Bygones

It was supposed to be a holiday. Instead Reece and Jake were abandoned in one of the harshest climates on earth with a long way to walk out.

Cold, hunger, chasing down reindeer for food, being chased by wolves and then getting so desperate they start chasing the wolves.

Look out world. This sharp sixteen year old and laid back rancher are going to do it their way. They work together to confront some of the toughest survival challenges around. And they’re going to have a laugh while they do it even if they die in the attempt.

However they stumble into something much darker and more dangerous than nature has been throwing at them. So Reece decides that dark and dangerous are her true calling. No one would expect than an emaciated girl from the suburbs could hatch such a plan. They didn’t realise just how nasty a teenager bent on revenge can get.
This punchy little book about two castaways who choose to be adventurers will take you along for the ride.

Snippet 1

This was the same narrative she had heard for years but more overt. Even when he was willing to acknowledge he had some fault it only existed because of those surrounding him. He’d managed to fully and finally tear to shreds the good memories she had so assiduously preserved of him. ‘Anyone makes you look bad dad. They don’t try. People simply have to be alive and it happens. And if mom’s a b***h around you that’s between you and her. Unlike you I grew up and grew out of the self-centredness of childhood. I grew out of your games dad. You can’t pin the sh***y outcomes of your life on me because you know nothing about me. All you know about me is that I’m someone barely there.’

‘And you’re saying being that way isn’t contrived to hurt me. And your mother.’

‘It’s contrived so that you don’t infect me you f***er!’ Reece had never been so angry. And so she failed to grasp the situation she was in.

Snippet 2

Then a hand came flying forward and grabbed his collar and pulled. The ice had cracked around the plane and the bags and Reece had nearly gone into the river, so she had hastily picked them both up and slide them away. She saw Jake jump to the to the tail section and she started to run the short distance around behind it because she knew he had seconds to jump. She jumped shortly after he did and threw out her hand for his collar, terrified for a moment her momentum would cause her to slide right into the river with him. The landing hurt, but she held his head above water which now only had to flow around his neck. She was able to hold him while lying flat on her belly on the ice.

‘There’s a lighter in a little pocket on the left side of the pack. Try to get a fire started as quickly as you can. You can get out of here Reece. Keep going south girl.’

‘We both get out of here or neither of us do Cowboy. Plus, you’ve got my knife in your pocket, and I want it. I’m going swing my other arm over and get two hands on your collar and then you bring both arms up together fast and grab my arms.’
He could feel himself slipping. His voice was filled with a sorrow that resonated even in that extremity. ‘I’m going to die of hypothermia Reece.’

‘You’re going to try Cowboy. Now do it.’

Snippet 3

She would finish what she started or die trying. She was strangely relaxed because she believed he would kill quickly from the pure rage in his eye. That might be better than lying in the snow.

So she helped his rage along. ‘How do you like me now Kirk.’ She almost hissed this. Looking him in the eye. She had never felt anything like this. Kirk for all his experience of some of the most mercenary people on the planet was looking into the eyes of a sixteen-year-old who had completely torn apart his operations and substantially destroyed his life and prospects and would not stop until her heart did.