Even with the sound of the sizzling, Alex doesn't hesitate to grab a big, particularly heavy book and smack it across the thickest of the ice where it's gathered at her upper back to put as many cracks in the surface as he can. Try as he might, he can't seem to will a spark between his own fingers, so he keeps at that, looking for places where the ice might be particularly thin, or have an air bubble or some other flaw that makes it more fragile.

"Come on, come on-" he mutters, half-scared, but more determined. He's not going to let someone suffocate and/or freeze to death in front of him.