by Kyrii Rayne
I'm going to find you, Anna, Jake swore silently as he ran. I'm going to find you, and protect you, and get you out of here. No one is going to hurt you on my watch. I will get to you in time. I will.
Darrin held up suddenly as they burst out onto a switchback in the trail that headed along a steep mountainside. On the other side of the gorge, up another mountain, a clearing revealed the towering figure of the biggest bear Jake had ever seen. It was a grizzly, enormous and almost uniformly gray from this distance, like some kind of a ghost.
Its head was huge, heavy-featured even for a grizzly, with a strangely primordial look to it. Its fur bristled across massive shoulders as it lumbered into view, dragging something. From its size and power, it had to be a shifter. But it didn't change to use its hands and carry whatever it pulled out of the brush behind it; instead it used its jaws, just like an animal would have.
The two friends sat up on their haunches for a better look—and then it pulled what it was dragging into view and picked it up to start eating.
Jake collapsed to all four legs, groaning in horror. He panted for air, shock running through him like cold water. Was that a piece of... her? He dared another look. The... limb... was too dark-skinned. Relief and then guilt mixed with horror and he just couldn't seem to breathe. The hunt's already started... they killed one of the captives.
I know, came the low growl of Darrin's voice in his head. But why is it eating... are they... eating? Darrin gagged and staggered, pawing at his streaming face as he nearly lost his breakfast.
That thing is eating. But I don't know if it's a shifter. It's huge, but it acts like an animal. It acted like a man-eater, rather.
Eating humans was forbidden among shifters as a horrible crime. It was rumored to cause diseases and insanity, as it did among animals. This late in the season, with the deer herds having migrated down the mountain, a starving ordinary bear might have scavenged a corpse... but that thing back there wasn't starving. It was half again Jake's size, and he had the biggest shift form in the Lodge.
It's a monster, Darrin muttered in his head as he backed away from the ledge. I'll find us a way well around it.
Jake followed him down into the ravine and back up, his body strong and all but tireless, breaking brush when Darrin couldn't and then letting him through to follow Anna's elusive scent again. It's growing stronger, Darrin reassured him after a while.
But it was also growing darker. The bears could hunt in the dark, but the humans would be crippled without a light source, and would have to stop. That would eat up any running start Anna had. Darrin broke into a dead run, and Jake followed, trying not to think about Anna meeting the hunters — or worse, that thing they had seen on the mountain.
Chapter 8 - Armed Camp
When they stopped at sunset Mark made sure they chose well - a stable cave inside a stone outcrop, with a view from the entrance of the whole gorge below. He ignored Tori's pacing and muttering through her prolonged nicotine craving fit, his own hands just shaking a little. Anna couldn't help but admire him. Whatever Hell he had been through in his life, he bore up under everything he ran into and just went on, no matter the odds. I guess ‘Army Strong’ isn't just a turn of phrase. Especially with this guy.
She had foraged some roots and berries for their meal, washing them in a stream they crossed on their way northward. She had also found a treasure on the trail - obsidian. She had gathered the pieces in her makeshift bag as she went, and as she rested after they reached the cave she pulled them out and started knapping an axe-head shaped blade.
Mark stopped dead when he saw what she was doing, his eyebrows going up. “You found flint?”
“Obsidian. I figured maybe we could take some of those saplings and make a fence if we had something to cut them down with.” She smiled a little as she flaked a stout blade into one side of the stone. “I uh... learned in Girl Scouts and just kind of kept it up as another forestry skill.”
“Well damn, Girl Scout, good job. I saw you grabbing some stuff off the trail. I'm pretty hungry, do you have anything?” He heel-sat next to her, and she reached into the bag and handed him a pine cone. He blinked at her. “This is a joke, right?”
“No. It's from a pinon pine tree. You pull the sections open and there are pine nuts in there. Where do you think they get them from?” She winked at him and cracked off one of them, pulling it open and thumbing out the small nutmeat.
He nodded and smiled genuinely, impressed. Then he grabbed two and sat back against the rock wall of the cave mouth, watching her work. “You really love this wilderness-living stuff, huh?”
“Not when there are crazy men with guns after me.”
He peered out into the dimming sky. “How much more light do we have?”
“Two and a half to three hours, twilight lasts a long time in the mountains.” She sighed and watched Tori pace in a small circle in the back of the cave. Hopefully she would wear herself out soon. It was like dealing with someone on massive stimulants all the time. She went out to the stand of willow saplings down the slope from them and tested the blade on it.
It took a while to cut herself a handle for the axe, fastening it with a slot-and-peg design and bark strips.
“This won't take a lot of rough handling.”
“That's fine, let me give it a try.” He grasped one of the saplings at the top and swung the axe, cutting deep into the sapling. He yanked the wood sideways and broke it off, leaving a splintered stake sticking out of the ground. He peered down at it. “Oh. Maybe what we need isn't a fence at all.”
“I'm listening.”
She was already pulling out a second piece of obsidian to work on.
“I know carving a shovel with obsidian blades can't be fun but if we can set up a pit trap to cover some of our approaches, and set up some stakes and wooden spears at the entrance...” He looked back at the cave. “It'll keep wild animals off, and slow the hunters down. Also, we put it downslope there, and they will have trouble firing in at us. They'll back up to take aim and have a hell of a surprise.”
“Do we have time to do all of that?”
“Two of us working, with those saplings available and the tools you're making, and the ground soft, sure. It won't be fun, but we can do it.” Back in the cave, Tori let out a long whimper, and Mark looked that way and sighed. “Think we can trust her to at least keep out of the way?”
“I think so.” Anna lifted her chin. “I'll keep this one without a handle for planing the saplings down. The shovels will be tricky.”
“We won't have to dig too deep. Carve them out of one of the wider saplings digging-stick style, with a hollow in the bottom.”
He kept his chin up, and his body working, chopping down a dozen of the saplings and then using the blade edge to strip off the branches.
It was more physical work, done more quickly, than Anna had done in her life. The whole time she and Mark shored each other with talk about the project, about what they would do once they got to Jackson, even some thoughts on the future. To convince themselves and each other that they had one.
“So as soon as we get to Jackson we go to the police and their search and rescue folks. And then after that eats up our lives for about a day, we get a drink.”
Anna nodded, cracking a smile.
“A big drink.”
“Bigger than me. We'll wake up sometime next week.”
He laughed a little as he covered the low pit of sharpened stakes with a layer of dead leaves.
Wait, I just agreed to go have a drink with him once this is over. What am I doing? She hesitated, thinking of Jake. Wonderful, sexy Jake... whose father was trying to kill her. Would Jake come help? Would he even be able to come help? Or could Mark or even Tori's assessment of him be right?
He paused and blinked at her.
“Something up?”
“I was just wondering... what's gonna happen when I see Jake again.”
He sniffed a little disdainfully and went back to work.
>
“I guess that depends on whether he shows up with a rescue team, or with the hunters.” He sighed, and reached over to touch her shoulder. “You need to prepare yourself in case it's the second one, Anna. We're depending on you not to fall apart when things get bad. I can't carry another Tori. Not by myself.” His hand slid over her shoulder in a way that was slightly more than comforting, and she blinked, processing that along with his words.
“I get it,” she said softly, but felt her throat constrict at the idea of Jake betraying her like that. This was not done with his knowledge or his will. It can't have been. He'll do his best to come and help and if he doesn't it will be because he couldn't. Not because he didn't want to.
...Right?
She forced herself to keep working, and when her stomach growled, she ate pine nuts and dandelion roots and withered berries as she sat next to Mark. “I'm adding a big goddamned bacon cheeseburger to that list of stuff to do in Jackson.”
“I was thinking steak. With mushrooms.” He popped open another section of pinon cone and pulled out the nutmeat.
“Good call.”
“I'm a vegetarian,” Tori snapped as she emerged from the cave to see what they had for food. She lifted a dandelion root with two fingers and eyed it, then the two of them. “Really. This is what we have to eat?”
“Well, it's compatible with your vegetarian diet,” Mark quipped as he chewed a few berries. He winced slightly. “Not gourmet, but it will keep us going.”
“A cigarette would keep me going—”
“Oh, will you shut up about the damn cigarettes?” Anna grabbed the wooden spear she was working on and her blade, and kept on sharpening. “Cigarettes are not going to rain from the sky because you bitch about there not being any!”
She didn't want to be mean, but it had been hours of marching and working while listening to the woman whine about cigarettes, their situation, cigarettes, her headache...
“Oh, well, excuse me, then. Am I the villain of the piece? Is that how we're playing this?”
Tori's face crumpled and she wrapped her arms tight around herself.
“Knock it off already!” Mark snapped, sitting forward. “You think you're the only one here who is scared? We all are. But we're working through it while you act like a goddamned baby and expect to be carried along. You want something better to eat than what we've got? Go find it yourself. But whatever you do, quit your damn complaining. Or the real villains will hear you yammering away in the dark and come right to us!”
Tori's eyes widened as the last part finally hit home, and her mouth closed with a snap. She blinked at each of them, and then she pointed to the back of the cave. “I'm gonna just go... sit over there,” she stammered, and then went teetering off on her sore feet to do so.
“Holy crap. How about we stay up close to the cave mouth tonight?” he asked quietly, sounding profoundly tired.
She sighed and nodded. “Yeah. That's a good idea. Besides, if something does show up I want to be able to see it coming.”
They didn't see any lights coming up the mountain, which was comforting enough that after a while Anna's exhaustion caught up with her and she drifted off. She dreamed of that morning, waking up next to Jake, nestled against his massive body and soaking up his warmth. He had made her feel so safe. When she woke up against the cold cave wall, her sense of loss was so enormous that it made her sob. A hand slid over her back as the warm shape she was leaning against reached up to support her. Mark murmured sleepily in the darkness, and she turned her head to make out the faint silhouette of his face against the stars she could see from the cave mouth. Still no lights, and no footsteps. Could they have actually given the hunters the slip?
Crashing in the brush far down the slope made her sit up, and she gasped aloud. Mark sat up instantly.
“What is it?”
“Big animal down there.” The breeze blew a musky scent their way. “Bear, I think.”
“Okay, well, no reason for it to bother with us, but let's keep the spears handy.” His arm stayed protectively around her for a moment, and then he moved away in the dark to grab two spears from where they leaned against the far wall. More crashing in the brush all around: some of it might have been other animals reacting to the bear, but another moved toward them, and was as huge as the first. Mark pressed a spear into her hand and she tried to remind herself to keep calm and brace the spear against the ground with her foot on it if an animal charged her. Something massive and hairy charged up the hill; another charged from the side and reached the cave mouth first.
It clawed angrily at the fence of sharpened poles they had set up at the entrance, and she realized she was looking at a huge grizzly. The other one, only a little smaller, ran right onto the pit trap and let out a bellow of surprised pain—
—and the cry distracted the first. It looked back over its shoulder as it reared up, a strangely human gesture. Then it growled and turned back, clawing aside the sapling poles.
Mark let out a yell and charged with his spear, and she forgot all about defensive stances and charged in as well, feeling the impact in her shoulders. Mark's had drawn blood somewhere in the beast's upper chest; hers didn't get past the hide but helped drive it backward as they both pressed the attack. The bear fell over backward and rolled toward the pit with their spears still stuck in it. Mark grabbed her to keep her from falling after it — and then suddenly a third bear charged them. She didn't get a good look at it, except for vague impressions - boulder-gray, huge, the biggest she had ever seen—
A high, keening scream rent the air as Tori came running out of the cave in a wild-eyed, arm-swinging panic. She ran right past them, straight into the path of the third bear. It rumbled and she turned, seeing it charging her. A fresh scream tore from her, and she ran off into the night with the bear on her heels. Mark pulled Anna back into the safety of the cave mouth and shielded her with his body, arms wrapped tight around her. The screaming sounds cut off and became tearing sounds... and his hand slid up to cover her ear as he cradled her head against his shoulder. “Don't listen.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to. But her mind was still whirling. Why had they been attacked by bears? A trio of adult bears, in good health?
Were they trained to attack somehow? Had they been let loose on the captives? Or was this just some hideously screwed up coincidence? She ended up clinging to Mark, shaking in revulsion and terror. A groan came from outside, followed by a curse.
“Fuck. Fucking humans... James. Jimmy... are you still alive?” There was a rustle and a crack of splintering wood. “Ow...”
They slowly uncurled from each other. He let her go, and they crept to the cave mouth again. Two men lay in the shallow pit, pierced here and there by the stakes. One lay limp, a stake through his throat and his eyes open and blank. The other was still moving weakly. They were both older white men, around Anthony Matson's age, hair silvery and bodies paunchy but fit, dressed in expensive hunting gear, with rifles strapped across their backs.
“Ah... there you are... just let me... heal up from this and I'll kill you in a minute. If Graypaw doesn't do it first, he... that thing's a monster.”
They both stared at him. He was lying where a bear should be. His dead friend was lying where a dead bear should be. How could he be here? He laughed weakly.
“Oh, you're confused. I can understand that. You're probably still w-” he coughed. “Wondering why you and your friends are the game in this hunt. Well, it goes like this... you're overbred. Humanity is over... bred...” He coughed again, one of his lungs apparently damaged. “Your numbers need to be cut. So... it's open season.” A weak grin. He had blood in his teeth that looked black in the thin moonlight.
“What the Hell are you even talking about?” Mark demanded.
“It's time for the wildlife to start hunting you.” And suddenly the man lunged up at them, yanking himself partway off the spikes, while his body darkened and shifted, grew massive. A grizzly lunged, roared an
d snapped at them futilely as Mark pulled Anna away from it. But as fast as it had attacked, it started to falter; it fainted, collapsed, and started to shrink again. Before Anna could recover from the bear’s sudden lunge at them and its transformation, it had turned back to the man, and collapsed, breathing his last below them. She exchanged slow looks with the wide-eyed Mark, and they went to the edge of the pit.
“They turned into bears.” Mark said dully. “The guys after us can turn into bears.”
“I'm not having a nightmare, then.”
He shook his head slowly. He carefully climbed into the pit, wary of the still-twitching body, and started searching both of them for supplies. “Can you fire a rifle?”
“Not well, but I can do it.”
“Good, because we now have weapons and some gear. But we had best get a move on. That third bear is still out there, and once he's done with Tori he's coming back for us.”
“What do you mean... done with her?” She looked up into his face, which had gone suddenly impassive.
“You don't want to know. Now grab a spear and your bag, we're getting going as soon as I'm done here.”
Chapter 9 - Revelations
“Wow,” Jake said as he changed back to his human form. He stood over the pit trap with its two corpses, looking around at the battleground between the pit and the cave mouth. “What the Hell happened here?”
“Your girlfriend happened, from the smell of it. She was here with two others. A male who took off north with her, and another female, the one whose body we found back on the deer path.” Darrin looked a little tired as he shook off his bear form and looked around. “I'd say we're not far behind them. But I'm still sorting out the scents. It seems like the hunting party broke up to go after different groups of captives.”