• Tags: Family, Terrorists, Escaping
• Time: Exact date unknown, morning.
• Location: Exact location unknown, countryside, traditional courtyard.
• Characters: My dad, my mom, me, other family members whose appearances I can’t remember.

The weather was great, a sunny day. The whole family was outside at the washstand, brushing our teeth. While I was still rinsing my mouth, a group of people came in from the alley. There were people of all ages, men and women. I was curious about how outsiders could just stroll into someone else’s courtyard like that. They scattered around the central yard, doing their own things—some were looking at the sky, some at the ground, some talking—completely at ease, treating it like their own backyard.

“Lower your head, stop staring.” my mom nudged me, as if continuing to look would lead to something bad happening.

And indeed, something did happen.

They stayed for quite a while, and then, as if triggered by an alarm, their movements suddenly synchronized, and they left our house. The next second, my mom frantically told us to run and escape as quickly as possible. We fled the courtyard as if our lives depended on it, and when we finally stopped to catch our breath, I still couldn’t figure out what had happened.

My mom finally explained, “They came to plant bombs. If we had found out in time, we would have been killed right then.” We had encountered terrorists, so we had to pretend we didn’t know and flee immediately afterward. It was terrifying.

But… there was no explosion? What was going on?

“Should we go back and check? We didn’t hear anything.” I couldn’t help but glance in the direction of our house. I can’t remember if we actually went to check, and then everything went black. I felt nothing.