White House White-Out (9 page)

The kids waited. When several minutes had passed, they crept out from beneath the pine branches.

“Did … did they try to kill us by burying the van?” KC asked.

“No,” Dink said. “They must have looked for us in the van and found it empty. They must think we ran away.”

“What will they do now?” Ruth Rose asked. “They don’t have Natasha anymore, and they don’t have KC, either.”

“I don’t know,” Dink said. “If they’re smart, they’ll disappear. Remember, we know their names and what Jo Payne looks like. And I saw Ace, too.”

“Do you really want us to dig a tunnel into the van?” Josh asked.

Dink checked his watch. The moon made it easy to see in the dark.

“I think that’s the safest place for now,” he said. “It’s almost eleven-thirty. Tomorrow we can walk into town. I heard Ace say there’s one a few miles down the road.”

“In which direction?” Ruth Rose asked. “The road goes both ways, so which way do we walk?”

“I don’t know,” Dink said. “Maybe we …”

“But what about Natasha?” KC asked. “What if she comes back and we’re not here?”

The other four stared at KC. Dink thought they’d never see the dog again, but he wouldn’t say so.

“You’re right, KC,” Dink said. “We wait for Natasha. Let’s get busy digging.”

“What do we use, our hands?” Marshall asked.

“Yeah, and break off some tree branches,” Dink said.

Armed with broken branches, the kids approached the mound. Dead leaves, stones, and small trees were embedded in the snow. If Dink hadn’t known better, he would have thought he was standing next to a huge, snow-covered boulder.

“How do we know where to dig?” Ruth Rose asked. “I mean, where are the van’s rear doors?”

“On this end,” Dink said. “Ace didn’t move the van. He just covered it.”

The five kids began picking at the mound with their branches. They soon discovered that chunks of ice were beneath the surface. This made their work even harder than they thought it would be.

When they came across sticks and branches, they tossed them into the fire, now nearly out again. After fifteen minutes of hacking away at snow and ice,
they’d only managed to remove two feet of the difficult snow.

“We need shovels,” Josh said.

“You’re right,” Dink said. “Why don’t you send a text message to your local hardware store and order a few for us.”

“Okay, give me your cell phone,” Josh said.

“I’d give a million dollars for a cell phone,” Dink muttered. “Keep digging.”

A half hour passed. They had created a cave. All five were in the cave, digging on their hands and knees.

“Guys, I think I hit the van!” Marshall cried.

They all began clawing wildly at the snow and ice with their hands, like five dogs digging in the sand.

“You’re right!” Dink said. “It’s the rear bumper!”

Suddenly they heard the roar of
engines. A strong beam of light lit their snow cave. When they turned, the light blinded them.

Dink backed out and stood up. He put up a hand to keep the bright lights from his eyes. He saw two snowmobiles parked next to the weakly burning fire.

Dink swallowed. He felt his stomach lurch into a knot. A man sat on one of the snowmobiles. The other rider looked like a woman. Ace and Jo. They’d come back!

“Run!” Dink screamed.

CHAPTER 8

Josh, Ruth Rose, KC, and Marshall all tried to back out of the cave at the same time. They tripped over each other’s feet as they tried to escape. The snow mobiles’ headlights created frantic shadows on the snow.

Dink was knocked to the ground. He felt Josh crawling over him.

Then he heard a bark. Were they being attacked by wolves, too?

“Natasha!” KC cried. More barking.

Dink sat up. Natasha was lying on top of KC, covering her face with kisses. The dog’s red sweater was caked with
ice and snow. As the other kids watched, Natasha stopped licking KC’s face. The dog whimpered once, then rolled over into the snow.

“Something’s the matter with her!” Marshall said, crawling over to KC.

The man and woman climbed off their snowmobiles. Dink realized that they were not Ace and Jo Payne after all. The man was too short, for one thing. And his voice sounded young when he said, “Your dog is awesome. She led us here from a mile away.”

He was wearing some kind of padded snowsuit that zipped up the front. Ski goggles and a helmet covered most of his face. Only his eyes showed.

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were kneeling in the snow next to Natasha, who wasn’t moving. KC was stroking Natasha’s icy fur and whispering in her ear.

“What’s wrong with her?” KC asked.

“Probably hypothermia,” the woman said. She was dressed like the man, in ski goggles and a helmet. Dink realized they were teenagers. “I’m Loren, and this is my brother, Tinker.”

“Hypothermia can be pretty bad,” her brother said. “One of my buddies got lost in the snow last year. It was real cold and he stayed out way too long. When he didn’t come home, his folks called the cops. They found him asleep in a snowbank. His face was blue, and his temperature was way down. He almost died.”

“Oh no!” KC cried.

“Don’t worry,” Tinker said. “We’ll get your dog to our house. Mom knows a lot about animals. It’ll be cool. Let’s load her up on my snowmobile.”

“We can take you all,” Loren said. “But you’ll have to sit on top of each
other. What’re you kids doing out here, anyway?”

“It’s a long story,” Dink said.

“Cool, but tell us later,” Tinker said. “Let’s hit the road!”

Dink and KC wrapped Natasha in one of the packing blankets. Tinker carried the bundle to his snowmobile and held her on his lap. Dink, Josh, and KC scrunched together into the passenger section behind Tinker’s seat. Marshall and Ruth Rose climbed on the other snowmobile behind Loren.

In moments, they were skimming over the snowy road. Dink’s eyes blurred as they whipped past trees and snow-covered fields. The moonlight made everything seem like a dream.

Ten minutes later, Tinker aimed his snowmobile up a long, plowed driveway. At the end sat a small house. Dink smelled smoke from the chimney. Lights were on, glowing through the windows.

Tinker and Loren parked their snowmobiles near the porch and the kids jumped off. Tinker carried Natasha up the snowy front steps. A Christmas wreath hung on the door.

Loren opened the door and everyone clattered in.

“Boots off, you two!” a voice called from another room. “And you said you’d be home by eleven!”

Tinker kicked out of his boots, then laid Natasha on a rug in front of the
fireplace. Four stockings hung from the mantel. In the fireplace itself, a small wood fire crackled. Dink noticed a Christmas tree in one corner, with a few wrapped presents arranged on a red cloth.