Jeff Szpirglas - Canadian Survival (Countdown to Danger)

For Danielle, Lo, Ruby, Penelope and Spooky!

Your canoe scrapes to a halt against the rocky shore of a small lake. You wobble unsteadily out of the boat and wipe a smear of sweat from your brow. Youre just steps away from a thick forest. Beyond that, a towering ring of jagged mountains surrounds you. Its like an advertisement for the Rockies.

But then reality sinks in.

You let out a shaky breath and turn around. Doubled over in the back of the canoe is Prisha Singh. Shes looking pale, and a thick stream of blood oozes from a wound on her head.

She was your guide on Camp Aquilas annual canoe trip, but its all gone wrong.

Now youre lost and separated from the rest of your cabin. You hadnt counted on those rapids. Why hadnt Prisha warned you?

Prisha, you say, but she doesnt respond. You reach forward and gently pull her back. She lets out a whimper, and thats when you realize how badly hurt she is.

Prisha, you say again, and she opens her eyes. Why did we take those rapids? You never prepped us for them. We didnt even have the proper gear.

We had to take the fork in the river, she mumbles. We were in danger. We were being followed.

You narrow your eyes. Followed? What are you talking about?

By she starts, but shes already shaking her head in disbelief. By some kind of animal, she says.

Youre about to laugh like this is some kind of weird joke, but thats when you hear something in the woods. Is it a grunting sound? Its coming from someone. Or something. It cant be very far away, either. And whatever it is, it sounds BIG. Youre going to need help, and fast. When the rest of your group notices youre missing, theyll be looking for you, but who knows how long it will take them to find you out here. Prisha doesnt look like shes going to hold out too much longer without medical assistance.

Youre on your own now.

Instinctively you reach into your pocket for your phone. But of course you dont get a cell signal here.

So you pull the dry bag with your emergency supplies from the canoe. Spilling the contents out, you spot a few things youll need for surethat map, for example. But theres also a compass, a pocket knife and a flare gun!

You consider taking everything with you, but then think twice. Maybe you should leave something for Prisha. More importantly, which way should you go?

Theres no time to debate this. Youve got to act now.

You grab the knife, compass and map, leaving Prisha with the flare gun, and walk towards the woods.

As soon as you step off the beach, youre swallowed in a thick coniferous forest. Youre already getting scratched and covered in a film of sticky pine sap.

Plus there are the bugs.

Blackflies, mosquitoesyou name it! Its like youve walked into a cloud of insects that exist solely to drain your blood. Between dodging oncoming branches and slapping at stinging, biting insects, youre already feeling defeated.

But youre alive.

How long will Prisha stay that way? Or yourself, if you dont find help?

You have the feeling that theres definitely someone in these woods. But youre not going to help Prisha or yourself by waiting for them to find you. If you track them down, maybe they can help you both.

But maybe if you can get to a high vantage point, youll have a better sense of where help might be.

Im going to take the canoe to get some help, you tell Prisha.

She nods weakly. You can tell theres no time to waste. You grab the flare gun, leaving Prisha with the knife.

Back into the canoe! You jam the paddle against the rocky shore and push off until youre floating.

You look over your shoulder and see Prisha lying on the beach. Youre not sure how long shes got before something really bad happens.

Come to think of it, youre not sure how long youve got.

Soon youre moving downstream, and the current does most of the pushing. You just use the blade of the paddle to keep from bumping into the riverbank.

The rest of your camp group has got to be farther this way. Maybe you can catch up to them and let them know what happened.

But the river keeps flowing faster and faster. You notice that its branching off in two directions up ahead. One way seems to be moving quickly; the other seems calmer.

The fork in the river is coming up soon. Youll need to choose which way to gonow.

You head deeper into the forest and quickly realize this was a bad idea. All of your hiking experience has been on well-marked trails. Theres no discernable way through this thick tangle of trees. Sharp branches jut out, poking and tearing at your skin. You try crouching down low and shimmying around the thick tree trunks, but that just makes your journey all the more confusing.

A slight crackle breaks the eerie silence. You whip your head around, looking for the source. Is it just a falling branch? Or is there someone else nearby?

You hold steady for a moment. You can feel your pulsing heartbeat in your throat and ears.

Its nothing, you try to convince yourself. You get up and move on.

And thats when you catch sight of a dark blur in the woods. Its a person, only it isnt.

Its bigger.

Darker.

And hunched over.

You blink, and then its gone, swallowed back into the forest.

Now your heart is pounding a mile a minute. You reach into your pack for something to defend yourself with, but what? The knife? Your hand-to-hand combat skills are limited to video games, and some good thatll do you here.

How did a useless city slicker like you wind up here? Youre about to start feeling sorry for yourself when your ears perk up at more sounds.

Something is crunching through the underbrush.

You duck behind an oversized tree trunk.

The sounds get clearer, closer.

You ignore the ticklish beads of sweat running down your brow into your eyes, and strain to get a look at whoevers coming.

Your jaw drops open.

Its Prisha!

Shes looking a lot better. Theres even a bandage over her head wound.

Youre about to run out to her, but then you stop yourself.

How did she manage to bandage herself? She was looking close to death only a few minutes ago.

Something isnt right here. Should you stay hidden until you figure out whats going on?

You turn towards the mountains and push onward and upward. Soon your muscles are working against a steep incline. Jagged rocks and boulders tear gaping holes in the mountainside. You find a few hand- and footholds and use exposed tree roots to pull yourself up, but when you look over your shoulder, you gasp. Already youre so high up that you wonder how youll manage to get back down without falling.

Looking up again, you see that the forest soon thins out to reveal slabs of exposed rock. How are you possibly going to finish this climb?

You must, you tell yourself. Its do or die.

You reach forward to grab the closest root

SNAP!

Your weight tears the root into pieces. Your footing slips. You grab on to the rock face with one hand, but you can feel your fingers slipping.

You open your mouth to scream and something GRABS YOUR WRIST.

You look up.

Youre staring into the face of a man with chiselled features and a stern look on his face.

This guy is strong. With one hand, he pulls you up and sets you down beside him on the rock ledge.