Griz

by Raylan Kane

  The giant bear held up a paw playfully at the helicopter. Then it reared up on its hind legs. The rope came free. The pilot yanked back on the stick in a panic. The chopper rose and as it moved the intrigued beast swatted at the curious flying machine. The paw impacting the side of the craft jerked Miles loose and he fell to the ground. Harmon fell to the back wall and Jeff dangled on the repel line. Indicator lights flashed and alarms sounded as the helicopter tumbled out of the sky and crashed into the trees in a burst of flames.

  Dan and Percy watched in horror as Miles lay dead on the ground ahead of them and the helicopter carrying their other friends exploded in a million pieces.

  The humongous grizzly turned its attention back to the tiny humans hidden behind the stump. It crashed back down on all fours and swiped the stump and four feet of dirt up with it. Dan and Percy flew thirty feet and landed hard on their backs. The bear tore Percy to pieces with one bite. Dan tried to regain his wind. He gasped for air and saw the massive animal hover over him. With a breath back in his lungs, he pulled the cord on his chainsaw and held it out in front of him. He saw the massive paw swing toward him and he pushed the saw into it as it came. Blood gushed all over him and the bear’s monstrous roar knocked him flat. He kept his grip on the saw and as he got to his knees to stand again, the giant grizzly’s other foot stomped down and crushed Dan flat into the charred forest floor.

  TWENTY-ONE

  The morning sun, obscured by thick smoke strewn across the sky, shone yellow above the campsite as David and Deputy Gary Sivers packed the last of their things.

  “How did you sleep?” Sivers asked.

  “Well, thanks, you?”

  “Not bad.”

  “I appreciate you letting me come out here with you,” David said.

  “Not gonna lie,” Sivers said, “you weren’t Sheriff Lake’s first choice. But he didn’t want me out here alone and Scotty’s laid up with a pretty bad cold, so.”

  “All good,” David said. “As long as we find Deputy Marsh.”

  “I think she’s in pretty good hands with that hunter guy.”

  David shuddered at the thought, and he couldn’t live with himself if he’d let Jen come out to the canyon without at least trying to coax her back to town. He figured Sheriff Lake and the rest of the decision-makers in Branson were nuts for allowing anyone out into the wilderness in the giant bear’s territory.

  “Yeah, I don’t know that I trust that guy, Cain,” David said.

  Sivers looked at David with a skeptical eye and a slight grin.

  “You really like her, huh?”

  “We have history.”

  “I see.”

  The two of them flung their backpacks on and stood up. Sivers carried his rifle in his right hand and the kit of dynamite in his left.

  “Which direction we headed now?” David asked.

  “Same as yesterday, deeper in,” Sivers pointed north.

  The wall of smoke stayed mainly to their left as they hiked mostly uphill through thick woods deeper into Hiller Canyon. They walked in single file and in silence as they traversed the rough hewn land. David used a machete to cut through dense brush, while Sivers kept pace behind him. After a few hours, David’s hand lit up with blisters. He handed the machete to Sivers and he traded him for the TNT case.

  “Careful with that,” Sivers warned. “That shit is volatile.”

  They’d stopped for lunch next to a stream and relaxed on a large smooth rock for a half hour before continuing. Eight miles further into the canyon, as they climbed steep terrain, Sivers glanced at the slope below them and caught sight of an alien-looking hole far down in the hillside.

  “Stop.”

  The word startled David. He turned and looked.

  “What is it?”

  “I’ll be goddamned.”

  “What?”

  Sivers pointed at the hole. David squinted and wiped sweat from his brow.

  “What am I looking at?” David said.

  “That’s an entrance to a den.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope.”

  David’s stomach gurgled.

  “We should probably get out of here then,” he said. “There could be cubs, right?”

  “We’re gonna do the opposite. That’s the perfect place to set the dynamite.”

  “What? Are you nuts? I’m not going down there,” David said. “I’m out here to find Jen and get her back to safety, not to commit suicide.”

  “I’m out here to do a job, and that’s to kill that bear. This is our best opportunity.”

  “You don’t even know if that’s that thing’s lair or whatever.”

  “That’s a damned big hole. It’s the best lead we’ve had all day.”

  “Well, I’m staying here.”

  “You do that.”

  Sivers picked up the TNT kit from beneath David’s hand. He opened the kit and removed the detonator and sat it on the ground.

  “This is actually a good spot to detonate from,” Sivers said. “Should be enough distance.”

  “Should be?”

  “Will be.”

  David swallowed hard.

  “So, that’ll be your job should it come down to that,” Siver said.

  “Down to what?”

  “If something happens. To me, I mean. If for whatever reason I can’t get back up here. You plunge the stick.”

  “This is not what I signed up for.”

  “Yeah well, shit happens. It may not come to that. I’ll go in there, plant the sticks and we’ll wait here for the bastard to enter and then, ka-blooey.”

  “And if things don’t go to plan?” David said.

  “If you hear my signal, plunge the stick, whether I’m still down there or not.”

  “What’s the signal?”

  “Gun shot.”

  David tried to gather his nerves. Adrenaline had him bouncing his leg up and down.

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Sivers said with a chuckle.

  He turned away from David and cautiously planted his boots into the hillside, ready to descend the steep slope while holding the wire extending from the back of the detonator.

  “You’re really doing this,” David said in disbelief. “We’re really doing this?”

  “Yep.”

  Sivers put his hand out behind him for balance and he shuffled his feet beneath him to control his pace as he left David behind and moved down the hill.

  “This seems a little spontaneous for my liking,” David said, “I just wanna say that for the record.”

  “Stop talking.”

  Sivers grew smaller as he carefully descended and guided the line from the detonator over the rocky ground. David watched as the Deputy reached the edge of the hole and gave David an enthusiastic wave. David responded with a tepid wave of his own and saw Sivers disappear into the den.

  “That settles it,” David said quietly aloud to himself, “Alaskans are crazy.”

  Almost an hour had passed. David checked his watch and frowned in frustration as he kept his laser focus on the mouth of the large hole.

  “Where is he?”

  There’d been no sign of a giant bear. There’d been no gunshot. David couldn’t wait any longer.

  “Hell with it.”

  David removed his pack and stepped over the edge of the slope and onto the steep hillside. He slid himself down toward the hole stopping every few seconds thinking he’d heard something off in the woods.

  “What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing?” He repeated to himself the entire way down the slippery dirt slope. As he got closer to the hole he could see the scale of the opening. It was as big as a mansion. The opening appeared dark as night and he was reluctant to enter, but then he saw a flash of light on the roof of the hole. He stepped into the opening and could feel the smooth, packed earth beneath his feet slope gradually down. He walked toward the flashlight beam.

  “Gary?” David called, his voice echoed and boun
ced off the cavern walls.

  The flashlight beam fixed on his face.

  “What the hell are you doing down here?” Sivers said as he walked toward him.

  “Was about to ask you the same thing. You’ve been gone a while.”

  “This den is massive,” Sivers said.

  “So you think that thing spent the winter here.”

  “Yep, and not just the winter.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Found a chamber full of animal bones about twenty yards that way,” Sivers said pointing off into the dark.

  “Great, just what I wanted to hear.”

  “You asked.”

  “Can we go now?”

  “TNT’s all planted. Gonna blow this whole thing to high heaven and hopefully that thing along with it.”

  “So, that’s a yes, then?”

  “Yep.”

  “Thank god.”

  David turned to walk back up toward the entrance to the den when he felt the ground shake beneath his feet.

  “The detonator,” Sivers said.

  David didn’t hear him, he looked up terrified as a massive bear stepped into the mouth of the den directly in front of them. They instinctively turned to run and the bear knocked them off their feet. David looked up in time to see the bear’s gigantic jaws wrap around him and Sivers both. The animal crushed their bones between its teeth and their dismembered bodies slid down its meaty throat.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Jen woke up with Cain’s beefy arm draped over her. She gently lifted it and placed it by his side. She sat up from the sleeping bag and pulled on her shirt. The morning air felt cool and damp. A squirrel chirped somewhere above the tent. Rays of sunshine poured through treetops. Jen could still smell smoke in her shirt and her hair. Cain opened his eyes and looked at her.

  “We should get a move on,” he said.

  “First things first,” Jen said. She leaned down to Cain’s lips and planted a kiss. “I need to eat.”

  Jen stepped out of the tent and pulled down one of the food canisters hanging from a low branch. She removed a tin box that contained two bagels. She sat down on a log and bit into the bagel. Cain exited the tent and chuckled at the sight of Jen munching on a dry bagel. She held her canteen close and took a sip of water with each bite.

  “Looks appetizing,” Cain said.

  Jen replied, but her mouth was too dry for her words to be intelligible.

  Cain rolled up their sleeping bag and took down the tent. He rolled everything into a tight coil and packed it away in his bag. He checked each of his guns to ensure they were loaded. Jen downed the last of one bagel and held out the other for Cain.

  “Thanks. Ready to roll?” He sunk his teeth into the dry bread. He washed it down with the last of his whiskey. “We’ll keep headed north.”

  Jen put her pack together and put it on her back. She grabbed her rifle and the pair glanced around the site to ensure they weren’t leaving anything behind.

  “Good to go,” Jen said.

  Cain pushed a spruce branch out of his way and stepped onto a patch of moss. Jen followed behind him then froze in place as her foot crunched down on a twig.

  “What is it?” Cain said.

  Jen’s eyes widened and then Cain felt it too. The ground began to shake harder and harder.

  “Run!” He yelled. “South! Toward the fire.”

  Jen bounded back past the campsite and into the woods beyond. Cain tripped over a fallen log. Jen looked over her shoulder and saw that the great bear was upon them. It came crashing out of the trees and loomed over Cain. He spun onto his back and held his bear gun pointed straight upward. The giant beast stood over the man.

  A shot of adrenaline rushed through his veins. He drew in a deep breath.

  “Go to hell you son of a bitch.”

  He pulled the trigger and a huge slug exploded into the bear’s fatty flesh. Blood flew from the wound and the bear leaned on its hind haunches and then smashed downward with its front paws onto the man laying on the ground. Cain’s body ripped apart at the impact of the grizzly’s massive paws. Chunks of blood and skin splattered across the forest floor. Jen let out a guttural scream and planted a rifle shot in the bear’s neck. She unholstered her pistol and emptied an entire magazine into the creature. The bear swiped at her wildly and missed. Jen fired a shotgun slug into the bear’s arm. The force of the shot knocked her onto her backside. She looked at what remained of Cain and bolted for the trees headed south. The bear, clearly stunned from its wounds, sat on its rear. Jen had a hard time running under the weight of her pack. She dropped it off her back and leapt through the woods with the fleet-footedness of a deer.

  After fours hours of hurriedly heading back toward the smoke billowing above the forest, she’d reached a red tape marking on a dead tree she’d recognized on the way in. By this time she’d reached the forest fire. A line of burning trees smoldered to her right. Only two miles to the Tyson River crossing, she thought. The bear hadn’t given chase.

  At the river she pulled herself along the metal wire and once on the other side she knelt near a calm eddy and pooled water into her hands to drink. She regretted dropping her pack that had her canteen with it. She thought of the sat-phone and the TNT kit. The impact of what had happened to Cain hadn’t truly hit her yet. She was in shock. Operating on instinct. Survive.

  Back on the defined trail Jen’s pace accelerated. She ran as hard as she could, stopping for a stitch in her side every half-mile or so. She raced past the remnants of the campsite left behind by the four dead anglers. Jen sprinted for the spot where the Dakota and Johnston Blue trails converged and felt a pang of excitement that she was within striking distance of the trucks parked at the end of Hiller Woods Road.

  At the trucks, Jen fished into her side pocket for the keys. She flung open the driver door and keyed the mic.

  “Sheriff, it’s Deputy Marsh, do you copy?”

  “Marsh, I read you. What’s the word? Have you heard from Sivers? He hasn’t reported in since yesterday,” the Sheriff said.

  “I don’t know about that,” Jen said. “Boss, I’ve lost Cain. He’s gone.” She wiped a tear and grimaced, the pain of it was too much to bear.

  “Gone? What do you mean, Marsh?”

  “I mean he’s dead, Tom. That thing got him. I barely made it outta there.”

  There was a pause on the other end.

  “Sorry to hear that, Deputy.”

  “I’m not sure what to do.”

  “Nothing you can do. I want you to sit tight, okay? I’m sending someone out to you. By helicopter. I just need you to wait there and just hold on for a while. Can you do that for me, Marsh?”

  Jen dropped the mic and sobbed uncontrollably into her lap.

  “Marsh, are you there? Marsh?”

  After a minute, she picked the mic up again.

  “Yeah, boss, I’m here. I’ll be waiting.”

  “Good. I’m gonna get you outta there. You hear me, Deputy? I’m gonna get you out of that goddamned place.”

  “I read you,” she said, her voice shaking. “I’ll be here.”

  Jen put the mic on the hook and stared out the windshield to the smoky sky above and drew in a big breath. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and then reached to her left and pulled the driver door closed. She pressed her forehead against the steering wheel and closed her eyes.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Inside the glove compartment Jen found a protein bar. She tore away the foil wrapper and bit off a hunk of the chewy granola and chocolate. Leaning back in the seat Jen planted her foot up on the dash and tried to relax her shaky breath and sooth the panic that boiled inside. Every bite of the protein bar tasted better than the last and she was disappointed to finish it. She searched around the cabin of the truck for anything edible. Unsuccessful, she sat back upright, unsure if she’d just felt the truck tremor from the last movement she’d just made or if it was the unthinkable. She sat completely still for a few seconds. Sure enoug
h, the truck shook again. And again. Her heart dropped and tears welled up in her eyes once again.

  The pounding noise stomped closer to the parked trucks. Jen sank from her seat to the floor and shut her eyes tight. She plugged her ears and fought to pretend that the outside world didn’t exist, that their was no giant grizzly swiftly approaching.

  Reality slammed Jen hard as the massive bear swiped the other truck with its huge paw. The truck crashed into Jen’s driver’s side door. The force of the impact crunched the inside of the door against Jen’s left foot. She grimaced with pain and opened her eyes to see the bear looming overhead through the windshield.

  The beast stood over the parking area seemingly unsure of its next move.

  “Fuck you!” Jen screamed at the creature. Her sadness had boiled over into rage.

  She plunged the key into the ignition and fired up the truck.

  The bear sat on its haunches and tilted its head looking down at the vehicle. Jen hit the gas, unsure of what she was doing. She headed down Hiller Woods Road leaving the giant bear in her rear view. The bear merely watched as the truck sped away.

  Jen drove for nearly a minute with no sign of the grizzly giving chase. She rounded a bend that opened to a clearing and immediately slammed on the brakes in horror. A hundred feet ahead of her another massive grizzly bear sat on its backside looking dead at her. The animal let out a curious bellow and stood up on all fours. Jen was in shock. All this time everyone had been under the impression there was but one of these beasts. She picked up the mic.

  “Sheriff Lake, you read? Sheriff Lake!”

  Nothing but static.

  “Sheriff Lake, it’s Deputy Marsh. Are you there? There’s more than one of these things! Do you read?”

  No response.

  “Shit!”

  Jen was in full-blown panic. Her stomach was in knots. Her hands shook uncontrollably. The bear in front of her stepped forward into the clearing, obviously curious as to her presence. She put the truck in reverse and backed into a Y-turn. The giant grizzly stomped toward the truck and she hit the gas speeding back toward the parking area at the end of the road where the other grizzly had been. No more than twenty seconds later she saw the second grizzly running toward her on the road. She mashed her foot to the floor and spied the entrance to the Johnston Blue trail coming up to her right. As she sped toward the massive bear in front of her and saw the bear running in the rear view behind her she recklessly veered the truck onto the narrow trail. The trail itself was half the width of the vehicle but the trail didn’t dive into the thick of the forest for a half-mile. Jen pushed the engine to the limit as the vehicle bounded over huge roots and stumps that jutted upward on either side of the trail. The two bears gave chase as the truck tires spun up mud and moss and Jen fought to keep the back end of the rear-wheel drive pickup from swinging around on her causing her to spin-out.