Struggling to Survive

by Sadie Malmberg

 

  Hours of trudging through the trees and shrubs had gone past, and there was still no sign of humans. Their knees and hips were sore and they all felt as though their feet were going to fall off any moment. Victoria wished the whole thing hadn’t happened. The sun had gone down and they had hardly eaten anything since the previous morning. After they had taken a short rest and started tromping through the forest again, Robin suddenly stopped.

  “Wait! Did ye hear that?” He said.

  “No,” said Victoria her heart pounding with excitement.

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  “I a rustle over there.” Victoria’s heart leapt. It was probably a person who could take them home.

  “C’mon!” Called Robin excitedly and dashed over to where the sound was. The rest started following but stopped short when there was a shrill shriek of fear and Robin bounded back panting.

  “What?” asked Elizabeth.

  “Watch out! It’s a cougar!” said Robin. Victoria’s heart leapt into her throat. A split second later, an enormous yellowish cat that looked like a female lion bounded out from in between the trees. Victoria’s stomach turned inside out and she turned on her heel to run. This was the first time in her life that she had ever encountered a cougar. Before she had taken four steps, a high-pitched screech from behind her halfway deafened her. When she looked back, William was pinned down underneath the cougar’s front paws. Before she even knew what was going on, she saw the cougar bend down and clamp it’s jaws around William’s neck. Victoria winced as she heard an ear-splitting crunch and William’s body went limp. Mad with rage, Victoria broke a burnt branch from a tree and rammed it into the cougar. The surprised animal jumped and turned growling toward her.

  “Oh, I don’t care if you don’t get any supper tonight!” she said out loud. “It serves you right!” Robin jumped and landed squarely on top of the cougar’s shoulders. The weight was just enough to unbalance it and topple it to the ground. The cougar was furious now. Victoria could just imagine it thinking, What’s such a biggie about my supper? It’s mine, not yours! Presently, Victoria saw Newton’s third law of motion come to life except in a whole new concept. “For every action there is an equal and opposite

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  reaction.” The action was Robin knocking the cougar to the ground; and the equal and opposite reaction was the cougar springing like a jumping spider into Robin, driving the breath out of him, and pinning him to the ground. With Robin pinned under its forepaws, the cougar opened its jaws for another kill.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Victoria said. A burst of a mix of fury and courage exploded inside her. She was not going to let yet another one of her siblings get turned into cat food. She bounded forward and jammed her finger in the cougar’s eyeball. Victoria gagged and nearly puked at the warm, squishy, feeling. She yanked her finger out again and gagged as the eyeball jumped right out of the socket. A stream of blood and loosened flesh trickled from its former eye. She must have gotten as far as its brain because immediately it calmed down and started looking around wildly with one eye as if it didn’t know what to do. After a few minutes of randomly looking around, it trotted off in a random direction and disappeared through the trees. Let’s hop he never comes back again, Victoria thought.

  Immediately she remembered her dead brother and she glanced over at him. Immediately tears came to her eyes. She dropped to her knees beside William and sobbed harder than she had ever before in her life. Her other siblings joined in. This was the worst thing that could ever happen to her.

  In the morning, The four of them dug a shallow hole in the ground around him and buried him. They collected a handful of small pebbles and arranged them in a cross pattern and wrote “RIP” in the dirt. Once they had completed this task, they set continued on their journey. Victoria sadly said goodbye to William’s grave.

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  Chapter 5

  “Are you sure this is the way? If we were on the right course, we should have arrived there long before now,” Margaret fretted.

  “Nobody is,” replied Elizabeth. “Bob, you're the best climber around here, can you climb a tree to see if there is anything around here?” Robin looked proud to be called the best climber out of the five of them. With his nose high in the air, he started to climb the nearest tree. Before he got a couple meters up the tree, down came an avalanche of bark, and twigs and Robin found himself on his bum on the base of the tree. Victoria and Margaret couldn't help giggling. Robin stomped off angrily to find a better tree. This time, the climb was successful. Robin managed to climb to the top. The tree that Robin was climbing seemed to be the tallest one in the forest – at least as far as she could see. Robin could probably see almost everything from there.

  “Do you see anything from up there?” shouted Elizabeth.

  “What do you think? Of course I see everything from here! Do you think I’m blind or something?”

  Ugh! Just get to the point! Victoria inwardly whined.

  “Garrrr! Dang it Robin! I meant any kind of sign of humans.”

  Victoria clenched her fists while Robin scanned the mountain. Please say yes, please say yes!

  “No, all I see is a completely burnt black mountain and nothing after that except for more mountains. But I can still see the stream,” Robin shouted back. Victoria felt like

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  her guts had fallen out of her. From that height, it would be basically impossible to miss any single detail. If he could see the stream, than he would have spotted the airplane long before. Victoria tried to reassure herself that Robin couldn’t see very well in the twilight and in the morning light he would be able to see it. But deep down inside, she knew all hope was lost. Robin half climbed, half slid down the tree.

  “Let's stay here for the night,” Suggested Victoria to get her mind off her doubts.

  The four lay down on the burnt ground. Everyone immediately fell asleep.

  Victoria woke with a start. A hawk was screeching loudly above them. The others woke at pretty much the same time.

  “Robin, why don’t you climb up the tree again since it’s easier to see now?” Elizabeth suggested.

  “Do you think I wouldn’t have thought of that by now?” Robin said. Elizabeth ignored him. It would cause a greater commotion to say anything by now. She knew from experience. Robin climbed the tree again. This clime seemed to take forever. This was their last hope. If he couldn’t see any signs of humans anywhere, they were truly done for. Victoria was surprised at how much she relied on Robin. Most of the time, Robin was the least trustworthy and responsible out of all of them. But here she found herself pretty much relying on him for her life. When he finally got to the top, he said:

  “Ugh, I still don’t see anything,” Victoria wanted to dig a hole into the middle of the earth and stay there until the end of the world. Robin jumped down again.

  “Are you positive you didn’t notice anything?” Margaret asked doubtfully.

  “Do you think I’d lie?” said Robin rudely.

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  “You always do,” Margaret commented quietly.

  “Shut it,” Elizabeth said. Victoria didn’t blame Margaret. She found herself wanting to go up and see for herself. Robin wasn’t quite the person you’d want to have when you’d be trying to survive in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no signs of humans around.

  “So what do we do?” asked Robin. “Just hope that for some amazing coincidence a random person comes and takes us home? There’s really nothing we can do now.” A long silence followed.

  Finally Margaret asked:

  “Do any airplanes or helicopters fly around here?”

  “Sure,” said Victoria.

  “We could try signaling,”

  “Okay, we could try,” said Elizabeth. She didn’t seem to be so certain of that idea. Victoria thought it was great. “Margaret, what do you have in your pockets? We’ll need everything we can get.”

  Margaret searched her cargo pants. “I
’ve got…some dental floss…an elastic band…an eraser…oh, a small box of black licorice…a handkerchief…a needle and some thread…and what’s this? A lighter! This might be valuable…what else?…a pencil sharpener…a small mirror…a flashlight.” To start of they rationed the box of licorice: three pieces a day for each person. Then they took what could come in handy for signaling.

  “Robin, you take the handkerchief and signal SOS with it.” Elizabeth ordered.

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  “Why should I?” Robin asked.

  “Do you want to survive or not? Or should we just leave you here to starve?” Elizabeth asked. Robin didn’t know what to say. That was partly good because it silenced their argument. After a couple minutes of pouting, he picked up the handkerchief.

  “How do you signal SOS?” he asked reluctantly.

  “You do three short dots, three long dashes, and three short dots again. And then you keep repeating that pattern,” said Margaret.

  Elizabeth continued. “Margaret, you can go collect some rocks and spell out large SOS with them. It should be big enough to see from the height of an airplane. When you’re collecting the rocks, just remember to stay in sight of the rest of us.”

  “Roger that.” Margaret said.

  “Victoria, you can try and get the mirror to reflect sunlight. I’ll make three fires in a triangle. When an airplane or helicopter flies by, everyone start shouting and jumping around and signaling as wildly as you can” Said Elizabeth. Margaret and Victoria went off to find rocks and Elizabeth started attempting to make fires. She had to be careful not to let it spread because all the wood was dry from the previous forest fire. The dry wood could easily catch fire again and start another forest fire. It took a couple hours to start a fire without practice, but she eventually got three fires formed into a triangle.

  Once Margaret had finished and the SOS form was big enough, they all sat down and waited for an airplane to fly by.

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  Chapter 6

  It seemed to take forever for an airplane to fly by. The fire starting had taken long enough and they were tempted to give up. The kids just sat there doing nothing waiting, waiting, and waiting some more. The silence and waiting was almost too overwhelming for Victoria. She had to force back tears. Why did the airplane crash in the first place? Why did they even book a trip to their grandparents’ house? Why was she even she live at all? Why was the world created in the first place? Come on, airplane! Just come and fly by!

  She took a shaky deep breath told herself that it was no use being so pessimistic. That wasn’t going to gain anything. Finally, the overwhelming part turned into boredom so she offered to play a game of tick-tack-toe with Margaret.

  When that too got boring, they asked Victoria to tell one of her short stories. Victoria had composed a countless amount of short stories so she could easily rattle one off in no time. They always asked her to tell one of her short stories whenever they all were extremely bored.

  She began an amazing story, and all the characters seemed to come to life.

  When she finished, Robin said:

  “That’s a totally pathetic story.”

  “Oh, yeah, why don’t you try and make up a story yourself?” Victoria contradicted.

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  “Wait! What’s that noise?” said Margaret. Everyone listened. In the distance, they all heard a small rumbling sound that sounded like an airplane. Victoria’s heart jumped and butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

  “Everyone start signaling!” called Elizabeth. Robin started waving the handkerchief wildly and Victoria fuddled with the mirror. The rest began jumping and screaming at the top of their lungs. Victoria watched the airplane using her imaginary telekinesis to make come down. She watched it slowly fly by without reducing height. Come on! You have to! She screamed inside her head. She watched in dismay as it slowly dipped behind the horizon. Her legs felt like rubber and she fell on her bum onto the hard ground.

  “Wow, Margaret, you’re such a genius,” said Robin.

  “Robin, this was the first time we ever tried signaling. You can’t expect immediate results on the first try.” Margaret pointed out. “Scientific studies have shown that people who are usually more pessimistic than others generally live for a shorter time.”

  “Let’s keep the fire burning in case another airplane flies by,” Elizabeth said, the sun was getting low in the sky yet again, and everyone shared out their ration of licorice. After a good deal of chatting, they flossed their teeth with the dental floss Margaret found in the pocket of her pants. Before they went to sleep for the night, they negotiated and came up with a plan that they would each stay awake for one hour by Margaret’s watch to listen and watch for more airplanes or helicopters and keep the fires burning and under control. If they saw or heard an airplane or helicopter, they would wake the others and

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  everyone would all start signaling. They would all take turns from the oldest to youngest. Victoria wished she was on watch first so she would be able to fall asleep faster afterward and not have the intensity of waiting for signs of humans. But she didn’t volunteer because she was worried that if she explained why, they would laugh at her. She curled up beside her siblings and tried to fall asleep.

  But she couldn’t. She lay awake on her back and looked up at the sky. She kept herself from boredom by trying to find constellations and shooting stars. Victoria shifted to her side and thought about her horseback riding lessons. She could not live without riding horses and she thought about it day and night.

 

  Chapter 7

  “Victoria, Wake up,” Elizabeth jiggled her awake. “It’s your turn.” Victoria realized she must have dosed off. She got up bleary eyed and groggy.

  “Here’s the watch,” whispered Elizabeth and lay down where Victoria was sleeping. A chilly breeze blew toward her and chilled her through to the bone. She ventured over to a nearby log that had fallen from the forest-fire and sat down. She checked the time. Okay, I’ll go until quarter past twelve.

  * * *

  Finally, the minute hand touched the number three about one hour later. She got up stiffly and started jiggling Margaret.

  “Hey Margie, Wake up, It’s your turn!” she whispered hoarsely. Margaret hauled herself up and Victoria handed her the watch. Victoria lay down and immediately fell

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  asleep.

  Chapter 8

  “Everyone! Wake up!” Victoria woke with a start. Robin was yelling at the top of his lungs. Victoria could see the horizon in the east already start to light up. She immediately knew what was going on. She could hear a small airplane in the distance. Just to help out, she crashed strait into the others who were still asleep.

  “C’mon you big lump! Wake up!” she yelled into Margaret’s ear. C’mon, time is ticking!

  “Get yourselves signaling! Now!” called Elizabeth who was already awake. Robin and jumped to his supplies and everyone started signaling and shrieking at the top of their lungs and running jumping around. Margaret accidentally tripped over a root. Victoria couldn’t believe her eyes. The bright orange airplane that was flying over head was slowly descending.

  “Put out the fire! They’ve noticed us!” Elizabeth ordered.

  “But how? We don’t have any water!” said Victoria. The atmosphere was intense as the airplane flied by. Victoria couldn’t believe this was happening.

  “Throw dirt over it!” Victoria started throwing dirt over the fires and the others joined in. Once they had extinguished it and they were sure it was not going to start again, they tore through the woods tripping over roots and logs, and twisting their ankles on rocks. Just as they thought they couldn't take a step further and would collapse at any moment, they came to a small clearing, out of breath and filthy from head to toe. The

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  plane was rolling to a stop at the edge of the clearing.

  A woman stepped out of the driver's seat and looked surprised to see
four completely filthy and nearly fainting children. “So I suppose I should fly you home? Is it far from here?”

  “No, Elizabeth answered. We live in Vancouver.”

  “Okay, I have time.” Said the stranger. “Though it is actually pretty far from here. We're quite close to Alberta and the Northwest territories. It'll take us an hour and a half at the most to fly there. I'll have to take you to the Boundary Bay airport. I'm allowed to land there. Will you be okay taking the bus into Vancouver?”

  “Yes. Thank you so much!” said Elizabeth

  “Okay, hop in.”

  “Oh, thank you so much again!” Victoria said. They all climbed in. Elizabeth climbed into the passenger seat and Victoria, Robin, and Margaret managed to squeeze into the backseats. They had never flown in a private airplane before. This ride was much more bumpy and bouncy because this was a lighter airplane. On the way home, the woman asked questions about how they got lost, how they survived through the winter, and Elizabeth told the whole story of survival.

  About an hour after, they landed at the Boundary Bay airport. The four thanked her immensely and got out. The woman gave them some money to pay for the bus. It was about ten in the morning by now. They walked to the nearest bus station and rode home. From that they just barely managed to pay for the busses. It was felt weird going strait from the middle of nowhereville to the center of the big bustling city. Everyone was

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  extremely self-conscious to the point of embarrassment because of their filthiness. Despite that, Victoria was more than excited to get home and meet Mom and Dad again. They finally got off the bus. Thankfully, the bus stop was only a couple blocks down from where they lived.

  “We’re home!” Margaret exclaimed. Victoria thought back to when the airplane crashed and they were running from the fire. It seemed like ages ago. They walked up the steps to the house and got the spare key from its hiding place from among the house numbers. Elizabeth unlocked the door and the five walked in. Their parents were out at the current moment because the house was empty.

  “Oh, boy, I can’t wait for Mom and Dad to come home. Just imagine their happiness that we survived” commented Victoria.