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Reasons Why We're Lost
Have you ever been lost? Not like losing your way in town, or accidentally walking away from a path in the park, but actually losing all sense of where you are and what direction you are going. That feeling, the feeling of really absolutely being lost with no hope of where you’re heading and where you will end up, is a feeling I hope none of you will ever experience.
It all started when my friend Will and I got off of school for summer break. Although we like summer vacation, we haven't had anything to do, and we haven't found anyone to do things with. So once we soon found out how boring summer can get with just two teenagers having nothing to do, we came up with a plan to go hiking. We thought it all out. We would drive up to a forest that we lived near that was under preservation, and camp out there for a night. The thing about this forest was that since it is under preservation, no people are allowed in, so we would have to find a way around that problem. My biggest fear out of the whole plan, was not to get caught by my parents. They were gone for the weekend, but if they found out then my whole summer might as well go down the drain. Before they left they told me not to leave the house, and that I could only have Will over. This means if they found out it could be problematic.
“Hey Will,” I said to him from across my room. “Tomorrow is the night. Are you ready to finally have something to do again, something to finally end our boredom and give us stories to tell in the future?”
“Yeah.. but what if we do manage to get caught?” he questioned. “Toby, you know you could ruin your entire summer for this one ‘adventure’ that we’re going on.” With this statement I really took into consideration what the consequences could lead up to. Although even with this I decided that it would be pretty hard to get caught, unless we got lost or something, so I decided to stick with the plan.
“It’s fine Will, there is no way we are going to get caught. As long as we come back before morning the next day no one will even know we left the house.” I said confidently.
“Alright, I’m trusting you in this one. So since we are doing this, we should finishing packing up then.”
With this we started packing up. We packed a wide variety of objects. Some of the few were flashlights, money, food, a small pocket knife, and some backup batteries. We were just about done packing for the night when I realized we were missing something. “Hey Will.” I stated. “In what way do you think we are going to get through the fence tomorrow? Since we are going we should at least have a plan to get through the fence.”
“I was thinking about that too.” Will said. “Well we could bring some wire cutters just in case, but before we go cutting the fence we should look around. There might be a possibility that there already is a whole in the fence or a hole under it.”
“Alright, then that’s the plan. Well we should get some rest now so we at least have the energy tomorrow, don’t you think?” I said. With this we decided to head to bed, and about 15 minutes later, I was out.
I woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the nice aroma of freshly cut grass. The sun filtered in through the window past the curtains, causing the light to look like it was coming into the room in streaks. I looked out the window from my bedroom which sat on the second floor, and I saw the vast, expansive landscape before me. “This is one reasons I will always love this country,” I murmured.
“What was that?” Will asked.
“Oh nothing, but good you’re up. Let’s go over the plan and put the finishing touches on it for tonight.” We went over the plan fixed a couple things and before we knew it the sun was setting. Streaks of red, orange, and yellow ruptured from the horizon, the clouds blocking their path just to be punctured through by the light. “Let’s get going,” I stated.
“Sounds good to me,” said Will walking out of the front door already. We got in the car, Will driving so my car wasn’t out of place just in case the neighbors decide to tell my mom, and we headed to our destination. The drive wasn’t long, but it was long enough for the sun to almost invisible, and the only source of light was the luminous moon. I grabbed my bag and left the vehicle. The air was nice and room temperature, as well as a nice breeze that sifted through the leaves of the trees making an ominous sound. As the moon dimmed, it became less clear where we were going. We reached the fence and pulled out our flashlights. We had to decide whether to walk the perimeter and see if there is an opening to go through, or if we had to make one ourselves. Climbing over was not an option because of how high the fence towered, and how it angled at the top. After about 30 minutes of walking we found a whole just barely big enough to fit us in. Here we decided to leave the wire cutters behind because of how big they were, and how much of a nuisance it would be to carry around. Before we entered the forest, we looked around for any life. The last thing we wanted was a ranger or officer to catch us, then we really would be in some deep trouble. Once we were sure no one was around, we entered the forest through the hole in the fence.
We started walking along the forest path, a trail small but visible. The trees surrounding us, with their shadows engulfing us and the area surrounding. The further into the forest we walked the more the path thinned out. “It’s getting pretty dark isn’t it Toby?” Will asked me.
“It sure is,” I said, as we continued walking. The path then suddenly stopped. We looked at each other confused. “Where do we go from here then?” I asked.
“Lets work our way in some more and see if the path continues,” he states.
“Alright, but we need to make sure that we don't lose where we came in at,” I said strongly. We started walking further in the forest seemed to swallow us for wherever we went looked the same. Until eventually we had no idea where we were heading.
“I’m starting to think this wasn’t such a good idea. We’re lost aren’t we?” he asks nervously. I take a seat on a fallen log and pull out my bag.
“I think we are. We should be fine though as long as we stay calm and think about what we could do.” I said. We pulled out our snacks and decided to eat while we thought of ideas to get us out of this situation. Then we heard a sound in the distance. “You heard that correct?” I asked.
“Yeah, that did not sound pleasant.” Will said. Then we heard it again this time a bit closer. This time is was very distinct, very obviously a howl from the distance. “What should we do?” he asks.
“I don’t know but that definitely sounded like a wolf to me. We should try to find our way out soon. I know we were bored and all, but getting injured out here would definitely not good in any way,” I stated. So we started working our way in what we thought was the correct direction. We found a small little clearing when we started hearing the howls again. This time closer than ever before. I could hear rustling in the bushes to our right. I played it off and kept walking with Will at our side. The flashlight flickering a bit obviously needing new batteries soon. Once again the rusting to our right this time very loud. I hurriedly shone my flashlight in that direction. The beam of the light illuminating the eyes of some animal. “Will..” I said. “We need to go now.”
We both took off running in the same direction. The sound of whatever was chasing us close at our feet. Then the worst thing happened, my flashlight died. We were running blindly in a direction with roots of trees and bushes in our way. Then I heard a thud followed by a small grunt. “Will!” I yelled as I stopped in my tracks.
“Get your bag out and grab the other flashlight!” he screamed at me. I could clearly tell whatever we were running away from was on top of Will due to the abnormally large silhouette . I tore off the bag from my back and threw it on the ground, rushing my hand into the bag grabbing blindly for the flashlight. My hands running over everything in the bag other than the flashlight. The rustling from Will still struggling in close proximity. Then I heard a growl and a cry of pain come from him. Just then I found the flashlight, pulled it out, and flashed it right at the animal. Clearly it was a wolf, but the flashlight startled it just enough for Will to shove it off him. Startling the wolf caused it to run off into the shrubbery and disappear.
“Are you alright?” I said as I rushed to him. Shining the flashlight on him it looked like he just had many scratches and nothing serious until I reached his leg. It was bleeding deeply. I took my jacket, tore off a sleeve, and wrapped it around his leg to act like a band-aid to stop the release of blood.
“I’m mostly alright, just bit in the leg. We should see if I can walk on it, leaving this place is our first priority. The sun is rising your parents should be home soon,” he says. I help him up and he thankfully was able to walk on it. With the sun rising out of the horizon we found the trail, thanks to the light that was illuminating the forest once again. We reached the fence and found the wire cutters, signifying that this definitely was the place that we entered. Then we crawled out the same way we crawled in.
“We need to hurry. It’s now a race against time. As well as to save the rest of our summer.” Will said. We rush into our car. We reach my house looked in the driveway, and to our luck, my parents vehicle wasn’t there. We parked, got out, and walked into my house. I rushed to get him some ointment and some bandages. The cut wasn’t big enough for stitches luckily, so he can come up with some sort of excuse to tell his parent’s. We put away our bags and made my room look a little messy, so it wouldn’t look too odd that everything was clean. My parents would definitely catch that in a heartbeat. Once everything was set we heard a car pull up into the driveway.
“Just in time huh.” I said to Will as we rushed to my room. I turned on the T.V and grabbed snacks and handed them to Will.
“I guess we did save our summer. More importantly our lives as well.” he said jokingly. At this we started laughing, right as my door opened and my mom walked through.
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