1) Katie and her dad Howard went camping in the forest near their home in California, as Katie wanted to bond more with her father who she doesn't see often. 2) While hiking to their campsite, a sudden storm hit and ruined their map, leaving them lost in the woods. 3) They took shelter in a cave and used what supplies they had to survive, with Howard building a fire and Katie finding berries. Their smoke signal eventually helped rescuers locate them.

1. Lost In The Woods
By Ellie Kwan
Today was the day. Katie was so nervous but excited. On the sunny, hot day
stereotypical of California, Katie and her dad, Howard Yeager were going to
camping. Katie’s parents are divorced, and she lives with her mom, Donna, so she
hardly has any time with her dad, which leads to her feeling nervous when with
him.
This particular day they decided to go camping as the weather forecast looked
good. Katie has red hair and green eyes, something she got from her mom, and
her dad has brown hair and dark brown eyes. Because of the difference, Katie
wants to get closer to her dad even more, and to do that she thought that
camping could be fun. The camping place they were going to is a beautiful big
forest with lush green tress and lots of wild animals, which are not a threat as
long as you stay along the trails. And the perfect thing is, very few people travel
there so there would be lots of peace and quiet.
They were halfway through the hike to their campground, when a storm hit.
“What was that sound?” asked Katie.
“I don’t know sweetie, but we should take cover,” said Howard nervously.
“But we didn’t bring any rain equipment.”
Suddenly, the sky started pouring.
Katie and Howard ran and tried to find shelter. After a few desperate minutes,
they ran into an empty cave. As the rain kept pouring outside, they quickly
unpacked their bags to see what damage the rain did.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Howard muttered.
“What?” Katie asked nervously.
“The rain ruined the map,” Howard responded, holding up the damaged map.
The map had huge water blotches all over, smudging the ink, making
everything unreadable.
“This is completely useless now,” Howard said.
“Please, please tell me that you remember the way back,” Katie said worriedly.
Howard shook his head, sadly. After checking the rest of the items inside the
bag, he said:
May. 10, 2013

2. “Everything else is fine.”
Luckily, they were meant to be camping anyway so they had all the equipment
needed. Then, they took out some dried fruits and biscuits as dinner, and set up a
tent to sleep in.
In the middle of the night, Katie who was sniffling and rubbing her eyes woke
Howard.
“What’s wrong?” Howard asked worriedly, immediately awake.
“I’m worried. What if nobody finds us? What if we have to survive in the wild
by ourselves?”
“Don’t worry, sweetie, Donna is sure to realize after tomorrow that we’re lost
and send rescue teams.”
“Now just go back to sleep alright?” Howard said soothingly.
The next morning, they had nothing to eat, as they brought along uncooked
meat, expecting a fireplace. So they went outside to try and find some wood.
Because of yesterday’s rain, everything was damp and soggy. Luckily, Howard
was smart enough to use his little pocketknife to chip at the trees, taking the dry
wood inside. While he was working on that, Katie wandered away, finding some
edible nuts and berries. This gave her a bit of hope that they could still survive
out in the woods, which cheered her up. She soon came upon a bunch of
mulberry bushes, black and red ones, most of them ripe for the picking. She took
out a pocket-handkerchief and started gathering the juicy ripe ones. Soon
enough though, she spotted a bear in the distance and ran back into their base.
“Hey, Howard, look what I found!” Katie said enthusiastically.
“Wow, are you sure it’s edible though?” Howard asked nervously.
“Yeah, cause I’ve seen these before,” Katie said proudly.
At night they went back into the cave and made a fire with the collected wood
and matches, then cooked the meat on wooden skewers. They also collected
some fresh water from a stream nearby and boiled it, ready for the next day.
“This is actually pretty fun,” Katie said.
“It is,” Howard agreed.
The next morning, rescue workers, who had seen the smoke from the fire the
previous night, greeted them.
“Hello, are you Katie and Howard Yeager?” the man asked.

3. “ Yes we are,” Howard answered eagerly.
Katie felt a bit sad, she didn’t really want to go back.
After that, they were flown back home, into a worried and angry Donna.
“How could you have been so careless, Howard, not even knowing the route!”
Donna scolded.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Howard responded a bit sheepishly.
“Oh well, I’m just glad you two are safe.”
“Actually, Mom, I thought that this worked out really well as we got to bond,”
Katie said.
“Yeah, this was just for the best,” Howard agreed.