THE QUATRET The sun was about to set. The four friends who came for a study of types of various rocks in a hilly area, had lost their way. They were in an unknown dense forest surrounded by huge mountains. They had lost signals on their mobile phones and were unable to find their way out. They were very tired as they started their study tour early morning. “Its going to rain guys, we need to find a safe place”, said John, exclaiming with fear who just saw a flash of lightning in the sky while he was lying down to rest on the ground. “Huh John! Its been a hot sunny day. You have ringing ears bro, you always hear the bell in the college well before off time :D :D?” Harry laughed at John disbelieving him. BANG….his giggle became creepy when they all heard a huge thunder realizing the fact that light travels faster than sound and that John must have seen the lightning earlier. “I warned you guys, but you never pay attention to my words”, said John panting and gasping, while they all ran towards the mountain to find shelter. It was getting darker. They had turned on the flashlights, and waited under the trees, while Mark and Ben started to climb up the mountain in search of a cave. After about 30 minutes, they found a small cave and entered in it. “How can we go back to call our friends here? The mountain is so slippery that we can’t get down from here until it stops raining”, asked Ben curiously. “Off course, it took us 30 mins to reach here. Going back and coming again means another hour in this heavy rain. Our lives are at risk, we must find some other way to call them”, replied Mark while searching for a few things in his backpack. He quickly took out his folder, a pair of scissors, a sticky tape, and a whistle. Together they made a big cone out of paper board and started blowing the whistle from the narrow end of the cone. It worked like a loudspeaker as the cone increased the amplitude of the whistle manifold. “You are a genius Mark”, said Ben appreciating his efforts. John and Harry who were still waiting at the base of the mountain heard the echoing sound of whistle. Knowing that it must be a signal from their friends, they started to follow the sound. Struggling in the muddy slopes, pulling and dragging each other, carrying the wet back packs, huffing and puffing in the rain, they kept on climbing the mountain. Suddenly a growl made the whole atmosphere terrified with horror. The growl was so loud that it literally shook the mountain, and everyone could feel the vibration under their feet. Yes, it was the growl of a lion. For a few moments, John and Harry felt like their souls had left their bodies, but then they started to climb up the mountain like a pro. “Yeah, fear can enhance your skills, man, you made it boys, you made it”, said Ben happily, while he embraced his friends who were still frightened and frozen. “Thanks to God, at least we are all together”. They ate some sandwiches and cookies together while they could hear the thunderstorm at its peak. They could hear some stones rolling down the mountain and while they were trying to calm each other down, they heard rolling of a huge stone, and BOOM. The huge stone had slammed the opening of the cave. It was horrible inside the cave. They all tried to push the stone but in vain. The stone was so big and heavy that it didn’t even move a fraction despite all their efforts. After struggling for an hour, they all gave up. Disappointed and hopeless, the quartet spent the whole night praying to God for help. The day was as dark as the night because there was not even a single ray of light that could enter the cave. The stock of food ended except a few juice boxes, the flashlights were getting dimmer, and they were waiting for the death to embrace them soon. At this awful time, Ben started playing a sad tune on his guitar, Mark took his flute out and joined him. Harry added the beat with tingling sounds of a metal rod hitting them on the stones and John sang a sad song as their last song. “AND THEN LAST BREATH ESCAPES MY LIPS; ITS TIME TO LEAVE AND I MUST GO……” The strings of guitar were vibrating, air was blowing through the flute, the metal rod was chiming, tears were rolling down their cheeks while they all were singing in chorus. Three nights had passed. They were starving and were dauntless. They could feel the warmth of the sunshine, but it was too dark in the cave. The water was still dripping from a corner of the cave. They heard a helicopter flying in their surroundings. The rescue teams were searching them since 3 days but they were not being located. The boys could feel the vibration caused by the jeeps that were moving here and there. “We should find some way to tell the rescue team that we are here”, said Harry while he struggled to push and kick the big stone once again. They shouted and screamed together but no one could hear them as the sound was all trapped within the walls of the cave. “I have an idea. Sound needs a medium to travel. The walls of this cave are a barrier and have created a vacuum from where the sound can’t go out”, said Mark “I need all the straws that we threw here and there”. So, the quartet knelt and started crawling in search of the straws in the dark. They collected many straws and joined them together with a sticky tape. Then Mark proceeded towards the hole from where the water was dripping. He slowly started to pass the plastic straws from the hole. Thankfully the 3 meters long hollow straws passed through the hole without breaking. Now mark connected the end of this hollow pipe with the cardboard cone that he had used earlier to call his friends. Everyone gathered the musical instruments, but this time they were shouting and whistling instead of singing in front of the cone. The continuous shrilling sounds passing through the tiny hole were eventually and echoing in the mountains. Two members of the rescue team heard the sounds and together they all managed to rescue the boys. They embraced each other with joy and were grateful to Mark, whose knowledge of science and timely decisions had always been very helpful to them. ------------------------------------------------