Isolation

The land was barren as far as my eyes could see. These are the words I once read in my favourite book and ironically this is what happened to me. The world sure has a weird way of placing destiny. I was woken up by a blowing breeze that slowly caressed my cheeks and also the hot glaring sun that was burning my skin. I rubbed my eyes a few times trying to shake off the illusion of this deserted place and I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Finally, reality hit me right in the face – I was alone in a deserted area.

Panicking, I quickly sat up and scanned my surrounding, but to my disappointment, all I could see was nothing but the ground I sat on. Suddenly, my head started to hurt. Using my hand, I gingerly touched it and winced at the pain it had caused. To my surprise, when I brought my hand to my face, I saw blood. Quickly pulling my hand back, I saw that I was covered in blood – my own blood.

I then quickly pulled my hand away from my face. I could feel blood trickling down from the injury on my head, flowing down my right cheek. Realizing this, I quickly ripped the sleeve off my shirt and slowly cleaned the blood off my cheek. I held the sleeve to my head trying to stop its flow. Heaving myself up, I stood on both feet only to fall down flat on my butt again. Grunting, I tried again and this time, I managed to stand.

After gaining back my footing on the ground, I gave another glance around and to my dismay, the only thing that I could see was the burning sun above. I tried to find a shade to hide from the sun or even a river to quench my thirst but I couldn’t find any. In the end, I found a huge boulder and decided that it was the best place to rest after a long search for a shade. As I sat in the shadow of the huge boulder, I tried to recall what had happened to me – then it hit me. I was kidnapped by four thugs when I was on my way back from school. They caught me and threw me into a van. I was struggling and yelling and in the end, one of the thugs landed a blow on my skull with a baseball bat and then it was all blank.

After recalling what had happened, I realized that my school bag was missing. Checking my pocket, even my wallet was gone. I didn’t have a single thing on me except the clothes on my back and to make things worse, even my handphone was gone. Thinking about this and what would happen to me after this automatically made me cry. I was feeling hungry, thirsty, tired, angry and sad at the same time.

“I’m lost and I’m going to die!” I thought to myself. I couldn’t shake off this negative feeling that is now surrounding me, radiating even from my bones. It crushes my heart to think that I will never see my family and friends again, but at the same time, it gave me hope of going on – the hope that I would survive this hardship. I didn’t want to lose them – my family, my friends and my pet dog, Bibi.

As I thought of these, I decided that I must not die here. “My life would not end this way!” I said as loud as I could, hoping that someone would hear me, but I doubted that. After having a good long rest, I stood up and walked towards the west where the sun was setting. Luckily the bleeding on my head had stopped and it didn’t hurt that much anymore. After walking for a short while, I finally saw some trees far ahead.

As the trees I saw grew nearer, I started running towards it. To me in this condition, it is like a home to go back to after a long and tiring day. Once I reached the clusters of trees together, I enjoyed the cool breeze and the shade, but I was still hungry and thirsty. Soon I realized that when there are trees, there’s bound to be a source of water and fruits around. After walking around that seemingly endless forest, I finally heard the sound of rushing water. I ran towards it and found a river. I quickly knelt down and drank as much as I could and stopped when I couldn’t drink a single drop anymore.

After quenching my thirst, I look around the trees and found some bearing fruits. To my amazement, there was a variety of fruits to choose from. Without a second thought, I ate anything I could get my hands on from mangoes to jackfruits. After eating, I decided to clean myself in the river. While washing my hands with the crystal clear water of the river, I decided to take a bath in it. It would be a good idea because I’ve been covered in sweat. After shedding my clothes, I put them neatly at the riverside and slide into the river. The cold running water seemed to wash all my troubles away, as it did to the dirt on my body. After a long soak, I went up and put my clothes on.

By then it was already dark. My surrounding is now illuminated by the full moon up ahead. Slowly walking towards the nearest tree, I decided that it was time to have a good night sleep since I couldn’t do much in the dark. “Mom and dad must be worried about me,” I said to myself before falling asleep on the ground.
When I woke up the next day, the sun was already high up in the sky, indicating that I had slept till noon. Still groggy from sleep, I crawled out of the shade slowly, one step at a time and I have to shield my eyes from the sun as I ran out of shade. When I came to my senses, the first thing that came to mind was water as I was feeling thirsty. After drinking water from the river nearby, I stood up, stretched and yawned. As I did so, my stomach growled. So I picked some fruits to eat. After that, I decided that I had to go home. My parents sure are worrying about me. I must find someone to help me. I started walking around, looking for some sign. Unfortunately, all I could see was the forest in front of me.

Suddenly, I heard an angry growl coming from behind me. It sent chills down my spine and I hesitated to turn around, fearing of what I might find. However, I forced my head to turn and there it was, the biggest cat I had ever seen in my life so far. It was a jungle cat and it looked very, very hungry. It growled and slowly, it was closing the gap between us. I wanted to run but my legs simply refused to move. Then, it pounced at me, and I fell down flat on the ground with the big cat on me. I panicked and quickly searched for something to grab and lucky enough, I found a piece of wood. I gripped the piece of wood steadily and swing it with all my might. It landed right on the cat’s head and it fell off me and hit a bark of tree. Without hesitating, I stood up and ran. The jungle cat, now filling with anger, chased after me and was getting nearer to me although I was running at my fastest speed. I kept running and running. All of a suddenly, I tripped on a stone on the ground and hit my head hard on a tree bark that sent my head spinning. My vision blurred but I could see that the car is cornering me. I touched my forehead and it was bleeding. “Great, now my life is ending…” I muttered to myself. My life seemed to flash in front of my eyes. With my vision going from bad to worse, finally I went out cold. As I drifted into unconsciousness, I heard gunfire.

A few splashes of icy cold water woke me up. When I opened my eyes, I saw a face which I’ve never seen before. Nevertheless, I was glad that I saw a human and not some angry cat that was feeding on me. “Thank God I got here just in time. That cat was just about to eat you alive,” the man said. “Thank you” was all I could reply, and then all went black again.

When I finally woke up, I was lying on a comfortable bed in a small cabin. The man who saved me was sitting beside me, reading a book. When he noticed that I had woken up, he put the book down and stared at me. Then he finally broke the awkward silence that surrounded the cabin. “How are you feeling?” he asked. “Not really good but it could be worse.” I answered and he laughed. I gave him a questioning look and he stopped abruptly. “It’s rude of me to ask but, could you please take me home, sir?” I continued. “Edward, call me Edward,” he paused, and then continued.

“Of course, but where do you live and how should I address you?”
“My name is Jacob, Mr. Edward. I live in North Carolina. Is it far from here?”
“No, it isn’t. It’s just about an hour drive from here. I’ll take you back home after dinner okay?”
“Yes, sure. Thank you, Mr. Edward.” I said as he smiled and went to the back of the cabin.
“Dinner will be ready in ten minutes!” he hollered and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Home, sweet home,” was what I thought at that moment.