Large Oak Tree With Squirrels example essay topic

Near Death Experience It was a warm fall day in early October, a day that I recall quite vividly. The smells of the transition from summer to fall were in the air, accompanied by the sounds of birds singing and the wind blowing through the trees. It was on this beautiful day that my existence was almost terminated. A quick hunting trip could have ended my life. After school on this day, a friend and I decided to go hunting before our evening basketball practice. I really don't know why we called it hunting, because we didn't have an idea exactly what we were hunting for.

We had forty acres of my backyard to do our merciless killing of defenseless animals. We were two ignorant kids with semi-automatic and lever-action. 22 caliber rifles. As we strolled into the woods to see what terror we could create for the creatures of the forest, we noticed a large abundance of squirrels.

They seemed to be dancing around as if they were gathering there before us in groups -- laughing at us, begging us to shoot them. We had to keep walking, for we were still too close to the neighboring houses to be shooting these rifles. So we trudged along, occasionally commenting on how the leaves crunching beneath our feet would scare off the squirrels, as if we were some fierce snipers in desperate need of stealth. At last we made it to an area far enough from the houses. My friend was the one with the semi-automatic, and he immediately started unloading his clip on everything in sight.

The sound of the bullets being propelled from the barrel echoed throughout the woods. After his barrage of shots, I noticed a large oak tree with squirrels in it. Immediately we ran to the tree, firing our guns as if we both were in an infantry fighting a battle. One, two, three squirrels were dropped out of the tree by our deadeye-aimed shots. As we gazed over the dead corpses, we contemplated the need to shoot these animals for no obvious reason. Was it our insatiable compulsion to shoot the guns or a morbid goal to shoot the squirrels on the run?

Apparently it was an odd mixture of both cases. As guilty as we might have felt for shooting them, we searched for more life to murder. Soon enough, however, we seemed to become bored with our adventure and decided that our excitement for the day had ended, so we began our short journey back to my house. On the way back, we stopped briefly by the tree that supplied the three squirrels we killed previously. I then continued walking, but my friend had noticed a squirrel clinging to the trunk of the tree. I was on the opposite side of the tree from him, about forty feet away from my fellow gunslinger.

As I turned around, I noticed I was in the direct line of his firing range. Before I had time to warn him of the unsafe situation, I saw the shots. Three consecutive discharges of his gun snapped the scene into slow motion. Fire and smoke billowed out of his gun after each bullet was released. The sound of the shots was deafened by my own fear, although I could hear the bullets whizzing inches from my head. As bullets pierced the air right next to my face, I fell on my back as if I was dodging the bullets like Neo in The Matrix.

I pulled out of my mindset of fear just enough to yell, 'Stop! Stop shooting!' I lay on the ground expecting more shots, but none came. Quickly my mind replayed the scene. I lay there, contemplating actually being able to dodge bullets. I felt that I could see those bullets in their spiraling motion coming at me. This idea made me laugh, but I didn't engage it for long, for I was still shaken by the event.

What if I'd been hit by the onslaught of bullets and turned into a bloody piece of Swiss cheese? Worse yet, I could have been killed. I lay there for what seemed to be a short eternity until the shadow of my friend appeared over me. 'I ran out of bullets,' he said in a relaxed tone.

After I voiced a few choice words to my companion, he helped me up, and I slowly but surely went home. Neither of us mentioned this incident to our parents. After experiencing a very close encounter of death I decided that playing video games was a safer way to kill time before practice. It was quite a while before we went hunting again, and when we did go hunting we were very cautious.