The green lights that saved my life

The Green lights that saved my life.

I saw this writing prompt about green lights in a writers contest and it immediately reminded me of the night that I almost died in the woods so many years ago. I guess if I am going to share this story I should give you a little more background about how I ended up in such a situation.

I was raised in New York City and was a complete city slicker. By the age of sixteen the most outdoor nature related thing I had ever done was take a walk through central park. Around my birthday my father had got some idea in his head that he wanted to be a farmer and his former life as a stock manager had provided more than enough money for him to uproot all our lives and take us out to the sticks of New York States. Until that moment I didn’t even know there was more New York besides the five boroughs. It was a complete culture shock when I left behind corner deli shops, a 24 hour Rite Aid and easy access subway system for empty corn fields and a beautiful prison. I called the farm house a beautiful prison because honestly at that age I didn't know how to drive and we didn’t have a spare car so I was stuck in the house all the time. Don’t get me wrong, Corbin Hill is beautiful and there was even a small lake by the house with actual fish and that was a relaxing spot to be at but the fact that I had no friends, no means of travel and no reason to be here made me depressed.

While I suffered my mom and dad were the happiest I have ever seen them. My dad went from being a grumpy morning person to being all smiles every morning. He would smile before he even had his first cup of coffee. My mom on the other hand was always outside in the dirt. She planned to have the best herb garden ever created and was excited to cook using ingredients and flavor that she grew in her own garden. My parents were finally really happy and I couldn’t ruin this opportunity for them so I decided to start taking long walks and just try to enjoy the place. With ninety five acres of both open fields and woods I would at least have plenty of land to explore.

On day one of my new attitude change I realized walking in the open fields during the day was equivalent to walking barefoot on hot coals and decided that the wood areas would be best as they had the most shade. My first trip into the woods was a welcomed relief from the heat. The trees in this area must have been very old because most of the trees were thick. Is thick the right word for a tree? Well it was cooler and I actually enjoyed the calming sounds. There was a stream in the woods and it sounded just like those YouTube videos you could listen to fall asleep at night. I was starting to feel the surreal feelings of joy in this place.

After that day I made trips into the woods during the day and I would take naps resting against a tree while listening to the stream it was hypnotic and wonderful and those trips into the woods started to build up my comfort and confidence about this place and every day after I started to travel a little farther and a little deeper into the woods. I knew I was no boy scout so I always traveled keeping the stream within eyesight so if all things failed I could always follow it back to the spot that I took naps at and from there I could make it home easily enough.

On one of my more adventurous days I packed enough food and water in order to spend the full day exploring the woods and I wasted no time. I woke up at the crack of dawn surprising my dad and by the time he had enjoyed his first cup of coffee I was out the door to enjoy the day. I first decided to have breakfast by my favorite napping spot. It was different being there so early you could feel moisture in the air and much of the animal noises that I was accustomed to by now was only just beginning to start with the day. After a quick breakfast I started to walk and really admire the beauty of this place. Some of the trees were so big that I could imagine them being around when dinosaurs roamed the land. It made me wonder how this forest seemed to survive the industrial age. How did no one come here and chop all this down to make amazon boxes or paper towels?

After roughly walking for about six to seven miles I decided to give my legs a break and since I could still hear the stream off somewhere to my left I decided to take a lunch break. I sat on a rock eating a sandwich and watching tik tok videos to pass the time. The reception out here wasn’t perfect so sometimes the videos would take forever to load and play correctly. In the middle of one of my videos my screen went completely blank. The phone had shut off without any warning. That pissed me off for a moment because I know I still had a 70% charge and I had a backup battery pack. There should have been no reason for the phone to die out like that. I started to reach for my pack for that extra battery pack when I realized how quiet it had become. The sound of my zipper on my back sounded like machine gun fire to the sudden noiseless environment. The silence was heavy for the longest second of my life and suddenly the noise came back and my phone rebooted. That was the weirdest thing to ever happen to my phone.

Well with everything back working I decided to continue my hike through to the words. I'd figure I walk for another hour or two and then turn around. During those two hours of walking I kept having moments where all the sound would stop. It would stop for a few seconds and then things returned to normal. I experienced that piercing silence two more times before I decided to google it. As with the tik tok videos it took forever for google to load up an answer out there in the woods. The answer had me looking over my shoulder constantly. Apparently if the woods go dead silent then all the animals around know that a predator is close by. It was that fear and constant looking over my shoulder that caused me not to notice a thick root on the ground . My foot smashed full on to that tree root and as the pain shot up my leg I was too distracted to notice the ground was coming up fast to my face.

I woke up face down on the ground. My entire forehead felt like one giant sensitive pimple. The slightest touch to my forehead sent shock waves of pain through my brain. I banged myself up pretty bad. I reached into my pockets for my phone and saw that it was already 10 pm. I was face down in that dirt for a good six hours and it was already dark. I decided to use the flashlight from my phone to light up the way but the light was so weak compared to the darkness. I tried to listen for the stream but my head was pounding so hard I couldn’t tell if it was the stream I heard or my own blood pumping through my temples. I tried calling dad but the signal was too weak to make the call. I had only one choice but to keep walking in the direction I thought was home.

Everything looked so different in the dark that even though my flashlight was weak I had to try and use it. I was lighting up the ground as best as I could to avoid tripping and falling down again when I heard a twig snap behind me. The sound of that one twig scared me to the core but then I didn’t hear anything so I kept walking forward. I wanted to turn around and look over my shoulder but that was how I got in this mess in the first place.

A second twig snapped somewhere in the darkness and then my phone suddenly shut off again. I remember just cursing to myself the phone was completely dark and that creepy silence had returned again. From behind me in the darkness I heard an aggressive low growl. My head kept snapping back and forth trying to see into the darkness trying to identify what was growling . The growl came again and I decided that I did not want to find out and started walking again at a slightly faster pace but I didn’t want to run. I remembered reading once that large animals will give chase to what runs because that is what prey do . I walked for what felt like forever and had to stop to catch my breath. While catching my breath I looked behind me and saw red eyes. The eyes were however very high looking back at me from behind one of the massive tree trunks. I had no idea what could have red eyes and be so tall but once those red eyes started to move I forgot about not being like prey and I ran. I dropped the pack and ran for my life .

In the darkness behind me I saw those red eyes continue to get closer. It was like whatever was chasing me was walking with such big strides that it kept pace with me and I didn’t know where I was going. Then in full panic mode running through the woods I saw the one thing that brought me relief. I saw a green light in the distance. It was my dad's Heineken sign that he put up on his workshop door. I was close to home and as quick as I felt that relief it left me just as fast as the growling behind me got louder and those constant even steps turned into a full run behind me. I ran, never taking my eyes off the green sign and silently prayed in my mind that I would make it in time but my imagination was wearing me down. With every branch that touched me I was sure the claws of some beast were going to rip me apart. I broke free from the tree line heading straight past the green lights of the sign and into my house. I locked the door behind and I must have passed out because when I woke again I was in my bed and the smell of coffee and bacon filled the house.

My parents told me that I came running into the house last night and that I blacked out from hyperventilating. They figured I ran into a bear and had been scared shitless. In the morning I didn’t have the heart to retell what happened. So I agreed with their bear story and told them I fell while running from the bear. In my heart I knew it was no bear. I stayed out of those woods from them on and certain nights when I looked out my bedroom window I swear I saw red eyes just within the tree line. Whatever this thing was, if it really wanted me dead I would have been. I was warned that night by the creature with red eyes and was saved by the green lights of a sign.