Daneen

"Oh dear God! I forgot my stethoscope in the drawer." Cried Zehra, who was hysterically pulling out all the luggage off her suitcase. I was at the seat right next to her. Although, our van was moving at a reasonably passive pace, but the gruelling drive on rutted dirt road was potentiating the mess Zehra had created. Her things were rolling and rumbling all over the floor of our ride.

"You use DIVA!?" We heard Yousuf, exclaiming at the back seat with an insinuation of judgmental element to that statement. Zehra poked her head from behind the seat to pass him an indignant glare.

"You know Yousuf, it's impertinent to judge people, especially a girl, on the choice of deodorant she use." She stated, while walking towards Yousuf to fetch her property. A scornful sneer spread across his face as he handed her the bottle.

Yousuf was a competitive and contemptuous guy by nature, but since he was the most genius brain of our class, we used to call him Big Brain. By genius I meant a high achiever, not a discoverer or innovator. He was best at memorizing books. It isn't like it was a foul method or something, but I believed that being a doctor demand more commitment than just memorizing each artery and nerve pathway.

I helped her in collecting the dispersed items to some extent and provided her some reassurance,

"Stethoscope wasn't a compulsion for this medical camp Zehra. It's okay. You can examine the patients without it as well or when necessary, you can use mine."

She threw me a sardonic smile at my incisive analysis and said,

"Hey lady! I'm not whining about it because I'm passionate to examine patients. Nah! I just wanted to swag around the town with a steth dangling around my neck."

"Oh good gracious Lord!" I cried while holding my head in my hands and continued,

"Please give me courage and strength to bear this imbecile, clogged headed creature. Amen."

I finished my plea with a swift skim of my palms over my face. She chuckled on the sincerity of my prayer. Our bus came to halt in next couple of minutes. As everyone stood up to unload their belongings from the luggage shelves, Dr. Asma and Dr. Murtaza, our supervisors for the trip addressed us all with a loud clap.

"Students! We're here. Please pick your belongings and try not to forget anything in this vehicle as it will be heading back to the campus." Dr. Asma said.

She was a humble lady with long curly pitch-black hair, very lean habitus, round contact glasses and sharp straight nose. She wasn't very fond of 'communication' therefore, she choose to become a pathologist, so that she could spend majority of her time behind the lens of microscope.

On the contrary, Dr. Murtaza was a hardcore, stern-looking orthopedic surgeon. He didn't used to talk much, but when he did, no one ever dared to interrupt him. He once slapped a colleague with his gloved hand for not being in operating room on time. Since, he was a major revenue generator for the hospital, he was left with just a warning notification after that incident.

"Now! Rules!" Dr. Asma continued,
"Rule number one, No one goes anywhere without reporting me or Dr. Murtaza."
"Rule number two, do not engage in any conflicting or political conversation with the residents of this village."
"Rule number three, everyone should be in their camps by 7 in the evening."
"Rule number four, maintain the discipline. Remember! You're doctors. Act like one!"
"And the last rule, take all precautionary measures to avoid contracting any communicable disease. Got it?"

Everyone passed a faint nod without an obvious agreement. So she repeated,

"Are we all on the same page?"

We called out unanimously,

"Yes Dr. Asma!"

"Good" She said. With that acknowledgement, she turned to Dr. Murtaza who was busy with his phone. He seemed frustrated and that wasn't a good sign. Intending to capture his attention, Dr. Asma uttered an 'eham'. He looked up, blank faced, frustrated and blank faced, eyeing her to inquire about the matter. So she added,

"Dr. Murtaza, would you like to add something?"

He looked in our direction, still blank faced with frustrated features on his sharp cut face. He raised a finger towards us and said,

"Behave yourselves."

That was more than sufficient to spark the chills in our spines. We nodded unanimously and started getting down from the van. It was 8 in the morning. We left from our campus at around 7 in the evening. So it was almost about 13 past hours that we had wasted on the road. I just hoped that it worth all the trouble.

"Daneen!" As I was busy calculating the ride hours, Dr. Asma called my name,

"Yes Dr. Asma?" I inquired while picking up my luggage.

"You're group leader."

With that, she turned around to walk to the village door without acknowledging my silent protest. What! Me! Group leader! I didn't even knew how to lead my own life. How could I lead all seven of them to pull off a successful field trip. I looked at Zehra who had a satisfactory smirk on her face.

"What's so amusing Zehra?" I asked in agitation,

She eyed me to look in Yousuf's direction who had an apparent displeasure and disappointment in his body language.

"Doctors! Gather around please."

Dr. Asma called us from where she was standing with what seemed like a bunch of local folks. There were five senile man stood behind a guy who appeared to be the elder one of that town. Beside him was a guy, young one actually, an attractive young one. Dr. Asma introduced me as a group leader and him, the elder one, to me as Maulana Asghar, Imam of that village. He shook my hand, but I straight away sensed the lascivious personality that was hidden behind that pious incognito. I pulled my hand out of his grip in considerably courteous but firm manner. Next to him was that young guy. He didn't offered me to shook his hand. Instead, he bowed down a bit with a gentle smile diffused in between his perfect jawline and cheek bones, and greeted us warmly.

"Welcome to our village doctor!" he said,

Maulana Asghar introduced him to me as Shan Jamali, student of information technology at Balochistan University of IT and told us that he'll be our guide throughout that tour.

"Thanks Mr. Jamali." I said,

Rest of the day passed by in unpacking the boxes of medical supplies, hammering the tent nails, making list of things we had to do and organizing our camps for the seven nights.

I was laying down on an inflatable sleeping mattress with a designed pillow top, perfect for camping. We stationed three camps. All ladies which included me, Zehra, Dr. Asma and one of our colleague Sarah were staying in one camp. Second camp was for four boys and Dr. Murtaza. Well the third one was storage camp for medical supplies where two guards were staying who came with us. Oh! Did I mentioned the two security guards already?

As par the deal I agreed upon earlier, my uncle made arrangements to get us two armed men. Officially, he arranged two armed personnel through college administration since he was resourceful enough to do that. Well apparently, those two were there to protect the whole crew, but actually I was the one on whom they had to keep an eye on.

As I was immersed in the thought of that, I heard foot steps approaching my way. Everyone including our supervisors were out of their camps to explore the place and enjoy the landscape. I stayed back as I was too tired after picking up boxes and stuff all day.

As the sound of striding steps grew louder, I stood up from where I was carelessly laying down few seconds back. Whoever it was, was stopped by someone.

"Hey! Where you think you're going?" A heavy, impolite voice stopped the approaching person with that.

Ah! Guard! What is he doing outside my camp?

I thought to myself. Maybe, he was on watch out there.

"I just want to give this to Dr. Daneen." Some guy replied in a soft civilized manner, despite being addressed rudely by the security man.

"Let him in! It's okay!" I called out loud. The guy earlier from that day, what was his name again? Ah yes! Shan, he was there with a tray in his hands covered by a plastic sheet. I greeted him warmly. He putted the tray down on one of vacant table beside him.

"Hello again doctor. This is your dinner. Your friends and teachers are having dinner with the villagers. Here is your meal. Please let me know if there is anything else you want?" He said,

"Well... That's a lot of food for a single person. I can't even consume a quater of it. " A whole tray full of food, just for me. I had an appetite of a sparrow.

He smiled a little. I thought I heard a faint chuckle too with that.

"Enjoy your meal." With that, he turned around to walk out.

"Listen!" I stopped him.

Screw you Daneen! Where are your manners?

I thought to myself.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality." I said.

"You're very welcome." he replied with a wholehearted smile on his face.

As he was about to leave, again, I stopped him. He faced me. His hands were tucked within his jacket's pocket since when he did let go off the tray he brought earlier. He raised an eyebrow to project the consideration and interest in what I had to say.

"If you don't mind, would you like to join me for dinner? The thing is, I can't eat all this alone. " I asked,

WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING! I asked him to dine with me. Seriously!

I was cursing myself within my head and was hoping that he would excuse me. For a moment, he was silent, not accepting or refusing my unexpected ridiculous dinner proposal. His eyes were scanning and for the first time I noticed that his eyes were green with a dispersed shade of brown in it, like an olive. Under the shimmer of candle flame which was placed right on the table beside where he stood, the depth of his gaze was spell-bounding. I never witnessed such enthralling pair of eyes.

Those bewitching few seconds were interrupted by his "Sure".

Wait what!? He just agreed to have dinner with me.

The tranquil beguiling aura which I was clouded with and fully enjoying few seconds ago was kicked out by the jolt of panic.

He picked up the tray and placed it on inflatable mattress, the one on which I was laying flat before his arrival. He sat down cross-legged and looked up to me to see if I was planning to join him anytime soon. I took the place right opposite to him. He removed the plastic sheet from top and there was a roasted whole fish platter on the tray with a bowl full of rice and another bowl filled with salad alongside with the fish.

He started to serve equally in plates. There was an absolute silence between us. The only thing that was filling the deafening atmosphere around us was the occasional rattling of the plates and cutlery he was using. He proffered a properly served plate towards me. Just when I extended my arm to grab it, a loud bang, actually a very loud bang, brutally shattered the quietude around us.

Startled by the blasting bangarang of a single gun shot, which felt no farther than few feets away, I dropped the plate and covered my ears reflexively to that ear-piercing noise. A hasty effort was made by Shan to gave me cover. He was behind me in no time, trying to shield me without even touching.

Then there was another one, and another one. After three consecutive gun shots, we heard a rising pandemonium of local folks. I was still covering my ears when Shan asked me,

"Are you hurt?"

I looked up to him, trembling with fear. So he repeated,

"Please tell me, are you okay?"

I composed myself a little to get hold of what just happened then. He took my silence as an acknowledgement that I was fine. So he putted on his shoes which he removed before climbing on the mattress for dinner and ran outside leaving me behind all alone and scared.

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Author's Note

Another thrilling chapter? :) I hope you all have enjoyed it. Please leave a comment or vote for it. I'll appreciate your feedback. Thanks :)