If this happened to a 12-year-old today, they’d have to use Google for advice. In other words, they’d just die.
This story also proves how much the Boy Scouts have gone to pot.
Utilizing starlin satellite communication the boy (of tomorrow) will hit 911 and rescue services would be on location in 20 minutes. Unless the world depicted in idiocracy turn out to be true the he is the lone survivor in a world wide rescue attempt where all of Europe and Asia just drive into the sea using a failed maps update via tunnels that don’t exist and all of north/South America starve in the biggest traffic jam known to man.
A woman hiking alone in Maine woods in recent years perished in a couple of days—thinking her cellphone would bring rescue.
Alas, no signal could be reached in that area.