Chapter 17 and 18 summary

Brian works to gather more firewood and restore his shelter back to its original form. He was so exhausted from a long day of hard work, that he lies down to go to sleep when it comes to mind that the survival pack that the pilot had mentioned could still be in the plane, and perhaps he could access it. He starts to wonder what it could contain, Brian hopes that he will find tools or food, and decides to try and find it the following day. Brian falls asleep with the picture of the tail of the plane still in his mind. He wakes up the next morning and eats some fish to gain a little energy for his project and reasons that a raft would be the best method to get to the plane. Finding that the raft is going to be very difficult, Brian needed to find a way to attach the logs together. After many attempts and now frustrated, Brian entwines branches into the logs to hold them together. Moving the raft presents another challenge that will take time, and as nightfall approaches, Brian decides to go back to his shelter for the night and try again the next day. Brian sensed fall in the air on this glorious night in the woods. In the morning, he sets to get to the plane on his raft. Attaching the raft to the plane, Brian shutters as it occurs to him that he could possibly see the pilot down underwater. Angered by his inability to access the inside of the plane, Brian hits it with his fist and the aluminum covering opens. Using his  hatchet to cut through the rest of the sections, Brian is hacking away at a furious pace when he suddenly drops the hatchet and it slowly falls to the bottom of the lake. After a few tries, Brian finally succeeds in picking the hatchet up from the bottom, having barely enough air in his lungs to return to the surface. He continues to cut into the plane and swims down to retrieve the survival pack. On his way up he sees the pilot's head, the flesh had been eaten away by fish. Traumatized, Brian gets sick in the water and, struggling to free the pack from the plane, comes up to the surface. Exhausted from his efforts, Brian drags the survival pack back to his shelter and falls into a deep sleep