Chapter 1

“God, John! Are we going to be able to make it?” whispered Anita Andrews to her husband. She scraped at the condensation on her passenger’s side window and looked out into the storm.

Glancing in the rearview mirror at their two daughters sitting in the back seat, John Andrews quietly said, “I hope so. If this gets any worse, I’m going to have to find some place to stop for the night.”

Anita simply nodded her head to him, but privately she was beginning to have doubts. Every winter since the girls had learned to walk, the Andrews family had loaded up the car and gone skiing. This year they were headed into the northern Adirondacks. Earlier in the day, as they were leaving home, they had been delighted to hear of the coming snowstorm, with its promise of great skiing conditions. Now she wasn’t so sure. The nor’easter had moved in with a surprising speed and fury.

Now, as the station wagon slowly made its way northward, the family began to hear of road closings coming patchily over the radio stations. They were already three hours behind in their schedule and the roads seemed to be getting worse. After the highway had been closed because of a jack-knifed tractor- trailer, they had decided to go north on a smaller side road. Now it was dark, and all Anita could see was masses of snow dropping on the windshield.

“Honey, maybe we should get back on the highway? We could probably find a motel or something.”

“Yeah, Dad,” piped up a voice in the back seat. “This is getting pretty ridiculous.”

John looked into the rear mirror again. Laurie was looking at him with fear in her eyes. Next to her, her identical twin sister, Cory, simply sat quietly, her knees drawn up to her chest, arms around her legs.

John Andrews simply nodded briefly. “Okay. As soon as we get off this road, we start looking for a place to bed down. Seat belts on?” A brief flurry of belt checks assured him everyone was buckled in securely. While Anita tried to tune in another station, John shrugged his shoulders, trying to work out the kinks. The driving was worse than he had let on. The heavily loaded car was handling like a bus, and the snow was turning to glare ice on the roadway. High beams were useless, and the low beams were not much better. Worse, he was beginning to think they had missed the turnoff back to the highway. If they stopped to turn around, he felt sure they would never get moving again. Better to brave it out and hope for the best!

With a sickening lurch in his stomach, John Andrews realized the best was not to be. As they came around a gentle curve, the road dipped and John had to tap the brakes. In an instant, he knew they were sliding. Yelling out, “Hang on!” he braced himself against the wheel as they skidded sideways off the far side of the road. The left rear fender crunched sickeningly into a snowbank, then the front end spun forward and straightened out. No matter what he did to the steering wheel, it was useless, the car had a mind of its own. Plowing through the bank, the station wagon slid down a 45-degree embankment, slowing and then stopping with a thunk against a dead oak stump.

John sat there stunned for a moment, then shook himself alive. “Well! That was interesting! Everyone alright? Anita? Girls?” He twisted around to check out the women.

“What happened?” Laurie cried out.

“We crashed, dipstick!” answered her sister.

“Enough! You girls alright?” asked Anita. Both girls nodded they were all right. They were both crying quietly, more from reaction than from any real fear. It had been over too fast for them to do anything other than bounce and sway in the back. Anita felt sore where her shoulder had bounced off the side door but kept quiet. No use getting the girls any more worried, and it certainly wasn’t broken. Turning back to her husband, she asked, “What now?”

John began to shrug into his parka. “Now I go out to see how bad this is.” His efforts were hampered by the angle the car was at and by his seat belt. Turning off the engine, he braced his feet against the firewall, popped the buckle, and put it on. Zipping up, he put on his gloves. Grabbing the handle, he began pushing the door up and open. “Stay here!”

Scrambling out of the car, he had to push the door shut again. A metallic screech and thunk made him think the door was not going to be easy to open. He stepped back and looked at the vehicle.

‘Oh, shit.’, he thought, ‘This is bad.’ The car was wedged on a downed tree trunk. He hadn’t even noticed that the rear window had been smashed in by a tree limb during their descent. The skis loaded on the roof were now nothing but fiberglass and wood kindling. No skiing out of this mess. Looking back at the road, he shook his head and scrambled up the crash path. Once at the top, nothing greeted him but dark and gloomy snow. Carefully, he retraced his steps down to the car. Although he first tried to open the driver’s door, it was stuck, and he resorted to the rear door on his side. Inside, Cory and Laurie began pushing upwards. Thankfully, this door opened. The other side doors were blocked by a tree.

“John...?” started Anita.

“Okay, everyone. Get your parkas on. Open your suitcases and get out your snow pants. Put your boots and gloves on. We’re walking from here.”

Instantly, a confused babble of semi-hysterical cries rang out. “What?” “Can’t we wait here?” “We’ll get lost out there!” “Where do we go?”

After about the second or third set of questions, John simply held up his hands and yelled, “Enough! We’ve got to get going! Now get dressed. Come on, move it!” Grabbing a parka off the floor of the car, he thrust it at Cory. “Put it on!”

Galvanized, the women unbuckled and began to get dressed. Laurie turned around on the seat and began popping open the jumbled suitcases. The women stripped off their sneakers and slid on snowsuits and heavy boots. Grabbing their gloves and parkas, they scrambled out into the storm.

“Come on. Get dressed. You’ll freeze out here!” he said. John was trying to keep the feeling of panic out of his voice. Instinctively he knew if he didn’t keep his wits about him, they were all in deep trouble.