Actually, all 5 girls had decided to sleep early. The long walk had tired them. But sleep was not easy; it just did not want to come. She wondered where Mr. Sandman (the one who brought sleep by sprinkling sand into the eyes), had disappeared.

There were no telephone towers and no landline cables, so there was no connectivity. No mobile data meant no access to what's app or any social networking site was available. They were practically cut off from the rest of the world. The SMS and normal calling facilities were also not working. Zia ma'am knew this would happen and had informed all of them. So, no one could connect to family and friends or access social sites. In addition, there was no YouTube. It felt like they were back in the 1980s when there were no mobiles. Actually, it was quite peaceful in a way, without disturbance from anyone.

Tomorrow morning, they would all a.s.semble and try to see if the guest house had a system whereby they could contact their relatives just to tell them that they were safe and enjoying themselves. If the guest house could not help then, of course, there was the Sat phone with Luke Sir. He had mentioned it.

Zoya was in the sleeping bags, warm and snuggled inside with eyes closed counting sheep as if the sheep were being led into an enclosure one at a time. But it just was not working. Sleep was still evasive.

She became restless and felt that she should not disturb her ma'am. Her restless was due to the unfamiliar place. No one can enjoy a good sleep in an unfamiliar place that too in a sleeping bag and that too at a camping site. There was a strange excitement within her as to what they all would do tomorrow. They had not been told. Would they do some experiments on water i.e. see the PH level of water or do some tests on the gra.s.s etc.? She looked to the side and saw her ma'am asleep. She lay as quietly as she could so as not to disturb Zia ma'am. She started to think about her ma'am.

Luke Sir liked Zia ma'am that was definite. In actual fact, she felt he loved her and had perhaps seen her a number of times earlier without her knowledge. He seemed to have become smitten by Zia ma'am. On the other hand, ma'am also liked Luke Sir but, it was not love as yet for ma'am. Maybe, by the end of this camping trip, things might progress in a positive direction. Her sixth sense told her that they were a couple that was made for each.

She then started thinking about her own life until today. What had happened in her life and what she wanted to achieve in her future.

Her father's name was Zack and her mother's name was Aisha and both of them belonged to City D. They had only one child and that was Zoya. She was born when her father was in his early 40s and her mother was in her late 30s. The parents had married early but fate did not bless them with a child. Her parents had almost given up on having their own children. Becoming hopeless, they were seriously thinking of going in for adoption and were on the verge of visiting various orphanages. But G.o.d granted them their long pending wish. All of a sudden Aisha found that she was pregnant and instead of visiting orphanages they now had to do a round of hospitals. Basically, late pregnancy is treated as a precious pregnancy and a lot of tests are carried out to ensure that the fetus is developing normally. She needed to go to the Gynecologist every month in the first 3 months taking folic acid tablets and calcium iron etc., thereafter going twice a month, and then once a week. The doctor would prescribe numerous tests and an ultrasound too after every month. The test was a urine test, blood sugar test, then glucose tolerance test, torch test, etc. The pregnancy was a G.o.d sent, a miracle for them. Since her parents knew a lot of things, she, while in her mom's stomach, used to listen to cla.s.sical music through headphones placed on her mom's stomach. Her mom used to read a lot. The newspapers, stories, general knowledge books, etc. Sometimes she would read aloud so that the voice would resonate into her stomach. She wanted to have an intelligent child. She read anything that was informative except articles or books on violence or murder as these would agitate the mother and the growing fetus.

When she was born, she was pampered a lot by her parents. Her mother was a working mom and took leave for a year to bring up her child. She even put her in a daycare center near her office so that she could regularly visit her. Whatever she desired, whether books or toys became a command for her parents. As she grew up, her I.Q. was found to be quite high for her age. Her parents knew they had a child genius in their home. She did not need to attend the nursery cla.s.ses as she was way ahead of her cla.s.s and was ready to be admitted into Cla.s.s1 in a primary school. To give her a better education her parents got themselves transferred to City B and left City D for good. They then got their daughter admitted into the primary section of the present High school she was studying in.

Here, she did very well in her studies. Her only compet.i.tor was Zen who seemed to be a child genius like herself. She liked him a lot but he seemed to be in his own world of studies and scientific inventions. He, like her, was a walking encyclopedia. His brain was so sharp that he could get you the information on any subject provided it related to physics or chemistry or their applied fields. In life sciences, she was considered an expert. Hence she got along with Zia ma'am and wanted to become like Zia ma'am .

She then took out her mobile and started to read the notes she had made about what Zia ma'am had said while they had walked through the different types of forests. This was in order to refresh herself on what all had transpired today.

After reading she shut her eyes and tried to sleep again. This time she did manage to sleep a little.

Early morning, around 5 a.m. she woke up due to the disturbance coming from outside their tent. There were screams, and grunts and of persons running here and there. Then there was firing from a gun. She got up immediately to move out of her tent to see what was happening. Zia ma'am also got up and they jumped out of their sleeping bags with difficulty and ran towards the tent opening. Zia ma'am unzipped the opening of the tent so that they could go outside. Just then someone fired another shot. It seemed that a wild animal had made its way to their tents and attacked one of the tents. But who could have fired a shot? Hope whichever animal it was, it was scared away by the gunshot and was not injured by a bullet fired from that gun.

The gunshot 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, she thought.