Escape from Fire Mountain by Gary Paulsen Read Free Book Online Page B

and measure the horns. If it's as big as I think it is, we'll only need three more to fill our order.”
    The two men climbed on the four-wheelers and drove away, leaving the animal's carcass lying in the grass.
    Nikki waited until she could no longer hear their engines before she stood up. Her shoulders slumped. Goblin was nowhere in sight, and it was a good four miles back to the lodge.
    Thunder rolled from the east, and lightning crashed behind it. The dark clouds had moved in while the poachers had kept her captive in the grass. Dime-size raindrops started falling.
    Nikki shivered, pulled up her shirt collar, and ran.

CHAPTER 3
    Goblin was waiting patiently by the barn when Nikki got home. By the time she unsaddled him and made it to the house she was thoroughly drenched. Water ran off her hair and clothes and made puddles on the floor.
    The lightning was worse now, striking every few minutes. Nikki looked out the narrow window next to the front door. Another flash popped near the barn, and the ground turned a ghostly white.
    Nikki leaned against the wall to catch her breath, wondering what to do about thepoachers. “The sheriff,” she whispered out loud. Leaving a wet trail, she headed for the kitchen and picked up the phone.
    It was dead.
    “Oh great.” Nikki brushed a piece of long blond hair out of her eyes. She snapped her fingers. “The CB.” It didn't have great range, but it would be worth a try.
    She ran to her dad's office and had just turned the doorknob when she heard the radio squelch. A garbled voice crackled through the static.
    “… please anybody … fire … need help, over.” It was a child's voice, a boy's, but it shook with fear or pain. “Can you … me … near the bend in the river. Help us … over.”
    Nikki stayed off the radio, waiting to hear a response, not wanting to interfere with an emergency. There was no answer.
    “… lost … fire coming closer … anybody hear …”
    Still no response.
    Nikki picked up the handset.
I'll wait asecond longer
, she thought.
Maybe someone will call him
.
    “We … help … sister's hurt … please …” The voice was torn by static.
    Nikki listened intently, but there were no other transmissions. There would be no help for them.
    “I can help you. I'll get you out.” Nikki found herself yelling into the microphone. “Can you hear me?”
    Except for the buzz of static, the radio was silent.
    They hadn't received her.
    Nikki tried again. “Can you hold on? Can you tell me where you are? Over.”
    “… white rocks … can any … help us …”
    The speaker suddenly went dead, as if someone had unplugged the radio.
    The poachers would have to wait. Nikki raced upstairs and checked her survival bag. It was always kept packed with dried food, extra clothing, and other gear so that when her father needed her on short notice, shewould be ready. She made an attempt to dry off, changed her clothes, and slipped into a raincoat.
    By the time she got outside, the weather had begun to clear. The wind still whipped, but the brunt of the storm had moved on.
    She started for the barn to resaddle Goblin but changed her mind.
    A canoe would be faster.
    The boy had described white rocks near a bend in the river. That could only be one place—Deadman's Drop.
    The rapids.
    Nikki ran to the boat shed and pulled a fiberglass canoe off the rack. She carried it on her shoulders to the water and then went back for paddles and a life vest.
    She threw her survival pack in the middle, slid into the canoe, and pushed off.

CHAPTER 4
    As Nikki paddled down the rushing mountain river, she searched the horizon for a sign of the fire. Sure enough, a thin gray haze hung just over the top of one of the mountain ridges downriver. She thought she could smell the smoke.
    Her dad had been called upon many times in the past to help fight fires in the area, and she had learned that lightning was usually the cause. She was hoping that there had been enough rainfall in that