The Long Way Home

The Long Way Home

When I woke up, I found myself surrounded by darkness. I was just so terrified at that moment and didn’t know what to do! Suddenly, I felt very uncomfortable. Something was trickling down my leg. I then realized that I was actually bleeding! The pain was so unbearable that I thought I was going to faint any minute. Terror seized me! No one was there to help me. I was just alone with my thoughts and filled with fear of what may happen to me.

Many questions clouded my mind.’ Where could my friends be?’ How did I lose them suddenly? Did Sarah and I take the wrong turn? How did I fall suddenly? Slowly, the pain in my leg intensified and I was groaning. After a while, the pain eased and I felt my legs going numb. It seemed like I may just slip away into unconsciousness. It was at that exact point in time that I thought about God and I believed that somehow if I prayed hard, he would give me the strength to continue my journey. My eyes were tired and moist. I was actually crying. I then dozed off into a long sleep.

It seemed like a long time before I regained consciousness. I opened my eyelids slowly and to my relief it was dawn. I saw sunlight streaming through the leaves from the trees surrounding me. I tried to move myself and then discovered to my dismay that the blood stained shank of my leg would not budge. I had a deep cut and my ankle was stuck in the crevice. I needed to grab on to some support to lift myself out of the crevice. I also felt hunger pangs and my throat was dry. I then looked for my water bottle which was strapped to my haversack. Luckily, the bottle was still in my bag. I quickly opened it and drank every drop of water that was left in it. It was enough to quench my thirst at that moment. I rested for a while. I looked around me. I saw a broken tree branch a few feet away from my leg. Slowly I stretched my arm and managed to grab the branch. I used it to free my leg and carefully lifted it out from the hole. Fortunately, my ankle was not broken. I was thankful to God for sparing me further agony. What was I going to do next? This thought crossed my mind.

Immediately, I searched inside my bag for a map. Luckily, there was one. I then made a quick move and got going to find my friend. I desperately searched everywhere, but couldn’t find her anywhere. For a second, I just thought about it and told myself that I should not give up! I somehow managed to find her at last!

She was sitting on a jackfruit tree and eating jackfruits. It was much of a relief for me as I had taken great effort to find her. I just could not imagine what would have happened to me if I had not found her! She looked truly pleased to see me as I came out from the bushes. She slowly climbed down the tree, gave me a hug and cried tears of joy.

Next, Sarah and I then went looking for our other friend Emily. The tall trees cast shadows over the forest floor. Each step seemed to be like a never ending journey. Wondering what each step would bring us, we stepped cautiously around the roots and wild mushrooms. It all seemed like we were in a trailer movie. Suddenly, we heard screams for help. ‘’Help, help’’!! It sounded like our friend Emily Tan. We ran to the place as fast as our legs could carry us. We caught sight of Emily who had long dark hair and a pale skin. We ran to her and gave her a hug. She was just so touched! It felt so good to be together again. Though we were feeling very glad, fear still gripped us! We had to somehow find a way out of the jungle.

We were walking aimlessly around the jungle, looking for any visible sight of people until finally we reached the beach. The sight of the beach was such a welcoming relief. While we were admiring the beauty of the blue waters stretching beyond the beach, we were fortunate to find a few fishermen who were fishing near the seashore. We rushed to them and I being the only one who could speak Malay narrated the whole story about what had happened to us and sought their help to get back to the Singapore Mainland. I told them that we had come to the jungle on our annual Biology trekking trip. We were supposed to collect some plants and insect species. However, we had lost our hiking guide and the other group that had started on the trip with us. As we had dropped our handphones in the jungle, we were unable to contact the rest of the team. The fishermen were moved by our plight and readily offered to ferry us on their boat back to the nearest ferry terminal at Pasir Gudang in Johor Bahru. We were very grateful to the fishermen for their kindness towards us.