Okay, here's a complex one. This is from a true story, so let me try and reconstruct the true story out of my take on it. This is something I heard on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) station I can get for most of my commute, I think it was on "As It Happens."
Two friends go hiking/skiing on a mountain. They get caught in bad weather, and an avalanche occures. Our POV character swims on the rampaging snow, but ends up getting his legs caught in the flow at the end. So he's trapped. He's also broken one leg. Everything but his skis, ski poles, and backpack are gone. And it's getting dark, and a blizzard is decending. He can't see his friend, no matter how much he calls out. Until night falls. And then he can hear his friend. His friend says he's going for help, since he can't pull our POV out. Our POV has to survive (melts snow using his body heat, creates a wind break, has to get his energy bars out). The blizzard continues all day, but our POV is able to keep on top of the snow, and at night, he hears his friend again. They ty to be encouraging to each other, but his friend is cagey about if he got help and when they'll arrive. The next day is bright and clear, no sign of our POV's friend. He does see a chopper, and spreads out his coat to try and signal them. That night the POV's friend returns and says a rescue is coming. Our POV just has to last long enough. Our POV doesn't see his friend, but only hears him. On the fourth day of this, our POV is able to escape from the snow, makes a splint using the poles, and crawls down the mountain. At night he friend keeps coming to talk with him. On the six day he is rescued. No sign of his friend. They don't find the friend's body until the spring, and determine he died in the avalanche.
True story. I know what and how I would change it into a ghost story, but I don't have the time to write it right now. And it needs to be free.
Well, I was finally able to find the link to the story. Here it is. I was remembering some of it wrong, but hey, it was almost a whole year ago. Anyway, you can listen to it (if you have RealAudio, which I don't). The story is "AVALANCHE SURVIVOR."
2 comments:
Steve,
The deadline's the end of this month, but the wordcount is short (1-2k, i think). You should consider writing a submission for this antho;
http://ralan.com/antho/listings/legendsmount.htm
I don't know anything about WV ghost stories, but I had a good time following the links to WV ghost sites.
Hey LBB, cool. Less than 2000 words is really hard for me. The one story I tried at that length, Crow Boy, I could probably reform it for submission. Right now it's more of a vignette than a real story (very little plot, mostly description). Two weeks. Could work. I'll have to look at my notes on the reading/critique I did. Hey, my new writer's group meets next week. I could workshop it there.
I used to live in WV. In Parkersburg near the Ohio border. I worked for crazy people and had to leave, but the state itself is very pretty and I loved it there. WV also prompted me to write short stories, and I wrote a story called Storming Heaven. That one is in the trunk, right now.
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