[center][h1]Snowy Mountain - Slippery Slope Down[/h1]

[@LordVoldemort][@Solace][@FrostedCaramel][@LetMeDoStuff][@Ambra][@Aquanthe][@QT][@SheriffLlama][/center]

"What d'you reckon, halfway down?"

[color=Gray]The senior guide chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully as he gazed down the mountain and then back up again, eyes narrowed against the reflection of the sun's rays off the snow's white brilliance.  Eventually he nodded in agreement, casting his gaze back along the line of cadets trudging on past them.  Many were worse for ware, exhausted from the climb up the previous night and many suffering the ill-effects of their first taste of alcohol.  Veterans and guides trudged along at intervals, chivying them on, all the while staring up the mountain for any sign of danger; especially when they were furthest between safe zones.[/color]

"We'll be out of the danger zone before long.  We could take a break then, some of the kids look like they need it."

[color=Gray]As he spoke one of the cadets a few paces from them wobbled and fell with a curse, nursing a leg with a pained grimace on their face.  Some of his fellows stopped to check on him, kneeling down the in the snow to look at the injury.  Shaking his head, the veteran guide looked back up the mountain again.  And froze.[/color]

"Attention!" [color=Gray]He roared, swinging his companion around and pointing towards the cadets before them.[/color] "Take that group to the next rest stop.  We'll pull back to the previous one.  Go!"[color=gray]  He didn't need to point out the red trail of smoke from a flare above them, an early warning from the team still at the cabins, as the other guides had all looked up the moment he shouted to them all.  There was a whirlwind of activity as the guides and veterans shoved cadets in one direction or another before charging up to the designated safe area themselves.

Moments after they began the ground began to tremble slightly under their feet, the tremor growing in strength and soon followed by a deep rumbling from above.  Anyone looking up the mountain could soon see the white mist of an approaching avalanche, followed by the massive landslide of snow which carried stone and trees and any other obstacles in its path down at terrifying speed.[/color]

[hr]

[centre][h2][color=7ea7d8]Lauren Jones[/color][/h2][/centre]

[color=Gray]She had been walking alongside Mora, Jade behind them, when the small girl yelped out and struggled with the other cadet who had fallen upon her.  While amusing, the anger on Jade's face was less so but she seemed more embarrassed than angry at the boy whose face was pale from whatever plagued him; Lauren suspected it was probably alcohol the previous evening causing his misfortune.  Everything was in hand so she hiked her pack and continued on, the others would catch up and she didn't want to lose the rhythm she had been getting into.  Although she herself had not partaken in as much drinking the previous night her body was still sore from the strain of the hike and her general lack of proper sleep wasn't helping much either.

When the call came for them to seek shelter she span around, her first instinct to look for Mora and Jade but they were both further behind her and closer to the rest area.  She began to head towards them when she heard someone yelling for help behind.  Pausing a moment she saw a boy who had fallen over in the snow struggling to stand, limping after the others who were leaving him in their rush to get to safety themselves.  The trembling under her feet was growing stronger but she couldn't leave someone behind.

She ran back, pulling an arm of the boy over shoulders and setting up after the others who were some distance away already.  Behind her she could hear more cries of confusing and please for aid, others who had perhaps fallen or were nursing sprains or other injuries, but she couldn't slow down to help anyone else.  Putting the thought that she was abandoning fellow cadets out of her mind she focused only on trudging up the mountain to the safe area, half carrying the injured cadet who was whimpering every time they put their right foot down.

[color=7ea7d8]"Look, nearly there.  You can see the posts."[/color] She breathed, nodding up the incline to where one of the posts marking the safe areas was just visible, a steep wall where the path doubled back on itself as it wound further into the mountains protecting the area from any land slips.  Putting on a spurt of speed and ignoring the cry of her muscles, as well as the thundering sound of the approaching avalanche, Lauren began to see the others, sitting down or resting their hands on knees, panting from their sudden run back up the mountain.

Then something hard cracked against the side of her head and sent her reeling, pulling the cadet she was aiding with her.  A white and red mist of snow and blood spread across her vision before that went blank, pain searing through her skull and drowning out all sound with just a high pitched whine taking its place.  She felt herself stumble a few steps before falling into the snow, the world feeling as if it were spinning around her although she couldn't see anything, the pain blanking out everything but her adrenaline too high to let her lose consciousness. 

Blood gushed from the gash across the side of her head, above the ear, flooding down her face and covering her left eye before pooling into the snow and turning it red in a halo underneath her head. Subconsciously a part of her acknowledged that a head wound would always bleed heavily but she was in no state to evaluate the seriousness of her injury. If the stone that had struck her had not been covered in snow from its brief tumble down, dislodged by the mountain shuddering from the avalanche's advance, then she would have been killed instantly.

She felt numb all over with the contrast of the warmth of her blood on the left of face against cold of the snow on the right strangely acute. She could feel the approach of the avalanche, though, through the rumbling in the mountain that shuddered through her body which refused to obey her.  Every time she tried to move the wrong limb juddered, she panicked as her legs flailed uselessly when she tried to push herself up on her arms, unable to even crawl up the mountain to safety.

Just as she began to give up hope she felt strong arms grab her, pulling her up the slope rapidly just as the thundering shudder of the avalanche reached a crescendo.  Whoever her rescuer was propped her up against the mountain face.  Her vision was beginning to return but it was blurry, she was barely able to make out individuals let alone faces or features that would identify the people around her.  She still couldn't hear, the whining sound still blocking her ears and the pain was numbing her entire mind and body, barely allowing her to think.

[color=7ea7d8]"My bag... poultice... bandages...."[/color] She whispered, unable to hear her own voice but sure it was inaudible over whatever noise the avalanche was making, her head rolling from side to side as if her neck couldn't sustain its weight any longer. [color=7ea7d8]"Press hard... stop bleeding...."[/color] She was reciting instructions drilled into her memory years before, not consciously able to structure her thoughts helpfully. Before long her eyes rolled back into her head which lolled to the side, threatening to tip her over if not for the weight of her bag holding her in place. The adrenaline levels in her body had levelled off and unconsciousness took her into its black abyss.[/color]