As I let out a strong, wide-open yawn, I felt the crunch of leaves on the side of my body. I quickly opened my eyes, only to be blinded by the bright sunlight and alerted to sharp pains all over my body. When my eyes adjusted to the bright light, I was scared out of my mind. “What happened last night?” I thought. I then stood up and checked my surroundings, only to see trees as far as the eye could see. Then, I noticed a piece of blue shrapnel sticking out of my leg. Great. I knew what had to be done. I forced my hand to extricate the shred of metal and let out the worst yelp I’ve ever let out in my life. When the pain subsided somewhat, I wrapped it with a piece of my shirt. Around me were the remains of a smashed blue car. It appeared as if it was in an accident. Checking the vehicle seemed like a good idea, but I didn’t even have the strength to stand after what I had just done.
My mind and thoughts were so jumbled that I could barely remember a thing. When I started to remember more and more though, I was able to recollect that yesterday was when I turned 17 years old. My birthday. My head was pounding so much that I just had to lie back down on the leaves to calm down. My clothes were soaked with blood, and my shirt and jeans were torn all over. Let’s see… the last thing I remembered was my mother’s sad face. She was trying to play it off , but she was about as good as that as planning a surprise party that I clearly knew was coming. I also remembered her complaining about how the only thing she wanted to do was go buy my favorite, extra-large,chocolate cake from Tina’s Bakery downtown. So I told her that she should stay home and hold down the fort while I went to pick up cake that she, my six-year-old brother Aiden, and I would devour. She insisted on going, but I won that battle after accerting that it was my birthday. I took the keys to my 1992 baby blue Toyota Corrola and I was out the door. It didn’t take long until I was going 90 mph on the highway blasting “22” by Taylor Swift on the radio. I felt on top of the world. That was as much as my brain remembered.
“Why am I so stupid!?” I yelled at the top of my lungs to no one but the forest.
The sound echoed for a good ten seconds. All I wanted was a normal, fun birthday, and now I was stranded in this stupid forest in the middle of nowhere. I cried for a good long time and then I had to pull myself together and face reality.

The sun was quickly setting in the West and I knew that it was going to be a cold night due to the autumn leaves. I figured that I’d probably be sleeping outside for the night too. “Yeah that’d be a better idea. I’ll cover more ground in the morning anyway.” I told myself. If I check my surroundings, maybe I’ll find exactly what I’m looking for. Hmmmmm… perfect. I found a small cave. This should do until the morning…hopefully. Sleeping in the cavern wasn’t exactly like home, but it was the closest thing that I had to home that night and that’s all that mattered to me. However, they had to have been the worst conditions I ever slept in, especially with all the creepy spider webs, the howling at night, and don’t even get me started on the little creatures that I saw on the ceiling of the cave.
When I woke up, it seemed as if it was about 5:30 in the morning because the sunrise was blazing in my face from the opening of the cave. Then, I promptly started my hike to find my way home, forgetting that I was supposed to check the car wreckage for anything. I walked for about a half hour north and everything still looked the same as when I started. All this walking was giving me a headache. I tried the same amount of time in each direction and still came up with the same scenery no matter where I went. All my eyes had seen for the past two hours were white oak trees and geese flying above my head.
When I was at my wits’ end with this wretched, never-ending forest is when a miracle happened. I saw a rising smoke in the distance. Naturally, I went toward it without question. When I reached the source of the smoke, there was a smoldering campfire that someone must have been here within a few days being that it was still emitting smoke. I peered around the little campsite only to find a five-inch-long pocketknife. I assumed it was for hunting, of course, but I couldn’t be positive so I took it. I mean if you think about it, a lot of crazy people come in the forest sometimes so I needed to be cautious. I’m a 17-year-old woman now for Pete sake. The edge of the campsite had a few vague footprints that seemed to be going pretty far as I followed them. They vanished after about a quarter mile, but they still helped me get a little farther in my journey. I came to a halt realizing that I needed to figure out a plan before I went any farther because I realized I wasn’t really getting anywhere.
Then, I came to the conclusion that I skipped the biggest step that I should have done at the beginning of my quest. Check the contents of my pockets. All I found was my wallet with my ID, a few gift cards, and $12.50. I had just recieved my ID a few weeks earlier and I had the classic, ugly picture of me sneezing mid-picture, but it did the job. It read Skylar Myriad with a little state of Iowa logo in the corner along with a brief description of me like I was an item at the store. It read Skylar Myriad: 5’6’’, Blue eyes, Black hair, 4856 West Bend Ave, Riverwood, Iowa. Well the only thing I could do from there was continue my trekking through the endless abyss I was trapped in. Then, it was like God sent me a sign not to give up because at that moment I was ready to collapse when the footsteps in the dirt reappeared.
They led to a seculed road where a pickup truck was parked. My eyes flickered toward the front passenger. He appeared to be ready to leave. I approached his car slowly and found out that this man was down for the count-asleep. He looked a bit intimidating so I didn’t want to wake him. The conclusion I came to was that I would have to hitchhike without him knowing. Complete stealth. My muscles rapidly knew what to do. I hopped in the trunk assuming the prone position so I would not be seen and just waited there until another man showed up from the forest. He climbed into the truck saying, “Ay, let’s get out of here. You ready to go now?”
The driver replied with a subtle, “I am if you are. That’s like the fifth time we’ve stopped for you to use the bathroom. What’s your problem?”
“It’s not my fault, Rick. And ha-ha-ha funny. You know I wasn’t using the bathroom. I only went out there because somebody had to run a little blue car off the road last night so someone had to check and make sure the person was okay.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Just the car and a hole in the windshield with remains of a torn Abercrombie shirt a few meters away. I think you hit a girl last night, Rick. And anyone with that much blood loss sure as hell is not alive now…I’m sorry, bro…”
“It’s…it’s…not your fault. I shouldn’t have been driving and had my headlights turned
off last night. It was an idiotic decision and those are the consequences I have to live with. Let’s just go back to Riverwood and forget about the whole thing for now,” Rick said then began to cry.
The car started to move. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Should I tell them I’m here? I thought to myself. I decided not to say anything. They said they were going to Riverwood anyway. I would finally make it home. I nearly cried when I thought of being home again. Back in my mother’s embrace was the thing I wanted the most right then. After about twenty minutes, they came to a slow stop at the local gas station. Everything started to look familiar again. I remembered this from when I was a little kid and mom used to always buy me little packs of gum. My house was just a few blocks away. I could make it. As the two men went into the gas station, I decided to book it to my house. I was in a full out sprint in a few seconds, completely forgetting about all the bruises and cuts and the gnarly gashes. I was less than a block away from my family and I was slowing down fast.
Four houses to go. I could feel my heart pulsing. Three houses left. My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest, but I went onward. One house to go. My legs were beginning to give out, but I was so close I had to keep going. I was on my front lawn and my body instantly convulsed with exhaustion. Time felt like it had slowed down. There was a row of police cars lined up in my driveway. Ten seconds passed and my mother flung the door open with tears running down her face as she ran toward me. I had completed my journey home through the forest. The world quickly sucked my body into darkness before my mother reached me and my eyes shut before I could feel her embrace, but the reality was that I made it. I was home. I was home where I belonged…