Dead… alive… some state in between? Ari sensed only the searing pain suffusing his body. How long he’d lain there drifting in and out of consciousness he did not know. When at last he had fully regained his senses, he moved first one limb, then another, and decided that, though horribly bruised, he was all in one piece. Had any of the others survived?

“Hello!” he called out into the blackness. Nothing but echoes. “Anybody there?” he cried again. The echoes bounced back and forth as they faded into the distance—then absolute silence. Alone! That realization was suddenly terrifying. Where was he?