Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  The driver is merely twenty years old. He is the eldest sibling among five and is training under his father as chauffeur for the famous five star hotel called Stanz's Hotel. Their family is not one that's doing financially well. Ali's youngest child, only four days old is in dire health condition. The child is born with an extremely rare congenital heart defect. Born prematurely, the child has been deemed unable to survive by doctors. But with a strong will to live, the child has managed to survive day after day on incubation and other life support.

  On the third day after her birth, the specialist informs Ali that although there is no treatment option available in Malaysia, Japan has started a new technique to treat this rare condition. It has never been tested, but theoretically it can save her and it is their only hope. The only problem - the costs, starting by the charter of a medically equipped plane to fly the child to Japan. With only both Ali and his eldest son as the breadwinners of the family, they will never have that kind of money in a hundred lifetimes.

  As a parent, Ali and his wife will have to painfully watch their child die knowing there might be a way to save her. Just as he was praying one evening, a phone call changed it all.

  "Hello," he greeted in Malay to the unknown number.

  "I heard that your child is not well and I want to help your family. I will pay for all her medical costs," the voice of a man said in fluent Malay but somehow it feels awkward. The emotionless way he speaks makes one think he is a robot, and the perfect use of sentences, the lacking of accents makes him even more robotic. Unaware to him, it was a computer translated conversation and on the other line was Ada.

  "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much! Can I please know your name Sir? So that I can repay your kindness even though its only through my prayers?" Ali asked, overwhelmed with joy.

  "There is no need to thank me. You will be indebted to me and you will repay me soon enough," the man answered and the call ended.

  Although he didn't understood what the caller had meant about becoming indebted, Ali was too happy to think. He jumped up in joy and screamed for his wife. His prayers have been answered. His child can live. The very next day, which was just yesterday, his wife and child were already on their way to Japan. All was good until just four hours ago, before he was supposed to leave for the airport with his son, to pickup Zach and Nikki.

  The donations that were supposed to come in parts didn't wire to the hospital in Japan and not knowing who had chartered the plane, now Ali's wife and child are stranded in Japan with no funding for the operation.

  Ali panicked, cried and prayed but there was nothing he could do. He was still at work when his wife called and sobbed that if the infant didn't undergo her first surgery by midnight, she will be dead.

  Before they could end their conversation, another phone call cuts through. It is the same man who promised him the donations. He knew because he can never forget the way he talked.

  "Sir, please Sir! I didn't get your donations. My child needs the surgery by midnight. Please, save her!" Ali cried as he spoke, going into the staff's pantry to avoid being seen crying.

  "Do something for me first," the voice said.

  "I will do anything," Ali promised.

  "Listen carefully. I will not repeat my instructions," the voice said.

  "Yes, yes," Ali said, swallowing his tears as he took deep breaths, trying to stay focused.

  "The couple you are picking up, I need you to kidnap the woman for me," the monotonous voice speaks, sending a shock to Ali. It was something that had never once crossed his mind.

  "Sir, please. I am not a criminal," Ali said, he can tell that this is not a prank. The man has taken his child and wife as hostages.

  "So you choose to kill your own child? Good man indeed," the voice said.

  "I can do anything but not this. Please," Ali begged, as he put his other fist to his mouth in agony.

  "But I want you to do this and nothing else," the voice said.

  "Please!" Ali begged again and again.

  "You don't have to hurt a soul. All you and your son have to do is drive them from the airport. We will take care of the rest. No one will know and nothing will lead back to you," the voice said calmly.

  "I can't involve my son!" Ali protested.

  "If you disagree, your wife and child will disappear forever," the voice threatened.

  "But..." Ali hesitated.

  "Goodbye -," Ada said, pretending to end the conversation.

  "I'll do it!" Ali shouted into the phone.

  "Good. There is a package in your locker. The garlands are for the man and the woman. The respirators are for you and your son. The garlands will put them to sleep so don't take them out from the bag. I will be watching your every movement," the voice instructed slowly before ending the call.

  Ali, stood frozen in shock and distress as he struggled to accept everything that was happening to his family. The fact that it was all a setup to trap them was utterly horrible.

  As Ali stood in a trance, a hand patted him on the shoulder making Ali jumped.

  "Father, what are you doing? We have to go. It's getting late," Amin, Ali's son asked. His father is never late.

  Ali turned to look at his son and Amin is shocked with the state his father was in.

  "Father, is something wrong with Eishah?" Amin asked, frightened that his little sister might have some medical complications.

  His father ignores Amin and immediately went to his locker and unlocked it. Inside it was a large oblong brown box.

  Without a word, Ali took the box and immediately pulled Amin out to the black sedan. Amin started the engine and drove towards the airport, which was more than one and a half hour away.

  Ali opened the box, explained what was happening to Amin and followed his earlier instructions.

  "Father, we shouldn't do this!" Amin protested through his respirator after watching the couple loose consciousness through his rear view mirror.

  "Just do as I say!" Ali shouted and Amin shuts up.

  After a few minutes of silence, Ali's phone started to ring. As usual, 'Unknown number' is all that was written on the screen. Ali answered the call swiftly and as he expected it was the man, but this time it was only a per-recorded voice message.

  "A woman will be waiting at the third traffic light from here. Let her in and she will tell you what to do," the message ended.

  They nervously drive past the first traffic light and second traffic light. As they approached the third traffic light they could see a shadow standing next to the traffic light.

  "Slow down! Wait for the lights to turn red," Ali instructed.

  They managed to wait the green light out and as soon as they stopped as the second car at the third traffic light, the shadow marched its way towards them. It hasn't been raining but the woman was donning a dark green raincoat with the hood covering her head, shadowing most of her face. She put a respirator on, pulled the door to the back passenger seat open and climbed in. The mysterious woman wedged herself a seat between Zach and Nikki as Ali and Amin trembled in silence, waiting for instructions from this woman whom they did not even dare to look at.

  The woman immediately pulled a large plastic zip-lock bag from her pocket and removed the garlands from around Zach and Nikki's neck before placing them into the bag and sealing it airtight.

  "Open all the windows," she instructed in English. From her accent, she sounded like a British.

  Amin immediately lowered down all the windows, airing the vehicle free from the last traces of 'sleeping beauty'.

  The woman then removed her raincoat and looking through his rear view mirror, Amin was so stunned to see that the woman wore the same clothes as Nikki, even her hair was the same.

  "You can take these off now," she said as she pulled her respirator off.

  Ali looked back and was equally shocked to see two Nikkis. At a glance, they looked like the same person but if one looked clearer, they would see that she was just a look alike. Putting a pair
of large sunglasses over her eyes, the woman instructed again, "Find a safe place and put her into the trunk. Make sure nobody sees it."

  The pair drove the sedan to an abandoned petrol station along the highway and drove to the back, out of sight from other cars on the road. Removing their backpacks to the passenger seat, Ali and Amin obediently cramped Nikki into the trunk next to her favorite yellow hard-shell luggage bag.

  "What do we do now?" Ali asked as they re-entered the vehicle.

  "To the hotel. Check us in," the woman instructed.

  For the rest of the journey to the hotel, no one said a word. Everyone remained silent and lost in their own worlds.

  Roughly one hour later, they have reached the hotel. As the sedan smoothly cruised up to the lobby entrance under the enormous modern chandelier of black, ceramic tubes, the mysterious woman removed a tiny spray bottle from her pocket and sprayed something onto Zach. Ali recognized the smell at once - alcohol. She was passing Zach off as a drunkard.

  Ali immediately exited from the sedan and instructed the two concierge to help carry Zach instead of removing the luggage from the trunk. They couldn't be allowed to see Nikki. With one concierge on each side of him, they carried Zach into the lobby with a fake Nikki dotting over him. While the rest of the world poured their attention onto the drunk guest, Amin hastily pulled the yellow hard shell out of the trunk, scratching Nikki's face with an inch long wound. He placed the hard shell down and shut the trunk immediately. Amin then placed their backpacks onto the polished, four by four black marble tiles of the flooring as well before driving off to the side to wait for his father as cold sweat formed all over his forehead and the palms of his hands.

  Ali rushed over to the check in counter with the passports the woman handed him and told the counter staff to proceed with checking the guests into their room. His first half of the business had completed. Leaving the mysterious woman in her sunglasses to fend for herself, he hurried back out to meet Amin, who was hidden as he squatted before the sedan to take a quick smoke to calm his wrecked nerves.

  The moment he saw his father, he dropped the cigarette and clumsily climbed onto his feet before trudging over to the driver's seat.

  Ali bid the security guard goodbye as they pretended to hurry off to their next guest pickup at KL Sentral.

  The moment they turned out onto the road in front of the majestic Stanz's Hotel, Ali's phone started to ring. It is another untraceable call. Ali answers it and again it is just a per-recorded message.

  "Solo Point. 10:15pm," were the only words.

  The pair of father and son hurried to the abandoned construction site and the moment they turned in, they saw a parked black pickup truck with a yellow super-bike loaded onto its back. And next to the truck stood a Chinese man in a dark, long gray coat waiting for them in the dead quietness like a soul collector.

  Ali's phone rings bringing his mind back to the present. It is a call from Japan. He nervously answers the call.

  "They are going to perform the operating on her now! Thank god you made it happen in time," Ali's wife's voice sobs in joy to her husband.

  Ali lets out a breath of relief as he says to his wife, "That's wonderful. You take good care of our little girl now. I gotta go. Lots to do. Love you both so much."

  Ali ends the call and turns to look at Amin who is angry and reluctant to look his father in the eye.

  "Eishah can live now. One day when you become a father, you will understand my position. For now, you can hate me for as much and as long as you want to. It will be in my prayers that I shall bear all the sins to everything that have been done," Ali says slowly to Amin, almost out of energy; as tears of guilt flow down the cheeks of his eldest son.

  Chapter 26

  Malaysia: Tuesday, 18th November 12:06 a.m.

  In an underground cement cell, far out under a deep gorge that has no developmental use, along the highway sits Nikki, restrained to a metal chair in total darkness and silence. Left alone and locked away in the middle of no where, where no one will ever even pass by, Nikki starts to come to consciousness, her fingers slowly starting to wriggle and her eyelids slitting open heavily. The room is stuffy yet cold, with nothing but a ventilation vent made of a half inch thick perforated metal, securely bolted into the ceiling above her head.

  Waking up into darkness and restrain, Nikki starts to panic and begins calling out to Zach in a meek croak, "Zach? Zach? Where are you Zach?"

  She frantically tries to free her buckled down hands and feet but to no avail. The metal restrains will not even budge. Nikki's heart starts to palpitate with fear as she shouts for Zach, "Zach! Where are you Zach? Is this some kind of joke? It’s not funny. Zach! Help! Help! Anyone can hear me? Please help!" Nikki continues to shout despite the extreme tiredness and pain all over her body. It’s as though she has been through war and haven't slept for days.

  Nikki's shouts echoes up the vent, passes through a digital neutralizer that generates vibrations opposite to the noise she makes and thus silencing any of her pleads to the outside world. The vent then leads into the trunk of a man made tree on the surface and ends at the near top of the tree.

  Realizing that she is all alone and that Zach might be in danger or even worse, dead, she screams for help over and over again.

  Above ground, perching on the tree branch just next to the perforated, fist size opening of the vent is a bird and it is soundly asleep, oblivious to Nikki's screams. The night on the surface is peaceful and silent as it has always been, with only a cricket serenading to the moonlight.

  Meanwhile, in a luxurious room on the fifth floor of the Stanz's Hotel, Zach starts to stir in his bed as he gains consciousness. His eyelids flutter slightly as he remains strengthless under the warm, orangy yellow light in the room.

  From his blurry eyesight, he can see Nikki's shadow moving about the room. It must have all been a dream. Nikki is safe. No one's been drugged. It must have all been a dream and they're still home on a lazy Saturday morning. But the tiredness is just awkwardly astounding. His limbs and most of his body feels almost paralyzed. Zach tries to call out to Nikki as his visions starts to clear up.

  "Nik..." Zach tries to croak but his mouth seems too heavy to move, with hardly any noise coming out from his throat.

  Nikki turns to glance at Zach and immediately looks away. Trying desperately to move as he lie on his back on the king size bed, he is shocked beyond words. Her right eye is swollen into a huge blue black circling it from below her eyebrow to just above her cheeks and the left corner of her mouth is cracked and bleeding. She has taken two hard blows on the face and the swelling has turned her face nearly beyond recognition. Before he can even start to think about what is happening, Nikki starts to trash the room. She walks over to the floor length window and yanks the curtains to the ground. After that, she takes the table lamp and hammers it onto the dressing table, breaking it to large chunks of broken ceramic. Nikki is going out of her mind, shouting things that don’t make sense as she tears the room apart.

  "Help! Don't hit me. Don't hit me! Leave me alone!" Nikki screams as she throws the dresser's chair into the full length glass mirror, shattering it to pieces.

  Zach uses all his might to push himself up on the bed as he watches with horror at Nikki. Nikki then bends down and picks a piece of glass from the carpeted floor and slits her left palm open. Blood drips down from her palm like a leaky pipe and she smears it onto the wallpaper.

  "What are you doing Nik?" Zach manages to ask at last. He is recovering fast now.

  Hearing him speak, the mysterious woman disguised as Nikki knows she hasn't much time left before Zach gains strength. She dashes to the door and pulls it open before dashing out, screaming and crying all the way.

  Nikki runs down the hallway just in time to bump into three Indian security officers in black suits and black ties. They have been notified by the other guests staying on the same floor upon hearing the blood curdling screams and commotion from their room. Just like Zach, the
y are horrified to see the state Nikki is in as she runs into the first one, grabbing his white shirt, uttering frantically in sobs, "I can't take it anymore. We're over. It's over! Don't let that monster come near me ever again, please!"

  She quickly squeezes her way to hide behind the last officer as Zach comes out after her from the room, about eighty percent recovered, but still a little wobbly on his feet.

  Still smelling like a drunkard, he reels towards them, calling after Nikki, not realizing she is a fake, "Nik, don't go!"

  The officers go forward to stop him and it is that time that the mysterious woman sneaks off.

  Zach is held against the corridor's wall at his will by two of the security officers as the third officer dashes off to look for the injured woman. Holding Zach against the corridor, one of them calls for their manager through a walkie-talkie. After calling for reinforcement, they take Zach back into his room where they got their next shock - the room is completely destroyed. It is a wonder the woman didn't die, looking at the extreme degree of violence this abusive man practices.