Atop a snowy peak the wind howled without restraint, dragging sheets of white across jagged stone and burying footprints the moment they were made. The sky was a pale endless grey, heavy with frost, as though the world itself had frozen in quiet observation.
"Haaaa."
A young man's eyes snapped open, lungs burning as he dragged in air that cut like broken glass. Panic struck first. His vision darted wildly, searching for danger that no longer seemed present yet still lingered in his bones.
Around him lay three other bodies, sprawled and unmoving except for faint shudders of breath. Their limbs were twisted in awkward angles, drained of strength, faces pale beneath streaks of frost.
"We made it," he muttered, though the words felt unreal even to him.
His fingers clawed into the snow as he crawled forward, each movement heavy. The cold seeped through his clothes, biting into skin already raw from whatever force had thrown them here.
