sister,” I say, “is Caucasian and has short, red hair. It is a very deep red, not pale red. And her eyes are green. She is also very tall and probably wearing a black cloak.” “Are you writing this down chief?” asks the manager. “Yes. Red hair, green eyes, tall, and wears cloak. What about Ms. Katrine-Pure’s brodder? What ‘ee look like?” The police chief has very poor English. “I am unable to describe him,” I say. “I have only seen him once or twice. You must ask Steffi to speak for herself. That is unless our friend Zaynah can describe him.” “Describe ‘im to me miss. ‘Ow does ‘ee look?” “Well,” says Rayla, “he is about Vince’s height; blonde, about my shade of blonde; his eyes are blue, slightly darker than mine; and he probably wears tattered, brown clothing.” “Alright, we will start looking,” says the manager. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find a blonde and a red head in Baghdad.” “Thank-you,” says Jaslina. “I know that I haven’t spoken much, but I am telling the truths when I say both of my friends’ siblings are very dear to me.” “It is very sweet of you to say so Ms. Shenouda. We will call if we find them.” “Thank-you for your time,” I say. “We should probably be going now. We’ll keep in touch.”We get up and exit. That went so much better than I expected it to. Now that we have two other people looking, it should go well. Plus, with our new identities, they will never suspect who we really are. My wig is starting to feel itchy I look at the clock in the main lobby. We were in there for three hours, and it’s not even passed two. We weren’t planning to go back to the outskirts of Baghdad until five. That gives us a good three and a half hours to get lunch and look. I can bear and itchy wig for a few hours. “So,” says Rayla, “what are we gonna do? Do we start looking?” “I was thinking we eat,” I say. “We’ll have to walk a mile or two back to the car, but after that we’ll still have time to look.” “Sounds good to me. We haven’t eaten since this morning.” Jaslina replies. “We’d best start walking then.” I walk on ahead, but then I have to pause for them to catch up. Hopefully they're getting more used to me. We walk off into the hot afternoon sun. This will be impossible almost; however, I’ve walked longer distances and withstood greater heat. I can withstand walking two miles to our car.
  7. ***It's the middle of the night and we're sleeping in the truck. I'm still exhausted from earlier, but no matter how tierd I get I've always been a light sleeper. Really, the only reason I'm a light sleeper right now is because I have to pee. When you're extremely tierd it's so hard to decide between staying asleep and getting up so you don't wet yourself. Grumbling to myself I get out of the car. The last thing I need is Jaslina and Rayla knowing that I almost wet myself because I was too lazy to get up. After I finish I open the door to get back into the truck and go back to sleep. However, I don't get to go back to sleep because I hear somebody whispering my name from off in the distance. It's pitch black and I can't see their faces, but I don't need to see their faces to know who they are.
  8. ***Jaslina's Point of View***Slam!!! I hear the car door slam shut. I immediately awaken from my slumber. It’s the middle of the night! I look down at a fitfully sleeping Rayla. She could sleep through a twister if she had too. I lift the covering over the open-ended trunk just enough for me to be able to peer out. I see Ryan walking out toward the brush. While I’m watching, I hear voices other than his. Something is up. I see Ryan waving his arms around in an angry fashion. He’s talking very sternly to someone in the shadows. Wait! Maybe more than one person; I hear more than two voices. It can’t be. Ryan’s sister and mother couldn’t have found us already. Unless Ryan alerted them. Careful not to make noise, I slip out of the trunk. This had better be worthwhile. On my hands and knees I hide behind a large mound of sand. Now I can hear everything they’re saying and see everyone’s faces. I see Sapphire in spaghetti straps and short-shorts and the White-dressed Woman in her mask with her hair tied up and wearing a navy blue dress. (Now I suppose she’s the Blue-dressed Woman!) The air is thick with swear words from Sapphire and her mother. “Ryan, this is ridiculous. You need to rejoin us. Forget this stupid religion of yours. It isn’t worth it. You care too much for Jaslina. As soon as you three escape to America, she’ll go back to her family and forget you. You’ll be homeless, and you’ll regret ever splitting apart from your sister and me. Do what you know is right and rejoin us.”
  9. I see Ryan tense, his thick, black hair ruffling in the breeze. “No. I won’t desert Jaslina and Rayla. It isn’t right. I’m not planning on giving up on Jesus either. My religion is now part of me, and I’m not letting it go. You’ve got no hold on me, mother.” Her and Sapphire scoff at his words. “Ryan, you lie. You’re a weak-minded fool. Even when you were on our side, you were a fool. You’ve always cared too much for the people we put into slavery. Only now you’re trying to do something. You meet one pretty girl, and you decide to turn in the other direction. I know what will come of this. Trust me. I know things that you do not.” “Mother is right, Ryan,” says Sapphire. “Christianity will hold you back from your full potential. It won’t be worth it. You can rejoin us here and now or face death along with your new friends. It’s your choice.” Sapphire takes a large step back and does a hair flip. I see her usual look of cruelty in her eyes. Wow. Ryan is on our side after all. “I’m willing to face death. I win either way. If I die, I go to heaven and get to spend eternity with Jesus. If I live, I get to turn you in and see you punished while living out my life alongside the others.” Now the White-dressed Woman and Sapphire are caught up in full blown laughter. “Jaslina would never have you. You’re the son of the woman who kidnapped you and the twin of my daughter. She would never date you. She’s probably doubted you the whole time.” She pauses and gets a sneer on her face. “I bet you are looking for the other two too. What are their names? Tammy and Landon, perhaps? They’re the whole reason you’re here aren’t they.” “What did you do to them?!” exclaims Ryan. “Where did you take them?!” “Brother dear,” says Sapphire, “who said that we did anything to them. Perhaps it is they who put themselves in the situation they’re in. Maybe all we had to do is the deed.”
  10. Ryan explodes, unable to keep his voice down. “You’re holding out on me. I can feel it. Where are they?” “Now, now, calm down. If you decide not to join us, you will soon know their fate.” “Tell me what you did to them and where they are now!” “I’ll tell you what, let’s make a deal. I’ll give you three days to join us. If you don’t join us, you face death alongside this little crush of yours. Fair enough?” “No. I want you to tell me.” “Sorry, we can’t. We’d best leave you here with your thoughts. Good day, my son.” They run off into the night leaving Ryan there in his misery. I know that I should go back to the truck and get back to sleep. I know that I should pretend that I didn’t know Sapphire and the White-dressed Woman were even here; however, I don’t go back to the truck and pretend everything is alright. Looking to make sure they are long gone, I run up and stand beside Ryan engulfing him in a hug. For some reason it doesn’t feel so weird to be hugging whom I once considered the enemy. I expect Ryan to push me away or for him to tell me to let go of him. He doesn’t do either of those things. He instead returns my embrace. I let go before he does and for a while neither of us say a word. I’m only standing there letting him hold me protectively. Finally, he speaks. “How much did you hear?” he says scared like. “The whole thing. Ryan, what are we gonna do?” “I don’t know. Now that they have Tammy and Landon we only have two options. Really, neither of them is that great.” “What are our options?” I don’t like where this is going. “We can use our aliases, get plane tickets, and head home or come up with some harebrained scheme to attempt rescuing Tammy and Landon. I’m not for either, but we just can’t leave Tammy and Landon to face death. Who knows, my mother might have already done them in.” “I think that we should make our final attempt to save them. We won’t know if they’re alive or not until we make an attempt to save them. We shouldn’t let them go without a fight.” “You’re right. I say we save them. I know all of my mom and sister’s tricks. With God’s help we can do it.” “Exactly,” I say. “There, is however, one problem.” “What’s that?” “We’ve got no idea where they’re holding them.” “Don’t you worry; I’ve already got the start of a plan. We should go wake Rayla up. She’ll want to hear this too. This plan is eighty percent fool proof.” “Eighty percent?” “If it’s eighty percent it’s at least worth a try isn’t it?”
  11. ***Ryan's Point of View*** My worst fear and my best daydream have both come true in a matter of minutes. I never would've imagined that Jaslina would ever trust me. Yet here she is finally trusting me; I even get the pleasure of holding her in my arms. I'm glad that I get to hold her now, because this might be my only chance to. If my plan fails then we could all be done for.

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