Darkness.

That was all that greeted me as I slowly came back to the world of consciousness, my senses returning to me one by one. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my skin which was a welcomed blessing from the freezing cold that I remembered from the plane. Taking in a deep breath I smelled a clean scent that reminded me of my trip with my family to Yellowstone when I was younger. It was the unmistakably pure smell of mountain air mixed strongly with the biting sharpness of pine trees. The droning sound of cicadas that were beginning to invade my ears was leading me to believe that somehow I was now in a forest.

Daring to open my eyes, I quickly closed them again as sunlight stabbed relentlessly at my unadjusted irises. Giving myself a moment for the pain to recede I opened my eyes again, this time more carefully, only to find myself staring up into an azure sky. My muscles were stiff and protested as I slowly tried to move my limbs to ensure that nothing was broken or paralyzed. Clenching my fist I felt the soft blades of grass tickling my fingers as they ran through my grasp.

“What the hell happened?” I asked aloud as I plucked a handful of grass and brought it in front of my face. My mind in disbelief at my current situation, but even in my foggy state of mind I knew I should have been dead. I let the grass go into a passing breeze and lazily watched them as they floated away. “There’s no way I should have survived that fall.”

After a few moments I cautiously began to pat myself down so as to rest the uneasy feeling of possibly having serious bodily injury or broken bones, when I was convinced enough that I was okay I slowly sat myself up and took a look around. I found out that my suspicions were true as I was now sitting in a clearing in the middle of a forest as sprouts of wildflowers sprouted here and there all around me. The sky was clear, save for the stray wisp of cottony cloud floating by, and a bird that circled high above me on a thermal current. A rosy colored butterfly caught my attention as it fluttered past my eyes, and I followed it as it continued on, until it came to rest on a familiar looking lump that was lying in the grass not far from me.

Crawling over I grabbed the ABU patterned backpack and pulled it to me, opening it to make sure everything was still okay and that no creatures had decided to make it their new home in the time I was unconscious. Opening each compartment I ran through a quick inventory to see what I now had available to help get me through this situation. I came up with: one pair of civilian clothes consisting of jeans and a spare khaki t-shirt, a pair of flip-flops, one laptop, a bag of trail mix, one half eaten bag of jerky, random assorted pens and mechanical pencils, around a hundred feet of paracord, some scrounge inside a gallon size Ziploc bag, my plastic water jug, a folding pocket knife, a multi-tool, a set of APECS pants and jacket, a sage green fleece jacket and beanie, my mp3 player with extra batteries, and my David-Clarke headsets.

After ensuring that no stowaways had made their way aboard I repacked the bag with the items, minus the pocket knife and water jug which I shoved into one of my many pants pockets. Slinging the bag on my shoulders, I placed my ABU cap atop my head as I stood up to try and figure out the next order of business. Which would be to figure a way out of these woods and back to civilization.

My first reaction was to grab my smartphone to check the time and see if I could maybe get a call out to someone, but as I reached into my pocket and felt nothing I silently cursed at myself as I recalled placing it in one of the cup holders back on the plane to let it charge. Now with my best aid for a possibly speedy recovery gone I was forced to resort to more tried and true methods for survival. First off I needed to figure out what time it was. A quick scan at the sky found the sun hanging over my left shoulder, and by using hand widths and the dampness on my clothes from lying in the grass as measuring tools I quickly guesstimated it to be roughly about ten in the morning.

After figuring out my general directions and a rough guess at the time I tried to remember all the hunting trips I had taken with my father and grandfather, along with any other survival information I had learned, to try and find away out. As I looked at the surrounding forest I could make out a couple of game trails which lead across the clearing. Unfortunately though, none of them had any fresh enough tracks on the ground to let me know whether or not it was still being actively used. Finally figuring that anywhere else but here was better than sitting still; I decided to take the path that would lead me in the southerly direction.

Taking a limb that I found on the ground I began to gouge an arrow into the dirt pointing down the path I was going to take incase any aerial rescue came by. I had to chuckle a little bit when I thought about some team coming along expecting to find my body, and instead find out that I had simply walked away from a thirty thousand foot fall. After making my marker in the dirt I readjusted the cap on my head before I began my trek south, and was secretly hoping to come upon civilization soon.

“Fuck you Murphy,” I muttered to myself angrily.

It had been over six hours and I was still no closer to getting out of these woods then when I had started. Stranger still, was that I hadn’t seen any wildlife either. Sure I had seen the occasional signs of footprints or droppings but they were older signs. Heck the wolf tracks I found were so worn down that they looked absolutely humongous, bigger than any tracks I had ever seen before.

Still, I wasn’t going to take any chances on having a surprise encounter with any said “super-wolves” as I gripped tighter around my makeshift spear that I had made out of a sturdy sapling. I could see the sun as it slowly crept closer to the horizon on my right and I knew that I would need to start looking for a place to bed down for the night before it finally set.

Stopping on the trail I pulled out my water jug and took a small swig, wetting my parched throat with the cool liquid. As I placed the almost empty jug back into the cargo pocket, it reminded me that I also still needed to find some source of fresh water in addition to finding shelter and building a fire. At that moment, as if some deity was watching me from the heavens above and decided to take pity on my wretched predicament, I heard a faint splash as it made its way to my ears. A sound that brought comfort to me because it meant two certainties were close by, water and food.

With renewed vigor in my step I began to head towards where I had heard the noise come from. I made my way through the underbrush till I soon came upon a wide rapid flowing stream, the crystal clear water babbled over the bed of smooth grey rocks. Kneeling on the bank, I dipped my hand into the water only to flinch slightly as the icy cold liquid flowed between my fingers. I was relieved by this because it meant that the stream was more than likely aquifer-feed, which reduced any chances of any kind of pathogens.

Now that I knew that the water was safe to drink; I quickly relieved my thirst and replenished my jug before I moved on to the next order of business, finding shelter for the night. Luck seemed to continue to shine on me as I soon came upon an abandoned cave not far from the riverbank from where I was. After scouring in the woods around the cave I had gathered enough wood to hopefully last me through the night, and with the help of an AAA battery and a bubblegum wrapper I soon had a strong fire going. Just in time it seemed as I watched the last rays of sunlight dip below the horizon.

Much later that night as I sat at the entrance of the cave and stoked the campfire absentmindedly, I dwelt upon my situation as most everyone does when lost and alone. I still didn’t know where I was, but judging by the foliage I felt that it was safe to assume that I was likely still somewhere in Alaska. My fear though was the very real possibility that I was actually on one of the many uninhabited islands in the Aleutians chain between Alaska and Japan if I considered the lack of wildlife I had seen.

Even though I hadn’t seen much I still knew that Alaska was teeming with all sorts of dangerous wildlife, especially bears. And I was sure my pointy stick would do little more than piss off a full grown brown bear. Right before it used said stick as a toothpick to clean my remains out of its teeth.

The firewood popped as I continued to poke at it, sending a geyser of embers flying ever skyward. Over the cackling of the fire I suddenly heard a twig snap off in the woods to my left. Turning my head towards the noise I felt my blood go suddenly cold in my veins.

Off in the woods I found a pair shining green eyes as they seemed to stare at me with devious intent. I could not see the rest of the creature that they belonged to as it stayed hidden out of the reach of the fire’s orange glow. This action only seemed to aid in raising my fear as I could only wonder what it could be. Secretly I hoped that it was something harmless like a passing deer or moose, but by the way the eyes bored into me I knew that I wasn’t that lucky.

The creature and I continued our stare down with each passing tense moment, silently daring each other to make the first move. After what seemed like hours the creature finally turned and returned back into the darkness, not even trying to hide itself anymore as I heard its steps grow steadily quieter. Once it was far enough away to where I felt safe I found myself releasing a breath that I hadn’t even known that I was holding.

I kept a close watch on my surrounding for the remainder of the night until sleep eventually overtook me.