The Silence After

The thump of helicopter blades wakes you from a daze you didn't know you'd fallen into. Snow swirls. A spotlight finds you — alone on the bank, beacon still blinking weakly in your numb fingers.

You try to speak. You try to point upward, toward the dark shapes still tangled in the cables. But the rescuers are already lifting you, wrapping you, asking questions you cannot answer.

You lived. The gorge keeps the rest.