Human nature, in its most raw and desperate form, is to survive; at any cost. What we did to ourselves, and to each other, in order to stay alive out in the dark and cold depths of the forest shocked and shamed us to our very cores. The out-of-control events changed us. Forever. For now we know how high the cost of surviving can be, and that we were willing to pay the price; even if it meant someone else did not survive as a consequence. Three women, six men, and one dog, set out on a good-intentioned, multi-day, off-trail hiking adventure. Laughing, joking, even flirting with each other, it all starts out so well. Until... well, you'll have to read it to find out. To experience this book as intended, as a serial story, please read only one chapter per day, if you can resist the temptation. Originally posted as a serial trip report to an online hiking club's message board, the tragedy takes place in the raw and untamed wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. It was posted at the rate of a couple of sections per week. As the story unfolded, the readers had the unique opportunity to respond to the ongoing story with comments; their comments also being posted to the online message board, along with the story. Some readers urged me on. Others demanded that I stop posting the short chapters of the story. Still others pleaded with the message board authorities to shut the story down and delete the entire thread. Some people loved the short, periodically-posted chapters, complete with cliff-hanger endings. Others hated the format and wanted it all at once, when completed in its entirety. The trip report invoked quite an emotional literary response from many of the readers. The comments posted by the readers of this serial story are entertainment in themselves.
