Hank- “Come on guys wake up, we need to start getting ready to go, we got a long drive ahead of us.”

Chris- sits up and looks at his phone to see the clock, it said 5:00. He laid back down and asked “why are you waking us up so early.”

Hank- “ because I want to be out of town before traffic gets too bad, now GET UP!!!”

All of the boys jumped up, made their bed, and grabbed all the things they would be needing. they loaded it all in the van, then went inside and thought about anything they might have forgotten.

Daniel-”What about the camera, and camcorder?”

Hank-Responded ”got it”

Ryan-”then let’s get going”

Everyone quickly went out the garage door and into the van as hank locked the door behind him.

Within the first 10 minutes Chris, Ryan, David, and Daniel were all asleep, but Anthony was forced to talk to Hank, so he could stay awake.

Chris-woke up. and asked “Where are we?”

Hank-replied “we're almost there”

chris-looked out the window and started seeing the river.

after about another 20 minutes they turned onto a dirt road leading to the Cabin. They pulled up, and everyone ran out of the van to get to the river to see it.

They all just stood there and smiled they were finally there.

Hank yelled “Get up here and help me unpack the van.”

Chris-”I call the room with the big bed”.

Hank-”no, that's my room.

Chris-Then I get the one upstairs”

Anthony-”Whatever I’m sleeping in the tent”

Chris-”Ok, you can sleep with Daniel and David”

Anthony-”Ugh I didn't think they had to sleep in the tent”

Everyone went outside and set up the tent. when they were done with that they could go down to the river and fish.

Chris daniel and david were the first to cast a lure into the water, when anthony came down with a sinker and a hook tied to the end of his line.

Anthony- “First cast of the year” he screamed, as the line went limp, and about 3 seconds later everyone caw a big splash on the other side of the river.

Chris Daniel and David all burst out into laughter, as Ryan walked down asking what they were laughing at.

Chris tried to explain, but was laughing too hard, as anthony went back up to the cabin to tie on another hook and sinker.

Ryan asked Chris ”do you want to go out in the canoe”

Chris” Of course I do , let’s go. Where are we heading?”

Ryan” I don’t know, probably just to the center island”

The center island was just a line of rocks that cut through the water, it came about 6 inches out of the water when the water was low, but this year the water was high, so it was about 6 inches under water.

Ryan and Chris jumped into the canoe and Daniel and David pushed the canoe off the shore.

Ryan in the back powering the canoe, and chris up front steering.

They both yelled out “Stroke Stroke, Stroke” as they paddled.

Chris jumped out and dropped the ancre, they jumped out and started casting, but after about 20 minutes of no fish, they got back in the canoe.

Chris asked “you want to go behind the island?”

the Island is just a piece of land with a little 20 ft wide stream running through the two pieces of land.

Ryan-”Sure, we can go back there.”

They started paddling, when chris noticed something

Chris-”Hey Ryan, is the current a little faster than it usually is? like within the past years”

Ryan-”Yeah, maybe we should turn around”.

But it was too late, they had already been pulled in and now they were flying down the little stream, they had went downstream, but they had no idea how far or how long they were on the river, because they were too focused on keeping the canoe away from rocks, and trees. But the canoe lost control in the rapids and was heading straight for a giant rock.

Ryan-”look out” he screamed.

just as Chris turned and saw the rock, they canoe slammed into it, splitting the canoe in half, throwing them both out of it.

they both surfaced
Ryan-”Go to shore” he screamed

They both made it to shore, crawling up onto the sandy ground.

Chris “That was fun” joking

They both knew they had to hurry and get back how before the sunset, because of the animals they had heard the years before, there are bears, coyotes, and wolves in these woods. They jumped up and started walking upstream to try to get back to the cabin.

Meanwhile back at home
Anthony-”Isn’t it getting a little late, shouldn’t they be back by now?”

Hank-”Yeah, Where are they?”

Dawn-”They will be back by morning, don’t worry about them.”

Night went on and neither of them had made it back home yet. They all just thought they stayed out to catfish, and they all went to bed.

They had been on the shoreline for about 3 hours of darkness,
Chris- “Maybe we should make a fire to keep the predators away”

Ryan- “Yeah ok.”

Chris-”Here give me your lighter, I’ll find some dry kindling you find some wood to feed the fire.”

Chris found the kindling and headed back to the shoreline when he heard something rustling in some bushes about 5 feet away from, He grabbed his pocket knife out of his pocket and stood there waiting for something to come out, when the rustling stopped, a little squirrel came out, and all of a sudden he heard a scream. It came from Ryan, Chris started running carrying his knife in the direction the scream came from.

He got to Ryan laying on the ground, gasping for air.

Chris-”What happened???”

Ryan-”It was a bear”

Ryan-”I love you little bro, tell everyone at home the same.”

Chris-”As he slowly slipped away, chris just layed on his limp body crying. a rustle came again about 20 feet away, he could hear it circling them. he stood up gripping his knife. The large dark figure came out of the woods into the opening, Chris stood protecting Ryan’s body. The bear roared, Chris roared back trying to scare it off. but it didn't work. The bear lunged at Chris, he put his knife up hoping to stop it. The bear landed on chris, its body limp, Chris slowly crawled out from under it and stood up. he dragged both the bear and carried ryan back to the shoreline. Started the fire and just sat there and cried.

Night went on and morning came, Hank was up early, he looked around the cabin and in the tent, but Chris and Ryan wasn’t home yet. Now he was scared. What had happened to them last night.

Hank-”Everyone get up!”

Everyone-”What?”

Hank-”They didn't come home last night”

Suddenly everyone got up and began to freak out.

Hank-”Alright, Anthony you go out in the skiff and look upstream, Daniel and David you guys are coming with me, Mike you take your boat, and go wherever you think they would be. And Dawn you stay here and wait to see if they do come back.”

They all dispersed

The first place hank went was by the opening of the Island, but as soon as he noticed the water was moving faster than it usually was, he quickly turned around and realized exactly what probably had happened to them because he saw them go behind the island last night.

Hank-”Alright boys, you take, I'm going to drop you off on the island, David you take your 45-70, and Daniel you take yours. If you do find them shoot a round into the ground, and if anything tries to attack you, don’t hesitate to take the shot. Either way if I hear a gunshot I will come back and come and find you.”

Daniel and David-”OK”

Hank dropped them off and headed downstream on the main river to see if they came to the shoreline, because that is what He had taught them if anything had happened. He looked in the air to see if there was any smoke, he saw some white smoke going into the air about 300 yards downstream, He turned up the motors speed, and raced down toward it. It took about 5 minutes until he saw the black figure and Chris sitting on the Shore, but he didn’t see Ryan.

Hank-As he pulled up asked, “Wheres Ryan?”

Chris just sat there, and stared at the ground.

Hank-”Chris!?” But as he pulled up he saw the bear and on the other side he also saw Ryan’s hand laying in the sand in a pool of blood.

Hank-He ran ashore and quickly ran over to Ryan, he felt his neck and his wrist for his pulse, but nothing. He sat there and cried, as he crawled over to chris, “Are you alright”?

Chris- Responded “Kinda”. the both got up, hugged, still crying.

Hank-”you know we need to get home, and we need to take him with us, so let’s hurry.”

They both gently loaded Ryan’s limp body into the boat, and Chris said “We are taking the bear too.”

They dragged it into the boat and pushed off shore heading back to the cabin, Hank called mike and anthony and told them to head back home but first he told mike to stop and get Daniel and David off the island.

Chris blamed himself for what had happened to Ryan, they should have stayed together.

The rest of his life he would have to deal with this disastrous thing that he could have prevented.