Then she saw a flash out of her peripheral vision. Golden fur, the flick of a tail. A large cat? Were there cougars in Gladwin? She took a few steps closer, but couldn’t see through the trees bordering the park.
“Mark!” she called as she headed to the back of the property and Gladwin State Park. “Mark, quit freaking me out. I just saw a huge cat. Where the hell are you?”
Bam! Bam!
Two shots in rapid succession to her right. Damn it! Who the hell hunted in a state park? She started running in that direction. “Hey!” she bellowed. “Whoever the hell you are! There are people around here. Quit?—”
A dark figure came out of the woods ahead of her.
“Julie? Get out of here!”
She might have screamed, but she realized it was Carl in a red shirt running toward her with a gun out.
She frowned. “Carl?” She squeaked in alarm as he barreled toward her. Then she realized his shirt wasn’t red. It was covered in blood.
Blood!
He ran fast, gesturing toward the house. She straightened, intending to get them both into the house, but then a dark thing blurred past her on all fours. It came from ahead and to the right, passing within a few feet of her as it ran toward the house. It was smaller than the bear she’d seen before and quick. She barely saw it when the rapport of Carl’s gun deafened her.
Two shots, and the dark thing swerved.
Julie screamed and dropped into a crouch—like that would help her against a bullet—only to realize he’d been shooting past her at the blur. And what the hell was that thing?
It slowed and stumbled, landing awkwardly between a bush and the back of the house. Human-ish. Big for a man. It had dark patches of fur mottling its humanlike skin, and a muzzle for nose and mouth. And it didn’t stay down for long. Between one breath and the next, the thing rose on all fours, and its hands were more like huge paws with dirty claws. Worse, it wasn’t alone.
What? Her brain stuttered in panic when she saw a second of those things emerge slowly from around the side of the house. This one was smaller, meaner, and more…dog? Bear? Hell, she didn’t know.
“Don’t move,” Carl said, his voice low. He’d moved closer to her, the sound coming from a couple feet away. But when she glanced at him, she saw him sighting his gun on…oh, shit. He was aiming to the right where the first thing had emerged from the tree line. This one looked the most human of them all. He—it—stood upright, but its eyes were crazed. Three of them, in a ragged kind of line from the trees to the house. They were looking at her and Carl as they edged steadily to her back door. No, wait. The injured one was heading to the house. The other two were coming at them.
Terror clawed up her throat, but she forced herself to focus. Now was not the time to curl up in a fetal ball. She had to think. She took a breath, trying to steady her racing heart and tasted blood on the air.
Carl.
She glanced at him. He’d closed the distance between the two of them. “How bad are you hurt?”
“Stay with me. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Not what I asked,” she snapped. But, stupidly, she did feel better with his promise. Then she looked at his ripped shirt and the wound beneath. There was a jagged edge of claw marks across his chest. And though only the center slice looked deep, it was all bloody.
“I’ll live,” he said, his voice tight. Then he flipped her his phone. “Call 911.”
He hadn’t done that yet? Shit! She snatched up the phone, but it was protected. “What’s the code?”
“Nine-one-one-one,” he bit out, then he shot. Again with the deafening sound, especially since he was nearer her ear. But she’d been looking nervously at the…things, and the one crouching by her back door flew backward in an explosion of red. Yuck. But she wasn’t upset that it was dead.
Fortunately, she didn’t drop the phone. She quickly hit nines and ones in what she hoped was the proper order. But there wasn’t time. As soon as the first one went down, the others attacked. They came tearing at them while Carl kept shooting. The things swerved and one stumbled, but they were fast.
Julie couldn’t hear anything anymore. She was sure she was screaming, but she was deaf from the gun and the roar.
Roar?
The bear. The huge, black grizzly bear she’d seen in her front yard flew right by her, coming from behind them. It landed right in front of her with a thud she felt through the ground. But it didn’t attack her. No, it went for the closest man-thing, mauling it with massive paws. God, it was so close. The thing had been within a foot of her, but now all she felt was the heat pouring off the grizzly’s back. She jerked backward and tripped over her own feet.
Carl’s gun ran out of bullets. He dropped down beside her and started dragging her backward, away from the house and the fight. And why the hell hadn’t she been moving already? Because she’d been struck stupid by the sight of the bear ripping whatever it was into bloody scraps. And she’d thought The Revenant was gross. It had nothing on the real thing, especially when the beast was less than a foot away.
She crawled backward with Carl while he slammed another clip into his gun. She risked a glance at the third creature. It was down and spurting blood from a couple bullet holes. So one dead by the back door, the other riddled with bullet holes, and the third was now mincemeat thanks to the bear. That meant they just had to get away from the grizzly.
But then Carl froze, one hand on his gun, the other on her shoulder as his gaze went to the tree line in the direction they’d been moving.
