Planet Earth,

UAE, Dubai.

Year 2019,

The city of Dubai is inarguably one of the most prosperous cities in the world. Located on the northeastern coastline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is also the global business centre of the Middle East. It is the city of rich folks who enjoy their lives to the fullest, never care for the poor in the slightest, but at the same time, it is also a city of dreams for expats who come from poorer parts of the world just like our protagonist.

In this city of rich, there's an area for the poor as well, in the labour camps as to say. These expats came from their home countries hoping to earn some money and send back to their families so they won't have to starve.

Our protagonist is just like these foolish people who work their *** off day and night, but still ended up being a failure. But as the saying goes 'Every dog has its day', his days are going to come as well, very soon, it would not only be a Grand event for him but also for the whole world…

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Khalid labour camp.

In this old, badly-conditioned labour camp, a young man could be seen sleeping on the bottom bunk of a double-bunk bed, suddenly his smartphone started to ring loudly indicating that someone was calling him. That young man immediately opened his eyes and looked at his smartphone with a sleepy expression on his face, to see who was calling him this early at 3 AM, but it was an unknown number.

He picked up the call and questioned the caller in Arabic with an annoyed tone.

"Who is it? Don't you know it's 3 AM here ?".

A familiar voice answered him.

" It's me, Omar, yesterday my phone fell from the building and got broken."

"Why did you call me now? You should be at your delivery right now."

"Don't tell me you forgot about that?"

"About wha…."

"My God, you really forgot about today's consignment? I'm glad that I called you now or else you would be still sleeping like a log. Go change into your uniform and hurry you're going to be late, if you were to delay any longer, I would call you later."

Hearing this, he became thunderstruck, he ended the call without even thanking his colleague. He then stormed toward his bathroom with a uniform in his hand. 20 minutes later, he came out of the bathroom with a uniform on his body, without wasting a single second more, he walked toward the exit of the building in a hurry.

He stopped at the road looking for a taxi so that he can reach his workplace fast. After waiting for a while, he noticed that there wasn't a single taix on the road.

"Has every taxi driver in this city died or something?"

After waiting a bit more, a taxi came toward him, he screamed while waving his hand at the taxi.

"Hey stop, it's urgent, take me to Zakiya Imports and Exports located in Al quoz industrial area 3, you can have a few dirhams extra, just take me there."

The taxi driver was an old man, he was yawning, indicating that he didn't get enough sleep, he looked at the young man who suddenly jumped in the middle of the road.

"There's no need to jump in the middle of the road, I wasn't going to refuse anyway, jump on."

He opened up the door and sat on the taxi while still mumbling something.

"Man I'm running late today, hope someone just takes care of my consignment."

20 minutes later, his taxi arrived at Al Quoz industrial area 3 and he got off the taxi, paid that old driver a few extra dirhams just as he promised, he then ran toward his workplace without wasting a single moment more.

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5 minutes later,

Al Zakiya Imports and Exports.

A middle-aged man could be seen walking to and fro waiting for someone at the front entrance while having an angry expression on his face.

"Where is he? Doesn't he know he has to deliver the goods to our client by 8 AM? With many requests, I got him this job but he's going to have me fire too for recommending him."

"I guess he's late now, I gotta assign someone to get the job done." He sighed and just as he was about to go inside, suddenly a voice came from behind "Riyaz, Riyaz wait for me."

"So you're finally here huh? Haven't I told you about this consignment around 6 days ago, why are you late?"

"Sorry something just came up last night, I slept quite late yesterday."

"I was going to assign someone else to do the job and the whole schedule would've been messed up but you're here now so it's fine, here catch."

Riyaz threw a bunch of keys towards him.

"Take the truck number 4, Omar just finished his work, that truck is vacant right now. I know you haven't done your breakfast yet, so after delivering the stuff, you should stop at a nearby restaurant around Abu Dhabi and have your fill, I don't want to be known as a boss who works his employees on an empty stomach." Riyaz chuckled while walking to his office.

"Okay." Said Bilal and went directly to the back of the office where all the trucks are located.

He started the truck and left for his consignment without wasting any more time.

UAE, Abu Dhabi.

"Ah, I've finally arrived here, now I just need to free the courier from the customs and deliver it to Tarif(1), then everything would be all done." said Bilal.

After a long, arduous 2 hours journey, he finally arrived at Abu Dhabi, it was a total of 140 kilometres of journey from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, now he just needed to do some paperwork while the other things like custom duty, receiver identification, etc would be taken care of by his employer, because he worked for a renowned registered courier service.

Al Zakiya, the company he worked for is a well-renowned courier service throughout the Gulf countries and they had their branches all over the place, and Riyaz whom he worked for was just a small-time branch manager. Although he was a manager, he didn't have many rights to operate on his own, even the selection of workers is done by the company. That's why, just to get Bilal a job in his branch, he had to do multiple requests.

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Abu Dhabi International Airport.

"Let's see where the customs office is." Bilal took out his smartphone, reading the text message Riyaz sent him when he was driving.

[Terminal 3, Enquire at Counter 7, Parcel no: 6543A would be coming from Flight no. 26790. To be delivered by 9 AM don't be late!]

"Huh, Terminal 3? Is it coming from America?" Although he was quite surprised after finding out about the origin of the courier, he quickly got over it as he was getting late.

After wandering for ten more minutes, he finally arrived at Terminal 3 and quickly found the customs office too, by enquiring at Counter 7. When he arrived there, he went directly to the reception to demand the courier.

A beautiful young lady was sitting at the reception no 4 receiving guests one by one. He went there, so he could at least please his eyes. But by the time his turn came, the young lady got replaced by a Middle-aged man instead.

Then the middle-aged man asked him in a robotic voice without a hint of emotion "How can I help you, sir?"

"I'm from a courier service and come here for a parcel coming from flight no. 26790."

"OK let me check." After saying that, he quickly started tapping on the keyboard in a very professional way, like he's been doing this for quite some years already.

"Sir, please write the parcel number on this form along with some details with your signature on it and give me your ID for a second." He handed him a form and gestured his hand asking for his ID.

"Okay, here's my ID." Said Bilal, took out his ID and passed it through the small hole at counter's window.

"Sir, just wait for a second, I'll be right back"

By the time he's done filling the details, the receptionist came back to him.

"Here's your ID sir, have you filled out all the details?"

"Yes, what were you checking out by the way?" asked Bilal while handing out the form.

"We were checking whether you are a real employee of the courier company or not, here take this slip and go to the storage room and you would find your parcel there, have a good day sir." Said the middle-aged man while passing him a printed paper slip with some barcodes and minor details on it.

"Ok." Said Bilal and left for the storage room in a hurry.

He arrived at the storage room after a few minutes of walking but was stopped at the entrance of the storage room by the airport security.

"What do you want here? There is storage area ahead, do you have any clearance given by the counter?" The security guard asked him in a semi-threatening tone.

"Yes, I have it." Bilal said with a frown on his face while passing the clearance slip.

"OK, go to that guy he'll help you to find your parcel." Said the guard while pointing toward a worker in a blue suit.

After arriving where the guard was pointing at, Bilal gestured towards the worker and the worker immediately came toward him and asked. "How can I help you, sir?"

"Help me find this parcel." He said while passing the clearance to him.

"Okay sir, come with me." That worker took him toward the inner side of the storage area, that place was just too busy, dozens of workers were roaming to and fro in all directions doing their jobs, and many forklifts were lifting and placing humongous boxes made up of many different materials.

"26790 6543A, 26790 6543A, 26790 6543A...." The worker was mumbling the code while searching for the parcel, his search ended on a big box wrapped in a layer of polyethene with a silver tag over it.

"Here's your parcel sir, it would require a forklift to move it, I'll be right back with a forklift." Said the worker and hurried off to the distance.

"I wasn't informed it's gonna be this heavy, I would've taken the office's trolley, how I'm gonna deload it at the destination now? Sigh!" He ranted while cursing his bad luck.

Then the worker came back with a forklift and lifted the parcel and asked: "Where's your vehicle located at, sir?"

"It's at the parking lot on floor 3."

"OK, let's go"

Both of them arrived at the parking lot when Bilal pointed towards a truck in the distance and said.

"You see that Red and Blue striped truck on the 3rd row? That's the one."

Bilal quickly got off the forklift and opened up the backdoor of the delivery truck with the keys in his hands.

"Put it in the middle of the space right there."

"Move aside for a moment sir, it can be dangerous if you stay there"

"Okay sure."

The worker gracefully placed down the box in a very skilled manner with his forklift and said "All done sir, I gotta get going."

"Hey wait!" said our hero while taking out a five Dirham(2) cash from his side pocket and gave it to the worker as a tip.

"No sir, it isn't allowed for us to take tips." The worker protested not taking the tip.

"It's alright just take it, I quite like your service." Said Bilal while persuading the worker.

"If you are insisting then I'll take it." He took the tip and went off into the distance on his forklift.

Abu Dhabi International Airport

Floor 3 Parking lot.

Time was flying really fast by the time he freed the parcel from the customs and loaded it into his truck, it was already 5 AM, and he has to deliver it at Tarif by 9 AM, it was a good thing that he left Dubai early by 3:30 AM.

'Now, I'll just take the Abu Dhabi-Ghweifat International Highway and will directly arrive at Tarif in 3 hours according to the map's estimation.' Thought Bilal while driving his truck at 50 kmph.

10 mins later, he left the Abu Dhabi area and proceeded toward the International highway, suddenly his progression came to a halt because of the scene ahead of him.

He saw barricades blocking off the Highway completely, on one barricade there was a green board with some words written on it in Arabic.

[ Due to the sudden appearance of a sandstorm further commutation is restricted from here onwards, Kindly reverse your vehicles and go back.

~With regards UAE Government ]

"What the hell!? A sandstorm? Why haven't I heard it in yesterday's news?" Bilal subconsciously blurted out.

He then looked around and saw a few cars looking at the barricade with the same expression as him. Getting off his truck he walked towards them in a hurry with hopes of obtaining some useful information.

"As-salaamu Alaikum(1), by any chance do you guys know why the road is blocked? I haven't heard of a sandstorm in yesterday's news" asked Bilal to strangers.

"No, I just arrived here I don't know what's going on." random stranger 1 replied.

"I'm quite surprised too, as a frequent passer-by on this Highway it's the first time I've seen it being blocked." random stranger 2 replied while sighing.

"I haven't heard of a sandstorm either" random stranger 3 replied with an unusual expression on his face.

After failing to get any useful information he analyzed the situation and thought of a solution 'There's no use waiting here anymore, everyone is just as clueless as me, Besides I'm also getting late I should better get going via an alternate route.'

He quickly ran back to his truck and set the gear in reverse while driving it away in the opposite direction.

' Even if I were to be late I can just apologize to the client'

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10 mins later,

Abu Dhabi - Liwa Road.

He drove the truck at its fastest speed and arrived at the Abu Dhabi - Liwa Road in just 10 minutes, but what he saw ahead ignited the flame of anger within him. He saw the same barricade with the same green board on it.

[ Due to the sudden appearance of a sandstorm further commutation is restricted from here onwards, Kindly reverse your vehicles and go back.

~With regards UAE Government ]

"Are you kidding me right now? Is every path to Tarif blocked?

Damn this sandstorm" Bilal cursed the supposed 'sandstorm'.

'It's not my fault that the parcel isn't gonna be delivered at the time, I better call Riyaz and report him what happened so he can handle the client.' thought Bilal while taking out his phone and dialing Riyaz's number.

"Hello Riyaz, it's me"

"Have you delivered it?"

"No, something just came up"

"What happened?"

"I freed the parcel from the customs and was on my way to Tariq but supposedly all the road to Tariq is blocked due to some supposed sandstorm, now tell me what should I do" Bilal reported the situation to him with the best of his ability.

A few seconds later Riyaz replied back to him

" Take a photo of that barricade and send it to me by the time have your breakfast in a nearby restaurant, I'll call you back in sometime"

"Okay." Bilal said in a dull voice and ended the call. He then clicked the picture of that barricade with his phone and sent it to Riyaz via the WhatsApp app.

'Ah, let's see if a restaurant is still open'

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After driving for quite some time he finally arrived at a good restaurant that is still open with the help of his smartphone.

'Technology has become quite useful and efficient these days' he thought.

The name of the restaurant was 'King of Middle east' it was quite an ambitious name but at the same time very controversial and dangerous to the owners, but this had nothing to do with him as he was just there to get his breakfast.

Bilal parked his truck in the lot and went inside the restaurant. Although it's just 5:30 somehow the restaurant was almost full and there were also many workers having their fill. Entering the restaurant he found himself an empty seat beside the window and looked at the menu.

Although the menu wasn't that diverse it still had most of the commonly eaten dishes. Besides Bilal isn't a picky eater either, not worrying about the parcel anymore he quickly decided what to eat.

He gestured towards the waiter and the waiter came to him with a smile on his face.

"What can I get you?"

"Bring me one shawarma, one raqaq with some date syrup"

"OK, just 2 minutes" the waiter quickly wrote down what he just said and ran towards the kitchen.

10 minutes later the same waiter came to his table with a middle-sized tray in his hands, on that tray there were two plates containing the shawarma and 2 Raqaq breads within it and a small porcelain bowl containing the Date syrup.

Just when he was about to munch down the food, his phone started ringing.

"It's me, have you eaten your breakfast?"

"No, I was just going to do it, what happened with the client?"

"The client didn't pick up my call, so I reported it to the main branch and don't worry, you won't be in trouble. Just come back to Dubai with the parcel."