A young boy had survived a terrible plane crash and was able to survive two months in the wild. Against all odds he survived…
Joel Shalom lived in a little town called Marsic, Poland. Shalom was the only one out of his family that survived the Holocaust. Shalom was a lonely boy with nothing left,his family was dead and his home was destroyed. One day he got a letter from his grandmother Rivka that lived in Krawow. Some how she had also survived. Shalom was very lonely so he decided to go live with his Grandmother. Shalom bought an airplane ticket, it was going to be his first flight. He got to the airport, checked in and anxiously awaited for the airplane. As the big metal bird arrived he felt something in his chest. He felt fear, a feeling he was used to after 4 years of hiding, but he felt something else, hope. He prayed and got onto the airplane.

As he was going to his seat 18A, everyone looked at him. Shalom noticed that every one was staring at his Yamulka. When he got to his seat he put his bag in the overhead cabinet and took his seat next to a big man that had blonde hair and blue eyes. The man looked at Shalom and asked “ Why do you pray” shalom answers “I pray to God for my well being” the blonde man answers “ There is no God.” Shalom looked at the man and thought how could someone lose faith in God? As the airplane took off he prayed.

One hour passed and Shalom started to relax. No longer nervous, he sat back listening to the engines roaring. He was looking at the light blue sky when suddenly a bolt of lightning hit the plane. Another lightning bolt hit the engines, the plane was free falling, Shalom prayed.

Shalom woke up, he was in the plane. He looked around, there weren’t any survivors, everyone was dead. He was very tired and his head felt like it was going to explode. His last thought was “I am alone, again”.

Shalom had slept for a whole day. He carried all the dead bodies out of the plane, he laid them in a row in the ice. He had hoped that any minute a helicopter would come and save him. As he waited he went to the food cabinet and took out a bag of chips. It was getting dark and he still wasn’t rescued. He started having doubts, he went back into the plane and slept.

The next day he went outside to check on the bodies, half of them were gone, he couldn’t believe his eyes, he looked all over the place to see if he could fined the bodies, but he never found them. Shalom set up a rabbit trap. He searched the plane for anything that would be useful, all he found was a flashlight and a knife. He counted his food and calculated he had 78 days worth of food and 80 days worth of water. When he went outside he had caught a rabbit. He remembered how his father had taught him to skin a rabbit, he made a small fire and cooked the rabbit. The rabbit tasted good, but the meat was a little chewy.

The next day he went exploring. He saw a pond and steam was coming out of it. Shalom took off his clothes and went into the warm bath. There were also fish in the pond. He made a spear and was able to catch two fish. Two months went by, every day he would catch fish and take a bath. One day he saw a huge ugly creature come out of forest, it looked at him directly. Shalom got scared and ran. He ran as fast as he could. The monster chased him at first but it could not keep up. Shalom was lost, he did not know how to get back to the plane. He walked all day, all he saw were trees. That night he slept in a tree.

When he woke up the monster was staring at him. Shalom jumped out of the tree and ran, he ran for his life. As he was running he saw a small village. When he got to the village he collapsed out of sheer exhaustion.
He woke in a soft bed with warm tea on the desk. Shalom got out of bed and left the cozy room. Shalom went into a room were there was a black lady cleaning the floors and two men in black suits, they were reporters. The reporters asked him what happened, he told them the story.
The reporters got up and left the room in shock at the story they had just heard, surely Shalom had gone crazy. The reporters had found out that there was another survivor. They went to talk to him.
The reporters went up to the man with the blonde hair and blue eyes and asked him “What happened”, he answered “One of the engines caught fire and they had an emergency landing.” Shalom and the blonde man were the only survivors. They took out the bodies of the dead and put them on ice, where they would not rot. 40 days after the crash their food ran out. He noticed that the bodies were also starting to disappear. One day he followed Shalom into the forest, where he always went, he saw Shalom eating a human. Shalom looked at him as he appeared from the bushes, Shalom ran away. He chased him the entire night until he found him sleeping in a tree. Shalom awoke and ran away once again, that’s how they stumbled into the village”.


The next day the story of their survival was printed on the news paper, curiously enough Shalom’s story was the one published. It was titled “The young man and the monster”.