Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 71: Where'd They Go?

As the various forces in C City scrambled to send help, over in Sahyadri Mountain Resort Villa, Shehnaaz and Parth had just gotten into Little Mirror Lake. They quickly swam towards left wing.

Shehnaaz and Parth clung to the steps leading to left wing’s back door as they peered at the lights moving about in the courtyard.

The two Big Circle Boys had searched high and low through all six rooms with their flashlights. They had worked up a sweat, but still hadn’t found the three students they were
looking for.

“F*cking sh*t! Are they even here?!”
As soon as the words were out, the two men looked towards right wing.

If they weren’t here, then they could only be in one other place – right wing!

Two classes had come to the resort villa, after all!

The two gangsters grinned nastily. They immediately raised their walkie-talkies to report to their leader, Jeetu.

“Boss! They’re not here!”

…

Shehnaaz’s heart sank. She knew things had taken a turn for the worse. She hurriedly swam back to right wing,
pulling Parth behind her.

They managed to return to right wing  ahead of the two gangsters.

Shehnaaz was now anxiously pleading with her classmates.

“We can’t stay here any longer. They’ve realised the students they want aren’t in left wing. They’ll be here any minute now!”

“There’s twenty of us, and only two of them. What’s there to be afraid of?!” A male student raised his fist and slammed it down on a table, hard.

Shehnaaz’s eyes were as bright as stars in the dark. She calmly said, “I’m not afraid of them. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t make unnecessary sacrifices. They have guns. That alone is good enough reason for us to keep our distance. We cannot go up against them.”

“Sana is right.” Parth was the first to agree. “We don’t have any weapons. There’s no way we can fight them
off.”

“If these were just regular thugs armed with knives, we may have a chance of overpowering them. But they have top-of-the-line rifles. What are we going to do, jump them bare-handed and hope they run out of bullets?” Shehnaaz held her phone tight in her hand. “This is my plan: we’ll get into
the lake and swim to the other side.”
Four or five of her classmates cried out: “What? But I can’t swim!”

Shehnaaz turned to look at Parth. “Class Rep, let’s have the swimmers help tow those who can’t swim. We
need to get into the water, now!”

The nightmarish situation he had just been in flashed through Parth’s mind. He did not hesitate. “Everyone get in the lake, stat! Don’t delay – or you’ll have to face the consequences!”

Shehnaaz pulled the non-swimmer nearest to her, one of her female classmates. “Follow me.”

The other classmates saw that Shehnaaz, the youngest among them, had not hesitated to offer her help to a non-swimmer. Their courage swelled at this sight. They quickly divided themselves into groups, spreading the non-swimmers among them, and silently walked out the back door of right wing and onto the terrace. There, they descended the steps leading into the lake.

Rain was still pouring relentlessly, spattering the surface of the lake like beads upon a plate – the noise was loud enough to cover the sound of the students getting into the lake.

The last student from Class One to get off the terrace had just disappeared into the water when a deafening clang
sounded from the main gate in the front yard.