His body hit the ground with a force that knocked the wind from his lungs and he was tumbling downward over sharp, jagged rocks and ice. Snowdrifts flew into his face, blinding him. He continued to pick up speed as his body crashed into boulders. He brought his arms up to protect his head but winced as it left his body exposed to the hard, crushing terrain as he continued down the mountainside.

The boulder that stopped him felt like getting hit by a freight train and he gasped for a breath, feeling pain everywhere. He struggled to keep consciousness as he blinked, lifting his head to scan his surroundings, but he saw nothing but white, blowing snow and the jagged boulders that had bruised his entire body. He slowly moved his arms and legs. Miraculously, nothing seemed broken in his limbs, but his stomach and chest were throbbing with pain.

A wave of nausea hit him as dizziness made him black out for a moment. He continued to fight off the darkness as he struggled to get air into his lungs, but breathing and staying conscious was nearly impossible. Each inhale was followed by a shooting pain in both sets of ribs and his eyelids refused to stay open.

Trying to remember his emergency training, he fought to focus his thoughts on survival, but only images of his family—Cassie and his mom, his dad...and Erika flashed in his mind.

Was he dying? Were these images his final thoughts?

No. He blinked and tried to swallow the saliva nearly choking him as the nausea grew stronger. A dizzy spell had him throwing up and his pulse thundered as he noticed blood on the ground next to him.

He couldn’t assess the extent of his injuries and he had no idea where the blood was coming from, but it wasn’t good. Pain gripped his chest and he moaned, clutching the front of his jacket. He was barely holding on.

He fumbled for his bag, unzipping it and reaching inside. He tried to twist his body, but the pain searing through him made him feel as though he were impaled. Luckily a glance at his midsection revealed that wasn’t the case.

Blackness started closing in and he focused on survival. He needed his flare. He didn’t know how far he’d fallen...and the way his mind was straying he knew he was badly hurt. Time wasn’t his friend.

His eyes closed and he saw his mom and Cassie and Erika—they seemed to be rotating around him in a circle, all talking at once, all wearing looks of concern...

His eyes snapped open again. He couldn’t judge the length of the blackout. Could have been a few seconds or hours. His body felt ice-cold and the pain was subsiding.

Numbness. Shock was setting in.