Alex lay on the edge of the small beach, coughing up water weakly and staring down at the sand some what miserably; he had somehow managed to get to shore ten minutes ago and this had been the extent of his activities since then. He hated drowning.

A small, less dramatic voice in his head muttered about him not technically drowning but he silenced it and went on moaning about his too often repeated hatred of water involved death. After a good fifteen minutes of staying in this position his survival skills took over and he clambered to his feet and took stock of his situation.

He was physically and mentally exhausted from the stress of hanging from a cliff, falling 65.8 feet (according to his usually accurate calculations), and nearly drowning again. He hated drowning.

Before he could suck himself into this annoyed line of thought again he realized that in the distance he could see a ridiculously large cliff face and with a slight bit of disbelief he realized that he had somehow managed to end up on a beach about a mile from where he went into the water.

After a few minutes of staring in shock and disgust at just how far away he would have to walk through the woods that bordered the tiny beach he had washed up on, for undoubtedly his friends were still near to the cliff searching the water for a sign that his devil's luck had held he ghosted his hands over his body in a quick inventory check. One questionably fractured rib, bruises on the bottoms of feet from water entrance, alarming cough that was probably a side effect of the low water and air temperature, and a large bump on his head from where he had hit his head and blacked out moments after he had landed in the water.

He grinned- all in all it wasn't a bad terribly bad situation compared to what could have happened. Taking a moment to thank whoever was looking out for him he stepped off the beach and into the forest, perhaps, just this one time he would get back to his friends with no further problems and they would go back to Ben's apartment where warm beer and cold pizza awaited them. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but Alex felt like he was having a pretty good day.

AN: And...fin! Thanks for sticking with me so long you guys, you've been incredible! If I Should Die Before I Wake is officially finished but don't worry, I've got a sequel in the works that takes place five years from the end of this story! I hope you've enjoyed reading IISDBIW as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

Stay awesome-

Kat