Cabin retreat

My name is Elijah. My best friend is Nate. We have been best friends ever since about 4 years old. Nothing could split us apart. In high school, I met Bonnie. Things evolved pretty quickly and she became my girlfriend not long after we met. Her best friend was Jessica, Jess for short. Her and Nate really liked each other. They got together too. We had our own group of 4... Unbreakable, unstoppable and just awesome. After graduating from high school, we didn't go our separate ways like most friends do. We stuck together. We couldn't split apart... We NEEDED each other... All of us went to the same collage... Oregon State University...

My parents died when I was young... Since then, my uncle has been looking after me. He was a professional dog trainer. He was the one who got me Alma, when I got admitted into collage. She was a white Labrador. He had a cabin up in Mount Hood National Forest. About 2 hours from our Collage. My uncle would probably go there twice a year... For Christmas and Thanksgiving. I asked him if he could let me and my friends spend a weekend there... Obviously, my uncle, Terry, said yes, but as long as we leave the place just like we found it. I promised him that everything will be in place by the time we left.

Friday, June 12th, 14:31: We were all packing up. We loaded everything in my SUV, and got on the road. Alma was with us. I was driving, Bonnie was in the front seat, Nate, Jess and Alma were in the back. The whole road there we were laughing, listing to music and talking. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Friday, June 12th, 18:12: The road was longer than expected. We had to make a few stops, there was even a minor crash on the way there and we had trouble finding the cabin. Once we arrived, we unpacked, I took a shower and all of us got in the living room. It had been raining so it was quite cold. Nate helped me get a fire started in the fireplace. I grabbed some beers before we left. (all of us were at least 21)

**Picture this: best friends, drinking beer, having a good time by themselves, not caring about anything in the world.**

Friday, June 13th, 04:03: After countless hours of drinking and laughing, we all went to bed, where I am sure you can imagine what happened...

Saturday, June 13th, 12:57: Nate came to wake me up. Me and Bonnie have been sleeping WAY too much. The cabin had an amazing pool out back. All of us got undressed. (and no, I don't mean like just undies or bras... fully naked... that's the amount of confidence we had... we weren't afraid to show each other a little too much...) After swimming for an hour or so, I started to make the BBQ I brought from "home"... Nate looked at me and said: "You sure you don't want me to make it?" I said: "Eat something you cooked? I'd rather starve..." We all had a good laugh on that one... Even Alma... She couldn't wait for the food to be ready. Nate and Jess ate breakfast... same as Alma... All that while me and Bonnie were in bed...

Saturday, June 13th, 17:41: I cooked the BBQ, we ate and decided to take a walk through the forest. We were laughing so hard and had so much fun that only by the time we got back to the cabin I realized that Alma wasn't with us. Me and Nate went out looking for her while the girls stayed back at the cabin. (she was a trained dog and always followed me or made her way back to me. i knew something was wrong when she disappeared) We were gone for about 30 minutes when Nate got a call from Jess that she saw someone from the second floor. He was in the treeline surrounding the cabin. The guy had a brown hoodie, green pants and gloves. The girls didn't feel good about it. I told Nate to rush back and that I'd find Alma. Somehow, right after he ran off I spotted her. She was stuck in between a "slingshot" tree. I got her out and we started running towards the cabin.

Saturday, June 13th, 18:38: I got to the treeline in front on the cabin. I knew that if Alma saw that guy she would bark... Even though she was a Labrador, she had very protective instincts and warned me about every sketchy thing. I took her to the car and locked her in. I didn't want the guy to hurt her. (don't worry, the car wasn't boiling or anything. besides, i left a window slightly open) I picked up a branch from the ground, went to the front window of the house and looked inside. I could see blood. Upon closer inspection, I noticed Nate was holding his leg, covered in blood. The girls were crying. The guy was holding a gun to his head. I couldn't hear a thing from there. But then, in the blink of an eye, while my veins were pumped with adrenaline, I had a revelation. The bathroom window from the first floor was opened. My uncle told me about it and that it needed to be fixed because it got stuck. I went there. It was on the right of the main entrance. I climbed through, trying to make as little sound as possible. While opening the door very very slowly and clinging to that tree branch as hard as I could I thought of every possible scenario that could come out of this situation... I was able to open the door just enough to squeeze through without it squeaking... When I got close enough, I hit the guy over the head with the branch. He fell straight to the floor, dropping the gun. Bonnie got a hold of the gun and gave it to me. I was pointing it at him while Jess was calling 911.

**Me: What do you want?**

**The guy: Nothing, nothing, why are you being like this?**

**Me: YOU SHOT MY FRIEND AND TERRIFIED THE PEOPLE I CARE ABOUT, WHY?**

**The guy: JESUS, I'M SORRY OK? I DIDN'T MEAN FOR ANY OF THIS TO HAPPEN, CAN YOU PLEASE LET ME GO? I SWEAR I WON'T DO ANYTHING...**

**Me: The cops will deal with you. Feel lucky I'm not shooting you right now.**

All of this was going down while Nate was screaming: "SHOOT HIM ELI! WHAT THE FUCK MAN?"

**I swear that if he hurt my dog or killed Nate I would've blown his brains out right there and then.**

Saturday, June 13th, 18:59: The cops got there. They arrested the guy. He was bleeding pretty badly from the hit over the head I applied him, but he was okay however. They rushed Nate to the local hospital and he needed surgery. I called my uncle and told him everything. He said he was terribly sorry, but I replied: "It's OK Terry... but um... I guess not everything will be in place by the time we'll be leaving..." He had small laugh and asked me about getting home...

The aftermath: After that we had to go through a lot of court visits, each of us testifying against him, helping to put him behind bars. He got 29 years in prison for Unlawful possession of a gun, Breaking and entering, Trespassing, Discharging a gun, among other things. Apparently, he was screaming to Bonnie, Jess and Nate things like: "WHERE IS THE OTHER FUCKER?" or "IF YOU DON'T TELL ME I WILL BLOW HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF! I SHOT HIM ONCE, DON'T THINK I WON'T DO IT AGAIN.

**Nate's surgery went well. He recovered pretty nicely, but unfortunately he had to give up football... His dream of making it to the NFL was shattered...**

**I got through the tough situation pretty easily... I was more angry than scarred... the guy got what he deserved.**

**The girls still have nightmares about the whole thing, but we do the best we can to comfort them... That's what boyfriends are for, right?**

**Since then we have been up to that cabin several times, but my uncle has installed security cameras other security instruments... The only thing that guy was looking for was a watch he saw my uncle wear once, on Christmas, when he got in his car to leave the cabin... I still can't believe someone would throw their life away like that for a watch...**