A PARACHUTIST IN THE WOODS

John Hague jumped from the airplane and a few seconds later he yanked on the cord that activated his parachute. He felt a sudden jolt as the parachute caught the air. He looked down and he saw the thick green of the woods down below. The slight breeze caused the parachute to drift off to the west a little. He hoped that he would be able to land in an area that wasn’t too dangerous. Landing in the thickets could be destructive and life threatening, and he knew that. He wasn’t given much of a choice as to whether he wanted to jump out of the airplane or not. He had been told by the man with the gun that he could either jump out over the wooded area, or he could take a bullet in the brain by Ernesto, who had a grin on his face and kept pointing the semi-auto handgun at John’s head. Given his choices, John knew that the only choice worth taking, was to jump out of the airplane with a parachute on his back.

The parachute came down at a not-so-slow rate of speed, and John winced as his felt the slamming of his feet and legs hitting the top of a tree. It was painful and lasted but a second before he felt his whole body jolt to a stop in motion. And he hung there like a child in a rope swing just ten feet above the ground. There he was, suspended in the air in the deep woods. He hung there for a couple minutes, giving himself a moment or two to rest, and then he reached for his pocket and found the cheap pocketknife that the robbers hadn’t found. Using the knife, he slowly cut the parachute cords that suspended him above the ground. When he had cut all the cords except the last one, he said, “This is it.” He fell to the ground and landed with a thud. The impact was painful, and he groaned aloud, “Oh, God.” He lay there trying to recover from the fall a while, then he slowly got up and looked around to see his surroundings. The woods were very thick. Vines were running all around the nearby trees. Some of them were as big around as a man’s wrist. And many were smaller vines that were about the diameter of a pencil. John wondered if he’d be able to find a way out of the thickness. He said to himself, “Good God Almighty. It’s going to be rough.”

He began to work his way through the thicket, and he had scrapes and cuts on his arms and hands. He felt the pricking of thorns from time to time, and he could see little spots of blood on the outside of his pant legs. His nice blue dress shirt was getting small rips in it and little spots of blood were on it also. After a couple hours of walking, he became so tired that he sat down beside a large pine tree trunk and he rested for a while. Birds chirped and sang. Squirrels barked and ran from limb to limb nearby. He watched the activity of the woods as he sat there resting. One squirrel came close to him, saw him, and then scampered away quickly. He chuckled. “I’m not going to hurt you.” he said, as if the small animal could understand what he said.

After he had rested enough, he got up from the ground and he began to make his way through the woods again. He didn’t know which direction to walk, but he walked anyway. He thought to himself that walking in some direction was better than just sitting still and going nowhere. Thoughts about what had happened to him entered his mind. The robbers must have been planning the robbery for some time before showing up at the bank that morning. John, who had been working at that bank for just over two years, was surprised when the masked men came into the bank with their guns drawn and demanded to be allowed into the bank vault. Since they had handguns and looked like they were more than willing to use them, John assisted them in this matter. And they took him along with them as a hostage when they left the bank building. He was made to board a small airplane that was waiting for them on an abandoned road just out of town. They barded the airplane, and the pilot flew the airplane up over some trees at the end of the old abandoned roadway. The airplane just cleared the trees at the end of the road. John gasped and one of the robbers said, “What you gasping about?” And another fellow said, “Our pilot knows his business.”

John’s mind came back to the present and he looked all around again. Nothing but woods. Thick overgrown woods. Like a robot, he made his way through the thickness until he came to a river that was about a hundred feet wide. He lay on the ground and rested for a while, then he got up and waded into the water. He began to swim slowly across the waterway. When he got across the river, he decided to stay there that night. The sun was getting dimmer in the sky when he reached the other side and he thought that it would be best to camp out there that night before trying to continue his journey to safety. He looked around for sticks to make a fire with. He gathered quite a little pile, and then he tried the old method of rubbing a stick in a wooden hole to start a fire. He had learned how to do that when he was in the Boy Scouts back when he was a teenager. He found the pieces to put together a fire starter, and he twisted and twisted the stick between his two hands. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t quick, but eventually with much effort, he was able to make a small ember and by adding some dry small twigs and some dry bark, he made fire. He carefully added some sticks onto the fire, and soon had a decent sized fire going. He had the idea to make a spear out of a stick, and he found a stick that would be suitable for the task. He had his cheap knife, so he was able to sharpen the tip of the stick. He then made a torch out of a stick and an old plastic jug that he found. He set the jug afire, and he went down to the edge of the river and he waded around while holding the burning jug up over the water. He saw a fish and he tried to spear it through, but he missed. The fish swam away. “Dang it!” he said. And he kept wading. As he waded along, he saw a catfish near a submerged tree top, he jabbed at it with his improvised spear, and that time he got lucky. The pointed end of the stick stuck right behind the head of the fish and he was able to bring the stick up and grab ahold of the fish. He took the fish back to where his fire was blazing and he cleaned the fish in the light of the fire. Then he cooked the fish by hanging it over the fire on a leaning stick so that the fish was close enough to cook after some time. When he took the leaning stick down, he poked his knife into the flesh and was able to tell that the flesh was cooked well. He let the meat cool down a little, and he tore off little chunks of the meat, He put some of the meat into his mouth and though the meat wasn’t seasoned with salt, pepper, or any other spice, it tasted wonderful to John. He had to satisfy his thirst by drinking river water from his cupped hands. He had been hungry and thirsty. He had been mighty hungry and thirsty.

After he ate the fish, he gathered more firewood. When he felt like the pile of wood was big enough, he stopped gathering sticks and he lay down a few feet from the fire. He had no blanket. He had no sheet. But he felt at peace in the warmth of the fire. He drifted off to sleep. Several hours into his sleep, he awoke and the fire had burned down quite a bit. He added more sticks to the fire and he lay back down. He drifted off to sleep again.

Morning came quickly, and when he awoke, he could hear the beautiful songs of birds, and the barks of squirrels. He got up, warmed himself by the fire, and then he put the fire out. Then he continued on his journey through the woods. He walked and he walked and he finally came to a roadbed. He decided to take the road to the left and he walked and he walked for several hours. He was getting hot and thirsty and he was feeling like he wanted to give up when he heard the distant sound of a vehicle coming his way. An elderly man in a jeep drove up to him. “What the heck are you doing way out here, son?” John shook his head. “Our bank was robbed. I was made to jump out of a plane.” The old man looked at the blood-covered young man. “You look like you’ve been through Hell.” John shook shook his head in the affirmative. “I have. I really have.” The old man gave John a ride to the nearest medical center and waited in the waiting room while John was tended to by the doctors. John’s wounds eventually healed up nicely, And he remained friends with the old man who helped him in his time of need. The robbers were apprehended and all of them were sentenced to years in prison. John decided to quit his bank job and he started his own business selling outdoor gear. He told his family and friends, “I’m going to be selling the things that I wished that I had with me while I was trying to survive in those woods after I had to jump out of that airplane.”