A/N: Alas, life! Always in the way of the greater pleasures derived from writing :P
Sorry for the long wait this time, everyone! From RozaCourt, check out the Life as a Bayport High Student forum when you have the time. From Shani8, the forum All Kinds of Everything has been brought to my attention - take a look :)
Thanks to everyone that's still reading, reviewing, and those that have followed/favourited the story - huge appreciation for it. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter - sorry it's a bit shorter than usual!
Danger status: air filled with smoke, check. Everything basically on fire, check. Roof beginning to fall to pieces due to said fire, check. Burning corpse of a villain in the bed right next to him, check. Technically, the corpse wasn't dangerous or anything, but it was most certainly one of the nastiest things Joe had ever encountered before.
Stay positive, Joe.
It was good advice in any given situation, at least according to his Aunt Gertrude, but given the circumstances his attitude wouldn't really change whether or not he made it out of the cabin unscathed. No, that would probably depend upon a good deal of luck more than anything else.
He took a step back - always hard to do when everything around you is basically on fire - as one of the rafters exploded next to him in a fiery bang of sparks. The resulting smoke was suffocating, despite the makeshift cloth mask Joe had tied over his mouth, and he was forced to pause momentarily until the racking coughs subsided.
His eyes streaming, Joe looked around the tiny cabin as best as he could. The flames had spread, and Joe could already detect the stench of burning flesh from the dead body on the bed.
He shuddered. If he wasn't fast enough, it would only be a short time before he was in a similar state.
And what was that about staying positive?
A quick turn on the spot proved his options were thin. Actually, there were basically just two possible courses of action now:
First, he could do his best to shove the rafter blocking the window out of the way. It was still on fire, of course, but if he could find something safe to touch, and then push the wood with that...
Like what? My torn up shirt? I'd rather not get burning splinters all over my palms, thank you very much.
Option two was a bit more tricky. The holes in the cabin roof - two in total, in opposite corners of the small room - were small, but not too high up. All Joe needed to do was find something high enough to climb onto, then heave himself up to the roof and jump down to the safety of the snow outside.
He wasn't worried about the jumping off the roof part: having just snowed, there was probably a good several feet of soft, cushiony snow as protection for his landing. The only difficulty was climbing up to the hole, and getting a good grip on the edge without bringing more of it down upon him.
One of the holes was right on top of the corpse. Joe considered it for a brief moment - after all, the bed was already there and everything - but opted for the one beside the locked front door instead. He didn't relish the idea of getting any closer to the foul stench that now pervaded the tiny cabin, almost making him vomit in disgust. Standing on top of the guy? Not going to happen.
There was a bookshelf and a table situated mostly under the small gap in the cabin's roof. The missing section was crumbled in a heap below it, making the journey to the furniture more than a little dangerous if he missed his footing or mistimed a jump.
Joe grimaced, took as deep a breath he could without inhaling the smoke, and then just ran for it. Do first, think later - it was how he'd always operated, and it hadn't failed him yet.
He took a small running step forward and jumped left, propelling himself off the very edge of a thick beam of wood and using his momentum to carry him forward to the table on his right. Giving himself a mental high five, Joe paused for just a moment to check his balance then slowly stood on the table. If the fire weakened its legs too much, the entire thing could collapse beneath him.
Eyeing the pile of burning wood beside him, Joe resolved to avoid that option at all costs. He shuddered to think of the damages he would incur just from the sharp edges of the wood even when not on fire.
Nearer to the hole, the smoke in the cabin was alleviated slightly and Joe tugged down his 'mask' to inhale. The crisp, cold air of outside gave him new resolve to get back out to where Nancy and Frank were waiting for him.
The hole in the roof was probably just big enough for him to fit through, if he wiggled a bit. It would be hard to manage, but the initial collapse meant all of the burning wood was below him. All Joe had to worry about was getting a good handhold, and not falling from it.
Steeling himself, Joe crouched slightly, tensing his muscles in anticipation, then moved fast to push off with his leg and leap for the edge of the ceiling. He could almost feel time slowing as he neared the edge, fingers locked in preparation. He just needed a few more inches... just a few more...
His fingers grazed the tip of the wooden beam framing one edge of the hole and Joe held on through sheer stubbornness. His fingers aching, he tried to swing his other hand up to shift some of the weight off of his left hand.
Joe swung... and missed, almost losing his precarious hold on the roof edge. His arm fell limply back at his side and he gritted his teeth in frustration. He was too close, far too close, to give up now.
With a bellow, Joe swung his arm for the small ledge again, hoping against all odds for his fingers to meet the wooden frame.
You got this, Hardy. You have got this. Just a little bit... Joe thought to himself. If he could get a handhold, he could pull himself up and get out of the godforsaken cabin once and for all.
To Joe's shock, instead of the hard wooden frame he'd been hoping to find, his fingers met a wrist instead. Joe craned his neck, looking up through the hole. He was met with a the grim face of Frank, dark brown hair matted with soot and snow and brown eyes narrowed in concentration.
Joe grinned. Using his left hand on the roof and his right hand on Frank's wrist, he pulled himself up with no small amount of struggling.
His heart almost stopped when he had almost made it to safety: his jeans had been snagged on an errant piece of wood. With a loud rip, Joe tore himself free hastily and squirmed the rest of the way onto a relatively safer part of the roof, stopping there to catch his breath.
Having closed his eyes, Joe didn't see Frank coming up to him. With a start and a small oath, Joe found himself sliding off the cabin roof into a pile of snow below.
Joe burst out of the snow with a yell, the freezing ice on his skin a huge contrast to the burning of the cabin. Before he could get himself fully out of the snow, which was currently all the way up to his waist, he saw a flurry of snowflakes burst into the air as Frank leapt off the roof to join him. As the snow settled around their heads like a gentle storm, Joe caught a glimpse of Nancy struggling through the snow towards them.
"What would you do without me, huh?" Frank teased, popping out of the snow with a laugh to ruffle the snow out of his younger brother's blond hair.
"Not fall off roofs after inhaling large quantities of smoke," Joe retorted with a snort. "But thank you for your 'daring rescue'. How'd you even get onto the roof, anyway?"
Before Frank could even open his mouth to respond, a grinning Nancy flung herself at the both of them with outstretched arms. Her red hair, blackened by the soot and ash around them, fell gently against her shoulders as she held them together in a large group hug.
"You asked about how he reached the roof?" Nancy asked with a small giggle, a bit euphoric at the sheer relief of having both brothers safe and together again.
Frank grinned. "Nancy had to give me a leg-up, and I managed to scramble my way onto the roof from there," he explained.
Joe eyed Nancy's small figure, impressed. "You managed to lift him? Good going, Nancy," he smiled. "When we get back to the lodge, I'll need to armwrestle you to make sure I'm still the stronger one around here."
Nancy smirked. "Don't be so sure of that. I'll accept your challenge, but don't blame me when you lose."
Frank smiled at them, his brother at his right and his girlfriend at the left, then ushered the three of them away from the wreckage of the cabin. It was always worth being cautious for the sake of safety, in his opinion. Once out of the danger zone, standing amongst the dark trees of the forest, Frank swept Nancy against his muscular chest for a lingering kiss that had Joe fake-gagging from behind them.
They ignored the blond happily, locked in a passionate embrace in the darkness of the forest.
"Get a room, you two," Joe snorted. " You do realize that we happen to have just escaped a life or death scenario?"
Frank broke apart from Nancy for a moment, sporting a red tinge in his cheeks that had nothing to do with the fire. He grinned at Joe. "First of all, near-death situations should always be greeted with celebration once you have escaped them. And what better way to celebrate? Secondly, the only room around here is, quite unfortunately, on fire. So deal with it."
Nancy smiled at their banter, but grew serious at the reminder of the danger they'd just faced. "But we still need to find him. Whoever knocked us out murdered Chasseur, then tried to do the same to us."
Frank nodded in agreement. "He's dangerous. And he must be familiar with the forests - whatever trail he took, it left no tracks on the one we took getting here."
"We need to talk to Mr. White," Joe said grimly. "Mysteries aside, all the fire around here has probably been killer on the ecosystem. This is still a national park."
"Agreed," Frank and Nancy said together.
Giving the area a quick sweep, they determined that the fire had removed any traces of evidence left and there were no other tracks beside. Whoever had attacked them had been skilled.
They made it back to the lodge in record time, and ran into Bess and George in the main lobby.
Bess exhaled, blue eyes wide. "Thank goodness you guys are safe. You've been gone ages, and George and I were getting worried."
George squinted, frowning. "Is that soot in your hair?" she asked incredulously. "What exactly have you guys been doing?"
The three detectives exchanged a grim look.
"To start," Nancy said, "our lead suspect is dead."
"The guy mentioned in the journal, Chasseur?" asked Bess.
"That's the one. We found him, stabbed to death, on the cabin bed. Seconds later, we were all attacked by the same person. When we woke up we were bound and gagged in the cabin - which, surprise, surprise - was on fire with all the doors and windows locked.
The two cousins gaped at Nancy. "I don't even know if I want to know how you escaped that," Bess said faintly.
"But the problem now is that the only one left is the Boss," Frank said.
"You mean the mysterious figure that's been calling the shots of the entire operation, whom we have no information about?" George asked.
Nancy groaned. "That's the one."
"Anyway, we need to report in to the Whites pronto. A lot has gone on in just the last night, and they'll want to be informed about it all," Frank said.
"We'll head over and talk to them now..." Joe said. "Though how we're going to explain this, I don't know."
Nancy, Bess, and George stayed in the lobby, gathered in one of the small groups of armchairs that adorned the ornate lobby.
To their surprise, it wasn't long before the Hardys returned. Even more strangely, the two sported twin expressions of confusion on their face.
"What happened?" Nancy asked them curiously, her instincts nudging at her.
"They weren't there..." Frank said slowly. "And what's more, the older White left right about when we did for the cabin, allegedly headed for a stroll outside... he was followed shortly by his younger brother, according to the secretary."
"Neither have returned since," Joe added. "We didn't find any mention of an appointment or meeting on their calendars, so they had nowhere they needed to be. There was just a note on his desk."
"Meaning-" Nancy said, blue eyes widening.
"Meaning I think we've found the Boss," Frank finished grimly, eyes set with determination. "I'd hedge my bets on the older brother, having left first of the two of them exactly as we would have reached the second cabin, but there's no way we're letting either of them get away from here just in case."
"We're going to stop them in their tracks," Nancy stated.
Now all they had to do was figure out how to do that.