I rejoin my mountain climbing club friends after checking out a couple of hotels in a resort town. I tell them I didn't see anything very special. We get into a van and start to drive away.

My right thigh stings a bit as though it has been sunburned just above the knee. I pick at the skin a bit, and pull away a large flap. All the skin is dead, and it tears back to the point where I can see into the chasm of the knee, a huge dark empty space. A clean white bone is visible inside.

It doesn't hurt yet, but I think it's going to. The first time I put the flap back into place, it fits nicely, but then it gets out-of-place and kind of messy. Whatever it was we were going to do, it seems it is probably a bad idea with this injury. Maybe I should go to the hospital. "Where is Kipp, we need him here!" I yell out, referring to the club's resident doctor.