Everyone in the canteen was a statue, so there was no one to make breakfast for them. Zia and Luke got busy extracting Orange juice, making the porridge for everyone, making toasts as well as eggs of the non vegetarians and toasts and beans for the vegetarians. A pot of coffee and a pot of tea were set to brew.They took a break when most of the work was done. It was too hot in the cooking area. Mono and Zoya was asked to keep stirring the porridge and make the tea and coffee while Zia and Luke took a breather.
Luke asked Zia to sit at the table in the canteen besides which was a pedestal fan. He pulled out a chair and sat right opposite her at the same table.
He had been looking for an opportunity to let her get to know him and thought of starting first. She told him that he sang well and why did he not make singing a profession. But he replied saying if he had, then they would not be talking to each other which in a way, was quite true. She told him she had not liked him the first day she met him near the bus at the starting point of the trek. But he proved himself to be a very dependable person at the camp, by first helping the children pitch the tents, then by shooting at the bear that had tried to attack the camp, then soothing the fears of the frightened children then there was the descending the cliff, then trying to call for help through satellite phone and looking for places where they all could be located from above finally the issue to try to get all the group persons to the base camp via a different route.
Finally and unintentionally, they all had got an opportunity to experience an adventure of a lifetime, to share with their children and grandchildren.
Luke was very happy with all the praises he had received from Zia. Though she insisted that these were not praises but facts. He asked Zia what she meant that they had been given an opportunity to experience an adventure of a lifetime, to share with their children and grandchildren. While asking he was looking at her with a strange expression and said her reply was important to him.
He suddenly asked if she was planning to get married real soon to have children and grandchildren to tell the adventure story to? Zia was tongue tied. What was this guy imagining?
She replied that it was nothing like that and he responded that how can she even think of getting married to any other person when he was here and loved you. He wanted to be around her always.
Zia was zapped; she did not know where to look. He was confessing to her about who much he loved her. He did not even know her and she told him that he did not know her how he could talk about loving her.
He replied that he had known her for ages but had met her face to face when she had got off the bus. It was love at first sight for him and she can ask his friend Sherpa if she wanted any confirmation.
She would definitely talk to Sherpa as soon as she could.
Just then the rest of the group members came down accompanied by the Orbs emitting light. That meant end of any private conversations. All of them were carrying bags that contained their clothes. Mono, Luke, Zoya and Zia had already brought their city clothes with them when they had come to the canteen.
Everyone bid each other "good morning" Mono and Zoya started handing out the breakfast to all of them. Zia and Luke also got up and started serving tea/coffee to all. Thereafter they took their breakfast to their table by the pedestal fan and started eating. Sherpa joined them and so did Mono. No one spoke everyone wanted to finish their meal and start for the next part of their journey.
"Breakfast over, now we need to make our way to the same tunnel where we got off at the receiving landing pad." Mono informed.
"Let"s go everyone, keep your clothes with you, we will put them in the locker at the launching pad."
Soon they were off with the Orbs surrounding them. It took about 15 minutes to reach the launching pad. All the three guys who had been there were still in statue position.
"Give me your bags." Mono said and he collected them placed them in the locker. "On the way back we will collect them as we will have to come via the routes we have take."
You must have seen there were two similar landing pads for going on the other side. One was for Town J and another for Town M. We will go to the other side and take the Cars for Town J." he added. "We cannot go to Town M directly from any Town except from Town I, the reason being that the direct tunnels had caved in or had been deliberately destroyed 50 years ago."
"Like last time we will be using four electric cars moving in our travel tunnels and these cars work on electric energy harnessed from the small waterfalls at all the towns. We will reach Town J in less than half an hour as our cars go very fast. Town J is about 150 km away and is parallel to Town I. on the other side of the snow covered mountains."
The Orbs kept them covered in spite of all persons having turned to statues and the CCTV cameras being stopped, they were not taking any chances. Even if one person escaped becoming a statue then there could be a witness who could see them pa.s.sing through these tunnels.
The cars were well made without steering wheels. They could see the speedometer in front adjacent to the panel which had a lot of b.u.t.tons. They were asked, through a loudspeaker system in each car, not to press any b.u.t.tons as all the cars were controlled by the lead car. Such action, if attempted by anyone, even by mistake, would affect diversion of that car elsewhere.
They all sat in 4 cars. Mono sat in the first car along with Luke, Sunny, and Danny. Sherpa sat in the second car along with Ben and Chris. Zia sat in the third car with Zoya, Nanu, and Shana. Zen sat in the fourth car along with Tina and Cathy.
The Orbs did not need cars. They just hovered above the cars in a ring-like manner. The group noticed that there was no steering wheel in any of the cars. The cars did not have wheels but glided on a thick steel rod like aperture. Mono pressed a few b.u.t.tons in the lead car and all the cars started moving together with one another through the long tunnel.
The group members understood the announcement. They all knew how drastic the results would be if they did not follow instructions.
There was nothing to see outside except a long winding tunnel which went on and on. The sides of the tunnel were having lights at regular intervals to ensure that the tunnel would not be in dark. The journey was quite tedious as there was nothing to do. Some persons took a short nap, others were thinking about themselves or about what was to happen at Town J.
Within 20 minutes they reached the landing pad at the arrival tunnel of Town J. The cars stopped at their respective slots and the doors opened. Everyone was surrounded by the Orbs emitting white light.
They got out of the cars and started to follow Mono. They all saw three hazy statues in various stages of doing something. It was just like what they had seen when they had reached the departure tunnel at Town M and Town I. Since this was also another town that was far away, it was less on the visiting list. Hence, there were fewer people at the entry tunnel.