Alive and Alone Read Online Free Page A

site.”
    “Frank, it’s dark out.  How can they find the plane in the dark?”
    “Each aircraft, by Federal law, has an emergency locator beacon in the tail.  When the aircraft crashes, the beacon starts to transmit on guard, or what you would call our emergency frequency.  It doesn’t have the range to transmit far, but if one of my planes gets near the crash site the beacon will still be transmitting.”  Frank attempted to sound excited, but he knew that severe cold weather could affect the transmitter’s battery life and the battery could already be dead.  Or, worse yet, the transmitter could have been damaged on impact.  Only he didn’t say any of these things.  Since he’d been in the rescue business a long time he want to give Cathy some hope and yet remain honest with her, because right now hope was all she had.
    “Would your spotters be able to see a fire on the ground?”
    “It depends on the cloud cover, but it’s possible.  Right now, I want you to let me talk to Carol and then I want you and Marie to come over to my house for the night.  That way you won’t be alone and the last thing you need is to stay in that house.”

CHAPTER 3
    B Y THE TIME the rescue aircraft were in the air, David had the fire out at his campsite and taking inventory of the damage done by the flames.  He’d lost most of his survival equipment and his father’s rifle was nothing but a hot piece of blackened steel.  David knew he’d been lucky, because he’d not made his shelter under a tree and as a result the fire had simply burned the pine boughs he’d place on top of the shelter and on the floor of the structure to insulate him from the cold ground.  The last thing he needed was a forest fire on his hands.  But, at the moment the young man felt anything but lucky, because he’d lost almost everything he’d gathered up to help him survive.
    Dang, almost all I have left is what I had on me or in my fanny pack!  I think I can use part of the sleeping bag, but that’s about it.  How could I have been so dumb!   I knew better too!   He thought in anger as he dug through the remains of his survival gear.  The survival container was now just one large lump of melted plastic. The young man noticed the plastic from the survival kit had run completely over the gear that had been stored inside and then hardened once the fire was out.  Dave considered trying to force the melted plastic open but he knew anything inside had been damaged to the point it was now useless to him.  He shook his head and threw the lump of hard plastic into the now worthless shelter in frustration.  
    The snow had continued to fall, but slowly and very little was on the ground, perhaps less than an inch.  David was angered by his carelessness with the fire, but he knew he had to erect another shelter of some sort or he’d freeze to death way before morning.  He understood then the loss of the survival manual was his biggest loss and while some of it had not burned up, more than half was gone.  He’d glanced through the book that morning and it had a lot of information he needed now, but it was almost completely destroyed and of little use to him.  All that remained of the book was a section on how to gut and eat wild animals and another on how to find water.
    What was it Captain Johnston had said to dad at the picnic that day about making survival shelters in the snow and cold?  If I remember right, he said a large pine tree could be used if a man trimmed the lower branches off.  But, I can’t have a fire because the tree would go up like a match once it started to burn, David thought as he unconsciously picked up a stick and started dragging it around in the snow at his feet.
    Standing he saw a large pine about fifty feet from where he stood and it was a nice full one.  He still had his sheath knife, so he made his way to the tree and started removing the lower branches.  Some of the branches were dead, so he broke them