Hatchet audiobook chapters 1 and 2

Hachette by gary paulsen chapter 1 Brian Robeson stared out the window of the small plane at the endless green northern wilderness below it was a small plane a Cessna 406 a bush plane and the engine was so loud so roaring and consuming and loud that it ruined any chance for conversation not that I had much to say he was thirteen and the only passenger on the plane was a pilot named what was it jammer Jake or something who had been in his mid-40s and who had been silent as he worked to prepare for takeoff in fact since Brian had come to the small airport in Hampton New York to meet the plane driven by his mother the pilot had only spoken five words to him yet in the copilot seat which Brian had done they'd taken off and that was the last of the conversation there had been the initial excitement of course he'd never flown in a single-engine plane before and to be sitting in the copilot seat with all the controls right there in front of him all the instruments in his face is the plane clawed for altitude jerking and sliding on the wind currents as the pilot took off had been interesting and exciting but in five minutes they leveled off at six thousand feet and headed Northwest and from then on the pilot had been silent staring out the front and the drone of the engine had been all that was left the drone and the sea of green trees that lay before the planes nose and flowed to the horizon spread with lakes swamps and wandering streams and rivers now Brian sat looking out the window with a roar thundering through his ears and tried to catalog what had led up to his taking this flight the thinking started always it started with a single word divorce it was an ugly word he thought a tearing ugly word that meant fights and yelling lawyers gaudy thought how he hated lawyers who sat with their comfortable smiles and tried to explain to him in legal terms how all that he lived in was coming apart and the breaking and shattering of all the solid things his home his life office solid things divorce a breaking word an ugly breaking word divorce secrets no.not secrets so much is just the secret what he knew and had not told anybody what he knew about his mother that had caused the divorce what he knew what he knew the secret divorce the secret Brian felt his eyes beginning to burn and he knew there would be tears he cried for a time but that was gone now he didn't cry now instead his eyes burned and tears came the seeping tears that burned but he didn't cry he wiped his eyes with a finger and looked at the pilot out of the corner of his eye to make sure he hadn't noticed the burning and tears the pilots at large his hands lightly on the wheel feet on the rudder pedals he seemed more machine than a man an extension of the plane on the dashboard in front of him Brian saw the dials switches beaters knobs levers cranks lights handles that were wiggling and flickering all indicating nothing that he understood and the pilot seemed the same way part of the plane not human when he saw Brian look at him the pilot seemed to open up a bit and he smiled they were flying the copilot seat before he leaned over and lifted the headset off his right ear and put it on his temple yelling to overcome the sound of the engine Brian shook his head we'd never been in any kind of plane never seen the cockpit of a plane except in films or television it was loud and confusing first time not as complicated as it looks good plane like this almost flies itself the pilot shrugged makes my job easy he took Brian's left arm here put your hands on the controls your feet on the rudder pedals I'll show you what I mean Brian shake his head I'd better not sure try it Brian reached out and took the wheel and a grip so tight his knuckles were white he pushed his feet down on the pedals the plane slewed suddenly to the right not so hard take her light take her light Brian eased off relaxed his grip the burning in his eyes was forgotten momentarily as the vibration of the plane came through the wheel and the pedals it seemed almost alive see the pilot let go of his wheel raised his hands in the air and took his feet off the pedal to show Brian he was actually flying the plane alone simple now turn the wheel a little to the right and push on the right rudder pedal a small amount Brian turned the wheel slightly and the plane immediately banked to the right and when he pressed on the right rudder pedal the nose slid across the horizon to the right he left off the pressure and straighten the wheel and the plane righted itself now you can turn bring her back to the left little Brian turn the wheel left pushed on the Left pedal and the plane came back around it's easy he smiled at least this part the pilot nodded Oh flying is easy just takes learning like everything else like everything else he took the controls back then reached up and rubbed his left shoulder aches and pains must be getting old Brian let go of the controls and moved his feet away from the pedals as the pilot put his hands on the wheel thank you but the pilot had put his headset back on and the gratitude was lost in the engine noise and things went back to Brian looking out the window at the ocean of trees and lakes the burning eyes did not come back but memories did came flooding in the words always the words divorce the secret fights split the big split his father did not understand as Brian did knew only that Brian's mother wanted to break the marriage apart the split had come and then the divorce also fast and the court had left him with his mother except for the summers and what the judge called visitation rights so formal Brian hated judges as he hated lawyers judges that leaned over the bench and asked Brian if he understood where he was to live and why judges with the caring look it meant nothing his lawyers said legal phrases that meant nothing and the summer Brian would live with his father and the school year with his mother that's what the judge said after looking at papers on his desk and listening to the lawyers talk talk words now the plane lurched slightly to the right and Brian looked to the pilot he was rubbing his shoulder again and there was the sudden smell of body gas in the plane Brian turned back to avoid embarrassing the pilot who was obviously in some discomfort must have stomach troubles so this summer this first summer when he was allowed to have visitation rights with his father with the divorce only one month old Brian was heading north his father was a mechanical engineer who had designed or invented a new drill bit for oil drilling a self-cleaning self sharpening bit he was working in the oil fields of Canada up on the tree line where the tundra started and the forests ended Brian was riding up from New York with some drilling equipment was lashed down in the rear of the plane next to a fabric bag the pilot had called a survival pack which had emergency supplies in case they had to make an emergency landing that had to be specially made in the city riding in the bush plane with a pilot named Jim Orr Jake or something who turned out to be an alright guy letting him fly the plane and all except for the smell now there was a constant odor and Brian took another look at the pilot found him rubbing the shoulder and down the arm now the left arm letting go more gas and wincing probably something he ate Brian thought his mother had driven him from the city to meet the plane at Hampton where it came to pick up the drilling equipment a drive in silence a long drive in silence two and a half hours of sitting in the car staring out the window of the plane once after an hour when they were out of the city she turned to him look can't we talk this over can't we talk this out can't you tell me what's bothering you and there were the words again divorce split the secret how could he tell her what he knew so he had remained silent shook his head and continued to stare unseeing at the countryside and his mother had gone back to driving only to speak to him one more time when they were close to Hampton she reached over the back of the seat and brought up a paper sack I got something for you for the trip Brian took the sack and opened the top inside there was a hatchet the kind with a steel handle and a rubber hand grip the head was in a stout leather case but had a brass riveted belt loop it goes on your belt his father spoke now without looking at him there were some farm trucks on the roads now and she had to weave through and watch traffic the man at the store said you could use it you know in the woods with your father dad he thought not my father my dad Thanks it's really nice but the word sounded Hollow even to Brian try it on see how it looks on your belt and he normally would have said no would normally have said that no that looked too hokey to have a hatchet on your belt those were the normal things he would say but her voice was thin had a sound like something thin that would break if he touched it he felt bad for not speaking to her knowing what he knew even with the anger but a hot white hate of his anger at her he still felt bad for not speaking to her and so to humor her he loosened his belt and pulled the right side out and put the hatchet on and rethreaded the belt scootch around so I can see he moved around in the seat feeling only slightly ridiculous she nodded just like a scout my little scout and there was the tenderness in her voice that she had when he was small the tenderness that she had when he was small and sick with a cold and she put her hand on his forehead and the burning came into his eyes again and he had turned away from her and looked out the window forgotten the hatchet on his belt and so he arrived at the plane with the hatchet still on his belt because it was a bush flight from a small airport there'd been no security and the plane had been waiting with the engine running when he arrived and he grabbed his suitcase and pack bag and run for the plane without stopping to remove the hatchet so it was still on his belt at first he'd been embarrassed but the pilot had said nothing about it and Brian forgot it as they took off and began flying more smell now bad Brian turned again to glanced at the pilot who had both hands on his stomach and was grimacing in pain reaching for the left shoulder again as brian watched don't know kid the pilots words were hiss barely audible bad aches here bad eeks I thought it was something I ate but he stopped as a fresh spasm of pain hit him even Brian could see how bad it was the pain drove the pilot back into the seat back and down never had anything like this the pilot reach for the switch on his mic cord his hand coming up in a small arc from his stomach and he flipped the switch and said this is flight before 6:00 and now a jolt took him like a hammer blow so forcefully that he seemed to crush back into the seat and brian reached for him could not understand at first what it was could not know and then he knew Brian knew the pilots mouth went rigid he swore and jerked a short series of slams into the seat holding his shoulder now swore and hissed just oh god my chest is coming apart Brian knew now pilot was having a heart attack Brian had been in a shopping mall with his mother when a man in front of Paisley's store that suffered a heart attack he'd gone down and screamed about his chest an old man much older than the pilot Brian knew pilot was having a heart attack and even as the knowledge came to Brian he saw the pilot slam into the seat one more time one more awful time he slammed it back into the seat and his right leg jerked pulling the plane to the left side and a sudden twist and his head fell forward and spit came spit came from the corners of his mouth and his legs contracted up up into the seat and his eyes rolled back in his head until there was only white only white for his eyes and the smell became worse filled the cockpit and all of it so fast so incredibly fast that Brian's mind could not take it in at first he could only see it in stages the pilot had been talking just a moment ago complaining of the pain he'd been talking and then the jolts had come the jolts that took the pilot back and come and now Brian's sad and there was a strange feeling of silence and the thrumming roar of the engine a strange feeling of silence and being alone Brian was stopped he was stopped inside he was stopped he could not think past what he saw what he felt all was stopped very core of him the very center of Brian Robeson was stopped and stricken with a white flash of horror a terror so intense that his breathing his thinking and Helias heart had stopped stopped seconds passed seconds that became all of his life and began to know what he was seeing began to understand what he saw and that was worse so much worse that he wanted to make his mind freeze again he was sitting in a bush plane roaring 7,000 feet above the northern wilderness with a pilot who had suffered a massive heart attack and was either dead or in something close to a coma he was alone and a roaring plane with no pilot he was alone alone chapter two for a time that he could not understand Brian could do nothing even after his mind began working and he could see what had happened he could do nothing it was as if his hands and arms were led then he looked for ways for it not to have happened be asleep his mind screamed at the pilot just be asleep and your eyes will open now and your hands will take the controls and your feet will move the pedals but it did not happen the pilot did not move except that his head rolled on a neck impossibly loose as the plane hit a small bit of turbulence the plane somehow the plane was still flying seconds had passed nearly a minute and the plane flew on as if nothing had happened and he had to do something he had to do something but did not know what help he had to help he stretched one hand toward the pilot saw that his fingers were trembling and touched the pilot on the chest he did not know what to do he knew there were procedures that you could do mouth-to-mouth but victims of heart attacks and push their chests CPR but he didn't know how to do it and in any case he could not do it with the pilot who was sitting up in the seat still strapped in with a seat belt so he touched the pilot with the tips of his fingers touched him on the chest and could feel nothing no heartbeat no rise and fall of breathing which meant the pilot was almost certainly dead please Brian said but did not know what or who to ask please the plane lurched again hit more turbulence and Brian felt the nose drop it did not dive but the nose went down slightly and the down angle and creased the speed and he knew that at this angle this slight angle down he would ultimately fly into the trees he could see them ahead on the horizon before he could see only sky he had to fly it somehow he had to fly the plane he had to help himself the pilot was gone beyond anything he could do yet to try and fly the plane he turned back in the seat facing the front and put his hands still trembling on the control wheel his feet gently on the rudder pedals you pulled back on the stick to raise the plane he knew that from reading you always pulled back the wheel he gave it a tug and it slid back easily toward him too easily the plane with the increased speed from the tilt down swooped eagerly up and drove Bryan's stomach down he pushed the wheel back in went too far this time and the planes nose went below the horizon and the engine speed increased with the shallow dive too much he pulled back again more gently this time and the nose floated up again too far but not as violently as before then down a bit too much and up again as before then down a bit too much and up again very easily in the front of the engine cowling settled when he had it aimed at the horizon and it seemed to be steady he held the wheel where it was let out his breath which he'd been holding all this time and tried to think of what to do next it was a clear blue sky bay with fluffy bits of clouds here and there and he looked out the window for a moment hoping to see something town or village but there was nothing just the green of trees endless green and lakes scattered more thickly as the plane flew where he was flying but didn't know where I had no idea where he was going he looked at the dashboard of the plane studied the dials and hope to get some help hope to find a compass but it was all so confusing a jumble of numbers and lights one light to display on the top center the dashboard said the number three four to another next to it said - - down below that were dials with lines that seemed to indicate what the wind were doing tipping or moving and one dial with a needle pointing to the number 70 which he thought only thought might be the altimeter the device that told him is height above the ground were above sea level somewhere he'd read about altimeters but he couldn't remember what or where or anything about them slightly to the left and below the altimeter he saw a small rectangular panel with a lighted dial and two knobs his eyes had passed it over two or three times before he saw what it was written and tiny letters on top of the panel transmitter - - one was stamped in the metal and it hit him finally that this was the radio the radio of course you had to use the radio when the pilot had had been hit that way he couldn't bring himself to think that or say that the pilot was dead couldn't think it he'd been trying to use the radio Brian looked at the pilot the headset was still on his head turned sideways a bit from his jamming back into the seat and the microphone switch was clipped into his belt Brian had to get the headset from the pilot he had to reach over and get the headset from the pilot or he would not be able to use the radio to call for help he had to reach over his hands began trembling again he did not want to touch the pilot did not want to reach for him but he had to he had to get the radio he lifted his hands from the wheel just slightly and held them waiting to see what would happen the plane flew on normally smoothly all right he thought now how to do this thing he turned and reached for the headset slid it from the pilots head one eye on the plane waiting for it to dive the headset came easily but the microphone switch of the pilots belt was jammed in and he had to pull it to get it loose when he pulled his elbow bumped the wheel and pushed it in and the plane started down in a shallow dive Brian grabbed the wheel and pulled it back to hardigan and the plane went through another series of stomach wrenching swoops up and down before he could get it under control when things had settled again he pulled at the mic cord once more and at last jerked the cord free it took him another second or two you to place the headset on his own head and position the small microphone tube in front of his mouth he'd seen the pilot use it had seen him depressed the switch at his belt though Brian puts the switch in and blew into the mic he heard the sound of his breath in the headset hello hello is there anybody listening to this hello he repeated it two or three times and then waited but heard nothing except his own breathing panic came then he'd been afraid had been stopped with a terror of what was happening but now panic game and he began to scream into the microphone scream over and over help somebody help me I'm in this plane and I don't know no no don't know and he started crying with the screams crying and slamming his hands against the wheel of the plane causing it to jerk down then back up but again he heard nothing but the sound of his own sobs in the microphone his own screams mocking him coming back into his ears the microphone awareness cut into him he had used a CB radio and his uncle's pickup once you had to turn the mic switch off to hear anybody else he reached to his belt and released the switch for a second all he heard was the whoosh of empty airwaves then through the noise and Static he heard a voice whoever's calling on this radio net I repeat release your mic switch you're covering me you are covering me over it stopped and Brian hit his mic switch I hear you I hear you this is me you released the switch Roger I have you now the voice was very faint and breaking up please stay your difficulty and location and say over to end the transmission over state my difficulty Brian thought God my difficulty I'm in a plane with a pilot who is he can't fly and I don't know how to fly help me help he turned his mic off without ending the transmission properly there was a moment's hesitation before the answer signals breaking up and I lost most of it understand pilot can't fly correct over Brian could he barely hear him now heard mostly noise and Static that's right I can't fly the plane is flying now but I don't know how much longer over lost signal your location please flight number Dasia Burt I don't know my flight number or location I don't know anything I told you that over he waited now waited but there was nothing once for a second he thought he heard a break in the noise some part of a word but it could have been static to 3 minutes 10 minutes the plane roared and Brian listened but heard no one then he hit the switch again I do not know my flight number my name is Brian Robeson and we left Hampton New York headed for the Canadian oil fields to visit my father and I do not know how to fly an airplane and the pilot he let go of the mic his voice was starting to rattle and he felt as if he might start screaming at any second he took a deep breath if there's anybody listening you can help me fly a plane please answer again he released the mic but heard nothing and the hissing of noise in the headset after a half an hour of listening and repeating the cry for help he tore the headset off in frustration and threw it to the floor it all seemed so hopeless even if he did get somebody what could anybody do tell me be careful also hopeless he tried to figure out the dials again he thought he might know which was the speed it was a lighted number that read 160 but he didn't know if that was actual miles an hour or kilometers or if it just meant how fast the plane was moving through the air and not over the ground he knew airspeed was different from ground speed but not by how much parts of books he'd read about flying came to him how wings worked how the propeller pulled the plane through the sky simple things that wouldn't help him now nothing could help him now an hour past he picked up the headset and tried again it was he knew in in the end all he had but there was no answer he felt like a prisoner kept in a small cell that was hurtling through the sky and what he thought to be a hundred and sixty miles an hour headed he didn't know where just headed somewhere until there it was until what until he ran out of fuel when the plane ran out of fuel it would go down period or he could pull the throttle out and make it go down now he'd seen the pilot push the throttle in to increase the speed if he pulled the throttle back out the engine would slow down and the plane would go down those were his choices he could wait for the plane to run out of gas and fall or he could push the throttle in and make it happen sooner if he waited for the plane to run out of fuel he would go farther but he didn't know which way he was moving when the pilot had jerked he'd moved the plane but Brian could not remember how much or if it had come back to its original course since he didn't know the original cours anyway and could only guess at which display might be the compass the one reading three for two he did not know where he'd been or where he was going so it didn't make much difference if he went down now or waited everything in him rebelled against stopping the engine and falling now he had a vague feeling that he was wrong to keep heading as the plane was heading the feeling that he might be going off in the wrong direction but he could not bring himself to stop the engine and fall now he was safe or safer than if he went down the plane was flying he was still breathing when the engine stopped he would go down so he left the plane running holding altitude and kept trying the radio he worked out a system every 10 minutes by the small clock built into the dashboard he tried the radio with a simple message I need help is there anybody listening to me and the times between transmissions he tried to prepare himself for what he knew was coming when he ran out of fuel the plane would start down he guessed that without their propeller pulling he would have to push the nose down to keep the plane flying he thought he may have read that somewhere or it just came to him either way it made sense he would have to push the nose down to keep flying speed and then just before he hit he would have to pull the nose back up to slow the plane as much as possible it all made sense glide down and slow the plane and hit hit he would have to find a clearing as he went down the problem was that since he hadn't seen one clearing since they'd started flying the over the forest some swamps but they had trees scattered through them no roads no trails no clearings just the lakes and it came to him that he would have to use a lake for the landing but he went down in the trees he was certain to die the trees would tear the plane to pieces as it went into them he would have to come down and a lake no on the edge of a lake he would have to come down near the edge of a lake and try to slow the plane as much as possible just before he hit the water need you to say Hart he thought hard to do easy say hard do easy say hard do it became a chant that beat with the engine easy say R do impossible to do he repeated the radio call 17 times at 10-minute intervals working on what he would do between transmissions once more I reached over to the pilot and touched him on the face but the skin was cold hard cold death cold and Brian turned back to the dashboard he did what he could tighten the seatbelt positioned himself rehearsed mentally again and again what its procedures should be when the plane ran out of gas he should hold the nose down and head for the nearest lake and try to fly the plane kind of onto the water that's how we thought of it kind of fly the plane onto the water and just before it hit he should pull back on the wheel slow the plane to reduce the impact over and over his mind ran the picture of how it would go a plane running out of gas flying the plane onto the water the crash from pictures he'd seen on television he tried to visualize it he tried to be steady or be ready but between the 17th and 18th radio transmissions without a warning the engine coughed roared violently for a second and died there was a sudden silence cut only by the sound of the wind milling propeller and the wind past the cockpit Brian pushed the nose of the plane down and threw up

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Views: 342,440

Rating: 4.6306033 out of 5

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Id: D_j41uTcd9k

Length: 28min 43sec (1723 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 02 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/paper-table]

Loved this book as a kid!