I opened my eyes one at a time. It was painful. It felt as if my eyelids had been glued shut. My head was pounding painfully with each beat of my heart. I gingerly raised my head to get a better look around. I could only see the dark and dreary sky above me. And the smell, dear god, was overwhelming. I tried to sit up, but it felt like my arms were paralyzed. I shifted my body from side to side.

I struggled to sit up. I contemplated what events might have brought me to my present predicament. I couldn’t remember what happened to me. I wondered if I had been drugged. Had I been kidnapped? Why would anyone kidnap me and stick me in this hole? I didn’t have any enemies that I was aware of. I worked as an accountant in a corporate office. I was just another cog in the wheel of a corporation. In this case, Big Pharma.

And that is when it came to me. One of the corporate Vice Presidents tried to blackmail me into giving him information in advance about when a certain new drug would be put on the market for sale. In other words, insider trading. And we all know what happened to Martha Stewart. She spent five months in prison and five months under house arrest. And she was rich and famous. You know, I would spend the rest of my life behind bars. Why? Because I’m a nobody. No one who matters knows or cares about me or would miss me.

I had lived a life of relative anonymity. I never even got a parking or speeding ticket. I was approached several times and offered financial incentives to give them the information they wanted. And then I was threatened. In fact, I was harassed by threatening phone calls and anonymous phone calls. At all times of the night and day. The last thing that happened was that I received a call late at night. The phone kept ringing and ringing. For some reason, the voicemail didn’t pick up the call. I stumbled out of bed to phone. I grabbed the phone and said, “who the hell is this? You better stop harassing me, or I’m going to report this to the police and to the President of the company. Do you understand? Stop contacting me. And then I slammed the phone down as hard as I could. I was surprised that I didn’t break the phone.

The phone rang again just as I was getting back into my bed. I answered the phone, and I heard a low, raspy voice say,” this is your last chance. If you don’t give me the information I need, you are going to find yourself in a deep, dark hole. Do you understand?”

I slammed the phone down again and again. And that’s the last thing I remember until I woke up wedged into what felt like a shallow grave. Luckily, they didn’t put dirt on top of me, or I wouldn’t be alive at this moment. They must have gotten scared away or, something worse, killed.

I managed to get my right arm out of the hole. So, I moved my body in that direction ever so slowly. I got my left arm out. And then I sat up. I was stiff as a board. I wondered how long I had been in the hole and why they hadn’t finished the job of burying me alive or just killing me.

And just as I was about to attempt to crawl out of the hole, I heard two men’s voices moving toward my location. I didn’t think I had enough time to scramble out of the hole. On the other hand, if I didn’t get out of the grave, I never would because they were going to finish the job. So, I used every ounce of my remaining strength to pull myself out of the hole. And I stood up and ran like the devil himself was running directly behind my footsteps and I feel his foul breath on the back of my neck.

My adrenaline was high because I knew I was running for my life. My heart was pounding like a snare drum. I took off through the woods. I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I wondered if these would be the last moments of my life. I thought about my wife and my kids. And how my death would affect them. And that thought propelled me forward. It was as if I had the wings of Hermes on my feet. Hermes was considered to be the herald of the gods. He was worshiped because it was believed that he was the protector of humans. And if anyone needed protection in this time, it was me.

I heard what sounded like a river ahead of me, so that was the direction that I headed. I could see that there was a fast-moving stream in front of me. It was lit by a full moon high in the sky. I took this as a good sign. Luckily, my kidnappers didn’t take my shoes off of my feet, or I wouldn’t have been able to cross the stream. Because there were large and small rocks lining the stream. I would have to be careful crossing it, or I could be carried away or pulled under by the current. I was not in the best of shape, nor was I a strong swimmer. I am not a religious person, but I knew that something or someone was giving me the strength and the courage to fight for my very life. And I wasn’t about to give up as long as I had a breath left in my body.

I made it to the other side of the river, and there was a thick stand of trees. It would be difficult for my kidnappers to see me. But, it would also be difficult, if not impossible for me to find my way through the forest without great difficulty. I decided to pick up a branch that was lying on the ground in front of me and swing it back in forth in front of me and warn me of any upcoming hazards in my path.

I saw a light in the distance. I couldn’t imagine what it was. And then the thought occurred to me that maybe it was campers sitting by the firelight. I took a deep breath and ran like my life depended upon it. As I got closer, I saw the silhouette of what appeared to be two men, and I could hear them talking quietly to one another. I decided to move towards them slowly. I didn’t want to startle them. Because they might think it was an animal approaching and would shoot me. So, I carefully made my way toward them.

When I got within earshot of them, I called out, “hello, hello, I need help. hello.“ One of the men must have seen me in the moonlight. And he said, “we have guns, don’t try anything funny. Or it will be the last thing you do. I said, “I don’t have any weapons. I put my hands up in the air and approached their camp.

One of the campers was a large, burly-looking man who looked like he could crush me with one hand and said, “who are you, and what are you doing running through the woods in the dark? Are you trying to kill yourself or something? I stood before him, trying to catch my breath.” I‘m being chased by two men who kidnapped me. They are trying to get information from me because I work for a pharmaceutical company and have information that could make them a lot of money.”

“OK, buddy, that’s too far-fetched an idea for you to make up. Sit down, and catch your breath.“ He handed me a cup with water in it. I gulped it down. I felt like I hadn’t had a drink in a week. My throat was so dry. When I finally caught my breath, I said, ” these two guys are chasing me. They’re going to be here any minute. No doubt they have weapons.”

“OK, well, we both have guns, so don’t worry. But I think we can convince them that we haven’t seen you and get them to leave. Go in the tent and hide behind our equipment. Don’t come out until we tell you to.”

So, I pushed the tent flap open and went to the very back, and hid behind a cot that had blankets hanging down both sides. There was a sleeping bag on it as well. I tried to keep as still as possible and slowed my breath down, and put my head on top of my folded arms. I couldn’t hear anything except the wind moving through the trees and some night birds calling out to one another.

And then I heard two voices calling out, “hey, you two have you seen a friend of ours? He got separated from us, and we think he got lost in the woods. He’s a man about forty years old, slightly balding, wearing a shirt and dark pants?”

“No, we haven’t seen a guy in a shirt and pants or anybody. It is the middle of the night out in the woods. Why are you wandering around in the woods in the middle of the night? Are you camping around here somewhere?”

“Camping? Yeah, yeah, we were camping on the other side of that river, and our friend took a walk, and we guess he got turned around and got lost. We’ve been looking for about an hour. We think this is the direction he was headed. Are you sure you didn’t see anybody?”

Of course, we’re sure. Why in the hell would anybody take a walk in these woods in the middle of the night? It gets damn cold out here at night. You could die from hypothermia.“

“Well, I guess he didn’t know any better. We should be on our way, or we won’t stand a chance of finding our friend tonight.”

“Yeah, well, if you ask me, it doesn’t make any sense for you two to go looking for your friend in the dead of night. Next thing you know, you’ll all be lost, and then we’ll have to get the rangers to come out and look for you. Go back to your camp until morning and then call for help. The guy will probably hunker down somewhere. There are quite a few caves he could spend the night in around here. But, you’ll never find him in the dark.“

“Well, I think we’ll keep looking. Thanks.”

“Good luck, you two. You’re going to need it. If you don’t come back this way tonight, we’ll notify the authorities in the morning that there are now three of you missing instead of one lost in the woods.”

“Not necessary. We’ll all be fine. Goodbye.”

And with that, they headed deeper into the woods. “OK, buddy, you can come out. They’re gone. They do look like they’re not playing games. Maybe you better come with us, and we’ll take you into the sheriff’s office in the nearest town, Mapleton. There’s a sheriff’s office there, and you can explain everything that has happened to you. And they can call in the state police or the Feds. You’ll be safe, and they’ll catch those guys who will no doubt be lost in the woods by now. And they didn’t have any supplies with them. So, they are going to be thirsty, tired, and hungry. You’re safe now. Let’s go. There’s my truck over there. It will take about forty minutes to get there. And cell phones don’t work out here. We’ll have to wait until we get closer.”

Meanwhile, the two criminals were steadily getting deeper and deeper into the woods. And it all looked alike. And before they knew it, they were completely and utterly lost. The heavier set of the two guys said,” I need to stop for a while. I’m dead tired and thirsty as hell. Do you have any water left?”

“Water, no, I don’t have any left. Do you know where we are? Because I haven’t got a clue?”

“No, I thought we were going North, but we’re not. We should have come out on the other side of the forest by now. But I think I see a cave ahead. We can stop there and rest for the rest of the night. What do you say?”

“Yeah, rest, let’s do that. We’ll start again in the first morning light.”

As they headed toward the cave, the smaller of the two said, “hey, what’s that noise?”

“Noise, what kind of noise?”

“Well, it sounds like some kind of low growl. What do you mean you don’t hear it?”
“Just as I said, I don’t hear anything. let’s get to the cave so we can get some rest. I can’t go any further tonight.

As the two of them entered the cave, they saw a bear cub in the back of the cave. ” The fat guy said, that looks like a bear. We better get the hell out of here. And then they both heard a loud growl, almost a roar. They turned as one and saw what must be the mother or the father of the cub. And he had his mouth wide open and was roaring like a lion. And then he rushed up to the two of them and swiped his huge paw and arm across their necks and faces. and they both fell to the ground and didn’t move again. The bear called out to his cub, and the two of them slowly meandered out of the cave and into the dark night.

The next morning the woodsman took the accountant to town to the sheriff’s office, and he gave a report about his harrowing experience. The sheriff’s office notified the Feds of their location and told them where the accountant was at their office. Later that day, the Feds arrived and took the report of the accountant’s experiences, and notified his family that he was alive and well and on his way home.

The Fed’s spent two days searching for the two criminals but were never able to find hide nor hair of them. They believed they had given up searching for the accountant and returned from whence they came. But they were never heard from again. And the accountant was able to go back to his family and his job. And his life went on, but he had learned a lesson. Do the right thing, and you will persevere in life.

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