by Scott Todd
"We are going to have to take care of that problem too," Ben interjected. "And I guess I'm the man for that job. I think I can handle it."
Terry just looked at him with a grossed out look on her face, and then looked away.
"Well for that you're probably going to need..." I began, but had a sudden deep sickness that started to rise in me, thinking of the morbid task. It took a minute to regain my composure. "You're probably going to need something like a trash bag. And we might just find some if we can make it down there and start digging," I finished saying.
"That's true, although now that I think about it, I seem to remember some kind of bag like that in the trunk of Sandra's..." began Ben, but he stopped short when he saw Jan's terrified eyes, looking up towards the deck. She was overcome with fear and couldn't speak, and just desperately pointed with a trembling finger.
As we all turned to look up there, we caught a fleeting glimpse of a large animal just as it saw us. It was coming down the hill towards us and it was huge. It was exactly the colors I had described. When it saw us, it stopped for brief second, and then quickly bolted into the trees. For as big as it was, its speed was incredible. But we all saw it clearly enough, and Ben reached for his rifle.
"Well I'll be damned," he said. "I never would have believed it."
"Was that a..." Terry started to say.
"Yes, I believe it WAS," Ben replied, looking incredulous. "From the pictures I've seen, that sure looks like one. I just didn't know they got THAT big."
Jan and Terry scurried back into the car, and I pulled my pistol.
"I'm not getting out of the car again until that thing is dead," Jan screamed from inside, as Ben shut the car door.
"So how many bullets you have for that thing?" I asked Ben, trying to sound less concerned than I really was.
As if awakened from a trance, he quickly checked the gun, and then dashed for the back of the car, producing a box of ammo a few moments later.
"I'm glad you said that," he announced, as he quickly reloaded the weapon. "I have about a hundred rounds in two boxes."
"Well I have six shots in the pistol, and I have a box of ammo too, but it's still in there somewhere," I added, pointing at the remains of my car.
"Well you better find it," he said, as he directed me with his eyes towards my car. "I'll stay here."
Realizing that he had a point, I quickly made my way down to the crumpled wreck to have a better look around, now that I had some sunlight. I managed to retrieve about twenty five rounds, scattered all about. They had come out of the box and dispersed with all the tumbling.
I briefly paused to have a look through the trees, and saw another mountain peak in the far distance, still standing strong amongst the mayhem, although it was lower than we were. And I could barely make out what looked to be the remains of a trail, that was headed over that way. But a lot of trees had fallen, partly covering it up. I made the mental note, and went back to the group at the car.
"If we leave to hunt that thing, what about them?" I said to Ben, looking into the car to see two concerned faces peering out against the glass.
"I don't know. I was wondering the same thing. If we leave to try and find it, it might find them first, or take us by surprise. They can climb trees, you know. And that broken window on Terry's side..."
A car door opened and out stretched a hand with an apple. "Yes, thank you, we need that," Ben responded and produced his pocket knife. He gave me half, and we devoured it, as hungry as we were. I noticed that it made me fuller than it should have. My stomach was already shrinking from the lack of food.
And that cougar was standing in the way of everything. "We've GOT to kill it, before it gets one of us," I said with resolve to Ben.
"Yes, we must," he agreed. "But how, is the question. If we wait here for it to come back, we may never see it again until it's too late."
"It knows we are here, and will surely come back... Maybe even tonight. You want to wait that long and give it the advantage of darkness?"
His response was instantaneous. "Hell no."
"Me either," I agreed. "But wait a second. I mean let's think about this. It has some access to food with the deer and maybe other small animals around. Maybe it was attracted by the smell up there at the deck. So why didn't it eat..." I couldn't finish the sentence, but he understood.
And then he looked at the monstrous bear carcass, and looked back up at me.
"Ahh," I said out loud. "Maybe THAT'S where it was headed when it saw us. It probably was more familiar with THAT smell."
"Exactly," Ben agreed. "Which means it knows that carcass is there, and you can bet it wants a crack at it. It will be back, almost for sure. Much easier than chasing after deer. And it probably knows too that the carcass is still relatively fresh from the smell."
"Yup," I said, and had to agree. "So is there any way..." I began.
"You mean set a trap with it?" he interrupted.
"Yes, exactly what I was thinking," I concurred, fascinated again at how quickly his mind worked. "I was thinking maybe if we could find a way to move that carcass further up the hill..."
"Then we could sit in the car and wait for it..." Ben finished. "I am liking that idea more than getting separated from the women and chasing that thing all over the mountain."
"Me too," I responded, sounding more enthusiastic, like we had a solid plan. "But how are we going to... Move it?" I asked. Clearly with the bear weighing many hundreds of pounds, dragging it by hand wasn't an option.
"Well if we can find something to tie it with, we might be able to use the car to pull it up further, and get it closer to the tree line, at the edge of the forest near the top of the hill. That would surely be tempting, don't you think?" he pondered out loud, with a faint smile.
"No doubt about it," I agreed.
The car door opened, and out poked a head. "I saw some rope up there in the deck when I found that shovel and bucket," Jan quickly said, and then just as quickly shut the door again. I looked at her nose scrunched up against the glass, and she motioned with her eyes up towards the deck. They were intently following our conversation through the glass.
"Ok then, we'll have to go up there and get it," Ben deduced. "I'll take it slow. How about you stay back a bit, and keep your eyes peeled. And I wouldn't get too far... Maybe stop about halfway up so you can cover me and them both. Here, let's swap guns." He handed me the rifle, and I gave up the pistol, knowing he was going to need freer hands to find the rope in the deck rubble and carry it back.
"Safety's on, and it's right there," he said, pointing to a switch near the trigger. And with that he started up the hill slowly, and then stopped. "Safety's still on... Would you please take it off, and take keep your finger away from the trigger, unless..." he said louder at some distance.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, flicking the switch, which is what he was waiting to hear.
"Ok," he grunted, and continued up the hill. I followed, and opened up all my senses to max. I stopped about halfway and waited, while the smell got a lot stronger, nearly making me have to vomit.
When he reached the deck he was torn between trying to cover his nose and trying to move things out of his way, and I thanked him under my breath profusely for taking on that job. But I was worried because I could not see the other side of the hill beyond the deck. He kept looking that way, knowing that too.
After about ten minutes, he finally emerged back down the hill with the prize in hand. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Ben moved the car up, close to the bear, and we proceeded to tie the rope to the rear of the car and around the bear's head. Ben put it in four wheel drive, and slowly started dragging the carcass up the hill. It was working.
I helped clear the path of objects, but I could only do so much. He went as close to the tree line as he could, and then finally stopped, not being able to go any further. We untied it, and moved the car back down the hill, trying to get just the right angle that would let us shine the headligh
ts that way, and yet still give him a clear shot out the window with the rifle.
He opted to shoot out of the front passenger side window where Terry usually was. He tested the headlights and had to readjust the car's position a couple of times, but we finally nailed it. We could light up that carcass and surrounding woods at will.
And then came the wait. A long, silent wait. By now it was mid day, and we wondered how long this was going to take. We were captives once again, but we all felt we were doing it in the safest way we could.
Jan parted out another quarter sandwich to each, which was not all that good anymore, but still edible. What was tough was eating it while we were smelling the stench. But sheer hunger prevailed. Desert was another million dollar cigarette courtesy of Terry. At least that helped us keep the food down.
I looked at my watch. It was now 1:57 pm, and still no sign of...
"Look, look!" Terry said urgently all of a sudden, trying to keep her voice down. Before I could even focus on the subject, a gunshot blasted us all so loudly in the car that we all went deaf for a minute. Damn that hurt. And then a second one followed. Double damn.
Ben got out of the car quickly, took aim, and fired once again. Confident he had succeeded, he proclaimed "Well it's time to go do some digging."
Chapter 27: Digging For Life
"You are an amazing shot with that rifle," I conceded to Ben, as I stood looking over the fresh kill. And what a sight it was. Ben had hit it nearly right between the eyes with one shot, and that made a pretty bad mess of its head. The teeth on that beast were nearly two inches long, and I had no doubts with its size it could have killed and eaten any of us with no problem. Its paws were just as big and scary.
"It was twitching, so I shot it three times. I couldn't tell because we were kind of far away," he said, as he defended himself against the sorrowful look on Jan and Terry's faces. They scurried back down the hill quickly though to get away from the stench, and Ben and I were right behind them after we made a brief trip to the deck to nab the shovel and bucket. I found another larger bucket and grabbed it, hoping for success down below. I also grabbed my toolbox, and a couple of canned goods, laying scattered about.
So back at the car, we gathered up the items and prepared for a trip down the hill towards the parking lot.
"We might be able to use that cougar's hide too," Jan said pensively, thinking about the cold nights to follow.
"Well that's going to take some doing," Ben countered. "With a hacksaw and a pocket knife, that is. But let's get down there and see what we can find."
So off we went down the hill towards the parking lot, but Jan stopped suddenly, looking to the right and seeing another place where a landslide had occurred.
"I think there was another small building right... Here..." she said, peering down into the woods after it. "Yes! look down there," she exclaimed. We could barely make out more rubble from a wooden building some 300 yards down, along with many trees that had been toppled or fallen in the mayhem.
"We should check that out later," Ben suggested. "But that looks steep, loose and dangerous."
Then we arrived at the lot. Sandra's car was still sitting there off to the right, and that brought back some savory memories, despite our situation. When Jan and Terry saw it, they slyly glanced at me, and I saw a slight smirk on Terry's face as she quickly looked away. Ben was still clueless- and that was good, for the moment. We had more pressing matters.
A more careful inspection of the land revealed exactly what we had postulated earlier. The concession building had collapsed and completely disappeared in a landslide, leaving a twisted mess of broken pipes and wires still visible. "So much for the running water," Ben remarked, sounding disappointed.
But as we made our way down carefully in the loose soil, we started seeing more and more debris sticking out of the dirt, carving a path that led down over a road and to the new water line down below in the distance. I guessed the road was probably the entrance road to the park, but I wasn't sure. It was mangled, with many sections missing.
So we made our way even further down the hill past the road, and we finally came upon a portion of the remains of the building- wrapped around a tree that managed to stop its downward progress.
And just below that, we hit the jackpot. Supplies of all kinds were strewn about- some half buried, and probably more totally buried.
In fact it was so much stuff that I wondered how we were going to get it all back up the hill.
"I still have the keys to Sandra's car," Ben said, wondering the same thing as he looked back up the hill at the vast swath carved out by the slide. "We can get this stuff up to her car and take it up the hill in loads."
Jan and Terry were far more transfixed by their first sight of the new ocean, now in plain view. And Ben, realizing what they were looking at, emerged from his fixation on the salvation we had just found to join them. The supplies were a bitter-sweet victory that was only temporary- the vast ocean so close, tossing and turning still, reminded everyone profoundly of that fact.
But looking at it myself too again more closely, I noticed the water was markedly lower. "Whoa, wait a minute," I said. "That water was a lot higher when I saw it."
"Yes, I am not surprised," Ben remarked. "I was expecting it to recede somewhat. I just don't know how much it will continue to. And I was hoping that it had receded much more than this, but it has not, and that is not a good sign. Most of it may be here to stay. We'll just have to wait and see in the..."
No one had to wonder why he stopped talking. A large tremor started shaking the ground, and we felt ourselves starting to slip downward. It was causing the loose dirt to slide further, and we were all in it.
The last thing I saw was Jan fall, and get swept downhill along with me. I didn't see Ben or Terry. I ended up crashing into the remains of the building and tree, which stopped my descent. But I was getting tossed around in the dirt tsunami, which was now burying me by the second. I couldn't move against it, and the dirt from the hill quickly reached my head as it piled up. I struggled to find something higher to reach, but I was being buried alive. I couldn't fight it any longer, took my last breath, and then the dirt was over my head.
The dirt was cold. It felt unforgiving against my face, and completely covered me. I had come this far, and was now about to die in an avalanche. Damn, why did I leave the car? Why, why, WHY? I should have known better than to get in that loose dirt. That last minute of contemplation as I held my breath before facing death conjured up all kinds of visions. My eyes were shut. I was buried. I silently wished them the best of luck, and then I felt the unbearable pressure to gasp for air. I had to. There was no choice. I finally had to instinctively gasp, but all I got was a mouthful of dirt, and then blackness. I was gone.
But not for long. The next thing I know, I am coughing my brains out as a sweet set of lips breathed air back into my lungs. I tried to move but couldn't. I was still buried, and looked up into Jan's dirty face, who was smiling at me. God my lungs hurt, and so did my head. But I was breathing. The pains quickly subsided. She had excavated me just enough to get access to my mouth, and breathed life back into me.
"Hold on, I'm coming," I heard Ben say, and then heard the frantic sounds of digging around me. Within minutes, all three of them had the dirt gone down to my shoulders, and soon after that I was able to free my arms. Then they all grabbed me and started pulling on me until I was able to get out. The fact that it was loose soil helped.
"Thank God I saw exactly where you went under!" Ben proclaimed. "I almost went under myself, but just barely managed to catch that limb above and stay above the dirt. It took me a minute to get out, but I managed.
"Thanks," I gasped, still desperate for air. "Thanks a whole lot. And I didn't know you believed in God." He had no reply to that, but just smiled and gave me a pat on the shoulder.
Looking over at Jan and Terry, who looked relieved, Terry said "I was standing close enough to the edge that I dove off sideways out of
it, and quickly grabbed Jan. She almost didn't make it either." Jan gave Terry another hug in sheer gratitude.
"Well we do need those supplies, but this time let's get that rope and tie ourselves off to a big tree so this can't happen again," Ben said regretfully. "I am real sorry. I should have..."
"No, it's just as much my fault, if not more," I barked back, cutting him off and scolding myself. "I've studied quakes too and know about landslides. That was a really, really stupid move, getting into that loose dirt knowing there could be more tremors."
Jan quickly comforted me and gave me a hug. "Ok, come on now you guys, let's not be too hard on ourselves. Let's move on," she said. "We have a hell of a lot of work to do. But yes, how about we do get that rope."
"Yeah, no doubt," I agreed. "I'll go get it," I offered.