Lost But Never Found

I sat panting on the cold, damp wooden bench underneath the street light. I had been looking for hours with no luck. I looked at my watch. “Three hours left.” I read outloud to myself. I tried to stand back up, but quickly sat back down due to dizziness. I was drained out of energy. These games of hide and seek were just getting more intense every week, and I couldn’t stand the consequences any longer. It was killing me. The thought of the consequences. What if it would be more intense this time? What if I wouldn’t last this time?

I rested a little longer waiting for my strength to come back to me. I stood back up slowly off the cold bench. It was drizzling now, colder than it had been before, and starting to get dark. I wanted to go home, but I knew I wouldn’t be welcome. Especially with what happened last round. Just one spot away from first place. My mother reads a lot of magazines. She once read to me the quote of the day. “Coming in second place just means you were the first person to lose.” That’s when I decided to play this round. I wasn’t going to let them down. 

I walked along the gravel road. They had to have hid it somewhere in the boundaries. It would be cheating if they didn’t. But, there were two problems. I didn’t exactly know what I was looking for. It could be a person, an animal. A strawberry for all I know…which wasn’t much. Second, I didn’t know where I was. I got blindfolded and the next thing I knew, I was here. But from the few hours I’ve been searching, I could predict that I was in a zoo. An abandoned zoo. An abandoned zoo with…animals? That’s the only thing it could be. 

I walked along until I was back where I had got dropped off at. The main area I think. I could see the old ticket stand and the concession stands. Also, a rusty sign that said, “Seals, giraffes and tigers this way.” Tigers. How long has this zoo been here? Someone had to be feeding the animals, or else they would be…well, dead. 

I followed the sign, and walked along the dark path. By now it was pitch black outside and the only source of the light were the few street lamps. Usually there would be clues where they hid the object. That was my goal right now. I had to hurry before the other contestants got here. I was the first one to get dropped off. I heard someone say that they picked me to go first because I had come in second last time. And so they felt bad. In this game, even coming in last would be better than coming in second. 

The thoughts of last week's consequences kept crawling into the back of my head. I knew this week it would be worse if I came in second. I had no choice, I was either getting first place or nothing. I knew the other contestants would be harder on me though. I was the youngest, the smallest, yet I was beating all of them. But at the same time losing. 

Along the path I kept seeing these little purple flowers, and they were pretty tall. Maybe a clue? But it could also be a false clue. Last round there were many of those. I soon approached a few cages. But they were silent. A little bit ago all I could hear was the animals. But now all I could hear was my own heavy breathing, and leaves crunching? I turned around to face the woods, and as I didn’t something grabbed me from behind. They grabbed my shirt and the next thing I knew, I could hear the giant cage shutting. And I was in it. 

The being let go of my shirt. I backed up so my back was up against the cold metal bars. I looked into the darkness and saw nothing. I turned around and tried to pull the big, heavy cage door open. No luck. I turned back around the face the darkness not wanting to test my luck with the being that was lurking around. Something was going on. 

I heard something crack behind me in the woods. I was about to turn around but then I didn’t, and realized that I wasn’t going to fall for that trick again. Was that part of the game? All a part of the plan? If it was, I didn’t like it. 

All I did was stare at the darkness. What else was I supposed to do? This wasn’t like one of these hide and seek games that you would play in kindergarten at recess. When the seeker would find me they would run after me and I would jump on the monkey bars, the monkey bars being the only way to get to the safe zone. I always won. That’s what I wish this was, even though it isn't, and it’ll never be. THIS game was a life or death situation. A game where if I made one wrong move, I would be done for. And I think I just made that wrong move. 

Now there was more than one thing I could hear. I could hear my heart beating, and I could feel it even more. I could also hear my own heavy breathing, but also the heavy breathing of something else. Someone else? I couldn’t stand there forever. There was one thing I had to do. 

I started to walk forward into the darkness, my heart beating faster and faster with every step. The heavy breathing that was not mine got louder, and it smelled fruity, and nutty. I was disgusted. But that wasn’t the worst problem I was facing right now. 

It seemed like I had been walking for at least a minute now. How big could this cage be? And what giant animal needed a cage this big? “Hello?” I called as I continued into the darkness. No answer. Then, I heard a big bang. Like the animal had just jumped off of a tree or something. Then I heard loud thumping sounds. And they were getting louder and closer. A started to back up slowly. Then the thumping sounds got closer. I turned around and ran. I was risking it this time. No doubt about it. 

I ran until I got to the end of the giant cage door. A pulled and pleaded and pulled so more for the door to open. But it just wouldn't. What had I done wrong? The sounds got closer, and I knew this was the end for me. 

And then I saw it. The reason why I had been dragged into this cage. Hanging on the top of the cage, from a silver rope was a gold key. “That’s it.” I whispered to myself. I looked around for a boost, a lift that would help me get up there. Nothing. I had to use my resources. 

I looked around the cage, and studied the metal bars that it was made out of. And well, I started to climb. I was in a zoo. I was a monkey! I put one foot on top of one bar and the other foot on top of the other until I reached the ceiling. The thumping sounds continued. The golden key was in the middle of the ceiling. I wasn’t Spider-man. I couldn;t just crawl on the ceiling no problem. 

So, I did the only thing I could. I jumped onto one of the bars with my hands. Just like monkey bars. I put one hand in front of the other, swinging my way through, until I got to the key. I let go with one hand, and reached for the key with my one hand. I yanked on the key but it wouldn’t budge from the string. I yanked again. I let go of the key and put both my hands back on the metal bars. My hands were starting to get sweaty and soon I wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer. 

I had to do something. So I did. I did something without even thinking. I started swaying my body back and forth on the bars and then leaped onto the key with both hands. As I did the key came loose from the bar and the key and I both fell to the ground. Luckily, I wasn’t high up enough that when I fell I didn’t break anything, let alone hurt myself. I stood up from my fall with the key in my hand and raced to the cage door that was still shut. 

I pleaded with the door to open. I yanked it as hard as I could. The thumping was louder than it had ever been before. I had to hurry. I pulled as hard as I could. My arms hurt. I stuffed the key into my pants pocket. I quickly turned around to see the beast that had been following me, watching me this whole time. 

I could see the outline of the beast. It was close. Too close. Getting all personal and all up in my business. They’re the one that dragged me in here. I didn’t choose this. Well, I kind of did. I DON’T CARE THOUGH. I knew this would come. This was the consequence, this is how I was gonna die. I thought I was gonna die when I was older and on life support, and my future kids would unplug my machine to plug in their IPad. I don’t know which one is worse. 

I pleaded with the cage door one last time before I finally saw the beast. I quickly turned around to face the beast as it came into the light of the street light. And what I saw surprised me. 

A semi-large animal with a long thick tail. Tall ears. A marsupium. It was a…kangaroo? I backed up into the cage, as the animal stopped thumping its foot and came closer. The kangaroo then started to hop in place. I didn’t know what that meant. Did that mean something bad? Was it about to start charging at me or something? 

The giant kangaroo swung its tail on the cage. Then the tail started to come for me and I ducked. The tail then came back and started hitting the door. Over and over. The banging of the tail got harder and harder as the kangaroo tried to bust open the door. The kangaroo was starting to get tired. You could see it. There was only one last bang left in it. The kangaroo put all of its strength into it. With one last thump, the cage came bursting open, and I jumped in joy. I was finally free! I began to run out of the cage, when I turned around to the kangaroo and said, “Thank you.” I ran out of the cage, while pulling the key out of my pocket, holding it high up into the air. 

I ran all the way back down to where I had been dropped off. What happened now would forever change my life. I saw red and blue flashing lights. Five police cars. People were in handcuffs. I put the key down. And started walking slowly toward the scene. What had happened. I looked at my watch, and it said, one hour left. One hour? That couldn't be right. I had only been in there for about half of an hour. That couldn’t be. 

As I started to come into sight of everyone else, a police officer looked up from a clipboard and looked at me. 

“There he is!” I shouted, as he pulled out a pistol. 

“Put your hands up where I can see them!” Another officer said. 

I quickly slipped the key into my pocket and put my hands up. What did I do? I hadn’t done anything wrong. I stood there as an office came over and put me in one of the vehicles with the flashing lights. I was done for. 

*To Be Continued*