Alive and Alone Read Online Free PDF

and the temperature dropped a little.  He was sitting near the fire to keep warm and sipping on hot water.  It was late, but off in the distance he heard the lonely howl of a wolf calling out to another member of its pack.   That has to be the saddest sound in the world, he thought, just as the last of the wolf’s howl trickled off and the night became silent once more.
    David looked at his watch to check the time and saw it was broken. He removed the watch and started to throw it away, then thought better of the idea and slipped it in his fanny pack.  Standing and stretching, the young man suddenly felt very alone once again.  He thought about his feelings for a moment and realized the howl of the wolf that had triggered his emotions.  The wolf had sounded so alone and the sound reflected how David felt.
    He slowly turned and made his way under the large pine tree and wrapped up in the casualty blanket.  Before he realized he was tired, David had fallen asleep.
    Morning dawned cool, but the sun was shining and the temperature had risen enough that David knew the snow would melt from the ground before noon.  He had a quick breakfast of the instant coffee with a sugar and dehydrated cream in the canteen cup.  He was in no hurry as he leaned against a large log and slowly sipped his coffee enjoying the heat flowing through his body.  He was wondering when the rescue teams would find him.  While he didn’t know much about how search and rescue worked, he knew when they didn’t show up in Anchorage, the police would be notified.   Well, he thought as he raised the hot cup to his lips, today will be forty-eight hours.  If all goes well, I’ll be home this time tomorrow.  
    Suddenly he remembered his snares and quickly finished the bitter tasting coffee as he thought about having fresh meat to eat.  While David had shot game, he’d never trapped before and was unsure what he would do if an animal was caught in one of his snares.  Standing, he picked up his rifle, slung it over his right shoulder and started out to check his traps.
    His first two snares were empty, with no tracks in the snow.  He moved on through the trees and in the next one, he saw a rabbit caught in the snare.  While the survival manual had stated that the snare would choke the trapped animal to death, this rabbit was still very much alive.  As David neared the snare the rabbit began to move in an attempt to escape, but the wire held the animal firmly around the neck.
    Now what, he thought as he stood back from the snare and watched the animal struggle to escape, I don’t want to kill it, but I have to eat.
    Picking up a large stick laying near the trail, David approached the rabbit slowly and then he struck it as hard as he could on the top of the head.  Animal died instantly and while he was saddened to kill, the young man knew he had no choice if he were to survive.  He then reset his snare and move on to the next trap.
    The next two traps were empty but his last one held a small fox by the leg.  David was scared to attempt to kill the larger animal with his stick, so he raised his rifle, sighted on the animal’s chest and squeezed the trigger.  The fox fell unmoving.  The young boy quickly gutted the fox, but left the skin on, and as soon as he was finished, he headed back to camp.
    David spent the next hour skinning the fox and cutting meat from the bones.  He placed the fox meat in a tee shirt and using some electrical wires from the plane, he tied it up high in a tree.  He'd twisted the wires together to make a crude rope of sorts.  He did this so animals could not get at his hard-earned food.  The rabbit was placed on a spit and then over the hot coals of his campfire.  He decided to roast the meat and it smelled good as he pulled out the burned and scorched remains of the survival manual to see if he could learn anything about cooking or dressing the game better the next time.
    On page 108 of the manual, it suggested