Chapter 4

Three days after I got out of the hospital, my parents took the family up to Summit Ridge.

They'd asked me to, so this time I made myself sit in the back seat of the car.

It had been pouring for days. The road was muddy all the way there.

The moment we arrived, Mom, Dad, and Ryan immediately gathered around Tessa.

"Tessa, we had this room done exactly the way you like it. Go and see if it suits you.

"If anything's missing, say the word and we'll have it sent up."

Tessa hooked her arm through Dad's and smiled sweetly. "If you chose it, I'll love it."

Only after everyone else had picked a room did Mom turn and ask which one I wanted.

There was exactly one left — the end room, the one closest to the mountainside. Why ask?

Inside, I did my usual survey of the place.

Good. The gap under the bed was just high and wide enough to lie flat in.

I slid myself under, folded my hands, and waited for morning. Or for death.

Around midnight a heavy roar came in through the window.

The whole ground seemed to shake.

The slope behind the lodge had given way, mud and rock coming down all at once.

My room was pressed right up against the mountain. It took the first of it.

I opened my eyes.

The ceiling beams and broken stone came down together. The bed frame collapsed, and what was left of it held open a single cramped pocket around me.

A splintered board drove straight into my calf.

The pain arrived all at once. I ground my teeth on a grunt, and cold sweat broke out across my forehead.

My first ten deaths had all been quick. Not much suffering.

Apparently this life wanted me to experience the full process.

"Is anybody still in there?"

Dad's voice, frantic, somewhere outside.

"Thank God I was awake. I banged on the doors and got all of you up.

"If this building hadn't taken the brunt, we wouldn't have had anywhere safe to stand."

Flashlight beams swung around out there. A thin, sharp line of light came through a gap in the rubble and landed on my face.

I lay still and listened.

"Where's Claire? Did Claire get out?"

Mom was leaning against the low stone wall further off, still gasping, not recovered.

Just beyond the gap, Tessa was huddled behind Ryan, white-faced, her voice shaking.

"Just now... I think I saw her run out the back door.

"She was so fast. She didn't even look back.

"I wanted to call out to her, but I was too frightened. Nothing came out."

Ryan swore and clenched his fists, his voice thick with disgust.

"That cold-blooded, ungrateful — the second something happens she runs faster than anyone. And Mom and Dad brought her up here to help her relax."

Mom sighed and shook her head, disappointed.

"That child. At a moment like this she doesn't even spare a thought for her sister. Her heart really is hard as stone."

Under the debris, the weight above me kept building.

I could feel the mud and stone crushing down the last pocket of space around my body.

My hand lay flat against my side, and my fingertips just brushed the cold shape of the beacon in my pocket.

I thought about what Ryan had said. What my parents had said.

I wanted to try.

So I pressed it.

Five times in a row. It took almost everything I had left.

Outside, the receiver in Ryan's pocket began vibrating.

Mom looked at the collapsed lodge and her face changed. "Claire's calling for help? She didn't get out, did she?"

Ryan pulled out the receiver, glanced at it, and gave a cold laugh.

Then, in front of both his parents, he pressed mute.

"No chance. Tessa already said she ran out ages ago. She's off hiding somewhere, enjoying the show.

"And she still has the nerve to press it.

"My guess is she's paying us back for the box. She wants us to go running in there and get ourselves killed.

"Why would anyone humor somebody that vicious?"

Mom hesitated. "But what if she really is—"

"Mom! Tessa saw her with her own eyes."

Ryan cut her off, impatient.

"She just wants to watch us panic. How many times has she run this victim routine? Haven't you had enough of it?"

Ryan shut the receiver off completely.

The flashlight beams swung away with it.

The whole family closed in around Tessa, fussing over her. Not one of them looked back.

The weight of the mud finally broke the bed boards and they came down over me.

I closed my eyes, at peace.

So even if I hadn't been waiting to die, it looked like I'd be dying anyway.

Half an hour later, a rescue helicopter roared in, its searchlight sweeping the area.

The search-and-rescue commander jumped down and called out over the noise.

"Is anybody still inside the lodge?"

"No." Dad, Mom, and Ryan said it in unison.

Behind them, the property manager came hurrying up, white as paper.

"That's wrong. There's still someone in there."

He held up a waterproof monitoring tablet, his voice shaking.

"Mr. Ashford, the lodge runs on an independent camera system. From the moment the slide hit until right now, apart from the four of you, nobody has gone out through any exit. Nobody at all."

At that moment the life-detection tablet in a rescue worker's hands chimed.

"Confirmed beneath the lodge. No signs of life."