Day 279 - Flashlight

 FLASHLIGHT

Prompt - Flashlight : Imagine going somewhere very dark with only a flashlight to guide you

It was definitely getting darker.  It was definitely closing in much faster than she'd anticipated.  She was definitely in trouble.

It had seemed like a good idea.  Having spent longer on the hill than she'd anticipated, a short cut through the woods seemed the best bet for getting back to the hostel before dinner.  Bad bet, she now realised.  If she'd stuck to the road the going would have been easier, and she might have picked up a lift.  

She checked her phone again.  No hint of a signal, no smidgen of connectivity.  She was navigating blind.  And, she realised, about to be walking blind.  The clouds had been starting to mass as she headed down the slope, and with the added cover of the trees there was almost zero moonlights penetrating to light her way.  She'd need to be careful of protruding roots, growths, mounds.  A fall out here could prove... she tried not to end that sentence on 'fatal' and failed.  If she was going to make any sort of progress, in safety, she'd have to use the torch on her phone, and pray the battery would hold out.  Her decision to ditch her charger because of the added weight did not look smart right now.

She turned on the light, and progressed steadily, cautiously.  Trying to focus on the ground in front, and keep as near to a straight line as she could.  Trying tot to suppress the thoughts that clouded her brain.  Was she going in the right direction?  It became increasingly impossible to say with any certainty.  Would her light attract anything she wouldn't want it to?  Were there any predatory animals in these woods?  She didn't think so.  Wasn't the largest carnivore around here the wildcat?  She'd be too big for one of those, wouldn't she?  Her ignorance fuelled her fear.  

But what else was there to do but keep going, and try and crowd out those thoughts with concentration on where her feet were falling, looking for overhanging branches, and looking out for any signs of habitation.  Was her light sending out a signal for help, or preventing her from being able to see house lights?  The nature of her helplessness became ever clearer.

She stopped and turned off the torch so she could look around, see if there were any lights at all.  But there was nothing, except the strange noises of the trees, and the sense of things moving around her.  She turned the light back on, kept going.

She'd lost all sense of time, of direction, of her own abilities, and panic was only a shriek away.  The light seemed to be fading.  She checked the screen.  Four per cent battery.  What would become of her.  She despaired of her own overactive imagination as it provided a flood of answers to her question.

"Hello!"  A man's voice, directionless, floated in through the blackness.  "Are you lost?"  Should she admit her weakness, with the risk that her helper might only be there to help himself?  "Are you Sarah?"  How did he know that?  Was somebody looking for her?  She had to answer.

"Yes.  Yes to both your questions."

"Thought so.  Your friends were worried, so I said I'd go look.  I'm Davey, one of the park rangers."  A more powerful torch advanced towards her, followed by a man in dayglo.  "This way, follow me."

Along the way he explained that her friends had looked for her on the road, but found nothing.  When he heard them trying to organise themselves to look for her in he woods he'd suggested they'd be more likely to end up lost themselves, but he'd go and take a look around.  Wouldn't let them come along as they'd slow him down.  He'd only been looking for less than half an hour, constantly stopping and turning off his own light so he could looks out for hers.  More judgement than luck.

Davey never once blamed her, or said she was stupid.  Just as well.  She was the best one to do that.