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Shlya diamond

A Man’s Journey    

      I was taking a trip to Kodiak Island when we experienced engine trouble and our plane crashed. It was the pilot one of my friends and I flying but I was the only survivor. I don’t know how long I was unconscious on the plane but when I woke up I had no idea where I was and why it was so cold. I crawled out of the plane and all I could see was white. I was still a little dizzy and there was a huge cut on my leg from a piece of glass and a whole bunch of little cuts a bruises but other than that I was fine. I was in the middle of nowhere and had no idea what to do.

   There was a small fire from the plane crash that I was sitting by to keep warm. I don’t know how cold it was but it had to be in the negatives. I had a big coat on and some snow pants because I knew that where I was going it was going to be cold. I was looking at all the stuff that was on the plane that could help me survive. There were some drinks, food, a blanket, survival kit, and some clothes that I had packed. The first thing I thought of was shelter and how I needed to build or find one quick or I would freeze to death. I started with all the broken parts of the plane and, some string that was on the plane and started to build a small lean-to. It wasn’t much but I had enough room to build a small fire and keep warm for the night. I thought my best chance of someone finding me is to stay by the plane because I knew each plane has to have a GPS locater in it and maybe somebody could find me.

      I had to clean up my leg so I took the medicine from the survival kit and ripped up a T-shirt and rapped it around my leg to make it stop bleeding. I made a fire with some of the wood from the crash and the lighter that was in the kit. I stayed up all night to make the fire keep going. The next morning I crawled out of the lean-to and saw some mountains and snow everywhere. I knew I was in Alaska somewhere but not sure where. I put on some more coats that were left on the plane and started walking to see if I could find anything. For hours I walked but found nothing so I went back to the lean-to. I ate the crackers and some soup that were on the plane for almost two days and I started to run out of food and water so I had to go hunting.

      I took a piece of wood and sharpened it with the knife that was in the survival kit. I started walking but all I saw was white everywhere and a few wolfs but that’s it. I’ve gone hunting before with some friends but I wasn’t the best at it so I was nervous to kill anything but I had to. I went back to the plane so hungry but I didn’t want to kill a wolf. The next day I had to eat something so I did what I never thought I would and killed a wolf. I got the fire going and started to cook the meat and man was that good. The wolf would last me a couple days but now I needed water. So I got a piece of metal from the plane and shaped it into a bowl. I put some snow in it and boiled it until it was fine to drink.

      Weeks went past and no one showed up to help. I lived off of wolf meet and water made out of snow. As the days went by I built a bigger lean-to on both side to close it in but I was running out of supplies for the fire so I needed to do something and do it soon. I walked a lot every day to see if I could find something or someone but I never did.  One day I took a different path a found a small forest filled with covered trees and that’s where I get my fire wood. I broke off enough branches to last me awhile and took them back to the plane. The forest was only a couple miles away from the lean-to.

      It was almost a month that I was there. I started to learn how to live on my own in the freezing cold. In the night I would see lights in the sky under the clouds and it was the prettiest thing I have ever seen. They were called the northern lights. The next morning came and it was just another day, I had to go hunting again. I only had 4 hours to hunt because in Alaska the days are only 4 hours long because it gets dark very soon which is strange. I saw a pack of wolves and they were staring at me straight in the eye and I didn’t move. After a while they walked away like nothing happened. I lost my chance to get something that day so I didn’t eat. The next day I got one and felt so much better after words. Days went by and still nothing. I was counting the days and it was one month and 3 weeks that I have been living here.

      I made thousands of trips to the small forest to get fire wood and got some wood to make a bigger lean-to every week. One day I was laying in my lean-to when I heard something in the sky. I went outside and saw a plane flying by so I ran to the plane and grabbed one of the flares and shot one up to the sky. The plane kept going so I didn’t think it saw me. I have only seen one air plane over the past two months and I didn’t know when I would see another one. I needed new clothes and a new coat so I thought I might make one out of the wolfs fur. I have never made any clothing so I didn’t know how it was going to work. I made a tiny piece of wood that would be used as a needle it wasn’t exact but it was close and the string from the plane.  I started to sew and it took me a couple hours to just get the sleeves on but I finally got it. Then I made the rest and it turned out ok. I have been using some of the fur for a blanket at night and it keeps me warm.

      I thought if I stayed outside more than maybe I could catch a plane in the night. The planes don’t fly high in Alaska because there’s not many high mountains they have to fly over. Every night I would look but nothing ever came. There was a small notebook in my bag and I started to write about my adventure and what I did every day. There wasn’t much to do there anymore so most days I just sat in and wrote about everything that has been happening. Also I started to right about my past life and it made me think how easy my life was compared to the Eskimos. Some days I would have to walk to get wood from the small forest others days I needed to hunt but that was pretty much it. Hunting started to get easy because the wolves would always be out and some trips they went after me. So I would always bring a flare gun just in case.

       It has been two months and three weeks now. I was walking back to the plane when I saw a blinking light in the sky. So I ran to the plane as fast as I could and got a flare guy and shot it. I’m pretty sure the plane saw it because it did a circle around me and then went off into the distance. I kept waiting and waiting for someone to come get me but then came the next day and I gave up hope again. I thought I would never get out of there so I just gave up. That day I just sat in the lean-to and thought about how I was never going to never see my family and friends again

     The next day came and I was in the lean-to sleeping. Something woke me up that sounded like dogs so I just thought it was a pack of wolves so I just sat there listening. It started to get louder and louder and I thought to myself they have never came this close so I started to get scared. But then I heard a voice and I jumped up and went outside and saw a dog sled team. I have never been so happy to see anyone in my whole life. I ran over to the man and shook his hand and he said to me “We are here to take you home”. I broke down in tears and said thank you a thousand times.

      They said get your stuff and let’s get out of here. I couldn’t take everything so I took the things that meant the most to me. I brought the knife, the coat I had made, the blanket, and the notebook I had been writing in. I looked back one last time and said goodbye. I got on the first plane back to anchorage Alaska so I could fly on home to Seattle. I got back hoe and everybody thought I was dead so everybody was surprised but very happy. Everybody wanted to hear my story so I told them someone day I will publish my journal that had everything I did in it and that’s how they would found out would happened to me and how I survived. This is something I will never forget and how I would teach younger children things they need to know to survive in the wild.

The End