Untitled Sat.

May 5, 2012
The trail will never stop. This is fact. I understand and accepted it. This trail in particular will go on forever. The map I followed for the past hours is wrong. Instead of the bold blue line that starts at the top of the page where the mountain peaks are, then ends at the bottom. There should be a bold blue line that starts at the top of the mountain the end at the bottom of California. I have been hiking through these mountains for a total of 8 hours. And the last 7 hours have been hell. I have been tripping over rocks every time my gaze leaves the dry ground. Had mosquitoes and flies wage war over the amount they could crash bomb my face. And had the usual wayward branch that somehow miraculously finds a way to smack the same area, the right side of my face. Every single bloody time I pass a tree. This is my punishment. This is what I deserve for all the sins I committed. For lying to my parents, for stealing that toy in the 5th grade, for slapping Tommy Allen when he called me fat. And whatever else I did in the past 28 years. But the biggest mistake of all was listening to Amanda Green. Thats it, when Im coming back from this so called vacation from hell. She is so fired. You need a vacation, she says. You work too much, she says. Youre too stressed out, you need to take a break, she says. Looking like a mad parrot to anybody watching I stopped ranting. But then I reasoned nobody was here. I have been lost for hours and I havent seen another human being since I started the hike. So I resumed my rant. You barely left your office since you got the position, she says. Even you parents say you need to take time off, she says. So like an idiot I agreed to the cursed vacation and took a week off to explore this bloody everlasting trail. I
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mentally started to berate myself. Why couldnt be like all the other employees taking a break and book a cruise or something. No, I took an actually hike through the majestic mountains. Apparently Yosemite National Park was so beautiful to Amanda went she went there last year, she took the initiative and booked me a cabin up there in the woods. Where I could enjoy the new scenery and pine trees and a bear? I stopped ranting again. There not fifty feet in front of me was a bear. A very very big bear. My breathe caught in my throat then wheezed out. Okay, breathe in deeply and do not scream. I couldnt see the beast beforehand because of the twists and turns in the trail. The bear looked like it was triple my weight. And I am not a weightless daisy. Its paws were the size of my head and the claws were as long as my fingers. Its dark brown matted fur was sticking up like a porcupines needles. Right now it was aggressively eating berries and at the same time rubbing itself against a tree. Good! Maybe it wont be hungry enough to eat me. From the looks of it, it was too distracted to notice me. Strange, from what I heard, bears had an extremely keen sense of smell and sound. Well, I wasnt going to argue with the fact that the bear was oblivious of me. I forced myself to breathe in and out deeply and soundlessly. I started to back away slowly. I made sure to be precise of my movements, it would go against my plan to die because I tripped. I refuge to die just because I was that clumsy to fall. One steptwo steps..three stepscrack. I look down and I am dumbstruck.. For the love of God. I stepped on a twig. The bear stopped. I saw its eyes as he reformed its body to see me better. It obviously heard the crack. It eyes were as black as onyx. Its stance was predatory. Its body posed in the way that if I made a move, it would charge and give chase. It sniffed the air as if trying to decipher if its prey was tasty. It took a step forward, then another, and another. Then pause. My heart thundered with every step, screaming at me to
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move. I had to stay still. I knew enough about animal behavior that a sign of weakness means that your easy prey. Act like prey and then your lunch. It came closer. The distance between us shrank with every passing second. It was as of now only couple of yards away. I should have brought a gun. What was I thinking?! To my defense I didnt knew bears lived around here, but its the wilderness. Anything could be out here. My thoughts raced around like racing cars. Would anybody find my cold, bloody corpse? My parents! My family! Oh, there would be so devastated I think. I know my parents would. Who knows what my siblings would do? Shout humbling declarations of fate, love and death of their poor young sister or all together skip the funeral? Yes funeral, I will not be turned into dust. I would demand to my parents, even in death (my ghost will demand) to be buried. This way, friends and family wouldnt have an excuse to not visit me and lay down flowers on my grave. What was I thinkg * think of dazed brain and dizzy g images, and head a mess, last thoughts, head back in the game. My career, my future, and my life, would be gone because of this stupid trip and my recklessness. Dont think like that! I chastised myself. You are a fighter and you will get through this! Then I looked at the bear still slowly advancing towards me and shrank. My inner voice then started to grow bolder and louder. No, do not accept this! Think of a plan! I couldnt think of anything. Anything I could do would just aggravate the bear more, and speed up my impending doom. I just started at the bear, the whole time rebuking and mourning myself. It stopped only a foot away from where I stood. So close, that if I lifted my hand in front of me I would be brushing its head. The bear started at me with its dark flint like eyes. The tension became so thick I could taste it. The bear crouched and looked like it was about to pounce. It looked like a demented jack
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in the box. He started to growl, a deep bass, gravelly, sound. It reverberated through my entire body. The bear started to tense and prepare the attack when click. I looked behind bear confused. It sounded like a bullet being clicked into place inside a rifle. The bear itself looked surprised and turned its broad head around to see the object that made the sound. Not 10 feet away from us was a man. He was a very big bulky man. Not someone you would mess with even if you had all your friends around you. He had on a park ranger uniform. So internally I immediately began thanking God. He began pacing forward slowly towards us. He spoke silently and nonthreateningly. This was an ironic sight, for he had a loaded rifle trained at us. Lady, I am going to try scaring the bear off by shooting at it. The rifle is loaded with rubber bullets so it wont kill him. I want you to move to go backwards and keep towards my left. His voice sounded just as deep as the bear. The low bass however reassured me. Unable to speak I just nodded. The bear had his full body aimed towards the ranger. It obviously knew that the man possessed a bigger threat than I. The bear began to viciously snarl at the trespasser. I immediately started to follow the rangers orders. I kept to my right, his left, and slowly backed away from the bear. The bear was becoming more violent by the second, furious from the rangers interruption. It started to move steadily towards the ranger getting ready to charge. The ranger showing not even an ounce of fear aimed at the bear with no hesitation and fired. Boom! Boom! Boom! Gunshot sounds ??