Buried Alive! Read Free Page A

stepped into his sneakers, not bothering to search for his socks. Then he entered the dim hallway.
    It had surprised Jack, the way all the Denali ranger homes looked exactly like regular run-of-the-mill houses. He’d been expecting a split-log cabin heated by a wood-burning stove and maybe an old-fashioned hand pump for water. In his mind he’d pictured an outhouse behind every porch. Instead, this house and all the others in the cluster looked just like the tract homes in Jackson Hole. Indoor plumbing and everything.
    Once outside, he followed his sister’s footprints to the back of the house. It had snowed hard in the middle of the night, a deep, fluffy layer of white that mounded on the branches like dollops of whipped cream. Light snow kicked into his shoes and onto bare skin, so he tried to walk in Ashley’s boot prints. When that didn’t work, he switched to threading a path inches from the side of the house, where the snow was still packed. He found Ashley hunched behind a spruce tree. When she turned and saw him, she smiled, then placed her finger to her lips and pointed to a cluster of trees.
    A huge moose munched lazily on bare twigs, its large, bulbous nose and neck bell bobbing with every bite. Jack held his breath as the moose moved forward, crunching through the trees until it was less than ten feet away. Although he knew the powerful animal could be dangerous, he couldn’t pass on what could be the best shot of his life. Carefully, he unzipped his camera case and was just raising his camera to his face when he heard a door squeak noisily from the screened-in porch on the south end of the house. The moose snapped its head up and looked in the direction of the noise. Jack froze, until the moose dropped its head to begin eating again.
    â€œâ€¦thought I’d come out here for a cup of coffee, even though it’s a bit nippy. I wanted to talk to you about the wolverines.” Two chairs scraped noisily across the wooden planks. His parents wouldn’t be able to see the moose from the porch.
    â€œThis is the strangest case I’ve ever been called on. I’m hoping this cold air will clear my head so I can think it through. There’s something about these deaths that just doesn’t add up.”
    â€œLike what?” Steven asked.
    Jack could hear his mother sigh. “First of all, I’ve read through stacks of papers, and the truth is no one really knows much about this animal. They’re still very mysterious. And it doesn’t help that they are surrounded by myths and legends. There’s one story where a wolverine supposedly broke into a cabin and ate a trapper alive.”
    â€œOuch!”
    â€œSteven, you know that’s utter nonsense.”
    His parents’ voices distracted Jack. He didn’t want to hear about wolverines when he had a huge moose in his camera’s viewfinder. He wished they’d keep quiet so they wouldn’t scare away this animal before Jack got some pictures. Compared with all the pictures of moose he’d seen in books, this one looked twice as big, maybe because he was so close to it.
    The moose took another mouthful of twigs and munched idly, although Jack thought it might be watching him.
    He’d heard that more people got hurt by moose than by grizzlies, so he didn’t want to tick this big guy off. Just keep it nice and easy, he told himself. Zooming in so close he could count its eyelashes, he began to snap photos.
    Ashley huddled beneath the tree branches like a turtle in a shell, watching the animal with rapt attention. “We should get Mom and Dad so they can see this,” she whispered.
    â€œNo, don’t move. I don’t want to scare him. If he decides to charge us, we’re toast.”
    The moose backed up, his enormous head whipping past branches as he turned to go. Even though he knew it wouldn’t make a great picture, Jack snapped a few of the animal’s