Survival

Chapter 1: The Arrival

My name is Mari Rizk Jackson.  I am a 16-year-old Flight Sergeant at the 728 Yukon Dodgers Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron.  Yep, that's right. I'm a Canadian...    And I'm an air cadet.  The only thing nice about the Yukon is the northern lights that happen every once in a while.  That just about sums me up.  Most people say something like, "C'mon, you gotta have something interesting happening in your life.  A recent vacation?  School?  Family?  Friends?  A boyfriend?"

Well, actually I haven't gone on a decent vacation since I was 6. Heisman High school is, was, and will always be an absolute craphole.  My parents are divorced and I'm an only child, so there's nothing really interesting there. Really, I have no friends because everyone at Heisman are outsiders. And a boyfriend?... Well, I did have one named Matt Blake, who went to Hagan High, which was a school for more of the upper-class people. Matt has intensely scary icy blue eyes and gorgeous sandy blonde hair, which I think was what won me over in the first place, but he broke up with me a few weeks ago because I didn't want to, as we Heismans call, "do the nasty". Did I mention he also threatened to kill me? Yeah. Fantastic. Like I said, that just about sums me up. There is only one interesting thing that happens every week of my 12 to 19-year-old life. And that's the air cadet program. As air cadets, we are outsiders of our own. We all come from different areas of the Southern Yukon, but we don't exclude each other, even if some of us aren't from the wealthier parts of town. That's what I like about it.

In fact, right now I am boarding the cadet bus that will soon be on its way to a Field Training Exercise. The site is about a few hours away. I love anything to do with survival so I am quite excited about it. As soon as I got on the bus and into my seat, I looked up to see my friend Shawn Vinek about to plop down beside me. I stuck my feet out on the seat jokingly, so he couldn't sit down.

"Let me sit beside you! Please Mari," he said as he stuck out his lip.

"No way," I said, but then I saw Matt Blake get on the bus. That's right. The same Matt Blake who threatened to kill me a few weeks ago. My whole body froze from head to toe, and I was unable to move.

"Ritz?" I heard Shawn say above me with a concerned tone. He must've seen who I was staring at because I felt my ankles and my knees rise about a foot high and then drop to the floor. A few seconds later, I was in Shawn's arms. I felt myself shaking.

"It's okay," he whispered.

I looked into his green eyes and I instantly felt calmer. I felt safe around Shawn. He was like a big brother to me.

I first met Shawn on a Field Training Exercise at Camp Oiwu three years ago, after he transferred to our squadron. He joined a little late, so he didn't get promoted this year. So while us Flight Sergeants are teaching, he has to join the level fours in their classes, because he's only a Sergeant. Fortunately, because of his age, he is still considered a "senior cadet" and still gets to hang out with the rest of us while we're not teaching classes.

I felt the bus started to move, so I leaned back into the seat and put my head on Shawn's shoulder. The world slowly faded into relaxing shades of black, white, and grey.

"Hey," I heard a voice say as the world appeared slowly around me, "Ritz, wake up." Since I was just waking up, I couldn't make out the face of the person who was calling me at first, but I knew exactly who was calling me by that name. I rubbed my eyes to quicken the speed of my focus as I saw Shawn with his golden blonde hair and bright green eyes directly in front of my face.

"I'm awake, I'm awake! And stop calling me that!" I whined as I pushed him away. Shawn has been calling me "Ritz", "Ritzy" and "Ritz Cracker" ever since he met me. When I first asked him why he called me that, he told me that he thought that was what I said my middle name was. We had a good laugh about that one, but then he wouldn't stop calling me that! I eventually stopped correcting him, because I knew he wouldn't stop anytime in the future. Sometimes I get annoyed, but it's just a fun thing between us. As I said, I like to think of Shawn as my big brother. He and the other cadets can get overprotective of me sometimes, but that's mostly because they still think of me as their little sister.