Page 88 of The Most Dangerous Games

Only there is nothing to stop him.

Nothing to hold on to.

Nothing and no one to stop what is happening to him.

There is another gust of wind, even more powerful than the ones that had come before it.

Wyatt’s voice breaks. “REG!”

Hannah starts to cry. And Tipton—Ant Tipton, who has never looked shaken by anything—makes a sound like he’s choking. He says, barely audible into the wind: “Oh God.”

Reg Drummond is already a disappearing dot in space, swallowed by cloud and distance and the indifferent geometry of a mountain.

One last scream is trapped in his throat this time, as he drops helplessly toward the ravine thousands of feet below him.

Flying at last.

57.

Mount Washington

It is the most horrible moment of Wyatt Jordan’s life.

Just like that, Wyatt’s helpless to stop what was happening inches away from him before it was too late, his friend gone.

Not just a friend.

Someone who had become Wyatt’s hero, starting that day in the icy water of Antarctica.

Reg just fell.

The boy, Rupert, had told him the night after the death of Luca Tommasi that he’d never known anyone who had died. His parents were alive. His grandparents were alive. So were all his aunts and uncles. Rupert felt like Luca had been the first death in his family.

Wyatt felt the same way about Reg.

Reg just fell.

He felt he had come to know Reg Drummond after everything they had been through together. Had known him and respected him and loved everything about him.

He had died in front of Wyatt’s eyes.

Wyatt can’t make himself look down again.

If he does, he will see Reg falling.

Still trying to process what had just happened, he’s just as afraid to look up to where he knows Tipton and Hannah are on the ledge.

Up at the peak.

Wyatt just presses himself to the wall behind him and squeezes his eyes shut, and then he begins to cry when he opens them.

Begins to sob.

And can’t stop himself.

Doesn’t even try to stop himself.

Wyatt knows it could just as easily have been him falling off what feels like the top of the world, and that thought hits him hard.