A new world

The sun rose over the mountains as Ash opened the zip to her little hiking tent. Still inside her sleeping bag she peeked out and let out her little terrier, Harry so he could relieve himself. She smiled as the warmth of the sun hit her face and closed her eyes to savour it all. She was alone, in her tent with her best mate, little Harry and enjoying just being a part of nature. She thought about lying back down and dozing for a while but she also really wanted a warm coffee inside her, so she reluctantly unzipped her sleeping bag, pulled on her yellow down jacket, put her feet into her teva sandals and slipped her beanie over her tangle braids. Harry came pounding up to her, with all the energy of a puppy first thing in the morning, despite being nearly 6yrs old. She grabbed some doggie biscuits from his pouch and put them on the tree log beside her and Harry greedily ate them up. She set up her jetboil to boil some water and made a coffee. Holding the cup in both hands she breathed in the smell and felt the warmth soaking into her ice-cold fingers. She savoured that first sip and felt it start to warm her from the inside out.

This had been life now for 10 days. Hiking and camping alone in the bush with Harry; walking all day, washing in the river, collecting water, eating dehydrated meals and Harry carrying his own little pouch on his back. 3 weeks before starting this adventure, Ash had lost her entire family in a house fire. She had been at work, doing the late shift and came home to the fire brigade hosing down the remnants of what used to be her family home. Husband gone, her 12yr old son gone, her goldfish gone. The only survivor was little Harry who had miraculously survived the fire and ran out of the ashes to her side, covered in black and barely breathing. The vet had put him on oxygen but told her to prepare for the worst.

Two days later Harry was back to normal and looking remarkably healthy. “It’s a miracle’ the vet had told her. With no home and no family and at a loss on how to deal with the grief Ash had ended up going to the camping store and buying everything she could put on her back and just left, leaving a short note with her best friend. For 10 days now she had been alone with her thoughts in her treasured place, the mountains. She had cried, she had laughed at her own stupidity, she had cursed God and she had considered changing her name – the irony of being called Ash. She spoke with her husband and son’s angels often, telling them how much she loved them, how she missed them, how she didn’t think she could on without them. When she started to fall down the black hole Harry would lick her face and wag his tail and she would realise that he was her reason to keep going. He was now all she had – and she was all that he had.

She was in a good mood today – savouring the sunshine and despite the cold temperatures she felt the warmth soak into her bones, and she felt hope. Hope that she was starting to come through the other side of this grief. She walked all morning, stopping by the river for lunch and to splash in the water with Harry, giving them both a good wash. She refilled her water, checked their food supplies – guessing they still had about 5 days of food left until she would need to consider going back into civilisation. It was amazing how little you could live on when you are just one with nature in the mountains.

After lunch Ash climbed up and down 3 mountain peaks – all very taxing on her body and after a few hours she picked Harry up and clipped him to her front harness. The dog’s little legs couldn’t carry him all day, so she often carried his 6kgs strapped to her front. She knew he was exhausted because rather than look around as he usually did, he fell asleep against her chest, reminding her of when her son would cuddle up against her chest like a koala as a baby. The tears were streaming when she found a safe spot to set up camp for the night. She let Harry down and he ran around the camp sniffing every corner and wagging his tail, causing Ash to smile at his joy. She gave him some biscuits as she set up the tent and their bed for the night.

As darkness fell Ash finished her dehydrated spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and tidied up her supplies, putting all her food and rubbish into sealed bags to avoid any animals trying to get into the tent, although with Harry they wouldn’t get far. He was super protective of his mum and had been known to bark at a wombat sniffing around the tent at night. She curled into bed early with Harry in her arms exhausted and it wasn’t long before she was snoring.

It was only a few hours later that she woke, suddenly wide awake and very alert. She sat up immediately, Harry was standing next to her, staring at the door of the tent, and quietly growling. She hooked her leash on him just in case he tried to attack something much larger than him and opened the tent cautiously. A green light was hovering just above the horizon in the trees. It was like no light she had ever seen before; the colour was not the green of the trees caught in a torch light; it was a fluorescent bright colour that was definitely not natural. It hovered on the horizon and then got bigger and bigger. Harry stopped growling and instead started to wag his tail. Ash stared at him in confusion. He barked, not an aggressive bark, an excited bark. She stepped out of the tent and stood up straight.

“Hello” she said, “Who’s there? I am armed” she called out, despite having no more than a small hiking knife with her, which was currently in the tent.

She held her breath as the shape of a person appeared in the green light and started to walk towards her, the light getting larger and larger, silhouetting the persons shadow. Suddenly one shadow became two with a smaller shadow appearing alongside the first. They both walked towards her slowly, but purposefully. In the shock Ash let go of Harry’s lead and he bound forward to greet the shadows with his tail wagging.

“Harry” she called after him as he barked and jumped at the shadows – all the while seeming happy to see them.

As the green light got even closer Ash considered whether to turn and run or fight. Her head torch and all her supplies were in the tent, she had no shoes or jacket on so she knew she would not make it far by running. She braced for a fight instead. The shadows walked right up to her and were within touching distance before she could see their faces. She squealed a little and held her hand up to her mouth as she realised she was looking at her husband, and her son.

“John” she whispered, “Sam?” She reached out her shaking hand to touch her son. He looked just like the last time she had seen him.

“Hi Mum” he replied and took her hand, holding it to his chest.

“How” she stuttered, “How is this possible? Am I dreaming”? She asked as she looked at John.

He smiled at her, ‘No, my love” he said grabbing her other hand. “We have come to take you with us”.

“Where” Ash asked, confusion on her face.

“We have a ship – we are heading to a new planet. This one is dying, and we have been chosen to start a new world”.

“But you died” she said, “I saw the bodies”.

“No” said John, “you saw what they wanted you to see, Harry was sent back to make sure you came to us again so you could eventually join us”.

Still confused, and feeling dazed Ash held John’s hand as Sam picked up Harry and led them over the ridge where she finally saw the source of the green light, sitting in a clearing in the trees.

“Oh my god’ she whispered.