E X C E R P T

Thud. Thud. Thud.

my heartbeat rang in my ears, as I looked down at the river. The only thing keeping me from that, was a log descending across a gap in the cliffs.

Stop. Breathe. Go.

Over and over, I repeated those words in my head. My feet were slick against the cold slippery wood. My mind focused on one thing. The other side of the log. I couldn’t feel anything. My fingers were numb against my sides, my breath shaky, and quick. Focus. But I couldn’t help my mind wander to the river, imagining my body crashing down into the ice cold-

Stop. Breathe. Go.

It was becoming hard to pick my feet up. My body was slowly shutting down, but I needed to get across. I was going to get across. *Snap* came the sound of the log from beneath me. I whipped my head up. One move that’s all it took. I knew I was dead even before my feet left the log. I yelped in pain as I slipped. All the air left my body as my stomach landed on the log, my legs dangling off. Gasping, clawing, using all the strength I had left in my body, trying to find a handhold. But it was too late. I was falling. Crashing into the water. Then Darkness.

S U M M A R Y

Lost and alone, with only a backpack to survive, Mae Rhite is stranded in the Barron wilderness. She doesn’t know how she got there, or who brought her there. Her last memory before she blacked out was her parent’s faces. Then nothing. Determined to find her parents, Mae sets off, with only the precious memories of her family to get her home. Set in the Canadian wilderness, and written from Mae’s point of view, this story tells the tail of a girl, who’s courage and strength get her through pain, fear, and death. Including haunting and beautiful perspectives from both Mae and her mother, this story shows the meaning of faith, and Guts. Mae knows one thing for sure, she will S U R V I V E.