The Gold Rush
Written by: Meowda, Edited by: thecat
Hello, I’m Lowell; I
will tell you all about my adventure going to California to seek for gold. The
story all started when my mom received breaking news when we were farming
casually on a foggy spring morning. "What? What did you just say? Mom, are
you sure there's someone named James Marshall who found gold in a river in
California?" "Yes, I am sure. It was written in today's newspaper! I
don't think I am that old and blind to misread tin into gold! Come here, my
boy, and read the headline printed in an extremely large font!"
I ran into my mom's room
and found my sister Kate and my brother Carter staring at the newspaper which
said "James Marshall discovered GOLD IN CALIFORNIA!" Suddenly, a golden
idea jumped into my mind. "We can start packing up AND head towards
California the Golden State to find gold, so we can be wealthy
millionaires and move away from this poor agricultural town. Although the
journey will be long, it’s worth a try!" My mom, sister, and brother all
agreed unanimously. Even my whiny baby sister, Maria, giggled happily in my
mom's arms.
Some of our neighbors
agreed to go with us excitedly, so we had a group of twelve undertaking this
adventure. The group included my family, Uncle Thomas, Brendon who was 20,
Loran the widow, Bill, May, and their children, James and Lucy. As we were
packing for the long journey, Uncle Thomas said he would prepare the wagons,
cattle, and oxen. We decided to depart the next morning. Since it would take
around six months to arrive in California, we started in spring, after all the
snow melted, so that we would not encounter the deadly coldness or avalanches
of the mountains. When everything was prepared, I was told to go to bed, but
excitement prohibited me to sleep, until I was exhausted of my golden waking
dreams.
The next morning came
rapidly like lighting. As soon as we had a nourishing breakfast, we left home
full of vigor and started to walk with the wagon. As we were walking, the
animals murmured as the wagons pounded on the rocky trail.
We finally reached the
mountain after a week; Mom told me that she is so cold, she feels like she is
going to turn into a big block of ice, and May's two-year-old daughter Lucy’s
crying was much quieter than before.
Just as the animals
toiled the wagons up onto the mountaintop, May let out a shrill and hysterical
cry, and Bill had tears running down from his eyes as he told us that Lucy died
from hypothermia. After two days of dejected silence, Mom passed away in her
sleep from an unknown virus. After we left the coldest part of the Mountain
trail one week later, my siblings and I had already cried away all of our
tears. "Why is life so unfair? Why did Mom have to be the one who died
from the deadly disease? We need to find gold in California, so that Mom did
not die in vain." I shouted in my heart with great determination.
One
night, we were all sleeping in the wagons except Uncle Thomas who was on watch.
Suddenly a loud noise of a gun broke the night's silence and pulled me out of
my sad dream. In a state of confusion, I heard my uncle let out a fierce cry,
"Bandits!" I woke my brother, grabbed a gun, and jumped out of the
wagon.
There,
I saw five figures with rifles surrounding us. I noticed that others in our
groups were awake too, and I started aiming at one of the figures. With a
glimpse from my left eye, I saw Uncle Thomas firing at one of the bandits, and
with a small scream a bandit fell onto the ground. I fired as well, wounding
another bandit. However, with a "bang" Bill's stomach burst out with
blood. Desperately, May cried, "Bill!" Because of the cry, I failed
to notice that my one-year-old sister Maria accidentally fell from the wagon.
As fast as an arrow, my sister sprinted toward Maria and protected the baby
with her own body while the rifle of the bandits fired; with my sister's death,
Carter shouted out with wrath as he shot down a bandit, Thomas and Brendon did
the same. The good news, we defeated the bandits, but unfortunately, we
lost Bill and Kate.
An
uneventful month passed in depression. With the food and water we took from the
bandits, our wagons still had a fair amount of supplies. However, we were once
again fulfilled with sadness after another horrid night.
Brendon
was on watch that night, and the loudest scream I had ever heard echoed in the
canyon we camped in. When I promptly hopped out of the wagon, I saw several
gray beasts that were standing on Brendon's corpse and tearing his flesh with
their fangs. That was the most horrible thing I had ever seen.
"Wolves!" I cried. Thomas fired a bullet towards one of the sinister
beasts, and the wolves withdrew from the dead body with their glowing yellow
eyes staring at us. May shrieked that she would not tolerate anyone else dying
as she pulled out a rifle recklessly. May pulled the trigger without noticing,
and she died unluckily in a shooting accident. This made James shout with rage,
and the terrible sound of hate was even louder than Brendon's scream. At the
same time when May died, Thomas aimed at another wolf, but the wolf jumped on
his right leg at lightning speed and clawed deep into his right leg. Then, two
more wolves clashed on Thomas as he was shouting in pain, and the weight of the
beasts pushed him down into the ground while the other wolves jumped on Thomas.
The rifle in his hand dropped as the beasts stabbed their fangs in Thomas's
body. Suddenly, the back of the camp grew brighter when James rushed back from
the front of the camp with several torches in his hand. He let out a
penetrating cry and threw all the torches at the wolves. The wolves finally
escaped with their furs burning. All the events happened instantly, so I had
failed to react. When I finally found out what had happened, there were already
three dead bodies lying on the ground.
During
the next few months, everyone in our five-person group sank into deadly silence
except for my sister Maria. Everyone was regretting on going on this journey,
but we could not give up because we had already left home for three months. I
was also regretting that I had not been able to help with the wolves attacking.
I should have done something. Something else tightened my heart as well, our
food and water supply grew less and less, and we were traveling into a desert.
We also needed to bear the devastating heat during daytime and the extreme
coldness at night. Most of our animals died, so we ate their meat.
However,
one day I found out that we only had one pitcher of water left. Loran the widow
said that the last bottle was for the us, but two days later as we were walking
slowly, ready to faint, Loran fell onto the hot desert ground. This is the
eighth death of this journey.
The
ninth death came soon when James ate one of our baby cows infected with a viral
disease. Now only Carter, Maria, and I were left. Just as thirst struck us
again and again, an oasis came into sight. Thank goodness!
We got plenty of food
and water from the provident oasis, so the last three remaining people of our
group survived the sandy desert. After another month's traveling, we saw a sign
which said that we were not far from California. During the last month of our
journey, we met generous Indian tribes as well as wicked Indian tribes. In
addition, we encountered poisonous snakes. Luckily we survived all the
misfortunes, and arrived in a small town. There were about 100 people in the
city, and a nice man told us that there wasn’t any more gold left in the
rivers, so we could try to blow up a mountain.
With
his advice, we bought some dynamite and planted the explosives at the bottom of
a mountain. We stood on a higher level watching and waiting for it to explode.
"Finally!" I thought. "Our efforts are going to be paid, and
with the support of my brother and little sister, I can still live despite my
mom and Kate's death."
However,
Maria accidentally rolled down the hill. Just as my brother rolled down
immediately trying to protect Maria, the dynamite exploded.
It
was the worst catastrophe ever. I jumped down the hill with tears filling my
eyes and rushed into the big hole in the mountain, but Carter and Maria were
nowhere to be found. I was too stunned, and I felt like there was nothing else
left for me in the world. My knees dropped on the ground, and I crashed my
fists on the wall of the hole as hard as I could. The pain on my knees and
fists felt like nothing compared to the loss of my whole family. All of a
sudden, the dirt and gravel on the wall of the hole fell down, revealing a
massive block of gold that ceased my tears.
"Oh
my goodness! I only get a block of gold when everything else is gone? What am I
going to do with the gold now? Enjoy being wealthy by myself? That's not
possible."
I need to know what to
do with the gold valued at one billion dollars. Will you please tell me what to
do that will make me happy, because I am still mourning for my dead family members?
Comment below what you
think he should do!
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