Waypoint Alaska

by Shauna R. Schober[thriller]

  “Uh Trent, is there a bathroom along the trail at all?” Ben asked.

  “No, sorry man, you can use a bush, or hold it.”

  “I’ll hold it for now.” Ben said as he continued to hike the path.

  As they walked, they all took pictures of the beautiful landscape, the mountains in the backdrop, the tall grasses along the trail, and bear prints, hundreds of bear prints, that never ceased being amazing, especially to Megan, who took pictures of huge prints, medium prints and small baby bear prints. When she asked Trent about these prints, he reminded them never to approach or bother a mother bear and her cubs. At this time of year the new cubs would only be a few months old, they would be very curious as well, so any visitor had to be careful and make sure the mother bears didn’t mistake them for threats.

  Lacey looked at the screen of her phone then showed Megan and Ben they were close, very close. The group came over one last small knoll on the trail and there below them was the river, its water was loud, large rocks penetrated the surface. It swirled and gushed, and poured over a water fall in the distance.

  “This is Brooks Falls,” Trent informed them. “Just up ahead you’ll see a small platform, it’s perched right at the top of the falls, perfect for watching the bears catch fish. You guys’ll love this!” he was getting so excited, Ben was impressed, this man had probably seen this a thousand times, he knew it like the back of his hand, it wasn’t anything new to him and yet he was visibly excited, thrilled even, to be here. As Ben looked around and took in the multitude of bears feasting in the water, he instantly understood. A combination of excitement, fear, and awe filled him. The group walked to the platform quietly. Megan continued to take pictures. In the water in front of the platform were five different full grown bears, one of which was enormous. There were four other large bears, each very different in appearance, one was so light colored it almost looked like a polar bear.

  “Is that a polar bear?” Megan asked Trent.

  “No, those are more in the Northern part of Alaska, that is just a blonde colored brown bear, they can be all sorts of different colors, amazing huh?” he responded.

  “Crazy,” Megan concurred.

  Ben and Lacey looked around the platform, it was hard to concentrate with the bears in front of them feasting on the fish. It was incredible to watch them and both Ben and Lacey caught themselves in a trance watching the different bears stand perfectly poised and ready just waiting for a fish to jump up the falls. Once the fish was in the air, the bear would simply move its head and catch the fish, it seemed so easy, and yet as Ben watched a smaller bear, clearly a cub, maybe a yearling, try to catch fish, he knew instantly it was not as easy as the older bears made it look. This bear was fumbling and slipping. Clearly frustrated, it moved closer to the larger blonde colored bear and attempted to steal the remains of fish that the older bear had caught. The larger bear gave a warning growl to the smaller bear, whose ears instantly perked up.

  “That small one is named Cinnamon, his mom is the one who is growling at him, her name is Sugar. I named them.” Trent said proudly. “Cinnamon is a riot, super clumsy, and very social, no matter how many times he gets growled at and bossed around by the other bears, he keeps trying. He’s fun to watch.”

  “Do you name them all?” Megan asked.

  “No, I name the ones who I see a lot, the regulars, ya know?” he smiled. “Last year I was out by myself doing some maintenance on the platform, a large grizzly approached me, I had never seen him before, but he was enormous, the biggest bear I have ever seen. He was curious I could tell and so I remained calm, but then he got aggressive. He stood on his hind legs and was easily over ten feet tall, he growled and snarled at me. I pulled my gun out, but quickly realized that with a bear that size, my gun probably didn’t have enough power to bring him down. I backed away from him, and he continued to pursue me. I thought for sure I would have to try to shoot him, I took aim when all the sudden a small cub ran right in front of the male. The baby distracted him and he came down off his haunches and chased after the cub. Suddenly, the mother bear, Sugar over there, chased the male down and attacked him, giving him a good swipe to the ear. I have never seen a male bear back down to a female bear like that, but suddenly the male ran off. Sugar showed that guy who was boss, and I think they must have known each other, because he knew she was serious about protecting her baby,” he paused for a minute and looked at Ben and Lacey, “Hey guys what are you doing?”

  Lacey was crouched next to the platform looking under it, suspiciously. Ben was pulling himself up a small tree that was next to the platform, searching everywhere for what could be the geocache. “Oh uh, they’re looking for a geocache,” Megan explained. “The waypoint leads to this platform, actually. Have you seen anything that could be a geocache?”

  “A geocache huh? No, I can’t say I have, that’s like a small box of some sort, right?” he asked for clarification. Just as Megan was beginning her description, Lacey jumped in the air holding a small black metal box and hollered,

  “FOUND IT!” as the words escaped her mouth she knew she had made a mistake, suddenly below Ben, in the thick bushes, a snarl tore through the air. The bushes rustled, and then separated. Ben was still in the tree, he climbed a little faster, Lacey stepped toward Trent and Megan, foolishly thinking that if they were on the platform the beast, which was emerging one huge paw at a time out of the brush, wouldn’t bother them. She instantly realized she was wrong, she was absolutely wrong.

  7

  Ben’s mom was getting a little anxious. She hadn’t heard anything from Ben, Megan, or Lacey in two days. Knowing that they were most likely having a good time and just forgot, she saw no harm in logging onto United Cellular’s website to begin tracking Ben’s phone.

  She tapped her fingers as the website processed the number and retrieved the proper information to place his location on the map. The site finally blinked with a red dot sitting next to Juneau, Alaska. What caught her eye and immediately sent shivers down her spine was the second dot she saw on the screen, this dot was marking all other cell phones that were linked to Ben’s cell phone, and this dot was over a thousand miles away in the middle of Katmai National Park. She knew instantly that something had gone horribly wrong.

  In less than a minute she had her phone in hand and dialed Ben’s number, it rang, and rang and rang and just when she thought it would go to Ben’s voice mail an older man answered.

  “Yello,” his voice was scratchy.

  “Who is this?” Ben’s mom asked.

  “Who wants to know?” he snarled back.

  “You have my son’s phone, who are you?”

  “Oh, my name is Henry, your son is Ben then, right?”

  She felt a little relieved that Henry knew Ben’s name, there must be some logical reason that he had Ben’s phone, “Yes, Ben is my son, why do you have his phone?”

  “Oh you know kids, he came to my diving shop to go explore a ship wreck and left his phone on the boat. Say, you don’t know where I could find him, do you? I mean if he’s still around town or something I could bring his phone to him.” Henry smiled as a plot was developing in his head.

  “Actually, it appears that he is somewhere in Katmai National Park. That’s a long ways from you, why don’t you just mail the phone to this address, do you have a pen?”

  “Well, listen ma’am I’m sure there has to be an easier way, how did you know that he was in Katmai?”

  “Oh, his phone, Lacey’s and Megan’s phones are linked through this United Cellular program, so I can find the location of the phones online,” she answered. “Anyways, let me give you our mailing address, please just put the phone in the mail, that way it’ll be here by the time that he gets back. I’m more than happy to pay for postage.” Ben’s mom proceeded to give Henry the mailing address.

  Henry smiled as he hung up the phone, he moved his finger along the touch screen of the cell phone, until an icon popped up for “United Cellular Latitude” he presse
d on the icon and suddenly a map popped up, he saw his current location, and then another red dot to the far left of the screen. They were certainly in Katmai, he decided. Now, how could he get to them? He decided to wait until their location changed, perhaps they would be coming closer to him and he could intercept them somehow.

  “Hey, Henry, so um are we really gonna try to track the kid down? I mean they obviously were telling the truth, they’re not looking for gold,” Eddy asked.

  “They aren’t huh? How do you know?” Henry barked back.

  “It’s just obvious, I mean why would they be in Katmai now?”

  “Here’s another question for ya, why wouldn’t they be heading home? Ben’s mom just told me they were in Katmai, if you were his age and you had just been kidnapped, then somehow escaped, wouldn’t you be headed home to your momma?” Henry sighed. “Nope, there has to be something big going on, something huge, to make those three continue on, they know something we don’t and that is why they aren’t heading home.”

  Henry paused thoughtfully and pulled on his beard, “I wonder now if Ben even threw the key in the air? Maybe he threw a pebble or something, he probably saved the key and just acted like he was throwing it to us. Yup, I bet that is exactly what he did, that little punk, sneaky. Plain old sneaky, which just makes it clear to me; he is after something, I have no clue what it is, but it’s gotta be good, and soon it’s gonna be mine.”

  Eddy cleared his throat and glared at Henry, “Yours, how ‘bout ‘ours’?”

  “Oh, yeah, I mean ours, ours. You’re right, ours,” Henry corrected himself, then stood up and walked to the coffee maker on the counter, “Over my dead body,” he whispered to himself.

  Trent grabbed Lacey’s arm and pulled her behind him. He kept his eye on the bear as he told Ben to stay put. He then pulled the handgun out of its holster, thinking for sure he would have to use it this time.

  Ben looked down from his perch in the tree above the platform, everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Directly below him was an enormous bear, it had thick course brown fur that was long and shaggy, nothing like what he would have expected. He looked around and instantly became dizzy, bad idea, he thought to himself. He wasn’t that high up, but every once in a while his fear of heights would rear its ugly head, now was one of those times.

  “Ben stay in the tree,” Trent commanded.

  “No problem,” Ben called back.

  Trent continued to push Lacey and Megan back, until they had reached the railing of the platform and couldn’t retreat any further. The bear continued to pursue them slowly, as it climbed onto the platform it stood on its back legs. It was easily ten feet tall, and it was angry. It growled fiercely as it swung its head from side to side, foaming slobber flew through the air.

  Trent took aim, and then Ben interrupted him, “Uh…Trent you got company,” he called down quietly. His voice was just enough to distract the angry bear standing below him, it turned and swiped at the tree, causing Ben to lose his grip, he slid down a few inches, screaming along the way. As soon as he got his grip, he climbed higher. The bear continued to paw at the tree, knocking branches and leaves to the ground. Megan cried as she watched Ben, helplessly.

  Trent looked over the edge of the deck to see what Ben was talking about and noticed several bears coming out of the water, toward the deck, they were jogging and then suddenly began to run toward them. He wasn’t sure what to do, he didn’t even have enough bullets to hit each bear once, let alone kill any of the beasts. Something wasn’t right. Even Sugar was running toward them, she had never displayed any violence toward a human. He again took aim at the large male that was attacking the tree that Ben was in, it had now begun climbing the tree.

  “Good news and bad news guys! The bad: I’m gonna have to jump, the good: I don’t have to go to the bathroom anymore!” Ben yelled, fear clinching his voice.

  “Wait Ben, I’m gonna get this guy for you! Stay put,” Trent pulled his gun back up and took aim, he had never had to use it before, and was clearly nervous. Just as he had his sights set on the bears head a sharp growl shook his entire body. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Sugar rise up on her haunches, she took a step forward to Trent and growled again. Everyone froze.

  “Uh guys,” Trent said in a quiet voice, trying not to anger her anymore. “We have a problem.”

  “What?” Lacey asked.

  “That’s not Sugar,” Trent informed them.

  “What, how do you know?” Lacey asked.

  “The eyes. Look this bear, it has blue eyes…I’ve never…seen this one before,” Trent gently swung his arms over and pulled the gun up on the light colored bear standing before them, just as he started to press on the trigger the bear took a step forward and with its right paw swiped Trent’s arm. The gun went flying over the edge of the deck and into the water. Trent backed up more, squishing Lacey and Megan as he clenched his bloody hand. “I don’t know what to do!” he confessed.

  Megan began to climb the railing, she would jump into the freezing water if she had to, she had decided. Just as she did, the blue eyed bear turned and lunged itself over to the tree, it grabbed the foot of the bear that was climbing up after Ben and pulled it down. Branches cracked and fell to the ground as the two bears attacked one another. Their snarls were so loud Ben could feel them shake his entire body. The two bears continued to fight, they were tearing into each other. Ben couldn’t do anything to stop the horrific scene, he was terrified, but also so relieved the bear wasn’t climbing up after him anymore. His only hope was that the light colored bear would win the fight.

  Within a minute, the light blonde bear was pushing into the larger male bear’s chest with her front paws. She had somehow gotten him onto the ground and was holding him down. Her fur was red with blood, no doubt her injuries were serious. Other bears were standing around the outer edges of the platform watching the fight, Trent was correct, this bear wasn’t Sugar, as she and Cinnamon were amongst the onlookers watching this horrific event.

  The blonde bear’s mouth was wide open, she snarled showing all of her blood covered teeth, the brown beast under her wiggled and growled, but somehow was still pinned under her weight. She moved her mouth to his neck and bit hard, but not hard enough to tear through his flesh. She pulled up with a mouth full of fur, and again growled. This was her warning. The brown bear instantly understood and became calm. He was done either way, but he understood quickly that if he obeyed he would be walking away, if he continued to fight, he would not.

  It seemed as though she was testing him, Ben thought. He stayed perched in his tree looking down on this amazing sight, checking back quickly with Megan and Lacey who were now both perched on the outer side of the platform railing. Trent was cradling his torn and bloodied hand.

  The blonde bear slowly stepped off the brown bear’s chest, and stood next to him on her back legs. She let one more fierce, terrifying growl cut through the air. Instantly, the brown bear rolled onto his legs and stood. It looked at Ben in the tree, and then turned sheepishly and ran away. The blonde bear looked at the rest of the bears, who were quickly making their way back to their fishing spots. She then turned and lifted her blood stained head toward Ben. She let out a weak snarl that was a combination of frustration and pain.

  Ben stared at her for a moment, terrified this bear would now come up the tree, but she didn’t, she just stood, staring at him. It was in that moment, when their eyes met that suddenly Ben knew, everything would be okay.

  8

  Ben steadied himself as he exited the plane. The wind had picked up, landing on the water had been quite an adventure in itself, not to mention the whole bear thing. He wondered, did he see things correctly? The bear’s eyes had indeed been blue, they were the same blue eyes that had haunted and then saved him over and over again when they were geocaching in Oregon. Could the Keeper of the Lighthouse be here also? And if he was, how did he know where “here” was? Ben shook his head with confusion as he helped Meg
an off the sea plane and onto the rocking dock.

  The water splashed the edges, drenching their feet as they slowly and steadily made their way to the shore. Lacey was holding onto the small geocaching container they had found at the platform, Trent steadied her so she wouldn’t drop the container or fall off the dock. His arm was still bleeding, but the simple tourniquet he made out of his shirt seemed to do the job and quickly stopped the bleeding.

  The group made their way to the cabin where they had originally checked in with Trent. As they opened the door, the thick heat enveloped them, it’s warmth like a blanket, covered every inch, it was thick and dry, and instantly their gloves, jackets, and boots came off as they hovered over the hot wood stove.

  “So how we gonna open this?” Lacey questioned.

  “We could smash it? We could pry it open?” Ben replied.

  “Why not just use the key?” Trent asked.

  “An eagle took it.” Megan said matter-of-factly. Trent just stared at her, she stared back, not willing to give more of an explanation.

  “Okay…” he paused, “I believe you.” Trent sighed as he shook his head. “Let me get a pry bar outta the shed, we’ll get ‘er open.” He slipped his boots back on and headed out the door.

  “So guys, not to put a damper on our fun or anything, but when do you guys wanna call it quits? I mean, this may never end, it may be one key after another after another, ya know.” Lacey rubbed her temples as she spoke.

  “I think we’ll know when we’re done.” Ben replied.

  “Yep, I’m with Ben, we’ll let you know,” Megan giggled. This was exactly the type of adventure she had been waiting for, she was so excited to find the next location, she could hardly contain herself when Trent opened the door to the cabin.