My story (give or take): landscape.
"Spectators"
Harry Bannister had almost crashed his car twice in the past month, due to fatigue and stress that had accumulated over the years from working in the office. That was why he decided to get away for a couple of weeks and relax with his daughter, Kate, at the quaint resort town of Altamont. The girl who was so elated upon hearing the news was now sleeping soundly in the passenger seat. Harry glanced at her, pondered a moment or two, and decided that a little bit of music wouldn’t hurt the peace, and the persistent hum of the vehicle’s engine reminded him of the office - the last thing he would think about on this cloudless night. Altamont had a radio station, but its four-digit frequency was buried too deep within his mind to recollect. Laura would know, but she wasn’t with them. Harry would have enjoyed her company… Kate would even more, since she never knew her mother. Harry had to explain why Mum left, and explain it in a way that the little girl would understand. Telling a four-year-old that her mother had passed away from cancer wasn’t exactly one of Harry’s strengths.
As the jeep neared town, a figure suddenly came into view. Harry swerved ploughing through the thin foliage on the roadside, kicking up plumes of dirt and stones.
He awoke standing, which struck him as strange. Thunderclouds slid across the sky, like black fingers reaching for the horizon. His jeep was before his eyes, mangled beyond recognition. He approached the passenger-side door, and found it sprawled on the dirt. The passenger seat was vacant.
“Kate!” He hollered.
“Daddy!” Came the heart-warming reply, from down the road.
Harry bent down to greet his girl, wrapping her in his arms.
“I found Mum!” Kate exclaimed.
“Hi Harry,” the woman greeted half smiling.
“Isn’t it great!” Kate exclaimed, tugging at her father’s trouser leg. “Now we’re one happy family!”
“What are you doing here?” Harry stuttered, confused and standing.
“Harry,” Laura began, stepping closer, her glistening chestnut hair flapping freely in the warm wind. “I wished you didn’t come so soon.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kate,” the woman knelt down, gently grasping the little girl’s shoulders, “can you go to the field over there and pick lots of flowers for Mum?”
“Okie dokie!” The little girl took off, skipping and singing merrily.
A sigh. “Look at this,” she nodded towards the wreckage.
He turned to his late wife after a few moments, his confusion palpable.
“There’s no easy way to say this, Harry,” Laura began, taking a few steps forward, glass crushing under her sneakers. “You’re both dead.”
“Dead?” The man spurted out, his voice dripping with desperation and denial. “But I’m here in one piece!”
“So am I,” his wife replied gently, watching tears swim in his eyes. Laura embraced him. Harry had thought he had saved a life the night before, yet, there was no life, just a spirit of a loved one, a warning of the bleak future. He had ended her daughter’s life, but Laura felt no resentment, no sympathy. She only felt… joy… Heaven had that effect on people.
“Harry,” she whispered in his ear. “I had always been beside you, all those nights when you were crying yourself to sleep, and all those days in the office, staring at my portrait, on the corner of your desk. I’ve seen you suffer silently these three long years, but I’m here now. I’m here now.”
They were spectators now, spectators in a game in which she was dealt a losing hand. Harry could have kept playing, but he played carelessly, and that had cost him his game, his life, Kate’s life. So here they were…
“One happy family,” she smiled to herself, spotting her daughter in the distant meadow. Kate waved to her, disappeared under the sea of yellow, before appearing again waving a bundle of flowers, oblivious to her new existence - for now.
I wrote a note that the journey is one of death and the landscape is from the city to mountainous region, in case the examiner is a moron .