THE BOILING RIVER

NOTE: This story is based on Author’s fiction. It does not apply to any historical references or real-life incidents.

1860

YELLOW STONE NATIONAL PARK

WYOMING, UNITED STATES

A group which loves adventures, went to a mysterious dark forest, and thought of saying the wonderful things they saw to the outside world. Like this one time when they returned to the town from the forest, they went to a newspaper office and said everything about the wonderful things they saw.

A journalist took a notepad and started taking notes.

“It was a thick forest. There is a boiling lake in between the forest. The lake was very different to look. Because it was not like any other normal lake or water stream and it was in many colors. Sometimes it was in green, red or yellow. It’s water was boiling and splashed outside and we saw extraordinary waterfalls and glaciers. The Himalayas were covered with snow. Yak, Deer, Wolves, Tiger, Lion and Bear were wandering around the forest. We are so surprised that even this kind of places exist. It looked like some other world. But it was in our earth” said the adventurous group.

Now the journalist who sat opposite to them noted everything and said a word to them.

He said, “We won’t publish imaginary stories in our newspaper.” Hearing this, the adventurous group tried to convince him. But he didn’t believe that.

In the next few years, people came to know about that place. The place that the adventurous group mentioned, is Yellow Stone National Park. It is located on top of the hills to the west of United States, Wyoming. Since there is a volcano under the hill, when the water comes to the top of the chamber, it becomes a boiling water. Millions of people visit this Yellow Stone National park every year and hundreds of employees work there to guide them. Most of the employees who work there are youngsters. There are college students mostly. They not only pay them but also provide accommodations.

FEW YEARS LATER

2000

A 20-year old Sara Hulphers, came to work in the Yellow Stone National Park in summer time. Like everyone else she stayed and started working there. There were lot of young employees stayed in the next room to Sara. One day, some employees knocked Sara’s room.

As soon as Sara opened the door, “Today we are on leave. So we planned to go for swimming. Would you also like to join us?”

Sara also accepted and was ready to go with them. After packing all the needed item like swim suites, towel and snacks, she was very happy to get on one of the car outside.

After reaching certain distance, they came across a parking lot. They parked their car there and started walking on the forest path. They walked a little while and then after a certain distance, they saw the river which they planned to swim. That river was at the end of the forest. The name of the river is Firehole river.

Since there will be a lot of smoke coming from that water stream. Because some water which comes to the river comes from the magma chamber. When that boiling water joins this normal water smoke is created. But this entire firehole river doesn’t contain boiling water. This river will be cool only. But in this cooling river, since the boiling water is mixed in some place, this river is warm and it is safe to swim in it.

Now Sara and her friends went near the river. After enjoying it’s view for few minutes, they started jumping in the river one by one. They started spending time by playing games in the water. What was their plan means, after swimming for two hours here, they planned to move out of this place. But they didn’t notice the time while they are playing.

The sun started to set and it became dark slowly. They realized that they were late. Immediately they came out of the river, and started to get ready to go to the room. That’s when a big problem came for them.

That place became darker since the time has crossed and there was not even a bit of light there. No one expected to return this late. Since they planned to return before sunset, nobody brought torch lights with them. They have to walk through the forest to reach their car. That too they must go on a narrow path. But when they go to the forest at this time, they started thinking that they might get caught to the wild animals. Because of this some of the crew members started to panic. They realized that it’s very dangerous to stand there like that.

They started thinking what to do next. Some of them in that group thought that they had no choice and they have to go through the forest. Instead of walking we can run faster without stopping anywhere so that they can reach the car parking faster. Half of the people in the crew said this idea. But some of them said there might be an alternate path to reach the car parking along the river. So with this moon light they said that they will reach the car parking slowly.

In this dangerous path Sara and 18 year old Lance and Tyler went. Now the first group who planned to go through the forest started entering the forest. After they vanished from the sight, the second group without going into the forest, they thought that they will reach the car parking safely if they go around the forest. Now, they started walking along the river side.

That is there is the forest in their left, and the river at the right, they started walking between it with the moon light. While they were walking, the thickness of the forest began to shrunk. Since their car parking is in the left they thought that they were going in the correct path. Now, they took a left cut and started walking into the forest.

After a certain distance the thickness of the forest vanished and one or two trees were seen. Seeing that they were very happy. They thought that they found a easy path. Now after walking for a while in the moon light, they saw three water stream in front of them. They jumped across the first water stream since it is too small and the second was a little bigger and they jumped that also. But the third water stream was not like the previous two streams.

It was broad and they thought that whether they can jump across it. What they thought is, they have to get on the water to cross it and thought that there’s no other way. But they were already fully wet from playing. So they didn’t like to get on the water. The crew members planned to walk along this river for a while so that they may find a narrow path to jump across at some point. They thought that it’s easier to jump in that place.

They started walking along the third river. They walked a long distance. But they didn’t see any narrow path. The team thought that they were wasting time unwantedly. Even though they couldn’t see the parking area, definitely the parking area will be in 100 or 200 feet.

Sara thought that if they cross it, they might reach it. The team tried to jump across the river.

“It’s okay even if they end up in the water.” Somehow Sara and the team wanted to cross that river. Now, they got ready to jump. All of them joined hands and moved back. Now they ran fast and jumped across the river. Like they expected they landed on the other side of the river. But in that place the mud was little loose. Sara and the team henceforth, leaned back and fell into that river.

When they were falling they couldn’t think about the nature of the river. But definitely it must be like the previous two rivers. So they thought that the river will not cause any problem. But instead of that the water in that river was not normal. It was boiling water coming from the magma chamber. The water in that river was at 81 degree Celsius. It was almost boiling water.

Not only that, even though it looked like it was not that deep, it was 10 feet deep. Now all of them fell into that boiling water. As soon as they fell they started screaming. Exactly at the same time, the first group reached the parking lot and they heard the screaming of them.

The first group started running in the direction where the noise come from. They came through the forest and reached that place. When they came there, both Lance and Tyler, were lying at the top side of the boiling water. They were trying hard to pull Sara out of the river. Seeing that, the first group took Sara out of the water.

The first group couldn’t understand what was happening. Because all three of them was screaming. One of them from the first group thought that something was wrong. He ran to his car and started looking for help. A helicopter came there in a few minutes.

Lance, Tyler and Sara was taken to the hospital. Only after going to the hospital they came to know that, when Lance and Tyler fell in that boiling river, they didn’t drown fully. Their head was outside the water. And as soon as they fell they were alerted and came out of the river.

But except the head they got burns all over the body. To cure that they went through a lot of surgeries. It continued for many years. But even though they went through pain they were alive. However, Sara didn’t have luck like the other two boys. Because when she fell in that boiling water, Sara was fully drowned in that water.

She couldn’t come out suddenly like the other two boys. Her head and body was completely burnt. Sara was conscious when she was admitted in the hospital. She was talking to everyone. But the doctors who checked Sara found a big problem. The wounds was very horrible in her body.

Doctors said that it was a third-degree burn. That is from the skin to tissues, and all the cells which helps in regrowth was dead. To cure third degree burns, they have to do skin grafting. It can be cured by taking the unburned skin and replace in the place of burn. But there is no chance for that because, Sara’s full body was burned with third degree burns. Her full body was damaged.

Because of this the doctors couldn’t save Sara. After 15 hours she died. Now Sara’s family filed a case against the park. They didn’t keep a warning board near that boiling river. That’s why my daughter died they said.

However the court said, “They didn’t walk on the given path. Because of their negligence only it happened.”

EPILOGUE

Even a small decision, can turn our life upside down. It goes with all the things in the life. Even the road accidents is because of this only. So, readers. What do you think about this story? Comment your opinions down without forgetting.