Live Free

A Few Issues Along The Way

"In a day you don't come across any problems, you can be sure that you are traveling in the wrong way."

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The air was crisp and cool when I woke up, and since my headache was mostly gone I decided to sneak out of the tent and venture outside. In front of me lay the remaining ashes from last night's fire. Walking carefully to the other side of the clearing, I found an old tree stump to sit down on. Coffee sounded great right about now....

It was peaceful, and I enjoyed watching the sun begin the familiar task of rising above the trees, casting off a golden glow over everything. Still in my shirt from yesterday, I noticed there were a few holes in various places. They weren't that noticeable though. I took a few minutes for myself, relieving myself behind a tree and returning to the stump to soak up the precious time alone.

A few minutes later, my stomach started rumbling. Come to think of it, I hadn't eaten much at all since yesterday. Entering the tent, I tried to be slow with my actions so not to wake up Sky. She stirred in her sleep, and for a brief moment I just stood there watching her. Her hand was stretched out above her head, and from that angle I could clearly distinguish the scars that promptly stood out. Why did she have to do that to herself?

 On second thought, why did I have to do drugs? I guess everybody had their own way of handling things.

Underneath her arm, she rested. Her eyes were closed in gentle slumber. All I had to do was reach in my bag and pull out something to eat, but for some reason I couldn't tear my gaze away from her. I let myself trace every inch of her body (or from what I could see) and softly picked up my bag from the floor. Not wanting to unzip it inside, I tried to casually go back outside without ruffling the flaps of the tent. 

Of course, being myself, I stumbled and landed painfully on the ground outside. 

"What's wrong?" Sky shouted, instantly flying out of bed to inspect the damage. 

"Nothing, I was trying not to wake you," I explained, still clutching the bag in my hand. She glanced down and gave me a quizzical look. 

"Were you trying to ditch me?" she asked, averting her eyes away from my face. 

"Sky, no I wasn't. I was getting something to eat and I wanted you to get some sleep because we'll be walking more today. I promise," I admitted.

"You pinky promise?" She held out her pinky. I brought mine up to hers and intertwined them together. 

"I promise."

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Eating, getting ready and packing everything up took about an hour. It was quite the process, but we managed to do it quicker than I had expected. With our heavy backpacks on, we gave one last final acknowledgment to the clearing where we shared our first successful night and began walking. 

Today was the same weather as the last. We set off around 10 am, and by the time afternoon rolled around we were sweating with our jackets off tied around our waists. If I could give you an estimate of how much distance we'd traveled by that point, I would, but I honestly had no idea. And I didn't really care. We felt safe as long as there weren't search helicopter hovering over our heads. 

A few days went by of this same pattern: walking to a new destination, setting up camp, eating, sleeping, waking up, eating again then taking off to somewhere else. Occasionally we discovered a good spot to stay at like we did the first night, with plenty of timber and debris to build a fire. But almost half the time we ended up with nothing and had no fire for the night. And nights in the forest began to get colder and colder, pretty soon we would need to get new supplies. More food, better clothing and more blankets. 

Also, not every clearing had smooth surfaces. We often found ourselves sleeping uncomfortably on sticks and rocks, and every now and then a strange bug would somehow emerge in the tent and scare the living daylight out of Sky, who wasn’t fond of bugs.

The days passed by in a blur, but Sky's presence made everything okay. Who cared if we almost froze to death one night, when I had her to snuggle up next to and share funny stories with? Did it matter that our food supply was dwindling down to almost nothing as the days stacked on top of each other, when Sky ran her nails up and down my arm to help me drift off to sleep?

We were prepared for these conditions, but I wasn’t ready to face the confusing thoughts I had about her. 

One morning, as we began our travel for the day, we heard a faint buzzing noise from far away. I knew she heard it too, but I told her it was probably nothing and to just continue walking. Something in her eyes told me she thought it was a bad idea to go on. Then she said,

"I have a bad feeling about this. Let's at least try to hide for a little while," she muttered.

I started to complain, telling her that it was pointless, but she told me to shut up and listen to her. What do I say to that?

We ambled around for a while before stumbling into a small ditch covered in orange leaves. Up above the noise got closer. I hated to admit that she was right, but it was trouble. Or at least potential trouble. It was a helicopter. Nobody used helicopters around here unless they were searching for someone. It wasn't Life Flight, the emergency ambulance, because there were no hospitals anywhere near us. 

As it neared, Sky ran and ducked underneath a low-hanging fallen tree. 

"Watch out, there could be snakes under there!" I shouted, but hurried and joined her when I heard the rotor blades on the helicopter grow extremely close. Saved just in time, we watched from under our perch as it flew right by us, so near the trees that it was surprising how they never spotted us. The wind created a mini tornado with the leaves, causing debris to fly everywhere, and that included our mouths and faces. 

"Think that was for us?" she asked after the wind died down. 

"Who else would it be for?" 

All I could picture in my mind for the rest of the day was my parents in that helicopter, looking hopefully for their lost son, their son who didn’t want to be found.

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Loves,

~angel~