The Drop Read Online Free PDF Page B

couldn’t do anything that morning. The storm was so wild, we could barely open the door, never mind step out. But then around noon, the clouds broke apart and the world suddenly seemed clear and pure. Nothing but deep white powder and high blue skies.
    I stood at the doorway looking up at the sky. Our boards were covered in snow. I pulled mine out and brushed it off.
    â€œWhere are you going?” Hope asked.
    â€œI don’t know.” I looked at the endless hills and trees around us. “He has to be out here somewhere. He couldn’t just vanish.”
    â€œSo, what? You’re going to ride to the bottom of the mountain? Get help? Save everyone?” she said.
    I looked behind Hope into the cabin. Dave was jabbing the buttons on the satellite phone, and Sam was standing over him, looking expectantly at the screen.
    â€œI don’t know what I’m going to do,” I said. “But I’ve got to do something.”
    Hope disappeared from the doorway and came back a minute later in her jacket and snow pants.
    â€œWell, a board is going to be useless here,” she said.
    â€œWe can take the snowmobiles,” I said. I had only ever ridden on the back of a snowmobile. The idea of starting one up and driving it was a little frightening. I was superaware that a fall could have me tumbling and rolling down three hundred feet. With a big machine on top of me.
    â€œWherever Bryce went, he went on foot.” I said. “His board is here. The snowmobiles are here. So he couldn’t have gone far.”
    I looked at the empty landscape. The cabin was on a flat space. It was steep above and below.
    Dave suddenly appeared at the doorway. “What are you guys doing?”
    â€œWe’re going to go find Bryce,” Hope said. The keys were in the snowmobiles. She brushed the snow off the seat of one of them, sat down and turned the key. The snowmobile roared to life. Hope unhooked a helmet from the handlebar and pulled it over her tuque.
    â€œYou know how to drive one of those?” Dave yelled over the roar.
    â€œMy dad runs the lifts, remember? I’ve been driving these things since I was, like, ten.”
    I brushed the snow off the other snowmobile, sat down and turned it on.
    â€œWhere do we go first?” Hope asked.
    I pointed straight ahead. “We go out that way, straight on the flat area. Then I say we go up the hill a bit, around behind the cabin and then downhill a little. If he was walking, he couldn’t have gone that far.” Dave looked from one snowmobile to the next and finally sat down behind me. I waited for his arms to come around my waist, but he had reached around behind him instead and held the emergency bar. I handed him a helmet. He brushed it off and put it on his head. Hope handed me the extra helmet from the storage beneath the seat of her snowmobile. It felt almost warm as I slipped it on my head.
    â€œIf you’ve been on these a lot before, why don’t you go first?” I said.
    â€œShouldn’t we wait for Sam?” Dave asked.
    I had seen the flash of the silver flask when Sam disappeared into the bathroom earlier. I had a feeling he wasn’t coming with us.
    â€œWe’ll scout first, then come back and report to Sam,” I said.
    Hope revved the engine and took off, shooting snow up behind her. I just stared at her until Dave whacked me on the shoulder.
    â€œGo, man,” he said. I eased the throttle until we were moving forward. I knew I was being timid, but driving a snowmobile freaked me out. There was a ridge in the snow where the wind had been blowing hardest. I stayed on Hope’s trail, though I couldn’t see her any longer. We wound in and out of trees, up a few ridges where it took all I had to hold on, and then suddenly we turned up the hill. It was steep. Dave and I had to lean forward to keep from being tossed off. Hope’s trail jackknifed back toward the cabin. We leaned into the