Sargent Symang Survives

• Eric O'sullivan, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2014

One hot afternoon Sargent Symang was doing his duty as a military officer. He was driving his jeep in the hot afternoon sun to base camp 10 miles away on the rusty bridge road when his jeep ran out of fuel. He didn`t bother to walk back because there were too many dangers lurking on the roads, but he still had a 303 bore war rifle and a limited supply of ammunition and a 28cm military knife in his side pouch and a hip flask full of ice cold water.
On that cold windy night he climbed a tall pine tree and slept on a thick branch. That night he heard wolf calls in the wind. That morning he woke up to find big angry wolves at the bottom of the tree that he was sleeping in. He wanted to shoot the wolves but it was a big risk in case he missed. He had one chance but he risked it! Sargent Symang shot the bullet into the air and scared the wolves away. Then he climbed down the tree and started to walk further and further into the vast bushland. He found some nuts and roots to eat, sat down and looked into the sunrise and thought he saw a lake but it was just a mirage.
It was getting near to the middle of the day now and it was getting hotter and hotter. He looked at his toes and yelled in an excited voice, “That lake that I saw in my jeep on the rusty bridge road is not far away! Maybe I can walk along the road back to the lake then I can send signals and then they can rescue me!”
So Sargent Symang walked along the rusty bridge road back to the lake. He went for a swim to see if he could find any crayfish. When he came back, he only had one small crayfish and a crab. He took them back to the bank to cook them on the fire he made from wood he had gathered. They were delicious, even without any seasoning. After a while, he made a raft out of the left over wood. He pushed the raft out into the lake and started drifting. He soon fell asleep.
When he awoke, he found himself on the other side of the lake. He remembered that the base camp was near a big lake like this one – maybe it was the same lake! When he had finished pulling his raft ashore, he saw some cooks catching crayfish for their next meal. He yelled with great excitement, “I’m saved! I’m saved! At last I’m saved!
From that day forward, he never went alone in his jeep and he made sure he had plenty of fuel!