Crashing Stephanie

10 Powdered Cheese

Diary Day 40: Attacked by a pack of wolves tonight. Tom was bitten in the leg, but otherwise, we are okay. It's hard to believe we survived, but we did. I don't think I ever even killed an ant before tonight, but I killed several wolves without any thought or remorse. Who am I now? Whoever I am, I feel good about myself.

At first light, they moved to a rocky outcrop next to a stream. Tom's injury included punctures and several gashes made by the wolf pulling on his leg with its teeth. Steph washed the wounds with water and Tom's small bar of soap.

Tom said almost all commercial soaps have antibacterial properties, and the bubbles carried the dirt away, so Steph worked the soap into a lather and roughly washed his wounds. Her treatment was causing Tom considerable pain, but he kept encouraging her to "get deep in there." Tom knew that pain now would hopefully mean the wounds did not get infected later. Without medical attention, any infection could be deadly.

Several gashes needed to be sewn up, but once they were dry, strips of tape from around Tom's flashlight would suffice for now. They needed to move away from the area and the dead wolf carcasses.

Tom's injury slowed their progress. They stopped in the early afternoon at a safe location to camp. The puncture wounds looked okay, but the gashes were still bleeding enough to keep the tape from sticking. They would need to be sewn together.

Tom pulled some nylon threads from the lining inside his jacket, boiled them in water, threaded a needle from his sewing kit, and handed it to Steph.

Steph looked like someone had shocked her with an electrical cord. She said, "No, no, no. No! I can't do that. No way!" Tom replied he could not do it himself.

Tom smiled and said, "You mean after all the things you've done, including fishing naked and killing wolves, you can't put a couple of tiny stitches in my leg?" He pouted with his lower lip and held out the needle again.

Steph reluctantly took the needle and said, "Okay, wise guy, I hope this hurts a lot!"

Diary Day 41: No sign of the wolves. The forest is getting much thicker. I can hear a stream or river, maybe a waterfall in the distance. Slow going with the thicker vegetation and Tom's leg. Stitches in Tom's leg are holding. Puncture wounds are nicely scabbed over. Gashes are pink and puffy but not infected. We are finding lots of edibles but no berries. Hopefully, the snares will catch something for breakfast.

The next morning, there was a rabbit caught in the snares. It was about half the size of the rabbits they had been catching and had much darker fur. Steph cleaned and cooked it for breakfast.

Tom's leg was feeling better, so Steph let him lead. The sound of water rushing over rocks was distinct now, and Tom and Steph would occasionally catch sight of a river between the dense forest vegetation.

Upon reaching the river, Tom turned to follow the river downstream. Steph asked Tom why he decided to head downstream. Tom explained that people live downstream. Upstream is a gamble, but downstream is always a sure thing. There was a clear animal trail following the river, so walking was much easier.

That night, Steph set out the snares, and Tom made up some fishing lines from strands of nylon paracord. He bent some of the needles from his sewing kit into hooks and some grubs he scrounged for bait. Any fish he caught would be a nice change from rabbits and mice!

Diary Day 42: It's hard to believe it has been six weeks since the crash. It seems like we could go on like this forever. Tom joked that when we reached the ocean, we could turn left and eventually walk into Vancouver. I think we could do that too! But it has started getting cooler, and the days are getting shorter. We may die out here yet. I wonder if any crash survivors have ever made it this far. As odd as it sounds, civilization seems as foreign to me now as this wilderness did after the crash. I hope I can adjust to civilization again. One thing is for sure I am not going back to being the person I was the day of the crash.