Oh, hell. There was something there. She had no idea what it was. Just a shadow of movement. But Carl pointed his gun at it, and she strained her eyes trying to figure out what he’d seen.
“Mark!” Carl abruptly barked. “Eastern tree line. Mark!”
She didn’t see Mark. She looked all over, trying to find him even while she cursed herself for dropping the phone. Damn it, it was back there by the grizzly who had abruptly stopped chewing on the man-thing. The huge bear who suddenly stopped growling to look up and over. At the eastern tree line.
What the fuck?
Had it sensed whatever the shadow was? Or…hell…was it about to attack Mark? Mark who was naked and about to be eaten by this bear.
“Run, Mark!” she screamed. “Run into the house!” And come back with an Uzi.
The grizzly turned to stare at her, and she almost swallowed her tongue. Oh, hell. She started to scrabble backward, but she was shaking and terrified, and she couldn’t get purchase on the grass.
“Over there!” Carl said, gesturing broadly to the tree line. “Mark! There was something else over there!”
“A cougar. I think. I saw it earlier.” God, she hoped she was wrong. The last thing they needed was a cat-bear fight.
Meanwhile, the grizzly’s head swung to the eastern side of the property. Carl grabbed her arm and hauled her up to her feet. But at that moment, the bear looked back at them and slowly pushed up onto his back feet, growling the whole time.
It had been big before, but on its hind legs like that, it was terrifyingly massive. And even half deaf, she could hear its growl.
“Mark!” Carl yelled again, and even she could hear a note of desperation in his voice. “Mark! Check the perimeter. Go!”
Perimeter check? How about, “Go call 911 from the house”? How about, “Kick over a trashcan and distract the damned bear?” How about anything but a perimeter check?
She and Carl backed up together, moving slowly away as the grizzly towered over them. It didn’t seem like it was about to attack, but what the hell did she know? And though Carl held his gun out, it was pointed to the side and down.
“Just shoot it!” she cried. She was as much a pacifist as the next person, but right now, she really wanted him to blow the thing’s head off.
“No!” Carl bellowed, and she didn’t even know if it was at her or at the bear. But there was fury in his tone, and she cringed from the force of it.
Which is when the bear lunged forward. She dove to the side, and Carl shot wildly at the ground, spraying dirt into the air. She landed on her butt, still scrambling backward, while Carl rolled to the opposite side. He came up on a knee, his shirt matted with dirt and blood, but his eyes were steady as he faced off with the creature.
Damn it, why didn’t he just shoot?
The bear was almost between them now, maneuvering to separate them. Obviously sensing that Carl was the bigger threat, the creature’s golden eyes focused there. Which gave her the opportunity to head away from them both. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do, but if she went off toward the back of the property, she might be able to draw the creature away from Carl.
So she backed up. No hope in getting to the house, but she was a fair hand at climbing trees. The grizzly was too big to climb up after her—she hoped—so that was her escape route. It was a stretch, to be sure, but she clung to it like a lifeline.
And while she moved backward to the closest sturdy tree, Carl remained eye-locked with the creature. He was talking, pitching his voice low and calm, his words making no sense at all.
“I’m not the threat, Mark. Take a big whiff. I’m bleeding. No danger to her. Go look for more of those things.”
Oh, shit. Carl was a lot more hurt than he was letting on. Which meant that she had to act now. She was close enough to the tree, she hoped. And she really hoped that she wasn’t about to commit suicide. She’d gathered a few rocks as she’d moved. All that she could see while inching herself backward. Gathering all her softball experience into her brain, she adjusted the heaviest rock in her hand and threw straight at the creature’s head.
Score!
She tagged it right at the back of the noggin. She thought at first that even with the impact, the rock had been too light to make a difference. But then grizzly turned to look at her. Good…maybe. But she was working on adrenaline now, so she pitched the next and the next and the next.
Three stones in rapid-fire throws, all hitting him not because of her accuracy but because it was that freaking huge. And in case that wasn’t working, she started screaming at it.
“That’s right. That’s me, you big bully. Get away from him!”
She thought Carl would take the opportunity to scramble away from the bear. At least he had a clear field to empty his clip into the creature’s head. But instead of doing the intelligent thing, he started screaming at her.
“No, no! Julie, stop it! Don’t upset him!”
Don’t upset the thing-eating bear? Bullshit. It was pretty damned riled up already. So she whipped the last two stones in her arsenal at it, one of them nailing the beast right on the nose.
