Keep Breathing  (Chapter 2)

          On the third day, it was a challenging day. With Liv trying to help Sam swim to the bank the other days, it proved that she had an excellent swimming skill. I also think this is a basic skill of existence everyone must learn. Maybe we don’t have to be good enough like Liv? At least, with some simple skills, we can save more lives or all kids can reduce the disastrous situation of drowning when they play in the water. Liv, who was good at swimming, decided to get Sam and Jack’s bags from the chopper sunk in the deep lake, so she might get some goods she could use and get materials to know who they were. Diving into the deep lake was the first big challenge for her. In Liv’s situation, she had no choice but to do it. She had to try whatever it was. Liv held on to a log and swam to the place where the helicopter sank. The footage was shot from the sky. I could see it was a beautiful big green lake that was surrounded by plenty of pines or trees. What better place to camp than on this peaceful land? In the daytime, campers could catch fish by the lake. At night, all campers could sit around the bonfire and eat what they grill while they see stars. They can also tell ghost stories, which all youth like to do. However, what Liv was doing was dangerous. She might kill herself anytime. Taking a deep breath, she dived into the water until she reached the chopper. Before running out of breath, she was in a hurry to see what she could take from the chopper. She grabbed their two big black bags and then swam back to the surface of the lake in no time. At that moment, she must have had a strong will to live. Growing up, she had to be like this. She had to know not to get herself lost when her mom forgot to pick her up from the school or when her mom disappeared all at once. Liv was quite intelligent girl. She always could come up with an idea to make her tough situation become easier. She put the two big bags on the log so that they wouldn’t be heavy burden to her when swimming back to the bank. After she arrived at the bank, Liv was going to find what was inside the bags immediately. In the meantime, she also found out Sam was dead already. After the chopper crashed and she knew that Jack didn’t log the flight plan, there was nothing to make her feel awful any longer. There was no question that she was on her own now. Unboxing the bags, what she all found was money and medication, nothing else. The first plan failed. She knew he could not give up, but what was her plan B?

         How to keep herself alive, which was her plan B. Liv didn’t eat and drink properly for three days. Next, it surely tested her existential skills. Speaking to it, how about us? Have we learned any of them from our school life? However, the land we stay has been developed into a big city so that we have a modern and nice life, which is like using a stove to boil water or cook, using a cell phone to communicate with everyone, and turning on the light through electricity as well as communicating with friends via network everywhere. It seems like it is no good learning these basic existential skills we might use one day. Liv had never known she needed them one day. Now this poor girl, Liv headed to the forest to try if she could find a canister that she could put on the fire, so she could boil water. On the way to the forest, she also tried to find some food. This was the second time Liv walked into the forest, but she was calmer than last time. While she was walking, she saw some debris of the chopper. She collected whatever she saw. Heading back to the bank, she also saw some berries on the bush. She also picked them and filled the container that was used for medication. It was sunny day. She tried to use eyeglasses and money to make a fire at the side of the lake. “It worked! It worked!” she shouted and jumped up and down happily. Since she got a little older, she had been hardly ever happy. She also made a simple compass, which she learned it from a science class at school. With these simple survival skills, they brought her some hope. However, were they enough for her to leave this forest? Whether they were enough or not, Liv got ready to start off. That would be a real adventure.

        Walking for a couple of days and also getting lost many times in the deep wild place, she only ate a few berries and drank a little water. The weather was unpredictable. In the daytime, it was hot and humid. At night, it was freezing cold. When it started raining, she hid in the cave, in a big hold of the log, or under the leaves. Running into a bear, she spared no effort to climb up the tree. She even fell into a big hole, but she tried to come up with a way she could get out of it as possible as she could. Facing all of challenges, the wounds were all over her body. She started feeling exhausted and didn’t think she could walk further. Too tired to walk, she reclined on the tree weakly. She just let caterpillars or bugs crawl on her body. At that time, she didn’t have any ideas if she would be able to leave there. She gradually fell asleep that night and  woke up early the next day. In view of a baby inside her body, she knew she couldn’t give up. Standing up and walking slowly, she looked up at the sky and recalled her mom. In her whole life, she had been dealing with the emotion that she had aspired to feel love from her family, especially from her mom. At that moment, all emotions inside her became rage.  She pretended to talk to her mom on the phone, “Hi, mom, do you know where I am now? I got lost in the forest and don’t ask me why. I got pregnant. Do you think I can be a good mom? Because of you, I spent my whole life in fucking armor. I no longer need you from now on!” she broke down and yelled loudly. It was time to release herself from the emotional cage she had been in. Any survival skills didn’t help along the way. Only when did she want to be alive, she had to struggle to live, no matter what trouble she encountered.

          There was a booming sound in the distance. Liv had to go to find out where it came from. The more she walked closely to the place where the sound came from, the more it was getting louder and louder, which was like the sound of revving cars’ engine. When she got a closer look at that place, it was a big wide river with rushing torrent. Liv stood by the bank of the wide river and stared at rushing torrent for a while. In these years, she had been arming herself with strong and cold heart. She had been preventing anymore from someone closing to her. Now she finally released herself and let go of all emotional fetters. She took a log and made her mind to go for broke. Each time things go wrong, she never gives up.   

         Life doesn’t go the way we want. Sometimes life is messy and sometimes things fall apart. What matters is how you choose, just keep moving forward for the people you need the most. 

(End)