Student Essay - Emma Im Jee Won, Year 11, St Joseph International School - Getting Lost

Emma Im Jee Won, Year 11, St Joseph International School

Getting Lost

My old friends, Jane and Tom, loved to climb mountains. Every holiday, they brought me to famous mountains. This time, we were in Nepal, in a small town which was very near to Tonic Mountain. Tonic Mountain was very tough and dangerous. Only a few people were allowed to enter. A few weeks before the climb, we finally received permission from the Nepali government to climb it. When we passed the office of Tonic Mountain, we started to climb the mountain with our heavy backpacks. The mountain was tough and steep. Thick forests covered most of it. Huge and sharp stones blocked our way.  A few hours later, we put our bags on the ground and took a rest. Suddenly, a gigantic unknown creature jumped out of the bushes.

It was a bear. Its eyes glowed with bright yellow light. It looked sharply at us and showed its teeth. We threw our bags down and ran like lightning away from the bear. While we were running away from it, the sound of roaring and broken branches followed us from behind. Although our lungs were in horrible pain, we couldn’t stop running. When the heavy and fearful noise was gone, we stopped and looked around the forest. Luckily, the bear wasn’t following us anymore. However, we had lost the way.

We found no signs of how to get back to where we were. Tall trees and bushes surrounded us. The sky was covered by a thick canopy of tree leaves. Only a tiny ray of sunlight lit the forest. It was as dark as night. We were shocked because our food and equipment were in our bags. The only things we had were two chocolate bars, Tom’s watch, my mobile phone and Jane’s pocket knife. We searched around for any signs or tracks but there was nothing. We walked down one direction for an hour. There were more huge trees. Suddenly, Jane tripped over a rock. Her right knee was injured. The dark forest became darker still. The sun was going down.

The sun went down fully and pitch black darkness covered the whole mountain. Using the light from my mobile phone, Tom held Jane and we moved on. All of us were filled with fear. If the wild bear attacked us again, we wouldn’t be able to do anything. If we couldn’t find any tracks to go back, we would die. What about Jane’s wound? We didn’t have any medical supplies. She would get an infection. While all sorts of terrible thoughts came continuously into our minds, the phone rang loudly. It was a notification for a message received. I quickly checked it. The telephone line had connected weakly. I called the police and told them in tears what had happened to us. A few hours later, a helicopter arrived.

The rescue team carried us into the helicopter. They told us some climber had reported to the office about the footsteps of a bear and three torn backpacks. He thought the bear had killed people and tore their bags. The officer alerted the rescue team. We had called them during their search for us. They kindly sent us to the hospital. We were so relieved to be re