My name is John and my friend’s name is Fred.  More than
month ago we together decided to go for adventure in the
freezing tundra of Canada.  We travelled in the airplane
right from New York to the small town. If I remember it
correctly, the name had something to do with horse.  Oh
yeah, it was Whitehorse town.  Upon reaching the cold land I
and my friend were invited to spend night in the local
residence.  The man of the small wooden house immediately
showed us the tiny room where we suppose to sleep. Then,
while we were sitting in the kitchen he was asking us about
the life in the U.S.A. His woman offered us the meat of
reign deer which was incredibly delicious. Her children were
running and playing around. Soon, they were taken to beds in
their kid’s room.  After that, the conversation between
the master of the house, me, and my friend carried on with
the cups of tea and cookies.
-It is nice that you came here in October, said the man
whose name was Lance Eagle. The weather is not that
freezinly cold, and the wind is not that strong. Now, he
looked at the thermometer attached to the window, it is -10
degrees in Celsius. I don’t know how much it is in
Fahrenheit’s.  
-Never mind, we understand that unit of measurement, told
Fred. In fact, I and John prefer Celsius units than
Fahrenheit’s. We also give more preference to meters and
kilograms to feet and pounds.  
-Wow, then I am calm to know that we can understand each
other in terms of units
-No problems sir.
-Ok guys, as far as I understand you both, John and Fred did
I call your name correctly?...
-Yes yes, you have a good memory
-Oh thank you thank you, gave us the humble smile Lance. So,
the reason why you are here is to explore the cold region.
Am I right?
-You are absolutely right
-My I ask: why?
After short time of thinking how to properly explain our
particular arrival in the far north, I started:
-We used to read about the former explorations through
Alaska and other cold regions. It was really fascinating and
so challenging. All those people always had to struggle in
order to keep themselves warm and sated. 
-Don’t you forget, added local man, that many of them were
periodically attacked by the ferocious animals such as polar
bears or even wolves.  Wolverine could also be a problem for
it could simply steal food. Therefore, guys before
travelling you need to have sufficient amount of warm
clothes food, rifle, and bullets.  So for how long are you
going to be there?
-I believe that the airplane is going to pick us up next
Monday, I answered slowly.
-That means you are going to be there for 5 days, assumed
Lance
-Yep, I replied
Fred finished his tea and Lance offered him and me (even
though I hadn’t finish mine) another one. We didn’t
mind; so Lance simply refilled our mugs with additional
portions of lovely drink. 
-So when are you going to travel?
-Tomorrow morning.
-Great, then you’d better have sleep now.
So, I and my friend went to bed. It was large two-store one.
Here, I was sleeping in the upper level while my friend was
sleeping in the lower one.  We had a great sleep.
Early in the morning, I, Fred, and Lance had a short snack
of hen’s eggs, little sausages, bread, and coffee.  With
us, we took some food:  large piece of meat, two loaves of
bread, and a package of dry fruits.  For self protection and
yet additional way to obtain food, the resident of
Whitehorse has provided us with two knifes one rifle and
bullets. We also took additional pairs of mittens, scuffs,
warm hats, tent, and matches.  
We travelled on our feet to the snowy valley.  Here, we
could see small groups of short trees and bushes.
Occasionally, the birds such as ravens were hovering above
us. The wind was fresh and not too strong. The sun was
bright. The face of Fred was beaming.  I noticed that I felt
like smiling too. The tundra simply mesmerized us with her
unique landscape and specious view, where the horizon could
be observed from every angle. After one hour of hiking,
Lance told me and my pal that he was going to leave us, and
so we could walk on our own for as long as we were pleased. 
Once his figure disappeared among the bunch of trees on the
top of the hill, I told Fred, “Let’s go along the
river.
So we continued our walk along the small creek. Then, we
simply crossed it and climbed on the top of the hill. Far
and far, we went deep down the arctic forest. Soon, we found
a few frozen ponds, then herd of polar hens. Suddenly, the
white hare leaped just in front of us and immediately ran
toward the hill. I and Fred were laughing at that. In the
afternoon, we decided to have a rest. We collected large
amount of small logs and branches to make fire. Then, we
roasted the reign deer meat and ate it with bread. 
-This place is so empty, said Fred. It looks we are on some
sort of planet other than Earth.
-Yep, answered I, something like Mars.
-I’ve heard that here in the night you could see north
aurora. It is like colorful bands in the sky, continued
Fred
-Should be very beautiful, I answered. I’d love to see
one.
-Me too.
After 10 minutes of silent sitting beside the fire I turned
my face toward Fred
-It is nice to be here once in your life, but not  for the
whole life, I said
-Yeah, replied Fred. Just think, It is October and already
so cold. Could you imagine how cold is going to be when real
winter comes?
-It is definitely not going to be like Mexico!, I laughed 
Then, we stood up, collected our things, threw the bones
near the bushes, and carried on with our journey. 
Trees and bushes, creeks and ponds – the landscape
remained pretty much the same.  But we wanted to find
something new, something extraordinary, such as the herd or
reign deer. Eventually we found one, but he was quite on the
distance from us.  That young stud was eating something on
the ground. Most probably it was mould. Then it looked like
he was scarred of something and simply ran away. I and Fred
remained alone in that arctic desert. At that moment I
immediately felt great desire to finish our journey and go
back to the town. The same felt Fred.  So, we turned back.
Soon, the sun reached the horizon and hided itself among the
hills. The shiny day quickly turned to the blue evening and
then to starless night. The dark was so intensive that each
of us could barely see the outlines of our fingers near our
faces. So, we decided to assemble our tent and spent our
night within it. Tomorrow, we continued our journey back to
town. We walked and walked, and landscape didn’t give us
any signs that we were on the right track. Fred was so
scared that his teeth became chattering.  I also felt
uneasiness.  Cold and exhaustion embraced us and we really
had to holt and spend some time near the fire. Then, we had
to find strength to move on in searching for Whitehorse. Day
was gone too fast. Then again, that frightening and blinding
night.  The terrifying howl of arctic wolves gave additional
chill in our spines. The next morning met us with strong
wind and we could barely see where we were going. However,
we continued walking against the wind in hope that such
maneuver would lead us directly to the couple of black
wooden houses the closest ones to the track that ran deep
down tundra.  In the evening our, meat was finished, and I
with my friend had to really limit our consumption of the
bread and dry fruits. Only if we could.  Being not able to
quench our hunger, we became weaker and started freezing
quickly. As result, we had to eat only in order to keep
ourselves warm and not to lose the energy. Days and nights
passed by. The weather became colder and winder. Our mind
blurred. We absolutely lost our track where were going.  I
started losing our hope that we would ever get out from that
awful place. I started regretted the time when I dared to
travel to the far north. Darn, I felt like I was in Hell
which got itself frozen over.  
I didn’ t remember what day we were walking, but I had
strange feeling that I didn’t really care. I just wanted
to eat. My friend, Fred looked very weak. I was scarred for
him. Recently,  we managed to shoot down the entire moose.
We eat some from it. However, the bunch of wolves simply
took the large part of the moose away from us.  Lately, we
managed to hunted down one deer, and failed to catch two
hares. At that time we were simply out of bullets.
My hands are numb of freezing cold and repetitive writing in
that notebook. Quite often I have to warm my pen up for the
ink freezes very fast.  I am finishing eating my friend’s
flesh. Poor Freddy, he just couldn’t make it. At that time
I was so distressed for I didn’t want my friend to die in
such early years and in that horrible place where none of
his loving relatives such as his parents were around.  Then,
the idea of being along also sunk my heart. And now, I am
barely alive and my friend, I just don’t want to describe
what has left of him. I feel that soon I am going to take on
his bones. I think that tomorrow I am going to start from
his arms. 

My name is Lance.  Several months ago, I helped two strange
youngsters from New York to organize expedition through
tundra. They left early in the morning and never came back. 
Then, I simply went for hunting and due to the horrible snow
storm simply lost my way back home. Then, I had to hide
myself from polar bear who took on the deer which I shot. At
that time I realized that I took only two bullets with me
instead of twenty. After several days of wandering in
tundra, I found one human skeleton which was partially
wrapped with pieces of wool. The bones and wool patches were
covered with blood. There was also a small, leathery bag
which was also torn. Inside that bag, there was a notebook. 
That is where this story is written, and that is where I am
writing now. As far as I understand, this skeleton used to
be John, one of the guy from New York whom I found several
months ago.  So, I decided to take the notebook with me and
show it to other people. Maybe I am going to be famous for
that. 

My name is Hans Ryder. I am helicopter pilot. In March 12,
1998, I found the frozen body of one man who was most
probably Inuit. According to his Health Card, the full name
of that person was Lance Eagle. In his left packet, I found
a small brochure. As far as I understood it contained not
only his writing, but also one from one of the missing New
Yorkers. I took the notebook with me, so I could send it to
the police departments of Canada and the U.S.A.

My name is Will Stone.  I am the officer and detective of
New York. Yesterday on March 25, 1998, I with the rest of
rescue group found the half-burned helicopter with the
frozen body inside it more than 50 miles away from
Whitehorse.  According to his license, the full name of the
pilot was Hans Ryder.  In his belly bag, I found a small
book which was previously written by him, Inuit, and the
young person from New York whose name was John.  So, I
decided to put some of my writing in this story as well. I
really hope that this book would reach the police department
and none of us shall be killed. God Bless America!