A Hike Gone Wrong

Fictionistas March 2024 Writing Prompt

Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash

This story is for the

Fictionistas

March 2024 writing prompt. The writing prompt is shown in bold. If you want more information on this contest you can go to this link.

When Simon woke up, his hospital room was dark and smelled bad…

What had started as a good day was anything but.

Simon and his friend Trisha had a gripping adventure. They didn’t intend for it to be so riveting. What they thought would be an exciting time to get out and enjoy the outdoors turned into much more than they expected. The woods near their home was the perfect place for an afternoon hike. As they drove, they talked about all of the mature trees they would see. This forest had been untouched by developers. It would be just a matter of time before a developer would want to put apartments or houses on this undeveloped land. Land in the area was being scooped up at record levels.

When they arrived, the sun was high up in the sky shooting its rays down onto them. The heat was intense. They made quick work of getting their hiking gear on and getting into the woods. They each carried a backpack filled with food and water. Even though they would be within the woods, the sun would be poking through the trees and shining down on them.

There were plenty of trails to follow. Each was marked with a yellow sign on a small post. This wasn’t an official park, just one that the locals had set up to provide some fun for the visitors. They were working their way through one of the trails, feet moving one in front of the other, when they encountered a bear. They stopped straight in their tracks. It was about thirty feet from them. It was looking right at them.

“What are we going to do?” Trisha asked.

“Stay very still,” Simon insisted.

The bear got up on its hind legs and growled at them. Once it came down on all fours, it started walking toward them.

There was only so long that they could stand still.

“Now what?”

Simon grabbed Trisha’s hand and they ran back in the opposite direction. They weaved in and out of the trail, hoping the bear would get confused. They ran through a few bushes off the path to try to escape.

That was where they made their fatal mistake. Actually, it wasn’t fatal but it wasn’t good.

All of the sudden thousands of bees swarmed Simon. They were everywhere. He had them on his face and head. His arms were loaded with them. He ran for the nearest lake. He jumped in to try to knock them off him. Fortunately for Trisha the bees were not attracted to her.

“Call 911!” Simon begged her.

Simon was transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Once at the hospital, the doctors and nurses worked feverishly to get Simon relief for his bee stings. He had hundreds, if not thousands. They put some lotion all over his body. They wrapped him in so many bandages.

They gave him a sedative to relax him. Suffering from so many bee stings, it was imperative to get him to calm down. He fell asleep almost immediately.

--------------------------

….the smell was horrendous. He had never smelled something so disgusting. It was sweet smelling. He was gasping for air.

He looked like a mummy, he had so many bandages on. He only had peepholes for his eyes, nose and mouth.

Finally, a nurse came in to check on him.

“How are you doing Simon?” a pretty nurse with blonde hair asks.

“Better. Why does it smell so bad in here?”

“The strangest thing. There were a bunch of guys in here smoking marijuana.”

“Why?”

“They thought you were their friend. It turns out there is another guy with a bunch of bandages all over his body from severe burns.”

“Oh.”

“Mistaken identity. I don’t know how they got the wrong room.”

“Why is it so dark?”

“The power is out in the building.”

Conclusion

I had fun coming up with this story. Feel free to leave any comments. For my regular readers, you know I value your opinions on any of my writing, especially fiction.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt