~°°~Someday, I'll wish upon a star~°°~

Abuja, Nigeria. 4:11 pm.

The splendour light which was dyed on the sky shimmered through the soft clouds giving the noon a beautiful glow. The surface was warm with the rays of light produced by the sun. Wind drifted through the lush green grasses as the smell of pure nature filled the air.

The few people in erudite team who were assigned with the duty of patrolling were on patrol inside the forest. They went out each with a detecting device as they walked deeper into the forest.

Minutes of roaming without any suspicious detection, the detecting device with lieutenant Ray echoed with a beep indicating a found explosive.

On hearing that the whole team moved closer to the beeping, they followed exactly where the beeping was faster and found a hidden explosive beneath dried leaves.

"Lieutenant Zanna, quick, get the bomb suits ready while Lieutenant Jalal, call the camp immediately and inform our major" Ray requested as everyone stepped away from the explosive so as to get into their bomb suits.

"That's it, we will soon get blasted and die. I'm even yet to get married" Zanna joked receiving a glare from Ray. "You'll die alone Lieutenant, because the last time I checked, we weren't born together" he rolled his eyes and walked away without waiting for his reply.

Zanna already had a smirk on his face.

After they were ready in their bomb suits, the soldiers got busy inspecting the explosive before their captain and major arrived. Before anything could be done to the bomb, it needs studying so as not to touch the wrong places which will cause the explosive to go off. Any wrong disconnection can set the whole place and people on a blast.

Sayf was inside his tent reading a book when Aliyu ran to his side holding the talky.

Sayf really liked reading, forgot to mention he had a shelf in his room which was filled with books of different types even though he'd rather go for the educational ones than the romance books. He liked reading because it took him away from his world for minutes without him even realising.

Lieutenant Aliyu informed him about the found explosive and they set out, him and Imran to the location where the bomb was found. They didn't waste any time before they arrived at the location.

"Yes Lieutenant Ray, what do we have here?" Sayf asked almost immediately after they reached the spot, Ray was already sweaty from fear.

"It is a ten pound syntex, possibly with a shrapnel. But the problem is that I can't find the switch, the x-ray diffraction submitted by Lieutenant Aliyu also didn't show anything, I have no Idea why that is happening" Ray explained wiping his face with the back of his palms.

"Just rest, I'll take a look" he said as he proceeded towards the explosive with no bomb suit. Imran on the other side had to put on a bomb suit before proceeding further. No one was as fearless as Sayf, he was a man that had no fear for death.

Knowing that he wouldn't wear the bomb suit, none of them approached him with it which made the trainee extremely surprised.

"Not once in my whole life have I ever seen a soldier who approaches bombs without any protection" Recruit Hameed said to Lieutenant Ray which made him chuckle. "Applies to me too, he was the first. And until now, no one knows the reason for that amongst us" he said inhaling and exhaling deeply.

It didn't take Sayf very long before he found the switch of the explosive and of course, only Hameed the trainee was surprised.

The rest of the team members knew just who he was, how fast he was at defusing bombs, how fast he was at doing things smoothly without any mistake and so there was nothing surprising about how he defused the explosive.

He approached Ray with the radio server on his left hand while the screw driver on the other.

"The switch was with a radio control server, the genius hid the receiver with a lead within the RDX, that's why the x-ray could not detect anything" Sayf explained to him making Ray to nod in understanding as he collected the radio server from his hand.

"Just go major, we'll cover up for today as it'll be late very soon, the sun is already old" Ray said while Sayf only nodded and made his way back to the camp with the escort of the trainee.

The team packed for the day and placed a board where they found the explosive so as to know where their search will continue the next day. They were not going to complete their mission until they search through everywhere within their boundaries which was a very large piece of land. The forest deserved a month to be inspected because of how large it was.

~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~

He sat on a small boulder by the side of his tent enjoying the complete silence as thoughts enveloped his mind. He was remembering home again, where it all went down the drain. It hurt him to think about home but he couldn't help it, if only he had a heart to forgive.

"Assalamu Alaikum major" Imran's taslim was what brought him out of his reverie. "Wa'alaikas salaam Imran" he replied, with the intention of giving him a tight lipped smile. He failed miserably at that though, he even turned his face away from Imran's view.

"Enjoying the sky's gesture alone, you could have invited us" Imran said trying to make the impossible possible which was to cheer him up into a conversation.

"The sky is filled with stars tonight" Imran said again with the efforts of cheering him up but neither did he reply to him nor made any gesture he just remained silent. Imran noticed his desire and allowed the silence to reign.

"How do people forget each other's mistakes?" Sayf asked unexpectedly, he wasn't expecting such question at that time and definitely not from Sayf but nevertheless, Imran had to think for a while before he found an answer to his question.

"You get it all wrong major. People stay together not because they forget each other's mistakes but because they forgive each other's mistakes, forgetting doesn't change anything" he explained smiling weakly at no one in particular.

"Well then how do people forgive each other's mistakes?" Sayf asked again correcting the contents of his question, he really wanted to know how people do it, perhaps, he might try.

"By letting go of the past and focusing on the future, by giving each other a second chance, and by choosing happiness despite all odds" Imran explained again.

"Have you ever forgiven someone who broke you beyond repair?"

"Nothing can be broken beyond repair, it won't go back to how it was before but it can take a different form and still be as beautiful as new" Imran replied.

"That didn't answer the question" Sayf pointed out to which Imran nodded and adjusted his sitting position. "I haven't forgiven anyone because I haven't been broken all my life but someone surely forgave me despite how much I've hurt her. It still aches to remember the pain I caused her but I'm glad she forgave me" Imran smiled at Sayf who was at the moment looking at him.

He wondered what he possibly did and to whom he did it to, but as it was not his story to tell, he cleared his mind.

"I would have asked how you did it, but never mind" he said shrugging off the topic. "Ok then, I'll call it a night. I'm very sleepy, good thing I'm not on night duty today" Imran said as he got on his feets. Sayf nodded at him thinking about when he will ever get sleepy again, he usually forces the sleep before it comes.

He extended minutes before he retired to his tent and as usual, he drowned deeply into the truths about his life as he devoured the night, taking in every detail as it was.

~°°~Someday, I'll wish upon a star~°°~

~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~

Assalamu Alaikum How've you all been doing? Just like I said, I enjoy writing a chapter about the camp. It's a nice experience, so much to learn, I hope y'all also liked it.

Stay tuned to enjoy more in "Tauhida"

Please vote, comment and share my book to friends and family and to everyone you know who reads Wattpad, even if you're not friends. Lots of love,

Deedi--❤️