Chapter Eleven #2
“We’re good. We were out for a trail ride and saw signs someone was camping. This area is usually only accessible through Ride No More land, so I wanted to make sure you weren’t a poacher.”
“No poaching.”
Jayce glanced pointedly at three fishing rods propped on rocks with their lines in the water.
“Maybe the odd fish for dinner,” the scientist said, unrepentant.
“I’m sure you’re aware that bears like to fish too.”
“Sure am,” he said. “That’s one of the perks of this location.”
“You aren’t worried about that?”
“Not in the least. The bears are well fed. There’s plenty of fish and wild game. They aren’t bulking up for winter yet, and besides, bears are typical apex predators. They’re basically lazy. They’ll steal game from other predators before they’ll go after me.”
Jayce had done what he was asked. He’d checked on the scientist, and everything was in order. His campsite might not be in the smartest location, but at least he’d put wire around it.
“All right, then,” he said, and began to turn Side-eye around so they could head back to the trail.
Side-eye started to tremble. His head shot upward.
What the—
Side-eye reared. Then, he bolted.
Jayce didn’t have time to do more than hang on.
*
Malika
Tremors rippled through Saber’s body. Malika saw Side-eye bolt into the woods with Jayce hanging on tight, realized what those tremors building under her thighs meant, and threw herself out of the saddle.
She landed hard on her hip and her arm, then rolled to her feet in a crouch. She watched Saber, the most peaceful of horses, disappear at a full gallop in the opposite direction of Side-eye and Jayce.
Meaning whatever the threat was, it was behind her.
She whirled to face it.
A goliath emerged from the trees—a grizzly bear, humpbacked and round shouldered. Its head swung back and forth, testing the air as it lumbered forward. It was as magnificent as it was terrifying.
Malika didn’t like being afraid.
“Don’t run,” the scientist said to her. “Running will trigger a predatory response, and it will chase you. Try to look big. This is fantastic,” he exclaimed, because he was inside the bear fence, so his perspective was somewhat different from hers. “Where is my camera?”
The bear snuffled the ground, pretending to ignore her, but she wasn’t fooled. It knew where she was. What did it take to feed something this size? Because from where she was standing, she looked like a snack.
The scientist fumbled his camera from a box next to his camp chair and took a few quick shots.
His movements, or possibly the faint clicks of the camera’s shutter opening and closing, drew the bear’s attention to him. The bear stopped. Reared to its hind legs. Huffed a few heavy breaths, then its front paws slapped the ground, and it surged forward at an impossible speed.
The scientist, seeing the bear barreling toward him like a bullet train on a fast track, let out a high-pitched squeal tight with fear.
He dropped the camera, and ignoring his own advice, he turned and ran, hurdling the bear fence with the agility and speed of a gold medal Olympian as he made his escape.
Malika snatched the bear spray from the holster strapped to her waist. Electrified or not, no single-wire fence would stop a creature that size moving at such a great speed. The scientist could never outrun it. Her brain spit-fired Jayce’s instructions at her. She flipped the safety tab off.
Fifty feet.
She wasn’t sure how much distance made up fifty feet but decided this was close enough. She stepped into the bear’s path, aimed low, as she’d been instructed, and discharged an orange mist.
The mist immediately morphed into a weapon of mass destruction that spread mushroom-cloud-like in multiple directions.
Her eyes watered. Her chest burned. She coughed, unable to draw air into her crippled lungs. She dropped to her knees. At least if she died, it would happen before she was eaten.
A gun barked close by, followed by swearing. Seconds later, someone caught her by the shoulders.
Someone familiar and human. It could only be Jayce. The little out-of-stater was likely in Wyoming by now.
“I’m blind,” she croaked, her throat lined with lumps of flaming coal, because she was destined to become mute, as well.
She clutched the front of Jayce’s shirt and struggled to breathe. Being eaten alive might not be such a bad fate.
“You’re not blind. It will wear off in a half hour or so,” Jayce said.
She tried to rub her eyes, because the burning was almost unbearable, but he caught her hands and stopped her.
“Don’t touch your face. Come on. Let’s see if we can get some of it washed off in the creek.”
He helped her up, then guided her, stumbling, until they reached the pebbled shore of the creek. She knelt on her hands and knees while he splashed her face with cold water.
“The little out-of-stater,” she said, when she could speak. “Did the bear hurt him?”
“No. But he’ll wish it had the next time I see him,” Jayce said, sounding grim. “The bear wasn’t interested in you. Why did you attack it?”
“Because it didn’t seem inclined to listen to reason.” She heard a rumbling and realized he was laughing. She hammered his shoulder with the fleshy side of her fist. “It’s not funny. I tried my best to scare it away. I did everything you told me to do.”
“And you did a fantastic job of it.”
She could hold her eyes open for a few seconds now, and even though they teared up, which was unlikely to add to their beauty, she could see the relief behind his amusement, and something else she was unsure of, but it warmed her.
“You sprayed low,” he said, “and from the right distance, and forced the bear to veer away. You caught blowback because of the wind direction. Nothing you could do about that. I fired a few shots and scared it off, but it was already losing interest.”