Alive and Alone Read Online Free PDF Page A

brownish plastic and as he looked closer, he noticed his entrée was beefsteak.  His side dish was mashed potatoes and David loved steak and mashed potatoes.  
    The young man had not realized how hungry he was and decided, as his stomach growled in anticipation of the meal, to have the crackers and peanut butter as he heated the meal over his small fire.  The directions on the container said the pouches were not plastic, but a type of foil and he could heat them up in boiling water.  He placed his canteen cup filled with water on the hot bed of coals from his fire and then dropped the foil packs containing the meat and potatoes in the water.
    The crackers were a little harder than the average soda cracker, but as hungry as he was they tasted fine.  Using his knife, he cut the corner from the peanut butter pouch and squeezed it out onto the crackers as he ate.  He decided to keep the coffee, sugar and cream for breakfast, along with an energy bar.  David had never cared much for the taste of coffee, too bitter, but he suspected it would taste just fine in the morning when the temperature was much lower.
    He thought back of the movies he’d seen where hungry men would wolf down their food as quickly as possible, except as soon as he’d removed the meat and potatoes from the hot water and opened the pouches, he ate very slowly.  For the first time in his short life, Dave did not gulp his food down, but instead he savored each and every bite.  Once the pouches were empty, he used his knife to open them up and licked the foil lining clean.
    The weather was growing worse and while the wind had died down, the snow was now falling harder.  The temperature was falling as well and he glanced at his woodpile hoping he had enough to last the night.  He had lined the ground under the tree with pine boughs so he knew he would sleep off the cold ground, but his sleeping bag was about shot.  
    He picked up the sleeping bag and noticed with a critical eye that only about half of the bag remained.  He considered his options and recognized his bag would not protect him over night and he’d freeze to death if he attempted to use it.  His only choice, as he saw it, was to return to the plane, remove the casualty blanket from his father’s body and then cover his head with the partial sleeping bag.  He disliked taking the blanket from his father, but knew his dad was beyond being cold any longer and would want him to use it.  Still, the casualty blanket had been his father’s death shroud and it seemed wrong in David’s mind to remove it. It took Dave well over an hour to work up enough courage to go back to the plane to retrieve the blanket.
    Snow covered the top of the wreckage when David arrived and he reminded himself to clean it off in the morning.  He wasn’t sure, but he suspected because of its large size it would be easier to see from the air than a human.  He opened the door to the airplane and slowly made his way to his father’s seat.  Without turning on the flashlight, he removed the casualty blanket from his father and it was when he was placing the sleeping bag over his dad’s head that his hand came in contact with his father's face.  David jerked his hand back as if he had touched a live coal from his fire; the coldness of his father’s skin shocked him.  He suddenly started crying and with tears streaming down his face, he placed the remains of the sleeping bag over his dad’s head and then wiped his eyes.
    “Dad, I’m so sorry.  I don’t know if I’ll be back dad, because I’m having a hard time visiting you.  I love you dad and you’ll always have a place in my heart.”  Dave spoke aloud, turned, and then crawled from the wreckage.  As he closed the door to the plane, the young man knew the wreckage had become a shrine to his father.  David understood he would never see an airplane again without thinking of his father and how he'd died.
    It was later that night before the snow stopped