When bees almost kill me ...

This story belongs to @lonixriot, with his permission...

It was 2015 and I was going through a bad time at the University. I hadn´t money, I had just finished with my girlfriend and the country was getting worse. However I took refuge in my hiking group, Oikos, which was for a long time a second home for me. Thanks to money that my grandmother gave me, I was able to pay for a Rock Climbing course in Oikos, which I wanted to do a long time ago. My story takes place during this course.

It was my second or third class, my guide (I'll continue calling it a Guide for discretion, since he hadn´t given me permission to put his name here, although I haven´t asked him, I love you Guide) and Andreina, my classmate (To the which if I'll name, I do not think you'll read this Andreina). We were ready to do the second route of the day, the three stringed (all on the same string), first guide, me in the middle and Andreina last. The sun stung hunger too; around noon we started the route. It consisted of two sections, the first fairly easy and the second a bit more difficult. Guia proceeded to open the route and when the first section ended, it was my turn. Arrive without problem and then Andreina, we were about 15 meters from the ground, I calculate. When the three of us arrived, we continued with the second section. Guide arrived at the end without much difficulty and then I followed. It took me a while, but I arrived at the end of the stage, about 20 or 25 meters from the ground. At this point, there was an event that changed everything: an error (or rather a series of errors) led to disaster. A bee began to annoy Guia, and thinking it was a pegón, killed her. The reaction took seconds. Thousandths of a second.

The first bite in the leg took me by surprise, then in the arm, face, another leg, and so on throughout the body. It took me a while to realize what was happening, it wasn´t until the tenth bite that I realized that they were attacking us. It could have been the hour, the sun. It could have been the closeness to the comb. It could have been that Guide killed a bee. Or maybe they all came together to take us to our denouement.

I tried to stay calm, Guide would think of something. He started screaming for help. I lost my cool and yelled with him. Fear, anguish, a bee entered my mouth and it stung my tongue. We shouted at Andreina to go back, to not go up any more, I imagine she was more confused than we, who had a mind full of thoughts and questions. What is happening? How are we going to get out of this? I was desperately looking for a way out, I wanted someone to help us, I wanted them to realize that many, many bees were attacking us. In the end, the guide thought faster, but that was all, he thought quickly, he did not think well. He rappelled and went down the rope; a serious mistake: he was stuck in the middle and Andreina was at the other end of the rope. I just thought about what Guide had abandoned me, that I was alone, that I was lost. Soon everything became distorted, the bees continued to sting me. A twinge here, another there, the buzzing through my ears. Even today, three years later, I get chills.
I watched the insurance with longing, how easy that was; I could let go and let myself fall. I could give up and let gravity do the work. I could jump into the arms of death or worse, survive that 25-meter fall and be disfigured. How easy that was, in contrast to the pain he was suffering, despair and fear.

I always thought that the fact that your life passes before your eyes when you know that you are going to die was false. But it's true, my life flew by. I thought my parents, my classmates, those who were climbing around us, the girl I liked, my ex, my other ex, Lorde singing Royals, Katniss with the mutant wasps, those guys who get honey and they make a beard of bees ... One moment, how do they not sting? At that moment it occurred to me. I closed my eyes, covered my ears and stayed still. Holy remedy, they stopped stinging. And there I stayed, I decided to live with a thought: "If I'm going to die here, let the bees kill me, I'm not going to let go". From that moment I do not know how much time passed, for me it was hours, days, centuries. Then I heard a trace of voice: someone called me. It was Geral, one of the best climbers in Caracas, who had climbed, almost without insurance, to help me down. Then I saw a little hope. She told me that the rope was free, that it would rappel and get off.

A breath of air and I started to move. Consequence: They started to sting again. But I didn´t care, I needed to get out of there. I took off the bees from my eyelids, I took the rope, I armed the rappel, I showed it to Geral for safety and I went down. I went down fast, flying. It was the third rappel that I put together in my life and the part that most scared me about climbing. Touching the ground was one of the best sensations of my life. They quickly removed the harness, they moved me away from the area and they poured water on me. Some bees were still around but no longer inside the cartoon cloud of those creatures. An ambulance arrived at once. I asked for Guía, I was very stung, very disoriented and the truth, much worse than me, although I had been bitten more. Just at that moment that I was on solid ground, they took the next picture.

More than 200 bee sting counted my best friend, and that only in the photo, because in the legs, the chest, the other arm had many more chopped. A single part of my body was saved from the bites, blessed be the harness.

They took us to the hospital where we lasted an eternity and they simply told us that we were not going to die. None were allergic to bees, because we had already been stiff. I took off the stings little by little, with care; It did not hurt, it did not itch, I just died of cold since it was all wet and the air conditioning was powerful. In the end, already calm, we left the place. I stayed at Andreina's house because mine was far away, the next day I had to go to university. To top it off, I had two partials, which I missed. At first I arrived late and with the second I fell asleep, thanks to an antiallergic that I was given in the infirmary. Nobody recognized me, my ex went to see me and took care of me that night, for which I remain very grateful. When I went back to see Guía, he apologized to me for the way he acted, he also gave up climbing courses (Today he continues to apologize). Everyone believed that I would not want to continue climbing, but the following week I continued the course. Geral offered to finish giving us the course, which, after all, I approved. Good things: In Oikos they began to make simulations of bee attacks and in the park they made the plan to signal the routes with bees nearby.

In the end I was left with only a couple of scars that you only notice if you detail well, itching the first weeks and stings that I kept getting 5 months later. Oh and of course, a horrible panic every time I hear a buzz.
They took us to the hospital where we lasted an eternity and they simply told us that we were not going to die. None were allergic to bees, because we had already been stiff. I took off the stings little by little, with care; It did not hurt, it did not itch, I just died of cold since it was all wet and the air conditioning was powerful. In the end, already calm, we left the place. I stayed at Andreina's house because mine was far away, the next day I had to go to university. To top it off, I had two partials, which I missed. At first I arrived late and with the second I fell asleep, thanks to an antiallergic that I was given in the infirmary. Nobody recognized me, my ex went to see me and took care of me that night, for which I remain very grateful. When I went back to see Guía, he apologized to me for the way he acted, he also gave up climbing courses (Today he continues to apologize). Everyone believed that I would not want to continue climbing, but the following week I continued the course. Geral offered to finish giving us the course, which, after all, I approved. Good things: In Oikos they began to make simulations of bee attacks and in the park they made the plan to signal the routes with bees nearby.

In the end I was left with only a couple of scars that you only notice if you detail well, itching the first weeks and stings that I kept getting 5 months later. Oh and of course, a horrible panic every time I hear a buzz.
They took us to the hospital where we lasted an eternity and they simply told us that we were not going to die. None were allergic to bees, because we had already been stiff. I took off the stings little by little, with care; It didn´t hurt, it didn´t itch, I just died of cold since it was all wet and the air conditioning was powerful. In the end, already calm, we left the place. I stayed at Andreina's house because mine was far away, the next day I had to go to university. To top it off, I had two partials, which I missed. At first I arrived late and with the second I fell asleep, thanks to an antiallergic that I was given in the infirmary. Nobody recognized me, my ex went to see me and took care of me that night, for which I remain very grateful. When I went back to see Guía, he apologized to me for the way he acted, he also gave up climbing courses (Today he continues to apologize). Everyone believed that I wouldn´t want to continue climbing, but the following week I continued the course. Geral offered to finish giving us the course, which, after all, I approved. Good things: In Oikos they began to make simulations of bee attacks and in the park they made the plan to signal the routes with bees nearby.

In the end I was left with only a couple of scars that you only notice if you detail well, itching the first weeks and stings that I kept getting 5 months later. Oh and of course, a horrible panic every time I hear a buzz.