Matt Doeden - Can You Survive the Desert?: An Interactive Survival Adventure

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You are lost in the desert, one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Water is almost impossible to find. The daytime sun bakes you with intense heat. The nights can be brutally cold. snakes and scorpions lurk under rocks.

Chapter One sets the scene. Then you choose which path to read. Follow the links at the bottom of each page as you read the stories. The decisions you make will change your outcome. After you finish one path, go back and read the others for new perspectives and more adventures. Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice.

YOU CHOOSE the path you take through your adventure.

Youre in the desert, one of the least welcoming places on Earth. Water and food are scarce. Temperatures swing wildly from extreme heat to bitter cold. Venomous snakes, scorpions, and spiders lurk in the sands cracks and crevices.

Deserts cover about 20 percent of Earths land area. But theyre not all hot. Scientists define a desert as any area that receives an average of less than 10 inches of precipitation per year. Because of this fact, the cold continent of Antarctica is considered a desert.

Desert plants need little water to survive.

With so little moisture, deserts cant support much plant and animal life. Only life adapted to such harsh conditions can live there.

Deserts are the result of weather patterns. One of the most common is a rain shadow. Rain shadows often form near a large mountain range. Air flows over the mountains. It cools as it rises. As the air cools, its moisture falls on the mountains as rain or snow. On the far side of the mountains, the dry air brings little rain. The area in this rain shadow becomes a desert.

Every continent has deserts. In North America the Mojave and Sonoran cover parts of Mexico and the southwestern United States. Northern Africa is home to the vast Sahara. The Kalahari lies in southern Africa. The huge Gobi desert stretches across Asia, while central Australia holds the Australian Desert. And these are just a few.

The desert can be a brutal place even for a prepared traveler.

Youll have to figure out how to survive in such a harsh environment. How will you find water and food? Can you avoid deadly wildlife? How can you find your way to civilization and safety? It wont be easy. Are you ready for the challenge?

Youre half asleep as you gaze out the window of the airplane. Below you lies mile after mile of sand dunes and rocky desert floor.

Youre one of just four passengers on the small airplane. Its taking you north toward Cairo, Egypt. There youll board a jet taking you back home. Youve spent two months teaching English to students in small African villages, but now your trip is over. Youre eager to return to the comforts of home.

Just as you drift off to sleep, a violent shaking awakens you. The lights in the planes cabin flicker and die. The plane is dropping rapidly. Something is wrong! Behind you, an elderly woman screams.

Help can take a long time to reach a desert plane wreck.

The dull roar of the engines falls silent. With a chill you realize that the plane is going down. You try to take deep breaths. Others in the cabin are panicking. Some are trying to get out of their seats. You check that your seat belt is secure, and then grab the backpack stuffed under the seat.

You remember nothing of the impact. You lose consciousness as soon as the plane hits the ground.

Sometime later you open your eyes. Youre groggy, and your forehead is bleeding. A warm, dry wind blows against your face. Youre alive! But the good news ends there. The plane ripped into two pieces. You unbuckle and check for other survivors. Everyone else is dead, including the pilot. You are alone and lost in the Sahara Desert.

The plane was small and privately owned. Youre not sure if the pilot filed a flight plan. Its unlikely that anyone even knows youre out here.

Sand and wind can quickly bury wreckage in the desert.

Theres no way youre going to wander off into the Sahara in the middle of the day. The planes wreckage will provide shelter. Eventually someone will realize the plane is missing and come searching. This is the best place to be found.

In whats left of the cockpit, you find two bottles of water, two bags of potato chips, and a book of matches. You also grab a seat cushion. You gather everything and head outside. Youll use the planes shadow as shelter. Staying inside with the dead bodies just isnt an option.

The sun dips as evening comes. The air rapidly starts to cool. You build a small fire, using some of the dry brush that grows here as well as the stuffing from the seat cushion.

At dawn you have a decision to make. Youre down to a little more than one bottle of water. If youre going to move, it has to be now.

In whats left of the cockpit, you find two bottles of water and two bags of potato chips. You stuff them into your backpack and head out toward a stand of rocky hills in the distance.

Its late afternoon, and the sun is brutally hot. You dig your baseball cap and a T-shirt out of your pack. You wrap the shirt around your face. Breathing through the cloth will help your body save moisture.

After just 30 minutes, youre already drenched in sweat. Moving over the deserts sand and rock is hard work. You drink from one of the water bottles. You know you will become dehydrated quickly.

Finally you reach the steep, rocky hills. They look difficult to climb. You could keep walking along them, looking for an easier route. But youre eager to climb as high as you can. You hope to see some sign of people.

You can survive here for a few days. Youre sure someone will find you by then. You spend the morning going through the wreckage, looking for more supplies. You dont find much. Soon your water is gone. Even in the shade, its incredibly hot. Youre sweating and losing precious moisture every time you move.

Late in the afternoon, you have to empty your bladder. You know that urine is mostly water. You can capture it in your empty water bottle and drink it. But urine is also very salty. Just the thought of drinking it makes you sick. Youre not sure youre that desperate. Not yet, anyway.

To head in the direction of the lights.

To search for a safer climbing spot.

You need to get to high ground, but youre not willing to risk a fall that could kill you. You keep walking along the ridge. Half an hour later, you find a much better spot for climbing, with a gentler slope and sturdier rock.