Not Even Alaska

Part two

The air was so cold my teeth chattered walking to the building where we were escorted to. I went and got my bag from the luggage rack made small talk with the other research team members and then we an escort to our lodge where we'd be staying for the next week.The lodge wasn't five star but it would do since we wouldn't be there much. The walls were poorly painted and I'm pretty sure I saw a roach but it didn't really matter the team wanted to be out in the field charting the habits of the Alaskan wildlife in the winter, so we wouldn't be inside much. Tuckered out from a long day of travel I plopped down into bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

"PERCY GET UP! IT'S 7 O'CLOCK," Oliver yelled in my face.

"Geez ok ok I'm up." I rubbed my eyes then spastically swung my arms around trying to get Oliver away from me.

"Good. The teams waiting on you to get dressed, so get your crap together Johnson,"

"Urghhh." I rolled out of bed and put on warm pants and my snow pants, also adding my long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, and new Winter-ex coat. Walking out the door I grabbed gloves and my backpack which had a few necessities, aka my secret stash of candy a hand saw and an extra hat. Slamming the door, I jogged down the hall towards the team .They all had the same expression on their face I had, the sleep deprived one. I slumped over and kept walking out to the parking lot where a car was going to bring us to a helicopter that would take us out to the woods, then bring us back in about 10 hours. Apparently one of the leaders of our little expedition had food for lunch and snacks.

The helicopter dropped us off in the middle of nowhwere and we all half fell out of the helicopter because of our thick clothes and heavy packs.

"This is gonna be awesome!" Oliver announced as he ran around then fell on his butt in the snow.

"Yeah, until you kill yourself or get lost,"I joked.

"Hahaha, sure Percy, isn't that more your style."

I laughed and caught up to the group who were observing a Bald Eagle feeding some chicks in a tall spruce tree. I looked around getting bored of the eagle and took in the forest. It was really dense from what I could see and the ground was covered in hard packed snow that was sprinkled on the trees and shrubs.I recognized some of the trees from class and from back home in Montana but this was Alaska, the environment was pretty new . Ehh, I could handle it. I used to be in boyscouts. Even that attempt to reassure myself made me laugh aloud getting a few weird looks from my team, I looked down at my boots and walked back to everyone. We observed birds of prey and other wildlife that were in the area for a couple hours and snacked till about three when the leader yelled at me.

"Hey Percy,can you go out and get some firewood, I want to cook these hotdogs I brought,' Lukas yelled at me from over by the backpack pile

"Yeah sure Lukas,Be back in 20,"I replied nonchalantly.

I walked out into the woods with my backpack and a hand saw to get the requested wood and found it was really quiet away from everyone, the only sound I heard was my footsteps and some animals running around. It was getting slightly darker since the group had put off getting wood till now, but I could do it. I found a fallen tree and started sawing at the wood but it was getting even darker faster than it should be. I finished cutting and picked up the piece of wood, the air becoming noticeably colder. I started to roll the wood along the path back toward camp but it was taking a while, then it started snowing making my vision a little obscured. "Lukas? Oliver?" I yelled, but got no response. I was starting to panic because the snow was getting heavier, it was getting colder, and I was separated from the group, just to go get some stupid firewood for some stupid hot dogs.The snow was falling rapidly and stumbling around in the snow for the past hour or two was getting me nowhere. I decided to find a spot that was sheltered from snow so I'd stop exerting my energy by wandering.