Grizzly (4 page)

Climbing the hill was out of the question right now. He’d have to head for the river.

The cold, clear water tasted good. Justin wished he could lie on the muddy bank forever, just drinking and resting.

But there was the grizzly. She would soon discover he was gone and come looking for him. He had to fight the pain and keep going, crawling if necessary, until he was home.

He still had his backpack, but his rifle was gone and his binoculars were in pieces. He was completely defenseless against the bear.

Slowly Justin inched to his feet and waded into the river, hoping his scent would be lost
in the water and the bear would be unable to follow him. His plan was to cut a wide circle around her territory and—he hoped—make it safely back to the ranch.

He sloshed through the freezing water and crawled several hundred yards downstream. The wind was merciless, whipping at his cold wet pants legs and boots.

Resting on the bank, Justin checked his pack. The bottom of the pack had been ripped and his bedroll was missing. Most of the contents were probably scattered across the burn. In the zippered front pouch he found a small box of matches and stuffed them into his coat pocket.

The sun was going down, and he was cold, tired, and hungry. He had never been this far into the mountains. He walked on, keeping up a slow but steady pace until the light was almost gone.

At dusk, he found a sheltered hollow. Using his good arm, he scraped up some pine needles and gathered a few sticks of dry wood for a fire.

Once he had a small blaze going, he sat
down to examine his wounds. He tried to take his coat off but found that the sleeve was glued to his bad arm with dried blood. He decided to leave it alone for the moment so that it wouldn’t start bleeding again.

Lying down on the hard ground as close to the fire as he dared, Justin tried to go to sleep. His arm continued to throb, and it was hours before he finally dozed off.

It seemed as if he had been asleep only a few minutes when he heard something crashing through the brush near him.

Justin sat up and whirled around. He found himself face to face with the grizzly. She stood on her hind legs a few feet from him, growling and sniffing.

Justin scrambled to the other side of the fire, crouched low behind the blaze, and waited.

The bear moved closer and snorted. She swayed back and forth, her eyes glowing red in the reflection of the flames, as if she was trying to make up her mind whether or not to charge through the fire at him.

Justin held his breath, waiting, knowing he might die now, that he couldn’t do anything to stop her. But suddenly the great beast dropped to all fours, turned, and padded noiselessly back into the shadows.

Justin could hear the beating of his heart. The grizzly was still out there, waiting. At any moment she could change her mind and come back for him. He had to have a plan.

In the cold pink light of morning Justin looked at the trees around him. If he could get to one and climb it, the bear wouldn’t be able to catch him. He had read somewhere that cubs would climb trees but that adult bears couldn’t.

He studied the tree closest to him. It was
tall, with no branches near the bottom that he could grab. Silently he moved away from the fire and back toward the river. There were younger trees along the river. All he had to do was find the right one.

There was a noise in the trees to his right. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a patch of silver fur keeping pace with him as he moved. He wanted to run, to take his chances, but he held himself in check.
He was nearly out of the timber when he saw it. Lodged in the branches of a tall spruce was a tree that had been knocked over by the wind. It made a perfect ladder to the higher branches of the spruce.

The grizzly was visible now. Justin put his hand on the windfall, took a deep breath, and scrambled up the tree as fast as he could using just one arm.

The bear charged out of the trees, bellowing like an angry bull. She made a swipe at him and caught the heel of his boot with one of her claws, almost knocking him out of the tree.

He hung on and kept climbing until he was high above the grizzly’s head and out of reach of her deadly paws.

The bear dropped onto all fours and circled the tree. Then she moved back a few feet and sat on her haunches to wait.

A blast of cold wind hit him in the face. Justin jerked awake. He had fallen asleep with his head resting against the big spruce.

He looked below. The grizzly was still there, a few yards away from the tree, tearing at a stump. She was completely absorbed in her project, hunting for food.

Justin started to inch down to the branch below him. The instant he moved, the grizzly sat up and scrambled under the tree.

She had no intention of letting him get
away this time. Her large head swayed back and forth as she sniffed the air.

“Go on!” Justin yelled. “Get out of here and leave me alone.”

The grizzly cocked her head to one side as if the sound of Justin’s voice intrigued her. After a few moments she left the tree and headed for the river. She turned back once to look at him, and then went on.

Justin considered climbing down, but he realized the bear could outrun him and he didn’t want to be caught on the ground.

At the river, the grizzly ambled lazily into the flowing water, stuck her paw in, and scooped water and a cutthroat trout up onto the bank. Justin was amazed at her quickness. Almost before he could blink, she did it again, popping the second wriggling fish up onto the bank before scrambling ashore to eat both fish.

Justin was envious. He’d been so angry, and in such a hurry, he hadn’t eaten since the grizzly had murdered Blue. He shifted his aching arm, stretched his legs, and tried not to think about the emptiness in his stomach.

The grizzly stood up to see what he was doing. She shot him an angry warning snort. Then she crossed the river and started up the mountain on the other side.

Justin hugged the tree with his good arm, watching her go. He couldn’t believe his good luck. The grizzly must have become tired of toying with him.

He waited until she was no longer visible and then cautiously climbed down from his perch. To be on the safe side, he waited by the tree to see if she was playing a trick to lure him down.

She didn’t come back.

As fast as he could move, Justin headed in the opposite direction. He didn’t care where he was going as long as it was away from the grizzly.

He was hopelessly lost. Justin put his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. Every tree he passed looked the same as a thousand others.

His stomach yearned for food, and his arm hurt all the time now, making it hard to think about anything except the pain. But he had to keep moving. At least that was the way he figured it. If the bear came looking for him again, he wanted to be far away.

A twig snapped. Justin jumped and looked around. It was only a deer running for cover.

When he had panicked and run earlier, he
had moved away from the river. Now he was wishing he had stayed with it. He could almost taste the cool water, and with any luck he might have been able to snag a trout. Instead he was in the middle of a wilderness with nothing to drink or eat.

He studied the angle of the sun and made a guess at the location of the river.

He walked for a couple of hours. A strange humming sound was coming from somewhere to the east. The closer he moved to the noise, the louder it became, until it was almost a roar.

Pulling back some branches, Justin suddenly saw before him a magnificent waterfall. It tumbled over the edge of a thirty-foot drop. He ran to the river’s edge and scooped sloppy handfuls of water into his dry mouth.

He wiped his face with the sleeve of his coat and stepped back. He recalled seeing a waterfall on a map of this area. If he remembered correctly, there were hiking trails and a ranger station near here.

Hope welled up inside him. If he could find one of those trails …

He heard a growl behind him. He turned in time to see the grizzly charge. She came thundering out of the trees straight at him.

There was nowhere to hide. He backed into the water. The bear didn’t slow down. She hit him full force, knocking him onto his back in the river.

She reached for him, but the river was faster. The current jerked him out to the center and shoved him under, pulling him toward the waterfall.

The grizzly went in after him. The water slammed into her, knocking her off balance. She struggled, but the swift water was too strong.

Justin felt as if he had been run over by a train. His head was pounding. He raised himself on his elbows and discovered he was still in the water. But the waterfall was above him now.

He remembered going over. It was like a bad dream. He’d had the sensation of flying—until he’d hit bottom.

A sour smell came to his nostrils, the smell of grizzly. He sat up, his eyes darting all around. There she was, lying on her back halfway out of the water.