Mystery on Majestic Mountain (Kristi Cameron Book 9)

by Cynthia Griffith

  “Good!” Rachel answered. “I’m just going to sit by the fire here with my book and enjoy my time off from kitchen duty! Enjoy your nap!” Liz picked up the baby and took Jenny by the hand and went up the stairs.

  “How are you doing up there, Mr. Andrews?” Rachel called up to the loft. “Do you need anything?” There was no answer. “Mr. Andrews?”

  “I’ll go up there and check on him, Mom,” Kristi offered. “I have to go up to get his dishes anyway.” She ran up the stairs.

  Skeeter had only stacked one armload of wood when he called to his dad, “I’m gonna run in and get my goggles, Dad! The sun is bright against the snow and I forgot my sunglasses. I’ll be right back!”

  He went inside and climbed the stairs. Kristi was in the loft looking around as if she’d lost something. “What are you doing, Kristi?” he asked.

  “Looking for Mr. Andrews! I thought he was up here, but he’s not.”

  “Well, he’s got to be somewhere. He’s not downstairs. I have to find my goggles, but I’ll help you look.”

  “That’s okay, Skeeter. He shouldn’t be too hard to find! He’s a pretty big guy,” she laughed. They went their separate ways.

  She was surprised when she found the old man behind the first door she opened. “Mr. Andrews! What are you doing in my mom and dad’s room?”

  He was as surprised to see her as she was to see him. He stepped away from the dresser guiltily. “Uh, er—just using their bathroom, that’s all! Now, excuse me—I have to get back to work.” He brushed past her and went back out to the loft.

  That’s weird, she thought. Why didn’t he just use the hall bathroom like he was supposed to? She shrugged and started back down the stairs.

  Skeeter had climbed the ladder into his little hideaway loft to look for his goggles. After his joke on the other teens he had come back later and hidden them for real up there, along with several other items he thought would come in handy as a spy. Not that he would ever admit to the others that he still liked to play “kid stuff” like that, of course! Besides his “night vision goggles,” he had a flashlight and an invisible ink pen (invisible because it had actually run out of ink), a piece of rope, a special agent walkie-talkie watch (well, it was really just a watch, but he could pretend it was a two-way radio, anyway) and a secret stash of candy bars.

  He was just reaching for his goggles when he heard a loud rumbling noise and felt the little loft begin to shake. Earthquake? he thought. Do they have earthquakes up here in the mountains?

  Kristi was halfway down the stairs when she felt it. It was the loud noise that had her puzzled, though. What was that? It sounded like a freight train barreling down the tracks!

  Dan and Pete stopped chopping wood and looked up. Was it their imagination or was the ground trembling? And what was that sound? Suddenly they saw Steve come running around the side of the house, yelling something, but what was it? It was hard to hear above that roaring noise. Suddenly his words became clear.

  “Avalanche!” Steve screamed. “Avalanche! Run! Dan, Pete—run, run! Avalanche!”

  ___________

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ___________

  Avalanche!

  Steve looked up when he heard the thunderous rumbling begin. Before his very eyes he saw the snowy slopes above the log house begin to crumble and slide. An entire mountain of snow and trees seemed to be headed right for them!

  “Avalanche!” he yelled, dropping his shovel. “Run! Get to the cabin!” he shouted to Jake.

  Jake didn’t have to be told twice. He could feel the earth shaking under his feet as thousands of tons of snow and rock and trees came rushing toward them.

  Steve started to follow him, when suddenly he remembered the boys. From where they were chopping the wood they wouldn’t be able to see what was hurtling at them. The house was blocking their view. Steve changed directions and ran as fast as he could through the deep snow around the corner of the cabin. There were Pete and Dan, but where was Skeeter? “Avalanche!” he shouted. “Avalanche! Run! Dan, Pete—run, run! Avalanche!”

  They stood there staring at him for a second, but suddenly his words sunk in and they began to run.

  “Get inside! Get inside!” he screamed. It was their only hope of protection from the massive slide. But where was Skeeter? He looked around frantically and then he remembered. Skeeter had gone inside for his goggles. Steve turned around and ran for his life, as well.

  * * *

  Skeeter was in his secret hideaway when the roof above him began to collapse. He tried to lunge for the ladder, but the beams above him came crashing down and blocked his way. He covered his head with his arms and scooted back, making himself into as small a ball as he could. He pressed back against the short log wall, not understanding at first what was happening.

  The noise was deafening and the shaking was terrifying for what seemed to be forever, but at last it stopped. There was silence except for a loud creaking noise as the roof sagged to the breaking point without its support beams. A few seconds later there was a loud crack and boom and the roof caved in altogether beneath the load of snow that had slid off the mountainside onto the cabin. Skeeter was forced into a narrow crevice between the wall and the tons of snow and debris that now filled the little loft, as well as the room itself.

  He finally opened his eyes. He stared through fallen beams at what had been a bedroom with bunk beds and dressers. It was gone. He stared at the wood and shingles and snow and tree branches that filled the tiny loft. He stared up, where the roof should have been, at the bright blue sky and the sun that still shone down brightly as if a disaster had not just happened.

  He moved his legs. They couldn’t stretch out, but at least they were not pinned. Skeeter wiggled his toes and fingers. Everything seemed to be working. He reached out and touched the snow that was just inches from his face. “This is ‘snow’ unbelievable!’” he muttered. “Hey, I must be okay if I can make jokes about it!” he thought. He wasn’t laughing, though.

  His next thought was for his family and friends. Where was everyone? Why didn’t they all come running to help him when the roof caved in? “Help!” he yelled. “I’m stuck!” There was no answer. “Help!” A terrible thought occurred to him. Were they stuck, too? Were they

  buried under all that snow?

  “Dad! Mom!” he screamed louder now. “Dan! Kristi! Anyone?” he stopped for a minute and listened. He couldn’t hear anything. “Dad! Where are you? Help!” Nothing.

  Skeeter bowed his head on his hands and prayed, “Lord, I don’t know what’s happened or where everyone is, but we need a lot of help! Please take care of my mom and dad and Kristi and Dan and everyone else and bring all of us out of this okay, if it’s Your will. Thanks for keeping me safe but now I’m asking you to help me get out of here so I can start looking for everyone else. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

  “Anyone?” he shouted again. “Can anyone hear me?” He paused once more to listen. Yes! This time he heard something! It was a baby crying. Cody. Where was it coming from?

  Skeeter put his ear up close to one of the chinks in the wall. The logs were too thick, but maybe if he listened where that gray stuff filled in the gaps between the logs… Yep. He could hear the baby better there. The fourth bedroom was on the other side of this wall, he remembered then. His mom had told Liz she could use it. “Liz!” he yelled, putting his mouth against the chink. “Liz! Can you hear me?”

  He had an idea. Skeeter felt around. He had had his spy kit in one hand when the avalanche struck—an old stocking cap stuffed with his spy gear. It was gone now, but if he could just find it… He felt around and a minute later he had touched one edge of it—half-buried under a mound of snow. He started digging around it. Finally he gave the ratty knit cap a hard yank and it came free with all its treasures still inside. He felt like yelling Whoo-Hoo! His first success in somehow getting himself out of this mess!

  Skeeter pulled the invisible ink pen out of the ski cap and began chippin
g away at the gray chinking between the logs. At first it did not budge. It was like trying to crack cement with a toothpick, but finally Skeeter noticed an old crack running through part of it and he focused on that. Little by little the gray stuff began to flake away and fall out in little chunks, until finally he was able to poke the pen all the way through and scrape out several inches of chinking. He put his eyes to the narrow slit and looked through.

  The bedroom on the other side of the wall was pretty much gone, as well. He could see part of the bed’s headboard sticking up out of the snow against what was left of one of the walls. Everything else was gone—the roof, the furniture; even the top parts of the outside walls had been torn off or crumbled.

  Cody was still crying but Skeeter couldn’t see him. “Liz!” he tried again. “Liz, where are you?”

  This time he heard a muffled cry. “Here! Help!”

  “Where is here, Liz? I can’t see you!”

  “Under the bed! Can you help us get out, Skeeter?”

  “I’m stuck, too! I can see into your room, though. Liz, the snow isn’t so deep on the right side of the bed. You can probably dig through there.”

  “Will anything come crashing down on us if I do?”

  “No. Everything is already down. The roof caved in but there’s enough room I think for you to crawl out. Are Jenny and Cody okay?” The baby was still wailing.

  “Yes. We had just lain down to take a nap when I heard the noise. As soon as the roof started caving in I grabbed the kids and dove under the bed. I’m trying to dig through the snow now, Skeeter. Can you see anything yet?”

  “Not yet.” He watched for a few more minutes and then said, “Yes! I see the snow moving now! You’re almost through, Liz! Good job!”

  A minute later her hand appeared and he could see it pushing snow away, trying to widen the opening. A part of the roof was sticking up through the snow less than two feet away so it would be a tight squeeze. “Skeeter,” he heard her call. “If I put Jenny through first, is it safe enough for her for a minute or two? I will have to hand the baby out to her and then crawl through last myself. Will that work?”

  “I think so. I’ll tell her what to do once she’s out, Liz. She’s a smart little girl. She’ll be okay.”

  Liz didn’t answer but a minute later he saw Jenny’s hands appear through the hole and soon her head was out, as well. She was whimpering and scared.

  “Jenny!” he called. “Jenny, look up! It’s me, Skeeter! Can you see my fingers wiggling up here? I’m waving at you! Hi, Jenny!” He stuck his fingers through the crack between the logs and wiggled them.

  The little girl looked up and smiled. The whimpering stopped. “Hi, Skeeter!” she giggled and waved back.

  “Jenny, take three little baby steps toward me, okay? We have to make room for Mommy and Cody to get out. One, two, three! That’s good!”

  “Jenny, I’m going to put Cody through the hole now, okay?” Liz called to her. “Can you hold his hands for a minute until Mommy gets out there with you? Here he comes!”

  Skeeter watched as Jenny pulled her little brother away from the hole. “Good girl!” he praised her. She looked pleased but a second later she said, “I’m cold! Too much snow! Where’s my mommy?” Cody was crying even harder as he sat in the cold, wet snow.

  “I’m coming, Jenny! See! Here I am!” Liz appeared through the hole now. She wiggled her way out finally and scooped up the baby. She hugged him close and then leaned down and gathered Jenny in her arms, as well. “Thank God! Oh, thank God!” she murmured.

  She looked up finally and said, “Where are you, Skeeter?”

  “Up here!” He wiggled his fingers through the crack again.

  “How did you get way up there?” she asked, surprised.

  “I’m in a little loft that was above our room. Kind of a storage area, I guess. The roof caved in here, too, and I’m stuck. I can move but there’s nowhere to go.”

  Liz looked closely at the wall that separated the loft from her room. “Skeeter, part of that wall has fallen about eight feet from where you are. Can you see it? If you can make it to that section, you can probably crawl through. Be careful, though! Don’t move anything if it’s going to make something else fall on you!”

  Skeeter turned carefully and crept forward in the direction Liz had pointed. Several boards from the roof blocked his way. He pushed on one of them carefully and was surprised to feel it move easily beneath his hand. He gave it a shove and held his breath as the rest of the boards shifted unsteadily. They stopped wobbling and Skeeter took a closer look. There was nothing he could see that looked dangerous, so he gave the boards another shove.

  They went crashing down. “Are you okay, Skeeter?” Liz cried.

  “Yes! I see what you were talking about now! Here I come!” Skeeter crawled forward with nothing between him and freedom now. When he reached the gaping hole in the wall he poked his head through and said, “Peek-a-boo! Hi, Jenny! Hi, Cody!”

  The baby stopped crying and stared at this funny boy who had suddenly popped out of the wall! Jenny giggled. Skeeter slid out head first and landed in a heap in the snow. “Here I am!” he announced with a grin.

  “Oh, Skeeter! I’m so glad you’re okay!” Liz said. “What about everyone else? Where is everyone?”

  The grin disappeared from Skeeter’s face. “I don’t know. I yelled but no one answered. We have to get out of here and start looking for them.”

  Liz nodded. “I have to find some way to get the kids warm, too. Everything I have is buried under the snow. They’re going to freeze if we don’t find some way to warm them up.”

  “Let me see if I can get over to the door,” Skeeter said. A heap of rubbish and snow blocked their way to the bedroom door. Skeeter climbed the pile, trying to be careful of nails sticking out of boards and cracks that might give way beneath him. He clambered over and down again and finally reached the door.

  He fumbled with the knob, pushing and then pulling. The door wouldn’t open. “I can’t get it open,” he called to Liz. It’s blocked on the other side, I think.”

  “What are we going to do? It’s too dangerous with the little ones to try to climb out and go around on the outside of the house. The snow is too loose and unstable. We could end up buried out there.”

  Skeeter thought for a moment. “Let me go back through the way I came and see if I can find a way out through the other room. Now that I moved that section of roof, maybe there’s a way. And here—take my jacket and put it on Jenny. I was outside just before the avalanche happened so I still had it on. And here—here’s my sweatshirt for Cody. I still have a long-sleeved T-shirt on.”

  “No, no! I can’t take your clothes, Skeeter!” Liz protested.

  “It’s okay! The kids need them more than I do. Do you think you could give me a boost up to the hole in the wall, Liz?”

  He scrambled back through the wall the way he had come. This time he dug through the snow that filled the little loft and moved to the edge overlooking the room. Large pieces of the roof were half-buried under snow there also, but he thought he could make it to the door. If he jumped down there, though, how would he get back up to go back for Liz and the kids?

  He remembered the rope in his spy kit. He’d have to crawl back to get it. He wished he had taken the flashlight out of it already. The sun was shining brightly but here in this tiny collapsed space it was dark and he had to feel around. Where was that thing?

  Suddenly his hand felt something unfamiliar and yet familiar at the same time. It wasn’t his, and he was sure it had not been up there before, but just the shape of the thing told him it was a gun. A gun? Why would there be a gun up here, and where had it come from? Ah-ha! The guys had probably figured out he was playing spy after all and this was their idea of another joke. But where would they get a toy gun? They sure wouldn’t bring one with them.

  Oh, well. He’d figure out some way to turn the joke around on them later. He resumed his search for the old ski cap and fin
ally spotted it a few feet away. He reached for it and put the gun inside with his other spy gear. He soon had the rope tied to a beam in the loft. He stuffed his spy kit under his belt and at last Skeeter climbed down out of his hideaway.

  It was easier to reach the door in this bedroom, but once again he could not get it open. He pounded on the door calling, “Help! Can anyone hear me? Help!” Still no answer. “Dad? Mom? Help!”

  Skeeter sat down with his back to the door and his head in his hands. Where were they? Dan and Pete and his dad had been outside the last time he had seen them. Had they been swallowed up in the avalanche? Skeeter started to cry. Maybe he wouldn’t get the chance to play any more jokes on the guys. And what about his mom and Kristi and the other girls? They were safely inside—but how safe had that really been? He had seen for himself what the avalanche had done to these two rooms. Had it destroyed the rest of the house completely? If they were all okay, why didn’t anyone answer? Why didn’t anyone come to help?

  Skeeter wiped his tears. He didn’t like to cry. Guys didn’t cry. Well, not much. But his heart hurt to think that something might have happened to his family and friends. It hurt real bad. “Lord, You know where they are. Help them, please,” he prayed. “And help me. Help me to get out of here and to help Liz and her kids. And help me just to trust you, no matter what. I love you, Lord—no matter what.”

  ___________

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ___________

  Digging Out

  Kristi grabbed the banister. It trembled beneath her fingers and the step beneath her feet began to shake. She was used to earthquakes, and the loud noises that sometimes came with earthquakes, but this was—different. It sounded like a freight train was coming right at her! All of a sudden there was a tremendous jolt that nearly knocked her off her feet and over the railing. She heard the sounds of creaking and crashing, as if the whole house was coming down around her ears.