Beyond the mountain

“Hello, this is your captain speaking. We are now entering ( )and will be landing at the ( )
international airport within one hour. We once again thank you for flying with ( ) airline and
have a great rest of your flight.” Opening dreary eyes, I glance up at the dim lit clock face
above me, showing the time 5:13am. Lifting my cramped elbow I try my best to block out the
sound of the roaring engine with little success. I had been on this plane for almost the whole
night now, with practically no sleep whatsoever. Lying down I try to get into a comfortable
position, my eyelids slowly dropping.
Suddenly, an alarm sounds.
The next thing I hear is the captain shouting through the speakers, obviously trying to calm
himself down.
“Brace position! Brace position!! The plane is going down! Fasten seatbelts! ”
Cabin crew rush through the corridors, the whole plane in a desperate panic. I look out one
of the small windows and see one of the engines ablaze in a ball of white flame. The plane
starts to tilt dangerously. I try my best to stay in a brace position, tucking my legs and arms
in. The plane plummets to the ground, down and down and down through the cloudy
atmosphere.
The plane crash lands with a jolt and a crunch. Everything goes dark.
I slowly open my eyes. Squinting in the bright sunlight, I try my best to remember the events
of night. I sit up trying to put my battered self into action, testing my body for any broken
bones.
Suddenly, I hear a voice.
“Hey kiddo, I’m glad you’re finally awake, I was going to leave you and assume you were
dead if you hadn’t woken up soon.”
I frantically turned my head, both fearful and delighted to finally hear a human voice. Looking
up, I see a wizened old man wearing a faded grey T shirt. His gnarled, wind burnt face
showed a look of concern and interest, and his inquisitive brown eyes shined like a coin in
the sunlight.
I try to speak, but all that comes out is a half groan, half croak.
With the help of the old man, I painfully manage to sit up, and observe the surroundings. The
rugged landscape shone in the sunlight. The baron, dry terrain seemed somewhat weirdly
surreal. The carcass of the wrecked plane lay ravaged nearby, like the skeleton of some
great bird that had long since deceased.
The old man scavenged about in the broken splinters, appearing behind a piece of plane
with a bottle of airline water. The water healed my shocked body, and I almost instantly
gained the ability to speak again.
The old man smiled down at me. “ My name is Jonathan, but you can call me Jo. You and I
are the lucky ones. We were the only ones who survived that dreadful crash. We got the
safest seats on the plane.”
“I suppose you must be hungry. Well I found these airline snacks at the back of the plane
they have a whole stash of them back there.” handing me a battered looking packet of
pretzels. We talked and ate until the sun went down over the horizon, where a looming
mountain stood not far away. The mountain, fully ablaze with the last light of the day, stood
towering above
“Beyond that mountain”, Jo told me, “is the mountain rescue centre if we get there, we will be
safe and sound. I checked the aircraft’s ELT, it is completely smashed up. That's how they
find out where the plane crashed.”
“Couldn't they just come and rescue us while we wait?”,I say, not comfortable with the idea.
“Nah, kiddo, I'm afraid not. Our food supplies won’t last forever. It will take a while for the
rescuers to search the whole flight path.” said Jo.
By now the sun was well below the horizon.
“We leave tomorrow.”
Jo woke me up in the morning. The sun was already high above my head. I was quickly
loaded with a pack full of airline food as we began the hike up the mountain. The mountain
wasn’t too hard to climb at first in the cool of the morning, but as the day grew on we found
ourselves being baked by the midday sun. The mountain seemed to get steeper and more
rocky as we went up. Hot, tired, thirsty and extremely sunburnt, we paused the journey to
stop and rest behind a large boulder.
Just as I open a pack of chocolate buttons Jo scavenged, a shadow suddenly passes
overhead. Frantically squinting, I see the shape of a helicopter, flying overhead. Jo swiftly
pulls out a hand mirror, desperately trying to reflect the sun’s rays onto the helicopter’s
cockpit. We wait for a few vital seconds, hoping and praying that the helicopter will respond.
The helicopter turns, but then drifts into the distance, vanishing behind a cloud. We stayed
there, speechless for a few minutes.
“Well, we might as well keep going.” Jo says, breaking the silence.
Getting up painfully, we toil on, scrambling up loose rocks and brushing past brambles. The
weather quickly changed from hot and bright to cold and blustery. Loose rocks and dirt were
blown off the mountain side into our faces. The wind tries its hardest to blow us off the
mountainside. We toil on, until the summit is finally in sight. Bounding forwards, we stand at
the summit and tower above the valley, on top of the world. Down below, the buildings of the
mountain rescue centre form clear square shapes. Overjoyed, we ran down the mountain
side, not stopping until we finally reached the valley.
“We made it! We made it beyond the mountain! Hahaha!” Jo cries.
At the mountain rescue centre, it did not take us long to explain what had happened. Before
we knew it, we were loaded onto a helicopter and lifting off into the air. I look out of the
window as the buildings and mountains shrink to the size of toys. I turn around to speak to
Jo, but as I look behind me, Jo isn’t there! My anxiety turns into fear as I know he must be
left behind. Frantically I ask the people around me where Jo is. To my surprise, the answer I
get is, “what other man, you are the only one!”and “It was awfully brave for you to have
found us all by yourself ,boy.” Jo seemed to have disappeared into thin air. But it was Jo who
brought me beyond the mountain! It was Jo who had come onto this helicopter with me!
Maybe It was my mind playing tricks on me. Maybe there was actually no Jo. Maybe he
didn’t exist. About to cry, I put my face into my hands.
A packet falls out of my pocket. It was the chocolate buttons I had been eating earlier.

Ooh I like this sinister note at the end! If you need to cut it down, an alternative ending could
be that the helicopter flies off, leaving them stranded. At which point, the narrator realises Jo
is a figment of his imagination.