Page 9 of The Dinner Party

To go left, turn to Chapter 15 (page 36)

To go right, turn to Chapter 32 (page 78)

15

The cautionary signs have spooked you, so you decide to go left. You figure any path that doesn’t have a warning label is more promising.

You just wish somebody had cleared away the snow.

As you continue to drive, the road gets even more slippery. The snow is piled up on the ground, and even though Blair’s car has four-wheel drive, it is struggling. Even worse, when you stop again to check Avery’s directions, they don’t seem to be matching up with anything you are seeing. None of the roads are labeled. It’s a bad sign.

You’re worried that you have gone the wrong way.

At this point, you should probably turn around and go back where you came from. But the road is so narrow and slippery that turning around will be challenging. So you keep moving forward, hoping that the road will clear and that you will suddenly arrive at the house for the dinner party, right on time.

Unfortunately, the further you go, the more obvious it is that’s not going to happen. You have taken the wrong path, and you must turn around.

You slow to a halt on the snowy road. You put the car in reverse, but when you try to back up, you can’t. Sighing, you put the car back in drive, but when you press on the gas, you don’t budge.

This time, you floor it. The car’s wheels spin frantically, but you’re not moving forward. The momentum must have been propelling you forward, and once you stopped, you lost that momentum. You’re now stuck.

You try a few more times to floor the gas, but it doesn’t work. There is obviously a bunch of snow in front of your car, and unless you clear it away by hand, you’re not going anywhere. So much for being early to the dinner party.

You start to open the door to the car, but as soon as it opens a crack, you hear a sound. It sounds like the howl of a wolf in the distance.

You freeze. The wolf sounds like it’s far away, but not that far away. It occurs to you that there are almost certainly wild animals roaming around these parts in the middle of the night. It might not be safe to get out of the car. If you’re inside, at least you can’t get eaten.

But what are you supposed to do? You don’t have enough gas to keep the car running all night long, and if you stay here, you’re going to freeze to death.

To get out of the car, turn to Chapter 17 (page 40)

To stay in the car, turn to Chapter 16 (page 38)

16

You decide the best thing to do is to stay in the car. There are some scary noises outside, and at least in here, you’ll be safe. And you have almost half a tank of gas. Maybe you’ll make it through the night. If you don’t return home by the morning, Blair will almost certainly send out a search party to find her Audi.

Just to be safe, you keep the heat on low and turn the radio off.

It takes a little over an hour for the gas to run out. You thought you’d have longer somehow. The car engine dies, and you are left in your dark car with no heat. You hug your body for warmth, but this mountain is extremely cold—well below freezing. You can see puffs of your breath in the air. If only you had brought something more than your light jacket. A hat would have definitely been nice.

As the hours go by, the temperature continues to drop precipitously. You had no idea how cold it could get on a mountain. You consider getting out of the car, but when you try the door, it is frozen shut. Even if you could somehow dig yourself out, you have no gas left in the car. You had your chance to get out, and you missed it.

At two in the morning, a miracle occurs. All of a sudden, you feel warm again. At first, you are sure that the heat has magically turned back on, but no, the engine is still dead. So why are you warm again all of a sudden? You’re not just warm—you’re hot. Like you’re burning up!

You strip off your coat because it’s way too hot in this car for a coat. Vaguely, in the back of your head, you remember reading about how when you’re freezing to death, the muscles controlling the peripheral blood vessels that have been keeping heat close to the body become exhausted and give out. This causes a sudden rush of warm blood from the body’s core to the extremities that can make you feel like you’re burning up. It’s the last fatal stage of hypothermia.

That isn’t what is happening to you, though. Is it?

But before you worry about it, a gentle cloudiness comes over you. Gosh, it’s so nice and warm in this car. You’re just going to shut your eyes for a few minutes. When you wake up, it’ll be morning, and you’ll be safe to find your way home.

THE END

Want to try for a different ending? Turn back to Chapter 1 (page 1)!

17

As much as it scares you to leave the safety of your vehicle, you don’t want to freeze to death. Your only hope is to try to dig yourself out so you can keep moving.