In the hills
By Evelyn Cardoso
The first thing that came to my head was how am I going to survive? I had never been in a situation like this. Being stranded in the middle of nowhere and it seemed like no one would even notice I was gone. I was scared. I couldn't feel my face, I felt frozen. My nose probably looked lika a tomato and my fingers felt like they were about to fall off. I kept thinking why me, why. I looked up at the sky and all I saw were three branches hiding in the night sky. In the distance I could see the mountain peaks, they were all together forming a chain of mountains. All I saw surrounding me was wilderness. And there I stood below a big tall pine tree just waiting, hoping and praying someone would come back to look for me. I wasn't going to move. Why would I? I would get lost for sure, I was already lost I couldn't get deeper in these mountains.
I just looked up and tried to find that one spot between the tree branches where I could see the sky, I couldn't find it. I kept looking harder and I saw a small space far up in the sky, it was very dark but I could see stars. The sight was amazing, I had never seen anything so beautiful. Then all of a sudden I heard a noise in the distance. It was as if I had a sixth sense. I could feel the presence of something. I wasn't the only one in these woods, there was something or someone else here with me, but I couldn't figure out what it was. What could it be? I got up from under the tree and started walking forward towards the mountains, I could n't see anything. There was nothing in sight. All I saw were the mountains in the distance and more trees. Please, god help me, I thought. Save me.
I had never been more scared in my life. Just being in the middle of the mountains, hearing wolf howls was very frightening. I tried my best to distract myself. I closed my eyes and I pictured myslef in a different place. I was on a beach now. I was walking, I could feel the warm beige sand going through my feet. I could see the bright sun shinning on my eyes. In this place everything seemed so perfect. It was peacful and I wasn't lost here. I could see my family right behind me playing on the sand and there were kids everywhere. People were swimming in the ocean. I walked towards the ocean and let myslef float on the water. It felt great.
Suddenly I opened my eyes. I decided not to panic. In the distance I could see the mountain peaks, they were all together forming a chain of mountains. All I saw surrounding me was wilderness. And there I stood below a big tall pine tree just waiting, hoping and praying someone would come back to look for me. I wasn't going to move. Why would I? I would get lost for sure, I was already lost I couldn't get deeper in these mountains. I felt like I was about to die. It felt like 10 degrees now, and it seemed like the darker it got, the lower the tempature went. My face was about to fall off, and this wonderful hike experience seemed to be not so wonderful anymore.
As the ravishing moon rised and the sky turned darker I began to rapidly panic. I tried to tell myself to calm fown but I couldn't help it. I slowly closed my eyes and curled up into a ball with my head on my knees. Then abrutly there was a long silence. I didn't realize that I had fallen asleep. I quickly opened my eyes, looked up and saw my camp coach standing in front of me shinning down a flashlight at me, blinding me. She lowered her hand and reached down at me slowly grabbing my hand and helping me get up. Her face looked cold but I could tell the mix of emotions just by looking at her. She was happy to see me, and so was I.