Lost

One October night while driving home from a party, my sister said, “Let’s go the back way!” The “back way” is achieved by altering our course to include a brief hiatus through uninhabited woods. The purpose in this was to run our ATV through as many enormous mud holes as possible before reaching home. What could possibly go wrong?

         Things were going swimmingly when suddenly the steering wheel jerked hard to the left; I pulled it hard to the right but we were already off the road with our back-end spun around, the front on a tree, and a huge drop-off behind us. We were stuck.

         We had to leave the ATV. My sister said, “It’s ok, my house is just over that hill”. It wasn’t over that hill, or the next. It became clear to us fairly quickly that we were lost…in the woods…in the middle of the night…without a flashlight. I was never more terrified than I was at that moment, and I kept repeating to myself, “Nobody knows we are here”.

         After about an hour and several minor injuries we somehow found a road. We walked that road for six hours without even the aid of the moon, which was hiding somewhere just for our convenience. At daybreak we found our way out of the woods, only to learn that we were still about six miles from home, and water, and warmth.

         When we finally reached our destination, nine hours had passed since we started. The fact that we knew no one had a clue where we were saved our lives; we kept walking because we had to, or possibly die from exposure, wild animals, or by becoming seriously injured and stationary.

         We found the ATV less than a quarter of a mile from the backyard.