My name is Nick Free, the morning I turned fourteen, an event occurred that I will never forget. I was helpless, I was alone, I couldn't stop what was after me.

You might have seen my face plastered all over the news for a lost kid report a few years back, that was when I moved out here to South Dakota and it has been pretty great ever since. Well back then I had learned that there is a river my property that winds through the mountains here in South Dakota. The river is loaded with all species of ducks and I really couldn't wait for the day I could go hunt it alone, well after I turned fourteen, opening day was right around the corner.
Well, let me tell you something that is kind of embarrassing. The reason I went alone is because my best bud couldn't make it and well, I felt ten times cooler going by myself. I convinced my parents to let me go hunting in South Dakota which wasn't easy. I was waiting for the ducks for come into my decoy spread, but nothing happened for the entire morning. Which for me is so boring that I can’t even it in words. So I left the blind with my gun and some cosmic brownies and went on an unforgettable adventure.
Now, before I get into the story, duck hunting is the most fun a human being can have. But you really freeze your butt off when your are doing it. The reason why is ducks really like it when it rains, I have no clue why but they love it. So the best time to hunt is when it rains. Duck season is in the fall so it is bound to be COLD. My plan when I left the blind was to walk up the river and try to jump some ducks. Which means basically shoot them when they jump off the water. But I didn't see diddly squat on this gosh darn river. So I just kept on walking and eventually I got extremely hungry, as a growing young man that I am. So I opened my bag of cosmic brownies, which in my mind are a delicacy. I had a few of them and sat and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors.
All of the sudden my phone sings it’s annoying tune, which interrupts the peace. Of course it is my older brother, who happens to hold the world record for being the most annoying person ever to live. Anyways he is bragging to me about how he shot six and he’s heading in because he shot his limit. Well I have not a feather in my bag but do you think I am gonna tell him that? Heck no! I told him in a confident voice that I have shot four and I see more coming in. Then my phone died and I mumble “Who needs him?” But by the numbers on the wrist watch, it is one thirty and I should probably head in, but I really don't want to go home empty handed. My brother would never in a million years let me live that one down, EVER.
I just kept walking and eventually saw a mallard hen, which is no surprise to me. But it sees me and flies away before I can get a shot off. The sky is hazy, so I pack up and head in but I come to realize that I have no idea where I am. I really start to panic , because I don't know the land out here and my stupid cheap phone is dead. But I soon find myself eating my cosmic brownies as comfort food and fall asleep on the cold, hard ground. I woke up the next morning stiff as a rock and I am starving. So I dig through my bag and I only find leftover crumbs . So I now need to find some food which will be a chore because I can't see any food around me but bark on trees. I now am hearing an animal like growl and look around, But can't see anything. I soon come to realize that it may be my starving gut, but it isn't. I look above where I have recently slept and there is a cougar, staring me down like a hawk. I am in so much shock that my body won’t even move and he is soon on top of me, ripping me to shreds. It all happened so quick that I didn't even know what hit me. I try to reach for my gun but it is too far away. I am being brutally beaten by this cougar and need to get out now. But right as it seems that I am a goner I stumble upon my pocket knife. Which I struggle to open because the cougar has its mouth clamped onto my arm. Once I get the six inch blade open I go right for it’s chest. But that just seemed to make the beast more angry and it slashes me across the face. I am in an all out wrestling match with a cougar,my odds are not great. The wound I have inflicted on the cougar soon starts to kick in, but it still isn't enough. It hobbles around and I think I might have hit him in the right spot. But he still looks to me as if he isn’t quite finished. I manage to wiggle the knife out of the frozen tundra. It is a waiting game for the cougar to come near me and I strike him, right in the throat. He double takes and is soon is lying on the river's edge with a knife stuck directly in him. I was helplessly laying there, in horrifying pain, that I can still remeber to this day

I ended up spending a whole night laying there, and bleeding out of pretty much any place that blood can come out of. But I soon here a raspy voice, a voice that I will remember forever. First, let me tell you that the voice I heard wasn't God or anything it was an average man who was hiking with his dog Timothy, the mans name was John.
The first thing John said to me was, “Oh boy, this is not going to be good.”
It turns out that John was a retired doctor from the Vietnam war. At first he thought I was ‘deader than a door nail,’ as he stated. Until eventually I cough up a quiet “Help”. He opened his tiny travel bag and called 911, but he also pulled out an emergency kit that I thought would never fit in that tiny bag of his. He started wrapping me up and I soon figured out that I was laying in a giant pool of blood. Then he picked me up and started hauling me down toward the river. Which was apparently loaded with ducks, which was just my luck. He started washing me off, which made the pain a million times worse. John then lit a flare and and a while later I heard more voices and the noise of a chopper, I was off.
Well, ever since the chopper picked me up, I really don’t remember the ride or the surgery, the doctors said I was in a coma. But to me, it felt like a dream that lasted forever. I had almost died because I had lost tons of blood, I had almost lost my arm, and luckily when the cougar slashed my face it missed my eye by about two inches. But the worse part of the whole episode is my family, and how I was going to explain to them what had happened. It turned out that my brother who has kind of been a snob to me my whole life,was actually scared of what was happening to me. Which made me feel good because he actually does care about me. But the worse part was my parents, they were worried sick about me, and I really felt horrible for worrying them so much. I felt like a big poop for ruining everyone's opening day of duck season. But I truly believe that everyone is happy that I am home safe. The next time I go hunting, I won’t be going alone. Oh and I do look pretty cool with the scars.