Vile Adventures

Sitting on the couch with a coffee in hand, I dreamt of the beauties of luxurious adventures. I dreamt of well lit fires with crackling noises, beautiful villas with comfy beds and swimming pools. Well, that’s a taste of my dreamy world. According to me, the “adventure equation” is that adventure equals luxury. Later in the day, my very peculiar and quite annoying cousin called me right in the morning. To be honest with you, he is ready to go anywhere, anytime whilst any condition.

“Good morning!” my cousin Jim screams out loud, “I thought of going trekking into the woods.”

“Well ok, under one condition,” I said to him intrigued, “I want to stay in a villa, no tents,no sleeping bags, agreed?”

“Will see,” he said, rather confused.

My cousin arrives home with his friend Peter in a military styled truck with green and black stripes. Peter looked well disciplined, bold and very, very proud. He reached to the cargo bed and pulled out a sleeping bag and a whole lot of dry food packets and canteens. My throat was dry and my head started to burst with anger. 

“This is not what I asked for!” I said, offendedly. 

“Choices are choices,” Jim’s self-disciplined friend or simply, Peter, said in a very deep voice similar to an army commander assigning something to his fellow soldiers.

Desperately I jump into the truck and sleep for eight hours straight just like a nocturnal animal. As the sun set, we arrived into a spooky jungle with a dense forest cover, and to my surprise, there were all sorts of animals both hovering and slithering everywhere.Trust me, from that moment onwards I felt that this was not the most thought provoking trip. As we entered the jungle the only thing that was visible was the white-washed moon. We started trekking. Minutes passed into hours, until we finally reached one fourth of the journey. 

“Shall we set up the tent here?.” I said gasping for breath and searching for an excuse to have some rest.

“No excuses!”

“Excuse me?” I said rather blown up by Peter’s quote.

First off, I hated this trip already and the fact that he was there makes me hate it even more. I stumbled onto the ground, drenched with laziness. I actually didn’t care what he said. I wanted to go in my own way whilst he wanted to go in his own way. Fair decision? Not yet. According to my cousin, this was not a fair judgement. Anyways, I wanted to get out of here and to get out of this vicious jungle, and in order to do that I needed Peter’s help. It was a friend or foe moment. We finally came to an agreement to build a camp and stay for the night and start fresh in the morning.

I hear the loud chirping of the crickets, the eeriness of the jungle and the crackling sound of the fire breaking the awkward silence. The floor was wet and the wind was icy cold. I was very miserable with the weather conditions.

“What a day!”I sat on the thick leaf cover groaning.

“You gotta look on the bright side.” Jim said.

I shrugged and pulled myself into the sleeping bag. Eventually I slept well. The sun rises early in the morning. It was absolutely beautiful. A yellow and orange circular object, hovering between the mountains. I mean what more beautiful stuff can you see in your life?

“We’ve got a tough schedule ahead,” Peter said, taking huge steps at a time (kind of like marching).

“Gotta run,”I said in a hesitant manner.

I picked up my backpack, stood up and stomped into the jungle along with Jim and Peter. There were all sorts of animals. I tried to ignore them as much as possible and recalled my only mission which was to escape this green jungle. Hour by hour we got closer to the exit. But, it felt like an endless tunnel. The white cotton candy clouds covered the sky with a bright and pleasant vibe and the woods completely ruined its elegance.

As we trekked along there was something dark and mysterious about the jungle. You could smell danger a mile away (quick fact: that's why I hate this journey in the first place). I felt that nature was foreshadowing some sort of danger. Peter thus ignoring all of these facts stepped onto a trap. It was huge. A wide hole was cut and a dense portion was skimmed on the top for camouflage. I was shocked. A brave soul like Peter was crying out loud just like a pig caught in a snare.

“Help!” He began shrieking with fear. 

My cousin, not knowing what to do, screamed with the top of his lungs for help. Help seemed almost inevitable in this vast forest. So, all hopes were lost. Both were staring at me. Imagine yourself in this situation. Two young chaps staring at you ready to gulp you down if all ideas were lost. Now, I was scared too. I sat in a corner and started thinking for a moment.

“How would a professional hiker act in this situation?”

Two things came into my mind. Either fight or flight (which basically means running away). As my brain chose flight, I wanted to choose fight. I kept my bag on a rock and slapped a rope onto the tree. The rope was doubled down into a tight and strong rope and I threw it downwards. In this situation I was the rescuer. He caught the rope and pulled it with force. Peter was soaked in mud as he crawled onto the moist soil. 

The jungle began opening up into a vast plain. A void connected two mountains together. Peter spotted a boat in the river between the two mountains and we ran to it. After two days of wild survival we finally made it home safe as sound. Turns out that adventures can be extremely vicious and nasty and to be honest again, I got the worst out of it.

“I’m never going out with you again!” I said, grabbing a lump of soil and throwing it right at Peter and Jim. They deserved it!