RitchieM1213

(The runaway kid) wants (to find his old home) because (he hates his new one), but (he gets stuck in the woods)

It was a dark and cloudy first night of September. Stephen Williamson would have cared more, if he hadn’t been sleeping in the red shipping car of a train heading west. He had been in this car even since he ran away from his home in Newport five days ago.

Stephen hadn’t always lived in Newport though. In fact he had just moved there before the school year started. Before then he had lived in Kansas. He was living a very happy life with his mom and dad until 2 months ago when he found out he was moving to Newport for his dad’s work. He didn’t want to move and leave all his friends behind but his mom kept telling him that it was only for a year and then they would move back. But this didn’t matter to Stephen because he was planning to enroll in the military next year anyways when he finished high school.

But everything changed during August when school started. Being that Stephen had always lived in Kansas he was a little different than everyone at his new high school. Everyone made fun of his accent, how he dressed, and even how hard he tried in classes. Finally after a month of this and Stephen begging his parents not to make him go anymore, which they didn’t even listen to him, he decided to run away.

Stephen knew that if he didn’t plan this well his parents would find him and force him to go back to school. He planned for days on how he was going to do this. Making sure that every part of it was fool proof.

When the 28th finally came around Stephen left for school as normal. He went to school but he didn’t have any of his books because his backpack was full of supplies. He went through the day making up excuses as he went for why he didn’t have his supplies.

When the end of the day came rolling around he started walking home instead of taking the bus. He started walking towards his house but then diverted towards the train yards. When he got there he looked at his watch and say he only had five minutes until the train he was going to ride was to leave. But he only had one problem. How was he to know which train was going to leave in five minutes? How was he supposed to get on the train if he didn’t know which one to ride? Finally he saw a train’s wheels start to spin and he took off for it at full speed. He got next to it and saw only one car’s door was still open. He ran even faster to try and catch up but he wasn’t fast enough. He started to give up but then out of the corner of his eye he saw another train pulling away as well, this one with more doors open. He veered towards the second train and started running along side it. The train being faster than him was pulling away. He got ready to jump into the next car when all the sudden he saw something. There were already people inside!

Not knowing what to do he just kept running and stared at them. One of them yelled something Stephen couldn’t here then stuck his arm out. Stephen grabbed hold and then jumped. He was then pulled in by the man right as they rode past a wall.

“Jeez you were about to run into that wall there!”

“Yea I didn’t see it there,” replied Stephen

“What do you think you’re doing out here anyways. Shouldn’t you be in school our something?”

“Not anymore, I’m running away”

“Running away are you? Join the club!” The man then pointed to everyone one else in the cart. “Guess it’s a good time of the year for running away! Where are you heading?”

“Kansas,” replied Stephen calmly. He was still trying to get over his adrenaline rush.

“Kansas?! You know how far away that is? Well I don’t but I know it’s real far out west.”

“Yea but I’m willing to do anything to get there.”

"You better because it isn't going to be easy."

"I know and I'm ready." //Am I really ready?// Stephen thought to himself. What if he wasn't ready? What was he going to do if he only made it half way and was stuck? //I'll cross those bridges later.//

...

After a couple more days Stephen had no idea where he was and was running low on food. //I will just get off at the next town,// Stephen kept telling himself yet one never seemed to arrive.

Later that night he was too hungry to go to sleep and just rolled around all night. //What if a town never comes, what if I run out of food before we reach a town?//

When the next morning arrived Stephen couldn't take it anymore. He saw a river through the woods and just went with his gut. He got up, grabbed his bag and jumped.

//Ooof!// Stephen landed harder than he thought. Before he could regain his balance he saw the last car of the train roll by.

"Well I guess I'm going to stuck here. What was I thinking? Jumping off the train in the middle of the woods? Idiot!" He then sat down and just sat there and stared at the tracks. "It could be days before the next train come by!" He then realized that he need to get a plan down. He decided to walk down to the river and refill his water bottles first.

When he got there he saw a lot of fairly large fish. //Really lucked out with that, water and food in the same place!// But he soon realized how hard it was going to be to catch a fish without a fishing rod. He then started just picking up things and throwing them. //I'll figure that out later.//

He then decided that shelter was the next thing he needed to solve. He realized that he should probably put it near the tracks in case a train came in the night. He saw some sticks laying against a tree about 10 feet away from the tracks. //This should do. All I need to do and lean some sticks against it.// He then set out to complete the task.

Once he was done he realized how hungry he was. He walked back done to the lake an thought long and hard about how he would conquer this task.

Then it hit him all he needed to do was use all these rocks to block in the fish and then it would be really easy then. He grabbed as many rocks as he could and started to block off the river at a really narrow part. Once he made a good dam we waited till a fish swam close to it. Once one did he quickly and quietly started making the back wall.

He was over half way done when he tripped and almost threw all the rocks he was holding. He was able to steady himself and somehow didn't scare away the fish.

He finally finished the back wall and started to move the walls slowly closer together. HE got it nice and close to the point where the fish could barley move. Then he was able to grab it with ease. He broke its neck to take it out of its misery. Next Stephen walked up to his little hut to start a fire. With his only match he lighted a fire and cooked the fish. It was the best fish he had ever eaten so good he slowly started to drift off to sleep...

...

Stephen woke up to a loud noise. It sounded kind-of like a...TRAIN. Stephen grabbed his bag and took off running. He saw a car behind him that had its door open and started getting ready to jump. Then he jumped and as he was in the air he say people in the car that were very shocked at his arrival.

//Thud!// He hadn't looked where he jumped but he guessed he landed on a sack of potatoes.

"What were you doing in the woods?" One man asked.

"I was looking for some food," Stephen replied.

"But why were you in the woods, was there no food in your car?"

But Stephen didn't here much of the question as he had fallen asleep.

...

When he woke he saw something familiar. There was no way he could... could it be? He arrived in Kansas! He looked around and saw everyone was asleep. He grabbed his bag and jumped off the train.

Stephen couldn't believe what had happened in the past week or so but he didn't care. He was in his home town and that all he cared about. He was finally home.