Somewhere in Alaska

Chapter Two

As Stephanie came around she tried to open her eyes, she felt nothing but pain. Her head felt as though it had been split in two, her body was aching from head to toe, and she felt exhausted. Once she had managed to open her eyes properly, all she saw was darkness around her, and the glow of a small camp fire a few meters away.

"How did you find me?" she asked as she tried to bare the pain and sit up, "My head is killing."

"You were at the bottom of a landslip about two miles from here miss," said an unfamiliar voice.

Not yet woken properly, and expecting her friends to have been the ones who found her, Stephanie was confused and panicked, she attempted to get up but came over dizzy.

"I wouldn't do that just yet if I were you, I think you took quite a fall. There's no need to be alarmed; you're quite safe here miss," said the man as he turned on his camping lamp and approached Stephanie. The glow from the lamp lit up his chiselled face, a short fringe swept across his forehead, his eyes looked dreamy.

"My name is Stephanie, who are you? Who are you out here with?" she asked as she gently pulled herself up onto a nearby log.

"My name is David. I'm here looking for my brother," he said as he sat on a rock near Stephanie, "you were unconscious and injured. And from what I could see you were alone, I thought it was best to bring you here and get you patched up."

"How did you lose your brother? Where are my friends? They were coming back for me."

"I didn't lose him. He was out here with some friends, they came back a week ago, a week early, without him. And I don't know where your friends are, before I moved you I looked around. I called out, there was no one there," he said as he got up and walked over to his tent. He rummaged through his bag and returned to Stephanie, "here take a couple of these, and drink that," he said as he handed her a packet of paracetamol and a bottle of water. "What do you mean your friends were coming back for you? Do you mean they left you there like that?" he asked with a confused look on his face.

"No, we got separated the night before, I fell whilst walking from camp and woke up this morning at the bottom of a cliff," she said as she took two paracetamol and gulped the water down, "they followed me as I tried to find a way back up, but there was a landslip in the way. I'd been going downhill for a while as well, so I was too far away from them, they couldn't hear me calling. I had no choice but to turn back. I managed to tell my friend Grant as he'd actually gone back to camp for supplies. He was going to tell the others and they'd all head back in the opposite direction. I hadn't been walking for long and I found another landslide, what is it with this place and landslides? I was climbing the landslide to get to their level and go meet them, now they won't know where I am." she said before quickly finishing the bottle of water.

David started to fidget with some twigs that he had picked up to go on the fire,

"I had to bring you here, you needed medical attention and all my supplies were here. If your friends are looking for you, then they could be anywhere by now, just like my brother, I'm sorry." He said as he looked at the floor, he felt guilty for bringing her so far away from her friends, but considering the situation, and Stephanie's condition, at the time he felt that he had no choice.

"It's ok," replied Stephanie whilst looking around the camp, "I'm grateful for your help. What time is it?"

It's late," said David as he looked at his watch, "It's half past nine."

"Half nine? I slept all day?"

"Well you did wake up briefly, well, you sort of woke up, you weren't really opening your eyes and I couldn't get any sense out of you, I thought it was best to leave you sleep it off."