by Maria Amor
“They killed Tabor,” one of the young men who had been there called out, “when he was simply trying to talk to the man. He wasn’t being threatening at all!”
“You don’t know what the man thought,” Hilde cried back. “He had a gun, he found himself confronted by what he thought was a real polar bear. How many of you might’ve made the same mistake?”
“It was deliberate!”
It was soon evident the crowd had revenge solidly on its mind. There was no amount of reasoning the council could do. Years of trying to keep them out of the way of men with guns evaporated with one shooting. The mob was feeling its power and wanted more. Two of the young men who had been with Tabor walked up to the front of the hall, blocking the council seats.
“We’ve lived in fear all our lives and I’m sick of it,” one of them said. “If we hit the southern encampment it will let them know we are no longer willing to hide and cower.”
The crowd roared in approval.
“Who is with us?” the other man yelled. “We’re going out there now. Let them see what we can do!”
Another roar of approval.
People in the crowd began to spontaneously change into bears and back again. The sounds of human voices were starting to be replaced by the growls of angry bears. The mob smelled blood and would not be satisfied until it tasted it.
*
Marduke and Susan were asleep after a night of intense love making when the shouts throughout the caves woke them up. The lamp in their shared room had grown faint and Susan had pulled the furs over her and her mate when she had fallen asleep in his protective arms. They woke up when the shouting had started to turn into bear snarls.
Susan was out of bed trying to get her clothes on when Mari burst into the room. She was confronted by Marduke’s nude form as he was getting his breeches up.
“Both of you should stay put and not go out there!” she told them, panting. We’ve got a riot underway and I don’t know how it will end.”
Susan asked her what happened and was horrified to hear about Tabor being shot as he was trying to make contact with the ship.
“It was the bear form,” she said. “We’re terrified of polar bears down south. He must have panicked. But I don’t get it. No one on that boat was supposed to be carrying a gun. He must have hidden one someplace.”
“I’ve got to get out there and try to do something,” Marduke stated. “They have no idea what they’ll be going up against.”
“No,” Mari said. “You both stay here.” She looked at Susan. “Southerners aren’t too popular out there right now. I’m afraid for you.”
“They wouldn’t dare…” Marduke started to say.
“There’s no telling what can happen,” Mari said. “The fools wouldn’t even listen to the council.”
“How is Ursula?” Marduke inquired.
“She’s in mourning. I wish she wasn’t. They might listen to her.”
Mari left. Susan and Marduke were left holding each other. For the first time in the caves, Susan felt terrified.
“Marduke,” she said to her mate, “they’ll all be killed out there on the ice. There’s not supposed to be any private guns on that ship, but I wouldn’t put it past the captain to have a stash of them somewhere. He’s talked about having to scare off pirates in the South Seas on one of his other charter jobs. Moreover, the icebreaker is not far away. If either of them is packing fully automatic weapons, those men won’t stand a chance.”
“You’re right,” he agreed. “We’ve got to do something. I’m going to try talking to them.”
Marduke left with Susan at his side, ignoring Mari’s warning. He felt responsible for what was about to happen, since it was he who had brought her into the caves. They continued down the caves, ignoring the yelling and shouting echoing throughout the chambers.
A group of fifty young men were sharpening spears and getting ready to leave when they arrived at the outer chamber. The mob was in full power, with half of it wanting to go too and the other half cheering them on. Susan saw no sign of any of the women who had greeted her when she woke after her fever. She was still having trouble with the bad leg and needed the crutch to walk.
“Are you all out of your minds?” Marduke yelled at the group getting ready to leave. “You’ll all be exterminated out there. You won’t get anywhere near that ship.”
“Oh, look,” one of the young men yelled back, “the brave hunter Marduke, the man who brought the southern girl in here. How does it feel, Marduke to be responsible for Tabor’s death?”
Marduke went up to the man and stared directly in his face. “Maybe you’d like to take this up outside in another form, little man?” he said, his face two inches away from the other.
“Maybe when we get back. How is your little girlfriend? Was she worth all that you’ve brought down on us?”
“My mate is getting better,” he snarled at him. “You will never have the chance to find a mate if you go out there. Hell, you may not come back at all.”
A few other men joined Marduke’s accuser and the voices grew louder. Susan became very afraid and hobbled back to the wall, trying to appear as invisible as possible. Suddenly, fists began to fly and Marduke was sent flying out of the mob and into the nearest wall. He hit it with his head and lay still on the floor.
Susan put one hand to her mouth to stop the scream and went to him, best as she could on the crutch. His head was bleeding and he looked up at her. She bent down to the floor, trying to ignore the pain in her leg and hugged her bear, crying. All she could think about was how she’d been the cause of everything.
“Don’t leave me, Marduke,” she cried. “I have never loved anyone as much as you.”
Marduke felt the tears from her eyes on his face and opened his eyes. His head was throbbing and all he could think of was to get back at the idiots who had hit him from behind. “Don’t cry for me, my little cub,” he told her, “cry for that poor bastard I’m going to bounce off the ceiling.”
He tried to get up, but he was struck with a wave of nausea. Susan held onto him still crying.
The revenge party had forgotten about them both. By now, the door to the outside world had swung open and the young men in bear form were marching out in columns of two. They would transform in bears and join the detachment as it began leaving the caves. Soon, the outer hall was empty and the bears had left to make the southerners pay for what they had done.
*
At the ship and ice station, the crew and expedition team had no idea what was headed their way. They were going to have to sit idly and wait for the RCMP to show up and do the investigation. The ship’s captain had already been over to the look at the body Cook had claimed to have found. He had taken pictures of it to send to the police or hand over, whenever they could get out to them. For the time being, all they could do would be wait. The captain, Cook, and Dr. Matteson were all sitting inside the ice station, trying to figure out some way to pass the time till the RCMP arrived.
They had no idea what was headed their way.
*
Back in the outer chamber, Susan was rocking back and forth while trying to keep Marduke from losing consciousness. She looked up and saw Ursula standing over him with Mari at her side. “Have they all left?” she asked.
“Yes,” Susan told her. “Marduke was hurt trying to stop them. You’ve got to do something; they’ll all be killed out there.”
“I know,” Ursula returned. “But there isn’t much I can do. They’ve smelled blood.”
She turned to Mari: “Can you get him some help. See if you can get his wound treated.”
Mari helped Marduke off the ground and helped him begin walking back into the caves. Susan grabbed her crutch and tried to follow, but felt Ursula’s big hand on her shoulder.
“She’ll help him,” Ursula told her. “I need you to stay here with me.”
“How can you possibly need me?”
“I never should have allowed them to leave. I was
too upset with my own grief over losing Tabor. But what they’re doing could get us all killed. If they attack your people by surprise and blood is spilled, the repercussions could be terrifying. They have no concept of the weapons the southerners have at their disposal.”
“But what can I do to help?” Susan asked.
“I have to go out there and stop them,” Ursula explained. “If I can reach them before they strike, they’re might be a chance to stop this madness.”
“How do I figure in?”
“If I can’t reach them early enough I’ll need you to talk to your people. Come with me, we don’t have a lot of time.”
Ursula helped her to find outer clothing to go over the jacket she was wearing. She would need Susan to hold on to her back tightly as she intended to run across the ice as fast as she could, to intercept the war party. She could carry her, but her bear form wouldn’t be able to travel fast enough unless she was running on all four legs.
Ursula helped Susan back to the outer chamber and removed her clothes for the transformation. The last thing Susan thought before Ursula shifted into polar bear form was how furry her naked body was, just like Marduke’s.
When Ursula transformed, she bent down and let Susan grab hold of her neck. Then the large polar bear that was still Ursula reared back up and began moving out of the cavern into the arctic cold. As soon as the frigid air hit her, Susan saw the massive door, which concealed the entrance to the cave system swing shut behind them.
Susan held on as tight as she could and felt Ursula pick up speed, running on the ice. Although the ride was smooth, she saw the ground vanishing behind her. Then Susan remembered the amazing speeds polar bears could achieve running on all fours. She continued to hold on and prayed they wouldn’t be too late.
*
The first sign the ship had that something was wrong, was movement on the horizon. One of the crew members on deck noticed something move in the distance. He went and retrieved a pair of binoculars from below and brought them back up. Carefully, he looked through them and focused on what he saw advancing in their direction. He nearly dropped the binoculars in the ocean and ran to the control tower to call the captain, who was over in the ice station.
The captain was trying to figure the rules for some board game when his personal radio began squawking. He picked it up, put it to his ear and asked the person on the other end what was the problem. His eyes grew wide. He said “What the hell?” and bounded out of the ice hut, grabbing a small telescope with him. With it he scanned the horizon in where his crewman had told him.
Coming in their direction was a solid line of fifty adult polar bears. He ran back in the station and began yelling. “We’ve got to get out of here now! There’s a horde of polar bears headed our way!”
“What are you talking about?” snapped Dr. Matteson. “There haven’t been any major migrations recorded up this way in a long time. We were here to track the smaller groups. How many?”
“I didn’t have time to count! Could be fifty, could be a hundred, we need to get moving now!”
She took the telescope from him and went out to confirm his sighting. This time she dropped the telescope.
“I don’t get it, they’re all males! Young ones, too! Cook, how fast can you fire up the hovercraft?”
“Shouldn’t take me too long,” he said. “I’ve had it out running all day. Let’s get moving.”
They quickly piled into the hovercraft and Cook settled back in his pilot’s chair to fire up the fans. He pushed the safety release off and hit the ignition switch.
Nothing happened.
“Jesus H. Christ, Cook,” the captain swore, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know it should be fine. Oh, I see what the problem is: the starter batteries are dead. Must have run them too low today.”
The captain grabbed the radio microphone from Cook and began yelling into it. Now the bears were in visual range. They could be seen lumbering slowly toward them.
“Hello ship, this is the captain speaking,” he began babbling into it. “We are in some deep shit out here and I need you to do something. Have the pilot unlock the cabinet in my office behind the chart case. You know which one I’m talking about. Load the damn rifles quick and concentrate your fire away from us. Set to full automatic, when they start dropping the others will get the idea and fall back.”
“Cook,” Matteson addressed him, “How secure is this hovercraft?”
“Define secure.”
“Can a nine hundred pound polar bear rip through it?”
Cook started to sweat. “It’s not built for that kind of abuse.”
“Then you better pray they can take out those bears.”
On the deck, they could see the crew members lining up for clean shots. At least twelve guns were aiming in the direction of the bears, whom were just a hundred yards from the shoreline. The icebreaker hadn’t reached them yet, but it would have more guns.
The first bear into the perimeter around the ice station knocked over a radar installation and tore it to pieces with its paws. Another one reached the ice station itself and began tearing it apart. A third bear noticed the hovercraft with the humans in it and began walking in their direction.
A shot rang out from the ship. Snow and ice exploded in front of the bear advancing on the hovercraft and it turned to look in the direction of the ship.
“What’s that?” Dr. Matheson yelled, pointing to the right.
An adult female polar bear had come running into the front of the other bears. What made it even stranger was the woman in furs holding onto the back of the bear. The new bear noticed the hovercraft and its occupants and stopped, blocking the way of the bear advancing on it. The woman on the bears back jumped off and hobbled to the hovercraft. She flung the door open and looked inside.
“Dear God, I’m so glad you’re safe I thought we’d be too late!” she yelled.
“Susan?” the captain said realizing who it was.
By now the female bear was standing in front of the other bears, their advance had halted. They looked at her and growled, but would move no closer.
“You have to tell them to hold their fire!” she yelled at the captain. “Tell your men to stand down! Tell them not to shoot!”
“What the hell is going on with these bears?” the captain demanded.
“Just do it for us all.”
The captain looked at the line of bears motionless and figured he might as well try. He gave the order over the radio and the crew members with the guns slowly backed down from their positions.
Just then, the hovercraft fans began running.
“Got it,” said Cook. “Transferring power from the back-ups.”
“Get us the hell out of here!” Dr. Matteson demanded.
The hovercraft began to lift off the ground, but the bears remained motionless.
“Susan,” the captain shouted, “get in with us. He can carry one more person and we can get you to safety.”
“I’m already safe,” she told him. “Just leave and don’t look back.”
“Don’t you want to come home?”
“I’m already home,” she said while shutting the door.
Susan jumped off the hovercraft, using the crutch she was carrying for support. They watched her hobble over to the female bear, climb on its back and leave with it.
The last anyone ever saw of Susan was her riding on the back of a polar bear as it and the others began moving back in the direction they’d came.
Two of the young bears carried Tabor’s body back to the caves where he now sleeps with his ancestors. All official reports of an army of polar bears attacking a scientific expedition have been quietly buried or bought off by the Canadian government. The bear people do not officially exist.
And Susan still lives and loves with Marduke, beneath the ice in an underground world.
THE END
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