Christopher Brandenburg told Alaska State Troopers he came to the remote site of an unfinished resort near Seward in May after being hired to help build a cabin there.

He stayed, according to troopers, because his boss — 38-year-old Alexander Herlant — held him at gunpoint and locked him in a shipping container.

Brandenburg, 35, said by phone Wednesday that he met Herlant through a Craigslist ad offering work unloading a landing craft in Puget Bay. The job was the latest that Brandenburg, originally from eastern Oregon, had taken during what his mother Vivian Brandenburg called "his first real big trip" as he visited Alaska and worked in the Seward area.

Now, Herlant stands accused of attempting to murder Brandenburg during an hourslong May 21 confrontation at the site about 25 air miles east of Seward. An affidavit against Herlant filed by trooper Sgt. Eugene Fowler chronicled a bizarre chain of events that at one point saw Brandenburg running for his life and playing dead in the forest.

A voice identifying itself as Herlant's asks people who call Puget Bay Adventures — a company offering stays at a cabin set to open this summer — to leave a phone message. A message left by Alaska Dispatch News at that number wasn't returned.

An ad on the site invites visitors to "lose the crowds, and find yourself." In a firsthand account posted there, the company's owner — listed as Herlant on Puget Bay Adventures' Alaska business license — discusses discovering Alaska during a vacation from Louisiana.

"I sold everything, drove what I had left up and found this amazing property and myself, (and) lived here for 4 months off the grid," the account reads.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Christopher Brandenburg said the scene wasn't quite so serene as the one promised by Herlant's website. A cabin cruiser of Herlant's was grounded on rocks, and shipping containers were lying on the beach.

"Things were pretty messy, pretty unorganized," Brandenburg said. "I figured, 'I'm here, I'll give it a shot.' "

Things initially went well, Brandenburg said. He established a friendship with Jim Allen, the captain of the landing craft that brought him to Puget Bay; at the cabin, Herlant and his girlfriend Anne Northover slept in one bedroom, while Brandenburg stayed in the other.

One of the first signs that something was wrong, Brandenburg said, were Herlant's three German shepherds — dogs that Herlant tried to introduce to Brandenburg, but that Brandenburg said bit his hands deeply enough to draw blood.

"They were constantly nipping at my legs and heels; I'm a dog guy, but these dogs were being super aggressive," Brandenburg said. "I was asking him, 'How are you going to have guests out here with these dogs?' "

After a few weeks, both men later told Fowler, they agreed Brandenburg wasn't working out and should leave, but poor weather was preventing boats from reaching the area.

That day, Brandenburg said, he and Herlant had a dispute over what to do about the grounded cabin cruiser. After that exchange, Brandenburg said, Herlant locked away the site's food supplies, as well as weapons that had been left out for protection against bears. When Brandenburg came back to the cabin for the night, things escalated further.

"He said, 'Chris, you had to know this was coming,' and he just slammed the door in my face," Brandenburg said.

Brandenburg was able to spend the night at an unoccupied cabin farther down the beach. He left Herlant's cabin with a satellite phone in his pocket, which Northover had previously loaned him, and he also had a rifle — which came in handy as he was left to forage for his own food.

"Sea life — mussels and things like that," Brandenburg said. "I tried to shoot a grouse; it was out of season, but I shot it and I ate it."

Matters came to a head at about 7 a.m. the next day, when Brandenburg fired two shots from a rifle. Brandenburg told Fowler he opened fire for no particular reason and aimed over the water away from Herlant's camp, but Herlant said he interpreted the shots as a threat.

Brandenburg told troopers he went to Herlant's camp at about 9 a.m. to speak with him. Just before he left, Vivian Brandenburg said, she and her son had a phone conversation that put her on alert.

"He called me again and said, 'I'm going to talk to this guy and work this out,' " she said. "And I said, 'Well, if you don't call me back in an hour, I'm calling in the cavalry.' "

By that point, Christopher Brandenburg said, he didn't have much hope for readily resolving the situation.

"I didn't know how bad things were going to get, but from the night before I knew they were going to get worse," Brandenburg said. "I said things were getting a bit 'Lord of the Flies' here."

Brandenburg told Fowler he was unarmed when he went to meet with Herlant, but that Herlant had a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol.

"Before I can talk he answers the door, pistol drawn," Brandenburg said. "I was told to strip to make sure I didn't have any weapons on me — I got my clothes back on, and he told me he was going to march me into the open ocean."

When an hour passed and Vivian didn't hear back from her son, she began calling Seward maritime businesses. Staff at one of them, Miller's Landing, were able to identify Herlant's cabin from her description of the area. Eventually, she got in touch with Allen, who also called troopers to explain the situation.

"Between (the clerk at) Miller's Landing and that gentleman, they saved my son's life," Vivian Brandenburg said.

Soldotna-based dispatchers began to receive sporadic calls from Herlant's satellite phone shortly before 10 a.m. that Saturday, and he initially told them he was holding Brandenburg at gunpoint.

"Herlant called back and said he shot Brandenburg and he was dead," Fowler wrote in the affidavit. "Herlant later called back and said Brandenburg was not shot or injured as he originally thought but he was holding him at gunpoint again."

In a more detailed account to troopers of what happened, Herlant said he fired two warning shots when Brandenburg tried to leave and began to walk toward the treeline.

As Herlant called troopers, Brandenburg said, he saw an opportunity to make a run for the nearby treeline.

"At that point I knew he was off his rocker," Brandenburg said. "As I went to run into the trees, he emptied a couple clips at me trying to kill me."

According to troopers, Herlant said he fired five or six more shots as Brandenburg fled, and that he didn't want to kill him but was afraid he might go get a gun.

All of the shots missed.

Brandenburg covered himself with moss and tried to hide. Herlant said he reported Christopher dead after finding him in the forest and poking him with a stick, but getting no response from him.

According to Brandenburg, he spent about 45 minutes in the woods before he tried to move from his hiding spot. When he did so, Herlant caught him in the act.

"I was more afraid than I can explain to you," Brandenburg said. "And this time he had a .357 (Magnum) and he put the gun to my head and told me to get up — he was just screaming, 'One (expletive) move and you're done!' "

With Brandenburg once again at gunpoint, Herlant told troopers, he walked him back to the beach to hold him there until responders arrived.

"He marched me into the water and kept me there as the tide was coming in," Brandenburg said. "We did that for an hour and a half, two hours."

Eventually, Herlant told investigators he ordered Brandenburg into a shipping container and locked him in, a development Herlant also reported by phone at the time to troopers in Soldotna.

High seas and an initial lack of available aircraft prevented troopers from immediately responding. Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said Cordova-based troopers arrived at the scene between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., aboard a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter responding to the gunfire as a possible medical emergency.

During that time, Peters said in an email, Fowler estimated Brandenburg spent "a few hours" inside the container. He later told Fowler he "made peace with dying," fearing Herlant would leave him locked away and that "no one would ever find him."

"I heard the Coast Guard helicopter pull up and my biggest fear was that it was just going to fly away, that he was just going to tell them I had run off into the mountains," Brandenburg said.

Herlant's girlfriend told Fowler she had seen Herlant holding Christopher at gunpoint. She heard gunfire later, she said, but was indoors at the time and didn't see anything.

Both men were flown to Cordova, where they were kept in custody until they could be interviewed; Brandenburg was freed, but Herlant was charged with third-degree assault as well as attempted murder. Court records show he was arraigned last week in Kenai and remained in custody Wednesday.

According to Brandenburg, one of the troopers at the Cordova post covered a five-night hotel stay for him out of his own pocket. His injuries from the dog bites were evaluated at an Anchorage hospital, and the state paid for a plane ticket for him to reach high school friends who now live in Homer.

Brandenburg said he's lost a few duffel bags of clothes and books he left behind in Puget Bay, along with his cash and any pay Herlant promised him. In their place, he's received several job offers — including one from Allen, the boat captain who brought him to Puget Bay — and some life lessons for any future job offers online.