When I Came Back

Chapter 12: The Thrills of Camping

We stopped for pictures along the way, and after walking for about 2 hours we decided to start heading back. We followed the signs back and we were talking about what we should have for dinner.

We had brought potatoes and carrots that we could cook over the fire, cheese, eggs, an onion, crackers, chips, s'mores stuff, bread, peanut butter and jelly, lots of water, and for meat we had hard salami, bacon, and a log of hamburger. We decided to make some 'hobo meals' since the hamburger needed to be used before tomorrow.

We had about 30 minutes left before we made it back to our camp when we were walking down a steep area. We had to walk down a hill covered in medium sized rocks, and we were all watching our step.

About halfway down I heard a yell behind me, and before I knew it I was being pushed down, my ankle catching on the rock ahead of me. I landed with a thud as whoever fell behind me landed next to me. I watched some rocks tumble down next to me and I looked back to see Colby looking over at me.

"Oh my god are you okay?" He asked as he jumped forward to grab onto me. I was face forward down the hill, holding onto the two rocks in front of me. I had caught myself on them so I could feel burning on the palms of my hands.

"My foots stuck" I said with a wince as I tried to hold myself in the uncomfortable position I was in.

Corey scrambled down to pull me up and hold me while Colby and Sam moved a rock to free my foot. Corey wrapped his arm around me and sat me up and I held up my hands to see two cuts along the palms, blood was dripping out of one of them.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry" Colby said as I was sat down.
"It's okay its not your fault" I said as I reached down to inspect my ankle. It was a little sore, but I couldn't tell until I stood up whether or not it was sprained.
"Here let's help her down the rest of this quick" Sam said. All of them helped me down, and I couldn't put too much pressure on my ankle. I sat down on a big rock at the bottom and looked back at my hands, the other one had started to bleed too.
"Corey can I have your pocket knife?" Colby asked.

I could here the guilt in his voice. I was more in shock than anything so I couldn't really feel the pain in my hands yet. I looked up to see Colby take off his flannel, and he grabbed Corey's knife and cut a long piece of it off. He cut another and gave back the knife and knelt down in front of me.

"I'm sorry if this hurts" he said as he grabbed one of my wrists.
I knew what he was going to do and I held my hand out and let him wrap the cloth around the cut. I winced as he tightened it.

"What even happened?" Sam asked as I held out my other hand for him.
"Dude I watched the rock move under your foot, I knew you were going down" Corey said with a small laugh.
"Yeah, I feel so bad" Colby said as his eyes met mine. I gave him a small smile.
"It's okay Colby, really" I said, even though I was in pain, it wasn't his fault.

He finished tying my other hand and I told him I'd check out my ankle when we got back. Him and Corey acted as my crutches as we made it back to camp. It was a long process, and by the time we got back it was about 6 o'clock.

"Why don't you guys start dinner, I'm gonna grab the first aid kit" Colby said as he walked to the big locker that we had locked our bags in.

I sat down on the picnic table and started untying the pieces of Colby's flannel he had used. I then took some water and poured it over them. Sam and Corey started to get stuff out for dinner, and when Colby came back with the box he helped me into the tent so they could use the table to prepare the food.

It was kind of awkward cause I couldn't use my hands to get in, and my ankle also hurt so colby had to grab onto my sides and lower me onto the mattress, and I scooted back on my elbows so he had enough room to get in. I sat up and turned on the lantern, which was bright enough to light the whole tent. Colby crawled in and sat down next to me, facing me as he opened the first aid kit in front of him.