Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 21: Finally Awake

Shehnaaz's eyes moved rapidly under her eyelids. It was as though she was trying very hard to wake up, but could
not open her eyes.

She had never felt so tired. Her mind was trapped in an endless dream. In her dream, she had gone back to the very beginning of her known
memories: the car accident she had
been in when she was 12. She remembered the raging fire in the car. She also remembered that Sidharth was the one who had rescued her from a car that was only moments away from exploding.

Of course, she hadn't known the name of her savior, not during that first meeting. But, she remembered him-she remembered that he had saved her from the burning car.

She had no memory of who she was, where she had come from, or where she was headed. She did not remember where she had lived, or where her parents were.

The car she had been riding in would have served as the most important clue, had it not been reduced to ash in that massive explosion, leaving only a huge crater in the ground.

It was such a perfect coincidence-so much so that it seemed almost deliberate. However, the Imperial Army had not been able to detect any trace of explosives from the crater.
But surely a simple gasoline explosion could not have caused such a massive ball of fire to form?

She could not even remember who the driver of the car had been.

In her dream, she relived the tragedy from six years ago.

Her 12-year old self was crying hysterically,desperately trying to get out of the car. It was Sidharth who had retrieved her from the twisted and burning pile of metal, and shielded her from the blast.

When she was rescued she had been like a small animal.

She made to bite anyone who tried to approach her. She trusted no one, and ignored everyone- except her savior,
Sidharth.

He was the only one whom she trusted.

Sidharth had been only 22 years old when he first met her. He had just been transferred back to his country after a stint abroad; the military had tasked him with the honor of setting up the Special Operations Forces.
At the time, he had been the only person who could communicate with her. The Imperial Army prudently made the decision to have Sidharth be her guardian.

...

Shehnaaz mumbled and tossed
uneasily in her sleep.

Her long-forgotten memories seemed within her grasp now. Her heart raced, faster and faster, and her head began to hurt.

She grit her teeth and tried hard to remember because, this time,
something was different. There was now an airplane in her memory.

The plane was up in the blue sky, soaring among white clouds. It had "MH210" painted on the fuselage in blood-red letters, large and striking.
She had seen this plane once, before the car she was riding in exploded.
She was so close to breaking through the mist shrouding her memory, so close to remembering what had happened before the accident six years ago. The effort was almost too
much for her brain.

It did not make any sense. She remembered seeing the plane descend from the sky while she sat inside the car. At the same time, she recalled
that the car crash had taken place on a bustling city street, far from any airport, and there had been no trace of the plane anywhere.

Shehnaaz's hands were clenched tight in her sleep. Her brow was deeply wrinkled. The equipment monitoring Shehnaaz's brain activity immediately sounded a keening alarm.

Sandeep quickly prepared a large needle and injected Shehnaaz with a sedative, forcefully interrupting her dreams so she could go back to a deep sleep. This was to protect Shehnaaz's brain from being damaged by an overload of brain activity. She had been out for a week now; Sandeep did not think her frail body could
withstand the abnormally strong
brain activity. What she needed right now was a good sleep. She would be
up and about the next morning.