the guy who had held the wrench was down , rolling around , in reacher 's judgement stunned not so much by the pain , most of which would be still to come , but by the awful dawning knowledge that life as he knew it was over , the momentary fears he might have experienced as an athlete after a bad on-field collision finally come true , his future now holding nothing but canes and braces and limps and pain and frustration and unemployment .