A Close Encounter

• Tyler Ninnes, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

It was a beautiful, sunny day, the temperature was twenty four degrees and perfect for going camping in a rainforest. Tyler packed his car with food, water, map, tent and a phone. All of his friends and family knew that he would be staying there for four days. He arrived at the rainforest and saw a group of people unpacking their cars and setting up their tents. Tyler drove into the campsite and he picked a spot under a tree. He unloaded his car and set up his tent, he then noticed a path that was leading into the rainforest. He decided to see what the weather was like on his phone it said, eighteen degrees with a possible storm. Tyler looked up and saw some clouds in the distance and decided to go for a hike in the enormous forest. He packed all his gear in his bag and got ready for the hike. He set off down the track holding his compass and map. Tyler placed a stick in the ground every few meters so he wouldn’t get lost. Tyler looked up at the sky, there were dark clouds heading right in his direction. His watch showed four thirty and he wanted to be back before five thirty that afternoon. Tyler knew he would have to go back to camp. The dark and gloomy clouds came rumbling over, thunder booming and lightning crackling throughout the sky. Tyler quickly put his map and compass in his backpack and ran as fast as he could. He came to the end of a path, there was no camp site anywhere. He looked for the sticks that he had placed in the ground. The sticks were nowhere to be seen. The decision to go back to camp was an easy one to make. But first he had to make shelter and try to survive the storm. He put his backpack inside and placed leaves on the ground to act like a mattress, and then made sure no branches would fall on top of him. Tyler lay down and tried to get some sleep. He knew it was going to be a long sleepless night. He rolled onto his side and sleep finally came to him. It was six eleven in the morning, when Tyler woke up, he saw that heaps of trees had fallen down from the strong winds. He looked to his right, there was a pathway leading to the campsite he couldn’t believe it. The food and water in his bag were still fine, he ate the food and guzzled the water. The path looked like it would take about ten minutes to get to camp. He started his walk back to the campsite, there was no wind, no clouds and the sun was out. It was a whole different day. When he reached the camp, he went straight to his car. It would be a long time before he would go camping again.