GOOD LUCK?

“You are sooo late, Cerus,” Triton complained.

“Sorry, man, I just had to go back and take my torch,” cautious Cerus explained. 

“Who cares, I left mine at home as well. Time ain’t gonna wait for us,” Triton growled. 

“Calm down, dude. The only thing that’s important is we’re together. Let’s go!” as Elliot patted on Triton’s back to sooth him.  Oliver said nothing but forced a smile.

Tonight, the four teenagers were leaving the isolated and hopeless hometown, North Current.  They gathered at the edge of the bush.  People are restricted from the bush, so they knew nothing behind the fence.  They came to their hidden spot where they had spent nights to cut wires on the fence. They got excited while crawling through the hole.

 

After going beyond the fence, the boys smiled to each other. Moments later, they kept their spirits high and headed into the bush.  At the beginning, moonlight could still penetrated into the bush.  As they walked further, the darkness was unimaginable and the ground was rough.  They took out their torches. They walked for hours and were extremely exhausted. 

“Triton?” Elliot checked.

“Triton, are you with me?” Elliot asked again with a louder voice. 

“TRITON, WHERE ARE YOU?” Elliot shouted, hoping Triton responds. 

“Elliot, what happened?” Cerus turned his head around and asked.

“Triton’s… gone,” Elliot mumbled softly.

Standing between Cerus and Elliot, Oliver asked, “When did you lose him?”

“I-I have no idea. I-I thought he… was following,” Elliot said.

The boys walked back a little and shouted. No response. They stopped shouting, and silence swirled around them.

“Should we go back to find him?” Elliot broke the silence.

“It’s too late, we’ll be found and who knows what punishment we’ll have,” Oliver warned.

Elliot imagined the punishment, then shivered in fear.

“Oliver’s right.  We all knew that we may not make it. Let’s continue,” Cerus concluded with a sad tone.

***   ***

Dawn broke, at last they got through the bush, without Triton. 

They hiked to a steep cliff that was about 30-meter high down to the ground.

Elliot cried, knowing that it was the end of his journey as he couldn’t do abseiling after years of learning, “Good luck, guys.”

Cerus and Oliver took out their tools and set up the abseiling.  Then, they each patted Elliot on the back and said their goodbyes.

 

“Take care,” Elliot shouted, waving goodbye with a faint smile, after they landed to the ground. 

Cerus and Oliver had watery eyes.

***  ***

Cerus and Oliver continued the journey.  They spent two days walking across the meadow after climbing down the cliff.  Luckily, they have packed enough food and drink for the trip.  With the compass, they knew the right direction to the prosperous blissful city, Hethen.

 

The teenagers became hysterical once they saw Hethen from the horizontal line far away.  

Hours later, a wide river was lying across right in front of Cerus and Oliver.

 

“Good luck, Cerus,” said Oliver, “Maybe I should’ve attended lessons to fight my aqua phobia with you. Guess it wasn’t a waste of time after all”

He was still standing straight, and made a really faint smile. He hugged Cerus, and said his goodbye.

 

Cerus took 20 minutes to swim across the river.  “Good luck, Cerus,” Oliver repeated.

 

“Look forwards. Don’t look backwards.  We all knew that we may not make it,” Cerus talked to himself recalling the skills he had learned for this journey, such as swimming, abseiling, navigation, field craft skills, survival skills, and more.

Hours later, counting all the effort he made while walking towards Hethen, he at last arrived at the entrance of the city with a large sign written:

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of telephone