Chapter 5: The Escape!

When they woke up, they found themselves blinded to ropes. “Oh dear! The have tied us up!” Deborah cried out. Each girl was tied up next to their own boyfriends. Nadera started to think of a way to escape and an idea struck her. “Knife…” she mumbled. “What is it, Nadera?” Vikram asked who was tied up next to her. “Your small knife! We could use it to cut the rope!” she exclaimed. “I can’t reach it. Take it for me. Cut your rope and pass it to the others” Vikram said. So, Nadera took it out from his back pocket (Zahira smirked) and cut herself free. “Remember to cut in a way that the rope still looks like it is still tied to us”. As Vikram, the last person, cut his ropes, everyone was freed. But suddenly, they heard footsteps. They saw the shadow of a person and soon, Senthil appeared round the corner. “Oh! What a wonderful sight! Couples wearing the same clothes…But there is a wrong couple!” Senthil exclaimed and he pointed to Deborah and Firdaus. “Ghazali wants to see you. So I shall leave you all here alone with him”, he said and turned his back to walk away. Suddenly, Vikram took his knife and grabbed Senthil from behind and placed his knife under Senthil’s throat. “Scream and I will kill you!” Vikram warned. “Fine, I won’t scream” Senthil replied too simply. Vikram turned towards Nadera and said,” Nadera, bring my rope to me”. But she didn’t as at that moment, Senthil was reaching into his pocket and taking out a … “Vikram watch out!” both Nadera and Legolas cried out, who had noticed what Senthil was doing. But it was too late. Senthil had taken out his knife which had a green substance on the blade. He waved it at Vikram.

In pain, Vikram’s knife flew out of his hand and flew toward Legolas. The knife scratched Legola’s leg and he stumbled to the ground. Blood started to drip out. Vikram fell to the ground, with a deep long gash at his arm and blood spilling out… “HOW DARE YOU!!” both Nadera and Nisa screamed. They ran toward Senthil with rage and knocked him to the ground with such force that he was knocked out. Zahira quickly took her rope and helped tie him up. Together, Baihakki, Firdaus and Deborah tied a cloth on his mouth so he would not be able to speak when he has regained his conscious. They rolled him into a corner where he remained hidden. Legolas managed to stand back onto his feet. As Legolas was experienced with the outdoors, his hearing was also very good. Even with all the commotion, he could hear footsteps of someone coming. “Someone’s coming!” Legolas informed. They quickly got back to their positions, still pretending they were still tied up. Nisa and Deborah helped Legolas and Nadera and Baihakki helped Vikram. Zahira quickly grabbed a spare rope as she had used her rope to tie up Senthil. “Hello my fellow friends and enemies!” Ghazali greeted them as he appeared round the corner. “I need answers Ghazali! Deborah cried out, as firstly, she didn’t want Ghazali to look at Vikram’s and Legolas’s injuries to figure out something had happened and secondly, she wanted to know what really made Ghazali want to kidnap Firdaus. The rest prayed hard that Ghazali would not look down at the blood stained floor and Firdaus bowed his head down, feeling a bit of guilt that all this trouble and Vikram and Legolas getting hurt was all because of him. “Okay my love, anything for you” Ghazali replied and continued.

“The first time I saw you…I tried winning your heart…but no! I was not good enough for you! Firdaus was! Seeing you and him together laughing and smiling…I was so angry! So, I had no choice but to kill him because you did not want to let him go! But you had come to rescue him! And…” he started talking to himself, unaware of his surroundings, as he expressed his deep feelings. All of them, except Deborah, started to lose interest in him. Nadera and Vikram were holding hands and had their heads against each other, their eyes closed. It was very tiring for Vikram. He had lost quite a lot of blood and was starting to feel weak. But Nadera could not rest. There was noise coming next to Vikram. She opened her eyes and saw Baihakki and Zahira talking to each other. Everything came back to her. “How could I sleep at this moment!” she scolded herself and with great resistance, seeing Vikram so peacefully asleep, woke him up to reality and pain. Baihakki turned to Nadera and Vikram and winked at them. He mouthed what looked like a plan. Nadera smiled. ‘Good, they have a plan!’ Nadera passed the message and soon everyone was alert once more, including Deborah. Ghazali was still lost in his own words. Baihakki started creeping behind Ghazali. Deciding to help him, Nadera started to follow when suddenly, Ghazali turned around so fast that Nadera had no time to run back. Baihakki skillfully, must be a skill he learned in Soccer, moved to stand behind Ghazali “So, you got out of your rope!” he said, thank god, not looking at the place Baihakki was tied up which was thankfully, at a far corner under the shadows. Nadera wanting to distract him replied, “Yup! Senthil doesn’t know how to tie knots properly! Why do you have such useless unskillful people as your apprentice?” she replied cheekily. Behind Ghazali, Baihakki was trying to grab Ghazali’s arm so he could pin him down but was unsuccessful.

Suddenly Nadera heard a swift ‘whoosh’ noise behind her and an arrow flew just inches to Ghazali’s head. “What the hell?!” Ghazali cried out and he pushed Nadera away to grab Legolas. “Bend down!” Baihakki cried out to Nadera and he grabbed Ghazali’s arms. They both toppled to the floor. All of them jumped onto Ghazali to prevent him from running away accept Legolas and Vikram who were injured and just collapsed onto the ground. Deborah grabbed her rope and passed it to the others so they could tie him up. When doing so, they heard Deborah shout and heard her fall to the ground. They turned to look. Senthil had regained conscious and had managed to grab a rock with his foot and fling it to Deborah’s head very hard. Deborah lay on the ground unconscious. Luckily, she wasn’t bleeding so it was not a serious head injury. But still, Firdaus was furious. “No!!” he cried out and grabbed the rock and knocked it on Senthil’s head double hard. Senthil fell to the ground and was once again, unconscious. Firdaus then knocked Ghazali unconscious. “This is for trying to separate us” he said. He dropped the rock and ran to sit next to Deborah, trying to wake her up. “It will be no use,” Vikram said. “We must get her out of here and find water” Legolas advised. Nadera and Nisa turned around and stared at their own boyfriend’s wounds. How weak and pitiful they looked. Vikram’s leg had swollen and he looked very weak. “Come on. The faster we get out of here, the better. Then we can call the ambulance. Deborah also needs a check up to make sure she’s really all right.” Baihakki consoled. With tears swimming in their eyes, Nisa and Nadera nodded. They supported their boyfriends (Zahira helped support Legolas and Baihakki helped support Vikram). Firdaus easily lifted Deborah into his arms. Together, they made their way out of the cave. The sun shone brightly outside which blinded their eyes. Soon, they got used to the brightness. They took a ferry back to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. The officers there helped to call the ambulance and provided them with mineral water bottles. With his, Firdaus sprinkled water on Deborah’s face and gave the rest to Nisa and Nadera to wash Vikram’s and Legolas’s wounds. “Huh…what…” Deborah mumbled. “You fainted, that’s all. We are now at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal” Firdaus replied softly, stroking her hair. Their faces moved closer and closer… Oi! This is a public place!” Baihakki cried out and the rest of the girls giggled. The ambulance arrived. “We will follow you to the hospital” said Baihakki and Zahira. “Oh. Thank you!” the rest replied with gratefulness. All of them climbed into the ambulance, Vikram and Legolas in stretches, and it made its way to Changi Hospital (believed to be the nearest hospital to Tanah Merah).