Cold Winter

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!