by Zoe Chant
Except even if someone had noticed her being taken in the parking lot, by the time the police could organize some sort of full-scale search and rescue, track the car to the mountain and follow her up the trail, she'd be dead.
And if what Alan had told her about those caves was true, it would take a lot of luck for anyone to even find her body. Not that it'd make any difference to her either way by that point.
She'd have to rescue herself, or she was going to die.
By the time she'd arrived at that conclusion, they'd reached a plateau high up near the top of the mountain. There was an opening in the mountain face beside her, a jagged slash in the rock, crumbling sandstones balanced precariously against each other to form a sort of gateway. This had to be the opening to the caves, Jessica realized. No wonder the geography up here changed every time there was a heavy rain; the whole tunnel looked ready to come down at a moment's notice.
This was it. Moment of truth. This was the last chance to do something, she realized with a sinking feeling as her captors herded her towards the dark entrance. Her legs felt heavy, leaden.
The trail led steeply down from the opening. With the bright afternoon sunlight still in her eyes, the cave was nothing but a gloomy shadow, but even so Jessica thought she could see the trail branch off into three different paths not thirty feet from the entrance.
It's like a maze down there, she remembered Alan saying; seemed he'd been right. Somewhere below them she could hear the rushing of water, echoing hollowly off the walls. A fast-moving mountain stream, from the sounds of it. It sounded like it'd have enough of a current to carry a body away with it, she imagined morbidly.
They reached the entrance, and Jessica knew she was out of time. If she let them take her down that cave, she wasn't ever coming back out. The icy clarity of that thought rushed through her, clearing the last muddled cobwebs out of her brain. It took both her headache and her fear with it, leaving nothing but a sharp clarity of purpose.
She had to do something, and she had to do it now.
Jessica drew in a harsh, shaky breath, whirled around and rammed her heel with all her strength against the knee of the man standing closest to her. There was a horrible crunching sound she was pretty sure she'd hear in her dreams for the rest of her life. The man went down with a yell. His gun clattered to the floor beside him.
But the second man was out of easy reach, and he was already reacting, getting over his surprise faster than she could get into range.
He yanked the gun up, pointing it straight between her eyes. Time seemed to slow. She could see his finger tightening on the trigger as if in slow motion.
An enormous roar split the air. The gunman let out a startled swear, his hand twitching. Jessica threw herself to the side. The shot went wide.
She landed hard on the ground, gravel scraping against the skin of her palms. She barely felt it.
There was a bear crashing out of the woods, an enormous grizzly, galloping straight towards them, moving faster than she would have thought possible for something so big.
"What the hell!" the mercenary said. She could see his hands shaking minutely as he pointed his gun at the bear. It was racing straight towards him.
She should probably let him shoot. Sure, the mercenary had just tried to kill her, but she didn't want to tangle with a crazed grizzly, either. Except the bear had just saved her life.
There was something about it, its strength and speed and the grace and power in its every motion, something that called to her on a level deeper than thought. Every instinct she had rebelled against simply standing there while the man gunned it down.
The mercenary had stopped paying attention to her entirely, turning his back on her to deal with the much more immediate threat of the grizzly. He never saw it coming when she tackled him from behind.
The sound of a shot cracked through the air, but the bullet went wide. The mercenary snarled in frustrated rage, trying to adjust his aim. But it was too late. The bear had already reached him. It swiped out with one enormous paw, sending him tumbling end over end until he fetched up sharply against the rock wall and slumped down at its base, moaning dazedly.
But there was the second man, too. He was still sitting on the ground, the leg she'd kicked sticking out awkwardly in front of her. But he'd managed to reach his gun.
Jessica was between him and the bear. She realized it too late, when she saw the angle of the muzzle, pointing at her as if he was planning to shoot the bear right through her.
The bear gave a roar that echoed off the mountain. It lunged, one enormous paw swiping out for her. For one long fraction of a second, Jessica was too surprised to even feel fear. Somehow, even when she'd been facing the frenzied animal directly, some deep part of her had been convinced that it wouldn't attack her.
And then the bear's paw hit her, knocking her off her feet. But it didn't send her flying. The bear yanked her against its chest, cradling her, curling its big body around her. A shot rang out. The bear gave a pained howl, flinching. Its hold on her loosened. Jessica awkwardly rolled to the side, getting out of its way as it rose up on its hind legs. The mercenary was already taking aim again.
"No," Jessica whispered, pained, but she wasn't close enough to do anything.
The mercenary pulled the trigger. Jessica squeezed her eyes shut.
The gun gave a dry click. The mercenary swore, slapping it hard with the palm of his hand.
The bear jumped, bowling the mercenary over. The gun clattered to the side. Jessica picked it up by the barrel and hurled it down the side of the mountain with all her strength.
The bear made a low sound. She could have sworn she saw it give an approving nod. The mercenary was sprawled beneath it on the ground, dazed. It closed its jaws around his belt and started dragging him towards the cave.
Jessica's stomach clenched nervously. "What are you going to do with him?" she asked, her voice cracking. The bear made a low, rumbling sound as if in answer. She took one hesitant step towards it, then stopped herself. If the bear was dragging that man off to eat it, what was she going to do? Throw herself in front of a half-ton grizzly and see what happened?
On the other hand, if her bear was going to kill that mercenary, she couldn't just stand by and do nothing. The mercenary might have tried to kill her, but he was still a human being, and she couldn't just abandon him to a fate as horrible as getting eaten by a bear.
But the bear dropped the man a couple feet inside the cave and turned to come back out, limping heavily. Blood was streaming down its left front leg, where the bullet had grazed it.
The second mercenary had just started dragging himself back to his feet. He yelped when he saw the bear coming towards him, turning to run.
Even injured, the bear was faster. It herded the man towards the cave as skillfully as a sheep dog harrying its herd.
Jessica watched in fascination. There was something very strange about this bear.
The bear didn't try to follow the mercenaries into the cave. Instead, it reared up on its hind legs and started pawing at the porous sandstone that formed a precarious arch over the entrance. Rock and sand started showering down.
The bear threw its entire weight against the rock. The stone gave way. The entrance to the cave collapsed in on itself. Jessica let out a startled yelp, jumping back from the small avalanche of stones the bear had kicked loose.
The cave hadn't been sealed all the way, she realized when she cautiously crept closer. But the entrance was blocked thoroughly enough that it would take a few hours and some heavy equipment to create enough of an opening for a grown man to climb through.
The mercenaries didn't seem to have been hurt. She could hear their startled swearing echoing through the tiny opening. In the dim rays of sunlight filtering in through the small gaps in the collapsed rock, she could see them moving around near the back of the cave.
Without help, they weren't coming out of there any time soon. Of course there was nothing stopping them from trying
to escape through the pathways leading down further into the mountain. But considering that the whole reason they'd brought her up here was that they knew how easy it was to disappear forever down those twisting passages, she didn't think they'd be stupid enough to take that risk.
The bear dragged itself a few feet away from the cave, its limp getting worse with every step until it finally collapsed, its legs folding beneath it. It hit the ground with an almost human cry of pain.
Jessica watched as it tried to struggle back to its feet, only to sink back down with a whimper. A small puddle of blood was already forming beneath it.
Jessica hesitated. You didn't approach a wounded predator unless you wanted your hand bitten off, even a city kid like her knew that much. But every part of her rebelled against the thought of standing here and watching the bear die after it had saved her lie.
She thought of the uncanny intelligence it had shown in everything it had done. Maybe it would recognize that she was trying to help.
She ripped a long strip of fabric off the bottom of her shirt and folded it up into a pad.
"I'm going to come a little closer," she told the bear. It tilted its head, watching her intently.
She crept closer, step by cautious step. The bear watched her calmly, unmoving, even when she was finally close enough to be in reach of its powerful paws.
She held up her little makeshift pad. "I'm going to put this on your wound now, okay? This might hurt a little. Please don't kill me." Her voice shook. The bear didn't move, although it was following her hand with its eyes. "Oh God, this is crazy," she muttered. But she was doing it anyway.
She pressed the pad of fabric to the bear's bleeding leg, wincing. The bear let out a low, hurt noise, shuddering. But it didn't make a move to attack her.
"You're amazing, you know that?" she said, running her free hand through the coarse fur of its neck with a growing sense of wonder. "You saved my life. I'm sorry you got shot because of me."
The bear gently nudged her arm with its big head, as if in forgiveness. Once again she was struck by the uncanny intelligence in its eyes.
"You're not just some animal, are you? Did you understand what I just said?" she asked, feeling half crazy and yet increasingly convinced it was true.
The bear dropped its head back down to the ground and closed its eyes. Its body was still beneath her hand, but she somehow got the impression of it gathering itself, bracing for some enormous effort.
Golden light started emanating from its fur, so faint at first she was almost sure she was imagining it. The light flickered out a few times. The bear let out a low growl that sounded almost frustrated. And then the light caught, growing steadily stronger until she had to squeeze her eyes shut and turn her head away.
Something shifted beneath her hand, not as if the bear had moved but as if it was somehow changing shape where she touched it. Jessica yanked her hand away, startled. The light was so bright she could see it through her closed eyelids now, like turning her face into the sun. And then it was gone.
Jessica slowly blinked her eyes open. Her bear had disappeared. Alan was lying where the bear had been, cradling his left arm against his chest. Blood was slowly dripping out between his fingers, which he was pressing to the exact same spot where the bear had been shot. He gave her a shaky smile.
"Hi," Alan said.
He plucked the bandage from her hand, which had gone slack with shock, and pressed it to his arm.
"Alan?" Jessica asked, her voice cracking. "You're… you're a bear."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," Alan said. "And I'm sorry I scared you. I would've switched back more quickly if I could. It's just that it's a little hard getting up the concentration to shift when you're angry and in pain."
"You're a bear," Jessica said again. "You're a… were…bear?"
Alan's wrinkled his nose. "Bear shifter," he said. "I was born this way."
Jessica reached out tentatively until her fingertips brushed against Alan's arm. He felt warm and real and solid beneath her hands. This was really happening.
"You're a bear," she said.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," Alan repeated, as if that was what mattered right now.
"My God, are you okay? You got shot!"
Horror dawned as the reality of the situation crashed back in on her. They were on top of a mountain; almost an hour's march just to get down to the car, where for all she knew, the rest of her kidnappers might still be waiting for her. They had two mercenaries locked up in a cave behind them, and Alan was shot.
"How badly are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. It's just a graze, I think." Alan lifted the bandage up to peer beneath it and then put it back down with a grimace. "I don't suppose you have a cell phone with you?"
"They took my purse away when they grabbed me," Jessica aid. "What about you?"
Alan patted his pockets with his uninjured hand. Jessica quickly reached out to rescue his bandage before it could fall down.
"I'm pretty sure I dropped it when I knocked down the guy by the car," Alan said, his face twisting. "I'm sorry. That was stupid. I was letting the bear do all the thinking."
"You saved my life. I'm glad you were a bear," Jessica said.
Alan's face brightened into a tentative smile. "Really? There's a lot of people who can't deal with the whole shifter thing."
Jessica took a moment to check in with herself on the matter. But no, the fact that Alan was secretly a werebear—bear shifter—wasn't the problem here.
She still felt shaky all over from the adrenaline, and she was pretty sure she was going to have nightmares about this day for the rest of her life. She could have a freak-out about the bear thing when she was done freaking out about absolutely everything else that had happened to her today.
"How on Earth are we going to get off this mountain?" she asked.
Alan looked down the steep trail they'd come up. "Walk, I suppose?"
He sounded about as dubious about the idea as she felt.
There was a quiet roaring sound coming up in the distance, growing quickly louder until Jessica recognized it as the distinct whup-whup-whup of helicopter blades.
"That's a chopper," Alan said, just when she realized as much herself. "Try and flag them down."
"How do I do that?" Jessica asked. She didn't think a helicopter crew would be very much impressed by her waving at them.
"There's a clearing a hundred meters down that way," Alan said. "Go stand somewhere they can see you and raise your hands up, like you're making a 'Y' shape with your body. They'll know it means we need help."
***
She'd had some doubt about whether this was really going to work, but the helicopter turned by to hover over her before she'd even reached the middle of the clearing. When she raised her arms, it immediately started descending. Jessica moved back to give them room to land, and then took a few additional steps back when the helicopter came down further.
Up close, the spinning rotor blades were really unnerving, not to mention loud, and the thing was whipping up dust into her face.
Five heavily armored men jumped out of the helicopter. Jessica flinched back in sudden fear. If Octane had sent some sort of commando team after her… But no, it said 'SWAT' on their vests.
A woman was following the men out of the chopper. Unlike the SWAT team with their helmets and full-body armor, she wore nothing but a bullet-proof vest. 'FBI', it said in bright silver letters.
"Are you Jessica Sheppard?" the woman called over the noise of the rotors.
"I am! Please, you have to help me, Alan is hurt!" Jessica said. It was all she could do to stop herself from physically dragging the woman back up to Alan. Now that help had finally arrived, all the anxiety she'd kept trying to suppress so she could get on with things was suddenly bubbling back up. She was finding herself fiercely desperate to not spend another moment left alone with Alan and his possibly-lethal wound and this whole terrifying situation.
"We've had
reports you've been kidnapped," Agent Cross said.
"I am! I was!" Jessica said.
Agent Cross's hands flew to the gun on her belt.
"No, it's fine! Alan took care of them. He locked them in a cave," Jessica said. Don't mention the bear thing, she reminded herself. Which, now that she thought about it, was going to make things a little difficult to explain.
"I can see this is going to be a long story," Agent Cross said with a sigh. "You're sure the men have been secured?"
"They're really not going anywhere," Jessica said. In fact, unless they'd brought some heavy equipment on that helicopter, it was going to take a couple hours of digging to get them out of that collapsed cave.
Agent Cross gestured towards the helicopter. One more person jumped out, a small woman with mousy brown hair and nervously darting eyes. Her EMT uniform hung loosely off her narrow shoulders, and the bright red medical pack on her back was almost the same size she was. She ended up bent double beneath the weight for a moment after she jumped out of the helicopter. Agent Cross caught her by the arm, supporting her until she got herself sorted out and straightened up with a groan.
"What happened to 'It's an ongoing hostage situation, stay in the car'?" the EMT said. Her voice was playful, but her eyes were darting around watchfully.
"Apparently the kidnappers have been secured," Agent Cross said. "You know I'll keep you safe, right, Emily?" There was a fierce intensity to the words. For a moment, her supportive grip on the medic's arm turned into something almost like a caress, her thumb brushing gently over the medic's shoulder. In the bright sun, Cross's eyes seemed to glow with a golden shine.
Just a trick of the light, Jessica told herself, unsettled. But she was almost sure it wasn't. She'd seen that golden light before.
Cross, Emily and the SWAT team followed her up the hill to where she'd left Alan, who'd struggled up into a defensive crouch at the arrival of the heavily armed men. When he caught sight of Jessica, he relaxed all at once.