In the darkness, I could use a little company.

Crash and action

Chapter summary: As Will and Astrid fly through the sky, they witness strange lights before the plane suddenly loses power and crashes into a dense mountain forest. The two are separated, leaving Will alone and stranded in the harsh wilderness.

A small figure huddled along for warmth within the walls of an abandoned human dwelling. Sage's stomach gnawed with hunger pains. She hadn't eaten in two days. She wishes her family was still here; she misses them dearly, and she starts to tear up. This winter has been cruel, even to the humans that once lived here. Sage remembers how her father had been pacing back and forth just a few days ago in their little dwelling. Their food stores had depleted by that time. The beans that lived in the house had taken a lot of their food with them as they packed and left in a hurry. Sage remembers how her mother pulled her close in a warm hug; her parents were worried that they would starve or freeze with the harsh winter. They had left to go borrowing, which was the last she saw of them.

Sage tears up with grief, she knows in her heart that her parents are dead. She's lost her whole family to the bitter cold. Her siblings are gone, and now her parents. She wipes her eyes and gets up; she knows her family would not want her to give up. Sage, the youngest and smallest of her siblings (not that it mattered anymore, since she was the last.), was just a meager four inches tall—a delicate, fragile thing with wide, curious eyes that held a spark of determination despite her fear. She grabs her borrowing gear and goes searching for any kind of food, even if she must find a bug or small rodent to hunt. (Those are rare to find nowadays in the cold empty houses.)

The house her family had been living in proved once again barren. Sage knew that if there was food to be found, her father would have found it days ago. She gathered the courage to make her way to the next house over.

She fashions a zipline out of string. She ties the string to a home-made bow and arrow. She stands on the sill of the open window and shoots it over to the other house, window. She is lucky the other house window is open a crack. She takes a deep breath and zips over. The wind is cold and nips at her face. She had a rough landing, but she made it.

She carefully climbs down to the counter below. Again, she was lucky, and this window led to the kitchen. She is in luck she spots one can of beans. Granted, she has no idea how she would get it open. Maybe if she pushed it off, it would break open. Gathering her courage, Sage pushes with all her might, trying to make the can of goods fall off the edge.

Sage loses her footing as the can tumbles off the edge, her momentum taking her with it.

"Please, no!" she cried, her voice barely audible as she plummeted downward, arms flailing in a futile attempt to grasp any semblance of safety. But there was nothing to catch her, and she collided with the cold floor below.

The world went dark.

******

Will trudged through the deep snow, squinting against the biting wind. The crash kept replying in his mind - the way the small plane had shuddered and tilted sickeningly before plunging to the earth. He remembered the terror in Astrid's eyes in those final moments before they'd been thrown free from the wreckage. Now she was out there somewhere, alone in this frozen wilderness.

He had to find her. But to do that, he needed to survive.

The temperature was plummeting as night fell. Every inch of Will's body ached from the cold. He pulled his jacket tighter, but it provided little relief from the relentless wind. With each labored step, he sank to his knees in the heavy drifts. Exhaustion tugged at the edges of his consciousness, urging him to rest. But he couldn't stop - not with Astrid depending on him. He had to keep going.