Far From Home
By: Hunter Burtlow
It was a foggy morning on the base. Victor had just woken up and brewed himself a pot of coffee. It was about 4:00 am on the base, everyone was asleep in their bunks besides the flight crew. Victor was going on a search and rescue mission just off the coast of Russia. Victor is going out to try and find a Russian cargo plane that had went down in the Bering Sea. There was no way that Victor would be able to make a flight of that of that distance with only one tank of gas. There is an island between Russia and Alaska called Diomede Island, that’s where Victor planned on landing his jet to fuel up, sleep and eat. Two hours later the flight crew had the jet fueled up and ready to take off.
Victor had been in the air for a little over two hours, he was approaching the Diomede Island and preparing to land. While Victor was in the air he didn’t see any signs of a downed plane, it had been thirty six hours since the plane had went down in the sea.
“There no way anyone could’ve survived the crash, even if someone happened to they would die shortly after from hypothermia.” thought Victor.
Victor slowly brought his aircraft down onto the landing strip. His landing wasn’t as smooth as he wanted it to be, but he still managed to bring it down safely. Victor exited his aircraft and went to the local bakery to grab something to eat before he left
Victor loaded up his aircraft, checked his landing gear, and look over his wings. Everything looked to be in good shape. Taking off on the rocky air strip proved to be more difficult than Victor had initially anticipated, but he managed to take off. About an hour into the flight back home Victor saw shoreline.
“How can I already be back to shoreline in an hour?” thought Victor.
Victor was very concerned and confused with his current location, when he looked over at his GPS his heart dropped. He was entering Alaska, he already burned through three-quarters of his gas. He wouldn’t be able to get back to Diomede Island. Victor started to panic, but something interrupted his panicked thoughts.
“Attention aircraft! You are entering U.S. airspace, change course immediately or we will be forced to shoot your aircraft down!” Barked the airman.
Victor couldn’t change his course three seconds later a massive blast hit Victors aircraft. The blast made Victor unconscious and his aircraft began to spiral out of control. 
Victor woke in the middle of the wreckage with cuts, bruises, a very swollen eye nearly glued shut with dried blood, but luckily no serious injures. Victor hobbled over to the cockpit of the jet to see if he could salvage anything from the wreck. He lifted up his seat to see what was under there. He found his pistol, a can of meat, and a med kit. He also disassembled his seat to get the parachute out. It was going to get dark soon, Victor needed to find shelter and fast. Suddenly a wolf appeared ten feet in front of Victor, three others came out from behind trees. Victor looked past his shoulder and saw a very tall tree. Without hesitation he sprinted towards the tree dodging roots, stumps and rocks Victor wouldn’t dare look behind him. Victor reached out towards the tree and started climbing as fast as his arms and legs could carry his body. He was climbing up the tree carelessly, not even pay attention to the weak rotten branches then SNAP! Victor lost his footing and fell sixteen feet until a large limb caught him by his chest breaking several ribs. Victor was barely conscious but he could still hear the hungry wolves growling and snarling at weak helpless body hanging from the branch. Suddenly Victor heard many strange whistling sounds in quick succession followed by yelping of the wolves.
Victor looked below him to see one of the wolves with an arrow pierced through its chest. Carefully, Victor made his descent from the tall evergreen. Once he was on the forest floor he saw three men wielding bows and spears, Victor’s first thought was to draw his firearm, until one of the men walked towards Victor with a large welcoming smile and open arms. 
“My name is Maniitok, but you can call me Tok. I have a small fishing village not too far from here. We can take you there to get some rest and food.”
“I appreciate the hospitality, but I really need to get back to my country” Exclaimed Victor. Tok looked very confused “Well aren’t you in your country?” “No.” Said Victor. “My plane went down a few miles from here, my GPS got different coordinates and sent me here, I should be in Russia by now.”
“We trade with a Russian fishing vessel once every month, but it won’t be back for another seventeen days. You’re more than welcome to stay in the village until it arrives.”
Victor got settled into his hut that Tok had let him stay it. Everyone in the village welcomed Victor with open arms, besides a sixteen year old boy named Coda who was the son of Tok. A few days had passed and Victor decided to go to the center of the village and help chop wood. On his way there, Victor noticed a pretty shady character on top of a platform in a tree. The man was holding a .30/30 Henry Lever Action. Victor didn’t pay too much attention to him. A couple hours had passed and Victor was very tired and it was getting dark. On his way back to the village Victor heard a rustling in the bushes but didn’t really think anything of it. He was about to enter his hut when a tall figure sprinted out of the bushes running full speed towards Victor. Victor reached for his weapon but couldn’t un-holster it fast enough, the figure had already gotten him on his back. Victor and the figure were fighting for their lives, rolling on the ground and exchanging blows. They rolled into torch light and Victor saw that it was Coda. Somehow, Victor managed to get back to his feet.
“You don’t belong here outsider! Go back to where you came from!” Screamed Coda. But before Victor could even get a word out Coda had disappeared back into the foggy moonlit wilderness.
Later that night Victor was awoken by the wind. Remembering the events that previously happened that night, there was no way that he would be sleeping again tonight. Victor made his way towards the center of the village when suddenly he heard three gunshots coming from Tok’s hut. Victor sprinted towards his hut but when he got there it was too late. Tok was lying on the ground in a pool of blood with three gunshot wounds in his chest. Victor was about to leave the hut to find help, but then Coda busted into the hut wielding a large knife. Coda paused and looked at the ground to see his father lying on the floor dead. Coda looked back up at Victor, his eyes were filled up with tears and anger.
“You killed my father! Why? He did nothing!” Cried Coda.
“I didn’t kill you father.” Victor bent down to pick up a spent casing. “See? This casing is from a .30/30, a rifle. I only have a 9mm. There only one guy that I’ve seen in the village with a .30/30 he is the man that is on wolf look out.”
“That’s my uncle, his name is Adlartok. He didn’t like the fact that my father was elected to be in charge of the village council.” Informed Coda.
“We need to hunt him down.”
The sun had barely peaked over the mountains when Coda and Victor set out tracking Adlartok. They had to be very careful, Adlartok is an expert at staying hidden and he was very good at killing. They were walking through a very thick part of the forest, both of them had their weapons drawn. A twig fell from the top of a tree right onto Victor’s shoulder. Victor looked up immediately, as soon as he did Adlartok jumped out of the tree and tackled Victor sending his gun flying. Adlartok was on top of Victor punching him and choking him. Victor was struggling to stay conscious. Then Victor heard a loud crack and could breath again. He looked over to his right to see Coda shaking with a gun in his hand. Victor look back at Adlartok on top of him with no more life left in his eyes.
Victor got up and thanked Coda for his bravery. They made a makeshift stretcher and hauled Adlartok back to the village. Now at the village, Victor walked to the end of the dock and watched the sunset fade away. The only thing Victor had to do was wait for the vessel to arrive so he could go home at last.
You really stink
