As soon as the girls bid all good night and headed for their tents to sleep, the boys also made their way towards their respective tents. Zen and Chris also bid good night to their fellow students, Zia ma'am, Luke Sir and Sherpa. Then they headed towards the end of the tents towards the cliff side as they had pitched their tent there. Others had protection of their tent but they would face the cold wind blowing down from the snow covered mountains from the cliff side.

Chris had been excited about the camping trip. He had read up about the area where the camping site was and he was intrigued with the three days trip. In a way it was an adventure. If things ran smoothly then there was nothing exciting about it. But if they encountered some difficulties and surmounted the obstacles, then the trip would really become adventurous. Looking at the mountains arising from below the cliff was a scene so beautiful. The moonlight was s.h.i.+ning on the mountains and the white silvery glow was being cast on the tents. The sky was so clear that one could see clearly even a few bats flying around on the other side of the hills from where they had come.

Chris had a premonition that they would not be going back the way they had taken when they came here to this camping site.

Chris was psychic since birth and could gauge many things to happen in future including danger. It was quite uncanny. Sometimes in cla.s.s, he would get to know what would be the next question, the teacher would be writing on the board. Sometimes, he was on the 2nd question which had not even been written on the board yet. He had checked this premonition thing a number of times. Because of this he wanted to study further into ESP in Russia. Even in India they had things like Past Life Regression which he knew would help him deal with people with mental trauma they had carried into this life from the previous life.

He saw that his tent mate was also getting into his sleeping bag.

But sleep was evasive. Anyway, he also decided to jump into his sleeping bag. He tried to sleep by counting backward from 100, then he also started counting sheep but nothing was happening. He was also restless and unable to sleep. After all, it was not his bed and his bedroom at home. The comfort of one's bed and one's home is the best.

Ultimately, he tried to visualize his mother singing him a lullaby that she used to sing to him when he was a toddler. He had to sleep as lights were out and there was nothing to do to pa.s.s time till sleep would take over. Without phones life was extremely difficult. He could not even read his favorite novels on web-novels.

Chris knew they were cut off from everyone. He also wondered how people managed when there was no connectivity in the past before mobiles and internet. He belonged to the present generation, and regarded that period prior to the coming of mobile phones with internet facilities as practically the formatting of the present era.

However, most kids regarded that time as practically the dark ages. In the 1980s, you had those landline phones which were the push b.u.t.ton types. Earlier than that, the phones had a dialing system where slots were from numbers 1 to 0 and you had to place your index finger in one slot then dial it all the way around one after another to dial a number and call someone. His father used to tell him all these things. Even with those types of phones, mankind was able to launch numerous s.p.a.ce visits including a landing on the moon in 1969. Progress is a continuous process and it takes time.

Anyway, it was quite peaceful without phones ringing everywhere. He was always disgusted watching people on their mobiles all the time. Even when driving or while crossing the road one would encounter such persons who could not stay away from their mobiles even for a minute. These chaps were a hazard to others as well as themselves and was quite a major cause of accidents as they walked looking into their phones and drove while looking into their phones. Technology had its disadvantages too.

In the morning he would try to contact his parents. They all had been interacting with their friends and family till the forest area. The guest-house should be having a system whereby they could contact their relatives just to tell them that they were safe. If the guest-house could not help then, of course, there was the Sat phone with Luke Sir. He had mentioned that he possessed one when they were trekking to this camping site.

Chris felt that Zen had finally fallen asleep as he could not hear any movement from the sleeping bag of Zen.

He still could not sleep due to the restlessness, as well as the psychological reaction of sleeping in an unfamiliar place. He could not sleep well in an unfamiliar place that too in a sleeping bag on the first day. Maybe another night and he would get used to sleeping in a tent at the camping site.

Luke Sir and Zia ma'am were heading for becoming a couple and love was in the air, maybe wedding bells too by the end of the year. Luke Sir seems to have fallen in love with Zia ma'am some time ago but it seems they were literally meeting for the first time today. He seemed to have been watching over her in a nice protective way of course. Zia ma'am was a reserved person and it would take her some time to be at Luke Sir's level in respect of getting emotional about him. Maybe by the end of this camping trip, she might really come to like him immensely which would turn into love later on?

He then recalled his life till the present. His father's name was Steve and he worked at the clinic of a Doctor as the compounder. His mother's name was Nomi and she was the attendant there. In addition they were both spiritual healers. Chris had a younger sister named Vinita who was studying in this school.

His parents possessed this G.o.d given gift. His sister was likewise gifted. Being intelligent, he managed to teach himself from the internet, what all he wanted to know about his G.o.d's gift. There was a lot of information on the net if you really wanted to learn something. He liked to read a lot and gauged a lot of information from the internet or by watching the Discovery and other such channels to enhance his knowledge.

His plan was to study Psychology and become a Psychologist. His knowledge and the G.o.d's gift that he possessed would help him to heal his patients. He wanted to learn Hypnotism as well as Past Life Regression.

He had become quite independent from an early stage and could manage to look after himself and his sister, Vanita. His mother and father were busy people, giving their children as much time as they could.

Slowly he started feeling drowsy and his eyelids started to droop. After a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

It was around 5 a.m. that Chris awoke with a start due to the huge disturbance coming from outside their tent. He could hear the sounds of screams from one of the boys, and then there were grunt sounds as if it was a pig or a bear. Thereafter there was the sound of persons running. After that, there was the sound of gunfire. Chris and Zen jumped out of their sleeping bags immediately and rushed towards the opening of the tent. Chris quickly unzipped the opening of the tent so that they could go outside. Just as they were exiting the tent they heard another shot being fired.

It was probably a wild animal, probably a wild boar or a bear, that had made its way to their tents and attacked one of the tents. But whose tent was attacked and who could have fired a shot? It would probably be that of Danny and Ben as Ben was always hungry and had carried a lot of homemade snacks in his backpack. He had a habit of eating in bed. The fragrance of the food he was eating may have scattered throughout the night and spread to where the bears were camping. After all bears also need to eat.

Hopefully, whichever animal it was, would have been scared away by the gunshot. Hopefully, it was not injured as an injured wild animal is dangerous.

The gunshots must have been fired by Luke Sir, Didn't he say that he was always prepared for any eventuality. He must be carrying a gun for using in such an eventuality.