The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Alternate Ending

Victoria Falls

There were five of them on the team. The two writers, Jezebel and Michael, were dating and had worked together for Traverse before. The two photographers, Lizzie and Smith, were new to Traverse just like Walter. Lizzie had just spent two years living in the Amazon with native peoples as a photojournalist. Smith had just completed a project where he filmed and photographed skydiving from a plane twenty different times on all of the seven continents, the point being to record the landscape of each place. There were easier ways to film landscapes now a days, but they're not nearly as cool or epic. Walter was by far the least experienced of the group, and yet he was meant to lead them.

They were flying over the Pacific, on their way to Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in Africa. The falls were not officially on the Silk Road, but they were epic and near enough to Zanzibar in Tanzania, where they were to start on the Road, that Traverse had added it to the beginning of their trip.

Day 1

The plane landed at a small airport near the falls on the Zambian side. The team disembarked from the small plane. There was not much there, a small airport building, a small radio tower, and wide-stretching grasslands. They retrieved their luggage, each had only a backpacking backpack, and Lizzie and Smith each had a camera bag. That was it. True to Traverse's nature, they were given only technology that was available to merchants on the Road in the 12th century. This meant that they had to complete the entire journey on foot, on the back of an animal, or by boat. They could not use modern transportation. They were also given no information as to where to go or how to get there after they were dropped off at the Victoria Falls airport except for a general route they were to follow from Victoria Falls to Shanghai.

Walter looked around. There was nothing around except the airport for miles.

"Well, what next?" asked Jezebel.

"Ask the people at the people at the airport building?" mentioned Liz.

So they went inside. There was only one person, a woman, sitting in a chair behind a desk. She was wearing khaki cargo pants and button up shirt. Michael was the first to speak, "Hello, ma'am. We've just arrived, would you happen to know which way it is to the falls?"

"Victoria Falls?" the woman asked in a British accent, "Well of course, it's only just over that hill, about three or four miles. There is a caravan coming in two hours, you can wait and catch a ride, or you can walk, it's not that bad of a hike, very pretty. Either way, here's a map," the woman then marked on the map their current position and the location of the falls.

The team set out toward the falls. They walked quickly, even while Liz and Smith took constant pictures, and Jezebel and Michael recorded notes in notebooks and voice recorders. The grasslands spread out for miles ahead of them. They had only a dirt Jeep track and a basic map to guide them. Walter squinted his eyes and looked out, off into the distance and toward the horizon. The whole world was still. He snapped a few pictures himself. Part of their assignment was to take a lot of pictures for social media. Traverse had started an Instagram account for their expedition, and they promised to feature pictures from their adventures on their own account. They were also expected to post on their own accounts, on every avenue of social and traditional media they could. This was part of Traverse's business plan and why they were so successful as a news source, even while other more traditional sources were currently failing. Through this, Traverse was trying to familiarize people, especially young people who get most of their information from social media, with crazy, adventurous travelling feats. Because of this, the only technology they were allowed were cell phones that only had Wi-Fi capabilities and cameras.

They continued to walk. About an hour and a half into their hike to the falls, it was about six in the evening and twilight was coming on quickly. They were now coming close to the falls, they could almost hear the roaring. Walter was watching the horizon again and thinking about how beautiful the world could be. He was just thinking about how wonderful it was that he would get to live through hundreds more days over the next years that they would be trekking the Road when he saw something move off in the distance. He hadn't seen a single living thing larger than a field mouse (besides his team) since they had started hiking. But this thing off in the distance was obviously bigger than a mouse. He turned to Michael and pointed out the object he had seen. Michael stared off into the distance.

"What is it?" Michael asked. Smith came over and pointed his camera at the object then zoomed in.

"Oh God. Look, Liz, look, I think it's a lion."

Smith handed his camera to Michael and then Walter as Liz looked through her camera. Walter looked through the lens. It was a lion, definitely.

"What do we do?" ask Jez.

The lion was up ahead of them, off to the side, but they would still have to pass it.

"We need to walk slowly by. We can't turn back and it's not smart to try and run by, it might see us as a threat then," said Walter. If there was anything he had learned from swimming with sharks, it was that you should remain calm around large, threatening animals.

So the group began to walk slowly by. When they finally came to the spot where they had to cross the lion they slowed down even more. The lion was of to the side, about 25 meters off. They stopped to look at it. It stopped to look at them. Then, suddenly, it began to charge. Walter had hardly any time to react. He thought back to an article he had once read that if a large animal began to charge you should try to make yourself as large as you can by throwing your arms in every directions and making loud noises. He didn't have any time to elaborate so he just shouted at the group: "DON'T RUN! GO CRAZY! SCREAM!"

All at once all five of them erupted into horrifying screams. They waved their arms, kicked their legs, and screamed. When the lion saw this, about 5 meters off now, it stopped in its tracks. It stopped and looked at them for half a second, then turned rapidly on its heels. It ran in the direction it had come until it was out of sight.

"That was mad!" exclaimed Smith.

"Is it bad that I was mostly extremely exhilarated by that!?"

"Haha, no that was pretty awesome. Helps that we didn't die."

They were all celebrating, happy that they weren't dead, except for Liz, who was looking down at her camera. Jez walked over and looked at the display screen that Liz was looking at "Oh my God! These are fantastic!" They all walked over to see. During the ten seconds that all the commotion had taken place in, Liz had gotten pictures of both the lion charging them, as well as pictures of them going crazy and screaming. They looked like maniacs, but it made for a great photo.

Walter was so relieved. He had passed his first challenge, he had been quick to think during the crisis and he had not let his team down. He was starting to think that maybe he was cut out for this vagabond existence.

Hearts still pounding, Walter and the team ran the rest of the way to the falls. When they got there, it was dark. They had arrived at the Zambia side of the falls, and when they got there they ran toward the Devil's Pool and jumped in, stripping to their underclothes as they ran. They jumped in and let the cool, fresh water wash away all of the sweat, fear, and exhilaration of the day.