They told me I was lucky. Most people wouldn't have lasted more than a few days in those conditions.
But I didn't feel lucky.
The cold, the hunger, the wolves—they haunted me long after I was safe. The Arctic wasn't just a place. It was a force, a relentless, uncaring expanse that stripped you down to nothing.
Surviving it had cost me pieces of myself, pieces I'd never get back.
But I was alive.
And sometimes, that's enough.