MOONSHINE

Rick was lost. Completely and utterly lost. It was his first time in Alaska, but he was an avid hiker and thought how much more difficult could it be hiking in snow? Turns out, much more difficult. He had wandered away from the tour group with his camera to get to a higher spot for that perfect glacier picture that would surely win him a spread in National Geographic. The sun was already setting, and temperatures were dropping. Any hope getting back to his group, boarding the bus, and returning to the warm cabin, was slipping away.

"Jennifer? Christina? Blake?!" he screamed.

The only response was his echo.

As Rick turned around, his foot slipped on a root and he hit the snow, hard. He began to slide down the side of the mountain, gathering speed and unable to stop, until he hit a plateau.

THUD

Rick was out cold.

Darkness.

Blinking his eyes open he noticed that there was no longer all white around him, but all brown. He wasn't on snow, but on rock. He realized that he was now inside. Did the group find him? Was he back in bed? His vision cleared to reveal that he was inside a cave lit by a roaring fire. A blue glow from the mix of ice and rock made everything look like it was slightly underwater. There was no clear entrance or exit, just tunnels on either side leading...somewhere.

He felt his head, which was pounding, and touched a bandage on the right side of his forehead. He moved his hand and looked down at it. Flecks of dried blood that had crusted over from the bandage. Someone helped him, but who?

He turned towards the fire. There were some herbs drying upside down along a wall and a tarp over something by a wooden crate against another wall about ten feet away. He tried to stand but couldn't, the pain in his side was too great.

He also couldn't stand because his leg was shackled to a metal chain bolted to the wall. What the hell was this? He shook the chain.

CLINK CLINK.

It was heavy, loud, and didn't budge from the wall. He winced in pain as he rubbed his neck and shoulders. He picked up the side of his shirt to reveal massive bruises.

As Rick looked around, he heard the shuffle of feet. He panicked and backed up against the rocks, looking for the source of the noise. The silhouette of a man appeared on the wall as a shadow from the fire. Gary, an older man of medium stature, graying hair to match a messy beard, walked up to the fire and took a seat on a small rock.

Rick shouted at him, "Who are you? Where am I?!"

Gary didn't look up as he grabbed a stick and began whittling it with a small yet very sharp pocketknife. "You're welcome for saving your life."

Rick felt a pang of guilt as he tried to put together if this man had actually saved his life. If so, then perhaps he was in debt. But why the chains? Something felt wrong.

"You hungry?"

He was starving. "Very," Rick answered.

"I'll put dinner on. Nice to have company."

Gary put an old cast iron frying pan over the fire and walked over to the herb wall, picking a few strands. He walked over to an area packed with ice and removed what seems like a small slab of meat. Too small to be a rabbit or bird. Maybe deer? Or a bear? What can be hunted in the frozen Alaskan woods?

Gary sat back down. He stripped the herbs off the stems and placed the meat on a rock as it thawed near the fire. "How long have I been here?" Rick asked, slightly afraid of the answer but needing to piece together this puzzle. "Brought you in last night. Your whole body was blue when I found you out there. Didn't know if you'd make it." Rick couldn't tell if Gary was telling the truth or lying, but he didn't have much of an option but to believe him. He was starting to question his entire reality. Was Gary...real?