ELEANOR
60 BULLETS

Ever worry that while you're innocently driving down the street, you'd suddenly be crashing through the middle of a dense forest jungle instead?

I didn't think I'd ever have to be worried about that either.

But that's what happened.

It was fall, right in the middle of harvest season. I needed to get some more supplies for the chickens on my farm and was coming back from the feed store. My mind was on the many projects I would need to get done when I got home. The list was long. Fix the electric fence. Clean the chicken coop. Harvest the squashes. Can tomatoes. Dig potatoes. Create the new emergency preparedness video for my youtube followers. Enough work for the whole week that I needed to get done this weekend.

It felt completely overwhelming, but also incredibly fulfilling. Twenty-six and I already owned my own farm and successful youtube channel.

My mind on my work, I drove my truck down the dirt road to home.

And then, I was not.

Instantly, the scene changed and the next second was chaos.

The truck lunged through some backwoods jungle, leaping like a deer over rocks and vegetation. I screamed at the sight and tried to slam my foot into the brake, but impact with a fallen tree beat me to it. My face slammed the steering wheel, cutting a jagged line over my cheek and the seatbelt pressed a heavy bruise clear down my chest.

I laid still against the steering wheel for a full minute. A moan of pain escaped my lips.

My truck's window had a large crack coming from a six-inch circular impact. It hadn't broken clear through but a spiderweb of cracks laid at the passenger side. The front engine had been crushed and a try of the key only clicked.

I was stuck.

I sat back with a groan and surveyed the surroundings. I was in a heavily wooded part of some forest somewhere. I could only see about fifty feet in any direction, the vegetation was so crowded. A turn behind me showed only about twenty feet of broken greens where I had run them over.

What just happened?

I took another minute to calm my nerves and rub the wetness from my eyes. My thoughts felt fuzzy and blurred and I rubbed at my ears, feeling the sensation like they needed to pop. I gave a heavy yawn and got the air pressure to even out.

Unbuckling my seatbelt with a groan, I reached to the passenger floor where my purse was and cringed through the soreness of my chest. A glint of aquamarine fell from the top to the ground, and my eye scanned for the color half-heartedly until I found my cellphone and turned it on. A heavy sigh pressed my injured front when I noticed the bars. Of course there would be no signal.

I dug around in my purse, bringing a travel sized tissue pack out and pressed a tissue to the cut at my cheek. Using the rear view, I wiped the blood from my face. Then I used my purse emergency kit to place a bandaid over the cut. I had a bottle of pain reliever, but no water in the cab, so I took the pill dry. It was not as easy as all those movies make it out to be.

Note to self: there is some water in the emergency bin in the cargo bed Eleanor, you lazy butt.

My muscles hurt so much that I just sat there for a few minutes letting the pill start to work. When I felt like I could breathe again, I got out of the cab and looked around. 

What just happened?

Where was I?

How would I get home?

To the right of my truck was a steep incline of the mountain. If I hiked it, I could probably get to somewhere I could find a signal. I sighed looking at the great feat. It would probably take me all day. But what else, sit there and wait for a helicopter rescue when no one will even know I'm missing for a few days?

Stay calm and just do it.

I dumped out the contents of my purse onto the seat to make room in my bag for a water bottle. Then I replaced the protein bars and cellphone. Using a hair tie and any bobby pins I could find through the mess, I wrapped my long blonde hair into a bun. My hair was my favorite feature about me. I'd been growing it out since I was twelve, so it was straight down beyond my hips, but a hike like this would not be fun with hair flying all over. I was already in the habit of keeping it in a bun when I worked around the farm so this would be no different.

After I finished with my hair, I tucked my pepper spray back in the bag as well, remembering this scary viral video of a hiker getting chased by a cougar. Hopping up into the back of the truck, I opened my emergency bin and took out four bottles of water, placing them in my purse. With another deep breath, I jumped down and started my hike.

At least I was wearing good boots.

The hike was strenuous, and I was huffing before long. Each breath pressed onto my bruised front. I opened the top two buttons of my pink plaid farm shirt to hopefully get more air, but I had to keep going.

I was only maybe a third of a mile up before I started getting a good look at my surroundings. Good job there Eleanor. Just wait until you tell all your emergency preparedness followers you didn't even notice the weird plants for fifteen minutes.

I mean, I guess I was a little preoccupied with suddenly crashing into the mountains.

And the plants were weird. Trees with limbs that shot out like rainbows covered in prickly baseball sized burs. Some plant coming from the ground in an ark with small green chili peppers pointing up all over the edges. A bush covered in wide large leaves, each holding a pool of creamy white liquid.

I thought I was in a basic densely wooded forest like the mountains near my home. But as my eyes scanned around at the unfamiliar plants, I couldn't help but think I'd been transported instead to a jungle. Maybe even ...the Amazon?

The Amazon.

How the freak did I get to the Amazon?! And if this was the Amazon, were there even going to be cell towers close to get a signal out?

I collapsed onto a rock, needing to sit down.

I was trying not to panic enough just being in some weird forest.  Randomly getting pushed to the Amazon was a thousand times worse.  Putting my head between my knees, I tried to breathe.  

In and out.  

Even slow breaths.

In and out.

"Okay Lady.  Listen.  You can handle this.  You can handle this.  You don't need to go into shock."  I chuckled gravely.  "Yeah right.  I'm already in shock.  ... Really? The Amazon?"

But after a few minutes calming, I tried to sit tall.  I needed to get rescued.

"Okay.  I can do this.  I just need to get up the mountain and call home."

Tentatively, I stood and started forcing one foot in front of the other.  And as I walked longer and longer, my stride became more confident.

I was much more observant as I hiked, and the more I saw, the more anxious I became. I could hear bird tweets from the trees, and scurryings from the underbrush, but had yet to see any animals besides weird bugs. But if I could hear birds and who knows, maybe squirrels, running around that probably didn't mean any predators were close. I pulled my pepper spray out and tucked it in my jeans pocket just in case.

My heart was still going a mile a minute.

After walking for an hour and a half, I realized the sun was starting to set and I wasn't even close to the summit. I brought my phone out and checked.

Still no signal.

Shoot.

Shoot-shoot-shoot.

My phone showed that it was 3:15, but maybe the sun set earlier in this part of the world. By my calculation the sun would set in an hour and being in the open during night in the Amazon was a no go. My eyes traveled up to the peak.  Too far.  It was as far as I would get today.

I sat on a rock to catch my breath and had a protein bar and water. Then I hiked back down the mountain as fast, but safely, as I could. Getting a broken ankle right now, would not look good on my survival page.

And I was a survivor!

I followed my tracks through the broken plants and made it back to my truck with light to spare. Thank goodness going down the mountain was a ton easier than the hike up. But I'd get a good night rest in my truck and set out early in the morning, see if I could climb higher.

Quickly, I went through my emergency box and tossed the sleeping bag in the cab, then brought out my thermal cooker pot and butane stove.

I loved that thermal pot. You put your meal in it with water, boil it for three minutes, hide it in the thermal covering and the cover will keep the food hot and cooking for hours.  Best invention ever.

I put a freeze-dried meal on to cook and smiled to myself. My friends always laughed at my preparedness habits and called me a zombie apocalypse freak, but would they have a hot meal if they suddenly were transported to the Amazon?

I think not!

So who's laughing now Karen, huh?!

I chuckled to myself.

As the sun set and I sat on the tailgate eating my pasta dish, I couldn't help but heave a sigh for my farm. The animals would all have enough food and water, for tomorrow, I added looking at the bags of chicken feed, but the goats would need to be milked. Not milking meant pain for them and vulnerability for infections too. And not closing the chickens in the coop could mean an open buffet for raccoons. So I really needed to be there.

Hopefully all would be okay, until I could get signal tomorrow.

I rinsed my dishes out with some bottled water and placed them back in the bin. Maybe I needed to add toothpaste to the bin too. I made a mental note to add a mini personal kit in there when I got home. Or, I guess to a new kit? If I was in the Amazon I was guessing my truck wasn't coming with me.

Was that covered under insurance?

The thought caused a giggle to spill from my lips as I spoke in some insurance workers annoyed nasally voice: "No, Sorry Miss. Your policy includes only tundra and Sahara, not the Amazon for all magical transport claims."

I gave a hearty laugh but then stopped abruptly.  

This was crazy.  I must really be in shock.  My brain was doing really weird things.  Karen? Toothpaste?  Insurance?

Ugh.  My head hurt.

But my laughter had caused some animal to slither away in the underbrush and I decided it was a good time to hide in the cab for the rest of the evening.

I had a solar charger for my cell, but that wasn't going to help me now and holding the charger to the sun for the hike tomorrow wouldn't work, so I was going to have to keep myself busy for a few hours on my own.

My purse items were strewn about the cab so I went through them, hoping for a lost gum packet. No such luck, but I found a mini notebook. It was starting to get darker so I placed my headlamp on and began to draw. A whole cat laying in sunshine picture later, I looked up.

My jaw dropped in shock at the night sky from out the cab window.

What the...

Where the eff was I?

The night sky was dark and littered with normal stars, but what really caught my attention was the two giant moons and Saturn filling my view. That couldn't be freaking Saturn!

Could it?

I stepped out of the truck and looked at the sky above me, still uncomprehending.

As I searched the sky for constellations, I realized none were familiar. Was this not my sky? Neither of those globes were my moon and Saturn surely couldn't be seen with the naked eye, let alone like a silver dollar in the atmosphere. With the view open from the cab, I could now see another planet with a purple tint.

Goosebumps chilled my arms and my stomach rolled.

I thought back to the plants and now this sky, then jumped back in the cab and locked the door.

Holy Freak. Was I? I couldn't be?

Was I on another planet?