Great Escape

We sat in misery trying to plan our escape. The giant yeti had been gone for some time. The cave reeked of half-eaten corpses and my men were in a state of mental paralysis. The yeti had already eaten six of my men and only four of us remained. I had to figure a way out, and my options were limited. We thought for hours and hours and came to the same daunting conclusion. We had to attack the yeti and attack quickly. Our numbers were shortening every day and the yeti was weakening our strength.


The only thing at our disposal was a giant ice shard that had fallen from the cave ceiling and almost taken out my leg in the process. Our goal was one of diversion. I ordered my men to distract the yeti as he came back from his afternoon hunt. I would then take advantage of this small distraction and go to work.


We dug, to the best of our abilities, a small hole in the ice to trip the yeti upon his return. My job was to plow the ice shard through his head with all of my strength. The hope was that it would mortally wound the yeti, or give us enough time to escape as he recovered. After the trap had been set and everyone was in position, we waited. The time went by agonizingly slowly. We had no water, no food, and our bodies had been pushed to the limit. The cave was miserably freezing. I could not feel the tips of my extremities, and some of my comrades began to develop frostbite on their nose. We had not slept in two days. We feared for our lives every waking moment that we were stuck inside the cave. My legs were dead weight, and I could barely muster the strength to walk.

I tried to keep the morale of my men high as we waited. I told them to think about memories of home and their families. I told them to imagine themselves returning home. I tried to motivate them and encourage them. I knew we did not have much time and tried to remain calm. We heard the yeti approach the cave, and I muttered a prayer as a last attempt to save myself. As the yeti pushed back the stone to his entrance and walked into the cave, we all braced ourselves. He stumbled upon the hole and fell to the ground. My men jumped on his back to try and hold him into place. I leaped into the air and rammed the shard into the back of his head. Success! 

Or so I had thought. The ice shard deflected off his rock-hard skull, and I fell to the ground. I watched as the yeti ripped my men into shreds. He was in an enraged trance and my men were on the receiving end of his wrath. My men were decimated. I was the only soldier left standing. 

I seized the moment and ran towards the entrance of the cave. I made it a few steps outside of the cave and raced towards freedom. However, the yeti was too quick and took hold of my leg. He smashed me against the side of the cave and my body splattered against the rock. Everything had turned black. I could no longer feel the physical pain of the mortal world. However, the screams of my fallen comrades filled my head. My mind was plagued with emotional pain and suffering. Now, here I sit inside the realm of Hades for eternity.

(A photo of Odysseus driving his stake into the eye of the cyclops. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Author's Note: The story that I told was based on "The Cyclops Defeated" section of Homer's Odyssey. Homer's Odyssey is a story from Greek mythology. It follows the adventure of Odysseus and his men as they make their way back home after the Trojan War. In "The Cyclops Defeated," Odysseus and some of his men are trapped inside the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus had let his curiosity get the best of him as he wanted to explore and take the riches of the cyclops in the cave. Once the cyclops had found them out, he ate some of the men each day and trapped the rest like pigs for slaughter. Odysseus had devised a plan to escape. He got the cyclops drunk on his wine and struck the cyclops in they eye with a hot stake. He blinded the cyclops and was able to execute his escape within the next day. Each day the ram led the sheep flock to the fields and Odysseus saw this as an opportunity. Odysseus and his men tied themselves to the cyclops's sheep and escaped as Polyphemus could not see what they were doing. Polyphemus was deceived by this plan and did not notice the men escaping on the undersides of the sheep. Polyphemus even recognized that the ram was the last to leave the cave! However, the plan to escape fooled Polyphemus and the men got away to their ships. In my rendition of the story I created a different scenario where the men do not escape. I thought it would be funny to change the ending and have the hero and his men unexpectedly perish inside the cave. I also changed the cyclops to a yeti because I wanted to create a different scenario with new characters.

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey translated by Tony Kline. Source: UnTextbook

(A photo of a yeti similar to the one in the story. Source: Wikimedia Commons)