The school year had just ended, and as usual I had to go back to my dad's house out of state, my mom had already gotten me the plane ticket from Wisconsin to Alaska, I packed my bag and we headed to the airport, my mom was worried because it was the first time I had made the trip alone, but I told her I would be fine. When we got to the airport I went through security and left my mom there, I made it to the gate and had about a half-an-hour until the plane gate opened, I got something to eat and by the time I got back to the gate they were already loading the plane. It was smaller than the usual planes you would see flying from the airport but who wants to go to Alaska. I boarded and took my seat, after another half-an-hour the plane finally took off and we began our flight. I was to bored to just sit there and I wasn't tired so I tried to make conversation with the girl next to me, her name was Chrissy she was 16 years old had long blond hair and beautiful blue eyes. She was going to Alaska to visit her grandparents she had spent a lot of time there when she was younger but not so much anymore. The man in front of us must have been bored too because he leaned over his seat and introduced himself to both of us, his name was Joey, he seemed like a nice guy but he was strange, he didn't tell either of us what he did, where he lived, or what he was coming to Alaska for. Eventually we all got bored and began to doze off one by one, Joey first, then Chrissy and then myself.

We woke up to a commotion the plane had flown into a storm, as it shook every once in awhile, all three of us were scared, but we just tried to ignore the plane and began to talk, but just as we started the Pilot came on the loudspeaker and asked us to buckle up, and that is when I felt the plane begin to pitch down towards the ground I clenched to the chair as the air respirators dropped out of the ceiling, I could hear the plane cutting through the air I quickly looked out the window to see where we were and all I could see was trees and in a split second the plane cut into the trees something hit my head during the crash and knocked me out.

When I woke up I was sitting in the chair, I looked around at the debris and then at the chair sitting next to me, chrissy was gone her belt was undone so she either undid it after the crash or never had it on, either way I knew I had to find some other survivors if there were any. I was so shocked from all the destruction, I looked at the  belt that was holding me in the air, I knew that I needed to get it undone if I was going to get out of here, it was supporting all of my weight, like it clamped shut and wouldn't come undone, I pushed myself up against the back of the seat and finally got the belt undone, I fell on the ground landing on top of a metal bar, I let out a painful scream, and then heard another person struggling, I got up fighting the pain and hurried towards the sound, His name was peter, we got his seatbelt undone and surprisingly neither of us were injured, we headed towards the cab of the plane, or what what was left of it anyways, when we got to it and bothe the pilots were dead from the crash. We looked for whatever supplies we might need for surviving the woods we were in we found a vase, we found the pilots phone and looked through it for what might be the code in his text messages or anything we found 10-31-36, we typed in the code and opened the door we found a lighter and a Glock g43, a piston with almost 50 rounds. We left the c***pit when we were done looking there and went to a different area of the plane we found water bottles pots pans some food and I found a small pocket knife laying on the ground, I picked it up secretly and put it in my pocket. Then I saw someone else walking among the debris, it was Chrissy, I called her name she looked at me and walked over to us. I asked her where she went, and she said she woke up out of her chair lying on the cold ground in the clearing the plane had made, she walked over to the plane and found us. We kept searching through the debris and found another person in her chair, she was unconscious but still breathing, me peter and chrissy got her out of her chair and we got her away from the plane and made a fire with the lighter we had found.

When she woke up she was confused, she didn't know what had happened. After she calmed down we found out her name was jessica, we were all freaking out, we didn't know what to do we had no experience with hunting or survival we all had just visited Alaska, we didn't do much in the woods of anything like that. But I had watched survival shows all the time so I knew that we had to find shelter, water, food, and fire. I told the rest of the group this and we began hiking through the woods, me carrying the glock in my hand ready to fire at anything that threatened the group. We came to a clearing with tall grass and fewer trees, we walked through the opening and found  path of laid down grass through the field we followed the path hoping it would lead to water, we walked for a few miles and finally found a stream of fast moving water, right away Jessica and peter jumped down and we're going to take a drink when I screamed at them because I remembered that in every show I had watched had all of the guys saying that you should disinfect whatever water you find, we took our the water bottles we had found in the plane filled them up with water and I fold everyone we should make camp here because we were going to be here for awhile and should stay at whatever water source we found. But Peter argued that we should keep going to try to find a town or whoever we could that might live near. Him and I went back and forth until I finally told him that, “When the plane was going down I caught a glance out my window and saw nothing but forest for miles and miles, like it or not we will be stuck out here for awhile.”

Once that argument cooled down we began looking for firewood and supplies to build a shelter big enough for the four of us, I sent chrissy and jessica our to get the wood for the fire, and me and joey began building the shelter. We made a simple roof with 3 walls on it, and when chrissy and jess got back I made a fire by the entrance of the shelter. The sun was just setting, and I realized that everyone was starting to get hungry, As the sun was setting they rested at around the fire and talked about the plane crash and what they were going to do so I went out and started to set traps to try to catch food for us all to eat. I remembered seeing people set their traps on the T.V shows. I grabbed a little stick, and took some of the food that we found on the plane and a big rock, I lifted up one of the edges of the rock and put the stick under it, then I tied a string around the stick and wrapped it around the rock, so when the animal walked up to the food it would trip on the line, which eventually pulled the stick our dropping the rock on the animal. I set 5 traps around the camp, and headed back to the camp. As I was walking back to the camp I began to hear screams from the others. I began running back to the camp, I was unsure what there was in these woods.

When I realized that I was the one with the gun I began running as fast as I could back to the camp the screams getting louder and louder, I finally drew the gun from my side and saw a 10 ft bear standing over Jessica, I aimed the pistol at its chest  and shot 5 rounds into its chest, I stood there stunned. What had just happened I thought, Jessica stood back up stunned as well, I calmed down, walked over to the others and asked them what had happened, they said they were just sitting around the fire waiting for me to get back and they heard a grunting and stick cracking from afar, they looked and saw nothing. They heard it again and still saw nothing, they looked back at the fire, then they looked back again and they saw a big brown ball looking object, they stood up and looked at it a little bit more and tried to figure out what it was, then they saw it start to move, it began to walk towards them and they just stayed there. I asked them why they didn't run away from it, and they replied that they didn't know what it was, I asked if they were all alright, I knew they were scared but I didn't know if they were injured. They said no, I was actually glad the bear found us because now we had food for some time now.

The only problem that we had was getting the meat off of the bear because we didn't have a knife, and didn't have any way to preserve the meat, the night went on, hearing the noises from outside out shelter, I slept with the gun next to me so if anything happened I could be ready quick. The night went on and nothing happened, when we woke up we went outside, stretched, and then joey and I went to the creek to get some fresh water and I found some rocks that were somewhat sharp, brought them back to the camp with the water. I gave the water to the others, took a drink and then walked over to the dead bear, and tried to drive into its pelt, eventually I found a rock that cut through the pelt, but wouldn't cut into the meat, I went back to the stream to try to find some sharper rocks, while I was walking down the stream I saw something reflect the light from the sun at my eyes, I walked toward the shine, I bent over and found a rusted knife, it must have floated downstream and washed up on shore, I picked it up and headed back to camp, when I got there I headed straight to the bear and began to cut the meat, immediately I put some on a stick and hung it over the fire, I returned to the bear to continue cutting it. after I was done the others asked if the meat on the fire was done, I walked to the fire and cut into the center of the meat, it was a brownish color not red with blood, I handed it to Chrissy and she took a big bite out of it, I asked how it was and she said it was the best thing she had ever tasted.

The next day I started trying to make the shelter stronger so that we and it could survive the cold and hard winters that Alaska holds. the group and I went back to the stream to collect bigger rocks that could act as a foundation for the new shelter, We collected hundreds of big rocks and stacked them in a 10 by 10 circle, when we finished collecting and stacking the rocks we headed around the forest looking for big and strong sticks we could use for posts around the shelter, we found about 20, eventually got them back to the shelter, and then we noticed that the sun was sinking on the horizon, we began to head back to the smaller camp, collecting sticks for the fire for cooking and the night, I took some more of the meat from the bear and put it on some more sticks hanging around the fire. When it finished we ate and drank some of the water and eventually they all went to bed, but I couldn't sleep a wink, thinking too much about if we were ever gonna make it out of these woods, I kept thinking about if someone would come and save us, but the chance of that was little to none, it had already been a week since the plane crash, and we hadn't even heard a plane or helicopter.

Eventually morning came around and we all got up and got back to the new shelter we were building, we began to dig holes around the rock circle, when we finished that we stood up the logs around the rocks in the holes and packed the dirt back around the logs making them as solid as possible, when we got them into place we went back out into the woods we collected some more smaller logs that we could stand up to make a wall, we collected a few hundred of them , and stood them around the circle on the outside of the rocks, then we went back out and collected smaller sticks we could use for the roof, we also grabbed some moss and pine branches that would keep the rain out and the heat in. We finished the roof that day and the next day we were moving what supplies we had found into the new shelter, the shelter was 10 feet tall, had enough room for all of us to sleep comfortably, had a hole in the center of the roof so the smoke could escape, it had a door so we could enter and exit, but kept the animals out, the rocks helped to keep the bottom half of the structure more solid to keep the bears and other predators out. This night was going to have the best sleep I had ever had.

We entered the new shelter we had made, and laid around the fire thinking and talking to one another about what they had missed about their homes they had been in before this had happened, chrissy missed her phone and being able to talk to her friends whenever she wanted to, joey missed his car, a 1969 gto a beautiful car he street raced every saturday night, the amount of races he had won with that car, Joey said that he really didn't miss anything, he had lost both of his parents in a car crash when he was 10, and none of his family was around to take care of him so he was put into a orphanage and now he lived in a small apartment and worked at a pick-n-save, he said this life would be way more exciting than what he had before now. Jessica missed her family and friends, she had spent so much time with her friends every day, and her family what could replace the feeling of being able to tell people anything whenever you had a problem of a dream they were there to support you 100% of the way, and me, they all asked what missed the most, I said nothing, I was free now, no one to tell me what to do, yes i missed my mom, but now I could do anything I wanted whenever I wanted to, yes I have to fend for myself, but I was sick of being controlled by my mom every second of the day.

Now that everyone knew everyone's story they slowly dozed off around the fire, and I went outside to get more firewood, and All i did after I grabbed the wood was look up at the sky and prayed that someone would come and look for us to get them out of these woods. I went back into the cabin, and kept the fire going. I slowly dozed off into a heavy sleep, I don't think a tornado would have woken me up from this sleep. When I woke up the rest of the group was gone, they had already gotten up, but when I got up and went outside they were nowhere around. I called out their names but none of them responded, that was when I got scared, I ran through the woods looking for them but nothing, I slowly walked back to the cabin hoping they had already been back there, but when I got there there was no one, I sat there for at least an hour before I heard something in the woods, something big. It was getting closer, I stood up and drew the gun, they they emerged from the woods. I took a huge sigh of relief, I told asked them where they were and what they had been doing, they responded saying that they were checking the traps I had set because we were running low on food. I told them that they worried em to death, but then they showed me the squirrels, chipmunks, and other small animals they had gotten, they reset all the traps and came back here. I told them that we had to go and find an open field somewhere around camp so that we could build a distress signal telling any plane or helicopter that we were here and we needed help. They agreed and we split up looking for a field.

Me and Chrissy went north, and Joey and Jessica south, Chrissy and I came to a small clearing, but nothing big after walking over 500 yards, we walked for about 10 more minutes and still nothing, we began heading back to the camp to meet the others, we got back and joey and Jessica were already there, they told us they found something upen, but they weren't sure if it would work or not, we walked south for about 200 yards, and there was a big clearing about 80-80 yards. I said yeah this will work for what I had in mind. I dug a big hole about 4-4ft, and 1ft deep. they I started lines going from the holes corners that would extend 20 yards in each direction, and then with whatever space I had left I would write our SOS, to try to get the attention of the pilot. the four got started on the lines, and I started getting wood, and stacking it into a teepee like pile in the 4-4 hole. So that whenever we heard a plane or helicopter someone could run over and start the fire to try to get more attention drawn to it. when we finally finished the signal we slowly walked back to the cabin, exhausted. we got back and I put some meat on the fire to cook. yet again we sat around the fire talking waiting for the food to be done. It finally finished and they were all asking each other if they thought the signal would work, I sighed, and said, “I sure hope so”, they all just laughed. We finally finished and everyone quickly fell asleep.

The next morning I did my normal daily routine, collect water, check the traps, and get firewood for the fire. but something was different, I heard a chopping sound, but it was much faster than a axe hitting a tree. I had heard the sound before, but it had been a long time ago, I couldn't quite remember what it was. I ran as fast as I could back to the others, and asked them what it was, they scram “ A Helicopter”, We all started running to the SOS signal we made the day before, and lit the fire. We grabbed some of the pine tree branches from around to make white smoke, threw them on the fire, and the helicopter turned around and came straight to the smoke. he landed over the SOS writing on the ground away from the fire and came running toward us. We jumped, hugged, and laughed from joy that we had finally been found, the pilot knew who we were, almost as if they had been looking for us for the whole time. but we had never seen or heard any planes or other helicopters. we all ran to the chopper, to get back home to get back to civilization, back to our families, and our lives. We landed in the biggest town in Alaska, and when we landed my dad was standing there crying, and so was I, tears of joy. We were so happy that he had a chance to see each other again. Him, the others, and I all went back to my dad's house almost 2 hours away, to spend the night. talking about how excited they were to see their families who were flying in overnight, and seeing them first thing in the morning. The night went on and we all fell asleep. When morning came we went back to the airport to meet the groups parents and my mom at the gate. We were standing there for what seemed like hours, but in reality it was only a few minutes. The one plane unloaded, and all of our parents stood out in the crowd, we were so happy to finally see them again. my mom ran to me, hugging me crying. Chrissy’s parents the same, and peters, but Joey's situation was different, he just stood there blankly as if he was waiting for something that wasn't coming. I walked away from my parents and gave him a huge hug. To try to tell him that everything was going to be alright. Joey stayed with me and my dad, and we all headed in our separate ways knowing that nothing would ever be the same, the things we have had to do and the things we have lived through have changed us forever.