Author's Note: Day 12 is...Tyler!

"This feels like a really bad idea," Riley said for the tenth time.

"Come on, Riley, have a little faith," Tyler told him as he laid his harness out on the ground.

"You heard Ms. Morgan, this whole cave system is unstable."

"But there might be an energy down there," Shelby argued, looking over the equipment. "We have to at least look."

"So send like…a drone or something."

"Riley, I'll be fine," Tyler reassured him as he tightened the straps on his harness. "I've done tons of cave diving and rock climbing. I know what I'm doing." He finished and double checked all of his straps. "Ok, I'm set. Chase, Koda, are the belay ropes ready?"

"You bet," Chase said. "Don't worry Riley, we won't drop Tyler on his head."

"Tyler be ok, even if dropped don head," Koda added. "Tyler head very hard. That what Shelby say."

"Ok, everyone let's focus," Shelby said quickly. "Chase, Koda get into position. Riley can you help me monitor the caves?"

Tyler put on his helmet, then walked to the cave opening. It was fairly narrow, just big enough for him to squeeze through. He swallowed and shook his hand to loosen his anxiety. 'I don't have anything to worry about,' he thought. 'It'll be fine. What could go wrong?' He looked back at Chase and Koda. "You guys ready?"

"Ready!" Chase called.

"Good luck Tyler," Shelby told him.

"Stay in constant contact and be careful," Riley added.

"Will do." Tyler sat down so he could slide his feet in the hole. It was pitch black beneath him, so he turned on his head lamp. 'Ok, let's do this.' Very carefully, he lowered himself down while turning around. For a few seconds, his arms strained with his body weight until his feet found purchase against the cave wall. He moved cautiously, making sure to fund footholds before he continued to lower himself. Finally, he reached his shoulders. He held his breath, as he lowered his shoulders through the opening. His left hand looked for purchase or a hand hold. When he thought he'd found one, he let go with his right hand.

Unfortunately, his left hand's hold wasn't as strong as he'd hoped and he slipped. For a few terrifying seconds, Tyler free fell until his harness jerked him to a stop.

"Tyler!" Chase yelled. "You good?"

"I'm good!" Tyler shouted back. His voice echoed a little in the cave. He looked at the wall and groaned. "I lost contact with the wall! It's too far too each!"

"Should we pull you back up?!"

"Uh…" Tyler looked around, flashing his head lamp along the wall. "No! Lower me about ten feet! There's a ledge I can grab!"

"Cna do!"

Slowly, and bumpily, Chase and Kora lowered him even further. As they did, Tyler took stock of the cave. It was fairly narrow, especially compared to other caves he'd been in. 'Looks like it might be wider under those ledges though,' he thought, looking down for a few seconds. It seemed the ledges form a bottle neck. It was the perfect place for him to land. When he was close enough, he reached out and pulled himself on to the ledge. He pulled himself up, then stood. "Guys," he said over his communicator. "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Riley reassured him. "See any energems yet?"

"Not yet. The ledges here form a bottleneck and there's more cave underneath. I'm going to look under there."

"Do we have enough rope for that?" Riley asked him. "We're not even positive how deep this cave goes."

"I don't think it's too deep. Besides, I can at least go as far as the ropes will let me. That way we can tell Ms. Morgan that we looked as far as we could." Tyler put his commutator back on his belt, next to his morpher. He wiped at his forehead with his arm, then readjusted his helmet. He used his headlamp to vaguely mark out the best hand and footholds for the next few feet. 'Ok, down I go.' Tyler sat on the edge, the lowered himself down the wall. For the first couple of feet, he was doing good. Then, he heard a rumbling. Tyler stopped, arms and legs spread on the wall like Spiderman. He looked up at the opening. "What-"

The wall shook with such ferocity that Tyler was thrown clear off it. He spun a few times and dropped several inches, horribly tangling his ropes. Unfortunately, when he thrown from the wall, he'd instinctively grabbed the ropes to steady himself. Three of his fingers were snagged between as they twisted with all of Tyler's body weight on them. Snap! "Ahh!" Tyler screamed as he jerked his hand back. His head swam from the pain, but he didn't even have time to process that before he heard another rumbling sound. Groaning, he looked up to see an avalanche of rocks falling toward him. Smaller ones fell past him while the bigger ones gathered at the ledges.

Then the ropes snapped. Tyler's heart jumped into his throat as his lines went slack, finally releasing their vice-grip on his fingers. His stomach rolled as felt weightless for half a second, then fell. Tyler moved instinctively, getting his body into a better position to survive the fall. Because of how fast he fell, he just barely managed to roll when he hit the cave floor. Everything in his body jolted and bile rose in his throat. He rolled a few feet, then threw tucked his head into his arms as small rocks continued to fall around him. Something hard hit his ankle, but he didn't move until everything stopped.

Tyler laid on the cave floor, gasping for breath and coughing up rock dust. He mentally counted to ten after everything had gone quiet before slowly lifting his head. Despite being a ranger, he found that his whole body shook from the shock what had just happened. 'What…did happen?' he wondered. It had all been so fast. He twisted his body to look up. Roughly 12 feet above him, giant boulders created an impenetrable ceiling. 'Thank God for those ledges or I would've been toast,' Groaning, Tyler tried to push himself up. "Ah!" He had to quickly take pressure off his right hand, she dropped back down. He titled his head down enough to look at them.

The ropes appeared to have taken off a few layers of skin because blood dripped down his hand. Dark busies already decorated the his fingers as well as his palm right below them. He grimaced. 'Definitely broken. Maybe even my hand too.' Moving more cautiously, he tried to use his left arm to pull himself, only to discover he couldn't move. He looked back and cursed. His left foot was trapped under a bunch of rocks. Tyler lifted his right foot and kicked at the pile. It took a few tries, but he eventually managed to get himself free. This time, he managed to drag himself to the cave wall so he could sit. He pulled his leg close to examine his ankle. Even just moving his leg sent spasms of pain up and down the appendage. He peeked at his ankle around his boots. 'It feels borken,' he thought. "Great.' Slowly, he eased his leg outward again. 'Just great.'

The communicator beeped.

Tyler had to twist his body uncomfortably to grab it. He held it awkwardly in his left hand, fumbling to hit the button. At first the screen was static, then the image of his team's worried face filled the screen. "Guys," he gasped. He took off his helmet, balancing it on his right knee so it would I've him some light. "Guys, can you hear me?"

"Tyler!" Shelby said. "Thank God you're alive!"

"The ropes went slack and we thought…" Chase began, but quickly trailed off. It was easy to guess what they'd thought.

"I'm still alive. Very…banged up, but alive. What happened?"

"An earthquake," Riley informed him grimly. "It was strong enough to destabilize the cave and caused a cave in."

"Good thing for the ledges up there or I'd be history." Tyler coughed. Every breath forced him to inhale dirt particles and rock dust in the air. His mouth was dry and his tongue already felt like it was coated in the stuff. "I broke my fingers and maybe my hand on my ropes and I think my ankle is broken too."

"We'll figure out a way to rescue you. It'll take a minute though because the cave is probably more unstable now than it was before and we don't want to…you know…cause it to cave in more."

"Great."

"Bu don't- We'll have- Morgan-"

"Riley? Guys?" The static slowly overtook the communicator as the sound kept putting out. "Guys? Guys?!" Static disappeared as the screen flicked to black. "Guys?" Tyler banged his communicator on the ground, but nothing happened. "Dead. Fantastic." He coughed again, then sat back against the cave wall. "Guess, all I can do is wait." Tyler set the communicator aside, then turned his attention to first aid. It took him a few tries with one hand, but Tyler managed to tear off a big enough strip of his shirt for a bandage. Wincing and hissing in pain, he wound it around his fingers. The stinging brought tears to his eyes, but he needed to stop the bleeding. When it was sufficiently tight he tied it off awkwardly, using his teeth to assist.

Next, Tyler grabbed his helmet. Using his good hand, he slowly shone the headlamp's light around the the walls. He moved meticulously, trying to check every inch. "Well, that just about sums up the situation. I'm almost died and there isn't even an energy down here." Tyler set his helmet off to the side, allowing the head lamp to cast his area into a low light.

Tyler set his head back against the cave wall. Most of the pain was concentrated in his ankle and hand (with the added bonus that he was starting to feel the rope burn on the latter) but his whole body ached. "All I want to do is lay in bed and sleep. Maybe forever." The venture had left him exhausted. "Next time, it's Chase who's going in the hole."

Without his communicator, he didn't have any way to know what his team was doing. So, all he could do was wait and hope for the best. Every few minutes, he heard the rocks above his head shifting. After about the fifth time, he put his helmet back on. Better safe than sorry. Luckily, he couldn't see any rocks moving, but that gave him very little hope. "If those rocks fall, I have nothing to hide under." He supposed the only silver lining (if it could be called that) was that if he died down here, his energem would be hidden from Sledge. "That's me, always looking on the bright side." Tyler coughed again, then licked his lips with a grimace.

'God, I'm so thirsty. All this stuff in the air is making it worse.' Tyler closed his eyes for a few seconds, breathing through spasms of pain. 'I hope they get here soon. I probably don't have a ton of oxygen down here.' If it was between being crushed by boulders or asphyxiation, I'd pick being crushed. It seems quicker and therefor less painful.' Always the positive guy. 'If only I could just…positive vibe my way out of this situation.' He coughed again, wincing as pain stabbed at his ribs. 'Probably broke some of those as well. Wouldn't be surprised.' When he opened his eyes, his heart stopped.

The head lamp was flickering.

'No, no, no, no…' The word repeated on a loop in Tyler's head. His breathing increased and an uncomfortable pressure pushed against his chest. Anxiety spiked through his brain as the head lamp flicked again. "No, no, don't you dare die on me too." Tyler gasped for breath quickly, suddenly feeling as though he couldn't breathe at all. He clenched his left hand into a fists to give himself something focus on. 'Calm down, Tyler,' he thought. 'Have to…calm down…' He moved his shaking hand to his chest, then forced himself to breathe slower. It was hard because it forced him to fight against his brain's survival instinct, but he forced slower breaths.

Finally, he got his breathing back under control. However, his head lamp kept flickering, so he had to keep his hand on his chest to force himself to breathe slow. 'Slow and steady,' he told himself. 'Slow and steady. The last thing you need is to pass out down here. That wouldn't make the situation better.' However, his anxiety kept building every time the light flickered. 'It's ok. The team will find a way to rescue me. Between Ms. Morgan, Riley, and Shelby, they have all the brain power they need. I believe in them.' Brain power or not though, he wished they would work faster.

Tyler's breath suddenly hitched as his head lamp flicked out, then came back on. He coughed again, falling into a coughing fit. When it subsided, he glanced up at the rocks above him again, sending a silent prayer that they wouldn't fall. The had lamp kept flickering in and out.

Once.

Twice.

Darkness.