Hatchet Chapter 1Brian is a fourteen year old boy who is traveling with his mother to a small airport in New York. He is going to visit his dad for the summer. His dad works for an oil company in Canada. His parents have recently been divorced.

His mother gives Brian a hatchet as a present for his trip to Canada. When he gets to the airport Brian finds out that he will be traveling in a small plane. The small bush plane is only big enough to fit Brian and the pilot. Holding back tears Brian says goodbye to his mother and gets on the plane.

After a little while Brian realizes the pilot is having stomach pains. It appears the pilot is having a heart attack. The pilot passes out from the heart attack. Brian is alone and does not know how to fly the plane. What will he do?

Chapter 2Brian did not know what to do. He did not know how to perform CPR. The pilot would not respond. Brian had read books about flying and had watched the pilot during takeoff. The plane was still flying. He figured out how to keep the plane going straight. The sky was a clear blue and he could only see green trees all around him. He knew he would crash into the trees or a lake.

He then tried to get the headset off the pilot to call for help. Brian was able to put the headset on and call for help. He received a response but he could barely hear it. After a few minutes he lost contact with the person. He was alone again. Brian realized he was going to have to land the plane. He could try and land the plane on a lake or a clearing.

Chapter 3Brian thought he was going to die. He was scared. He waited for the plane to run out of gas and then aimed for a lake to land into. He found an L shaped lake. Brian started to bring the plane down. The trees got closer and closer. Things seemed to stop for many seconds.

The plane started to hit the trees. Right before hitting the ground he pulled the nose of the plane up.

The plane crashed. He felt an explosion as dirt hit his face. He could hear himself screaming. As the plane stopped he realized he had crashed into the lake. He swam to the surface and crawled out of the plane. He swam to shore and pulled himself up onto the grass.

Chapter 4

As Brian laid on the side of the lake he started to think about the terrible secret he had on his mind. He remembered it very clearly. He was at the Mall with his friend. He noticed his mother in a car with a man who was not his father.

He then realized he was alive. He had survived the crash. He felt pain all over his body. His head was swollen and his arms and legs hurt.

He then noticed there were lots of bugs around him. Finally the sun came out and the bugs left him alone. There were so many evergreens. He noticed a beaver swimming in the lake. He saw a fish jumping and heard many noises all around him. He was very tired. He fell asleep on the side of the lake.

Chapter 5Brian awoke on the side of the lake. He felt thirsty. He walked into the lake. He sat back down against the rough tree bark. He needed to sort out what he was going to do and what had happened.  He knew it was the day after the crash. It was the second day. He thought people must be searching for him. The plane had a flight plan and they would follow it and find him. Then he realized the plane was off course. It may take 3 or 4 days but they will come.

Brian was very hungry. All he could think about was hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes. Then he stopped himself. He remembered his old teacher Perpich. He had always told him to be positive.

He needed to see what items he had that could help him. He emptied his pockets. He had a few coins, a twenty dollar bill, a watch, his clothes, and the hatchet.

Chapter 6

He knew that he had to make a shelter. He started looking for materials and a place to build his shelter. He found a small stone ridge that he could fit under.

He was still very hungry. He started to look for food. He saw birds all around him eating berries. He started eating the berries.

Brian ate as many as he could then he filled his pockets with berries. He headed back to his new shelter. He started to think about how he could make a fire. He wished he had matches. He tried to rub sticks together to make a fire. It did not work. He would not have fire tonight. Since he could not make a fire he started to gather sticks and branches for his shelter. He wove sticks together to make walls and a door to his shelter.

Chapter 7

He woke up vomiting and with diarrhea. He had eaten too many berries. He was sick for over an hour. He then walked down to the lake to wash up. His stomach was still growling and twisting. He drank some water but it didn’t help with hunger.

He went back to his shelter and picked out only the maroon black berries that were ripe. He found a clearing and some berries on the ground. These were raspberries. As he was picking raspberries he noticed a large animal with him. After looking at Brian the bear went back to eating the raspberries.

Brian ran off back to his shelter. Brian went back to gather more raspberries. It started to rain but he was dry and warm in his shelter. He was still scared from seeing the bear. He fell asleep with the hatchet in his hand.

Chapter 8Brian woke up to a growl in the night. He was then hit with this musty rotten smell. The thought of Bigfoot entered his mind. Then Brian heard a slithering sound on the ground. He threw his hatchet at it. He missed and the hatchet sent sparks from hitting a rock.

He felt a sharp pain in his leg as if a hundred needles had entered into his leg. He could see a dark shadowy figure moving out the front of the cave. He could feel the needles that had dug into his skin. It had been a porcupine in his cave. Brian felt eight quills in his leg. Brian began to pull the quills out of his leg.

Brian thought about the sparks the hatchet made when he threw it at the porcupine. He could make a fire with the sparks. He started hitting the hatchet against the rocks in his cave. Sparks began flying as he hit it harder and harder. He knew he would be able to make a fire.

Chapter 9

Brian found it easy to make sparks with the hatchet but they were not starting a fire.

Brian looked around for something to help start his fire. He noticed two broken birch trees hanging over the lake. The birch tree bark was just like paper. He gathered a wad of bark the size of baseball and went back to his shelter to try and start a fire. He began hitting the black rock with the hatchet and saw the sparks going into the bark.

It still didn’t work. The fire was starving just like he was. He had bark for the fuel but he still needed air. The fire needed more oxygen. He had to blow on the fire.

Brian tried again. As the sparks hit the bark he gently blew on the brightest sparks. The red glow from the sparks spread into the bark. Suddenly the red glow burst into flames. He had fire. He started yelling “I have fire, I have fire”!

  

Brian had a friend now. He had a friend named fire. The fire would also help guard him against bugs and animals. He looked around and wished he had someone he could share this moment with. He wondered what his parents were doing.

Chapter 10

At first he could not leave the fire. He kept feeding small branches to the fire. Later in the day he realized he would have to plan on how to get through the night. He would need a large wood supply to get through the night. He would have to cut and stack the wood before the sun went down.

Then he heard an animal crawling outside of his shelter and go into the lake. When he woke up again it was morning. He went outside of his shelter and saw the tracks from the animal that had gone into the lake. The tracks went from a pile of sand into the water. He dug into the pile of sand. He found eggs in it. He then realized that it had been a turtle. These eggs would be food!

He pulled out all of the eggs. There were seventeen eggs in all. They had a leathery shell on the outside. He used the hatchet to poke a hole in the egg. Brian drank the egg. He ate 6 eggs. He stored the rest of the eggs in his shelter to eat later.

Chapter 11There were things Brian had to do. He transferred the rest of the eggs into his shelter from the beach. He cleaned up his camp area. With his camp all cleaned up he had to bring in more wood.

He decided to build a signal fire. He decided he would have the fire ready to start if he heard an engine or a plane.

As he watched the lake he saw a kingfisher bird dive into the lake and come out with a silver fish. There were fish in the lake. Fish could be food for Brian.

Brian went down to the lake and looked for fish. He saw many fish that were 3 – 4 inches long swimming around him. He saw freshwater clams, crayfish, and more small round fish. He tried to grab at the fish but they were too quick. He had no hooks or net. He could make a spear to catch the fish in shallow water.

  

Chapter 12The fish spear did not work. Brian

had made a 6 feet long staff with a sharp edge. The fish were too fast. He needed something to propel the spear at the fish. Brian thought he needed to “invent” a bow and arrow.

Brian went looking for a good piece of wood to make his bow. As he was walking through the woods he was startled by a feathery bomb underneath his feet. The explosion frightened him. It was a bird about the size of a chicken.

As Brian was working on his bow he heard a plane. It was a motor far off but it was getting closer. The noise from the plane quickly started to go away. He hoped the plane would turn and see the smoke. The plane kept moving away until he could not hear it anymore.

His dreams of being rescued were gone.

Chapter 13Brian began looking for one of the foolish birds he almost stepped on. Brian called them fool birds.

As Brian walked to the other side of the lake he looked up and saw a bear with her two cubs. The mother bear stood up and made a warning noise at Brian. He then heard a noise up the hill. He turned and saw a large wolf looking down at him and the bear. Then they all looked at Brian and walked away. It had been forty seven days since the crash. He would never be the same again. After making a strong bow and arrow he went fishing. He would never forget his first hit. It was a round golden fish. He had food.

For the rest of the day he kept catching, cooking, and then eating the fish. He must have eaten twenty fish that day. As evening was approaching he laid in his shelter with his belly full of fish and hope.

Chapter 14Brian was still thinking about mistakes. Small mistakes could turn into disasters. If he got hurt he could starve to death.

That night while he was asleep something awakened him. Right near the fire was a skunk. The skunk turned at Brian and raised his tail above his head and sprayed. The spray was a direct hit at Brian’s face. The thick odor burned his eyes and stunk up his shelter. He ran to the lake and put water on his face. He needed to make his shelter more secure. He started working on a food shelf that was high up in a tree.

Brian wondered if he could make a small pond to keep the fish in. For the rest of the afternoon he carried rocks to the lake and made a small pond. He made a two foot entrance and wove small branches together as a gate. Fish would now be easy to catch. He just didn’t know how sick of fish he could get.

Chapter 15Each day became more difficult for Brian to remember. He counted the days he was gone by marking a stone near the door of his shelter. It had been a long time of eating fish and berries but he craved something more. As Brian was out collecting wood he noticed there were the “fool birds”. Those birds were everywhere but their camouflage was great.

The next morning Brian set out with his bow and arrow determined to catch a bird. He decided to try and use his fish spear. Brian saw a bird near the lake and lunged at it with his spear. The spear hit the bird and Brian grabbed the bird until it was dead.

He would have to clean the bird before he cooked it. To clean the bird he would have to take off the skin, feathers, and guts of the bird. Brian saved the feathers to use on his arrows and started cooking the bird over the fire. It was the best thing Brian had ever tasted.

Chapter 16Brian used the feathers from

the bird on his arrows. He then went looking for rabbits. With the new arrows Brian was able to shoot and kill a large rabbit.

As he was cleaning the bird out by the lake he heard a brushing sound behind him. As he was turning to see what it was a brown wall of fur came down on him. He recognized it as a large moose.

The moose knocked him into the water. The moose continued to run into him slamming him under water. After a few minutes the moose left Brian alone and went back to eating. Brian was hurt. He was able to crawl back to his shelter.

He was woken by a loud noise. It was a low roaring sound that came from the wind. The sound was coming closer. The wind sounded like a train coming straight for him.

Chapter 16 continued…The winds from the tornado ripped his shelter apart spraying red coals and sparks all over him. He could hear trees snapping in the forest and the lake water was slamming in great waves. It was beautiful and terrible at the same time.

The tornado left as quickly as it arrived. There was no sign of his shelter, tools, or bed. His hatchet was the only thing he had left. He couldn’t sleep with the insects biting and chewing him up.Today had been a horrible day. In the morning he was eating fish and rabbits with a bed and shelter and now he had lost everything. Tomorrow he would rebuild. As he was sitting by the lake he noticed something yellow and curved sticking out of the water. “It’s the tail of the plane!” he said aloud. The tornado must have flipped the plane over.

Brian thought of the pilot inside of the plane. He didn’t know what to say or do, but just thought and hoped the pilot could rest and rest forever.

Chapter 17Brian continued to work on rebuilding his shelter and campsite from the tornado. As he rested in his shelter he thought of what could be inside the plane. Then he remembered the safety pack he had seen in the plane.. It could have many things that could help him. There could be a sleeping bag, fish hooks, or a radio.

After catching three fish he started to work on a raft he could use to get to the plane. He worked all afternoon weaving large limbs together to make a raft.

In the morning he made some changes to his raft and headed out to the plane. After stabilizing the raft he tried to break through the aluminum of the plane. It didn’t work. All the openings of the plane were blocked under water. He needed to think of a new way to get in.

Chapter 18The next morning Brian took his raft

back out to the plane. He continued to look for a way to get in the plane and get the survival pack. He took out his hatchet and hit the side of the plane. The hatchet easily cut through the aluminum.

Then his hatchet dropped. It went straight into the water and to the bottom. Brian yelled out in frustration. He needed the hatchet. He decided to dive down to find the hatchet.

Brian took a deep breath and dove down. He didn’t make it to the bottom on his first try. He took another breath and dove down. The hatchet handle was sticking out of the mud. He grabbed the hatchet and quickly shot to the surface.

When the hole was large enough he crawled into the plane. He swam into the front of the plane. The pilot was there. He was dead. Brian quickly grabbed the survival pack and shot to the surface.

  

Chapter 19The Survival pack was filled with treasures. There was a sleeping bag and foam sleeping pad! There was an aluminum cook set with pots, frying pans, and silverware. The kit also had matches, lighters, compass, first aid kit, fishing line, lures, soap, food packs, hooks, and a rifle.

There was also a type of radio device. Brian thought it was a music radio. On the side “Emergency Transmitter” was written with a switch next to it. Brian flipped the switch back and forth but nothing seemed to happen.

Chapter 19 Continued….

As he was getting water from the lake he heard a roaring noise above. He looked and saw that it was a small bush plane. The plane signaled to him and flew right over him. The plane turned and landed on the lake. The pilot told Brian that he heard his emergency transmitter signal. The pilot then asked astoundingly “you’re that kid aren’t you?”.Brian looked at the pilot and said I am Brian Robenson. Are you hungry?