by Raylan Kane
“I’ve got no luck at all,” Bill said.
“More like no skill,” Sam chided, which drew a few laughs.
“Yeah, well, you’re not exactly reelin’ them in either,” Bill said.
“Looks like another can of beans for supper,” Arnold said.
Bill swished his rod backward over his head, then whipped it forward and cast his line farther out over the water. “One of these times, I’m gonna get a bite.”
“Keep tellin’ yourself that.”
“Clive, pass me another beer will ya?”
The four of them continued ribbing one another and chatting about the typical things middle-aged men chat about. Politics, marriage, sports, finances. Meanwhile their pungent scent carried on the midday breeze, deep into the canyon forest, picked up by the giant nostrils of an unimaginably massive grizzly bear ready for its next feed. The bear held its nose to the sky and drank in the human stench. On all fours the giant creature’s shoulder hump was level with the tops of the black spruce that dominated the forest. In order to navigate through the canyon, the bear was forced to contend with the trees and, except in scattered clearings here and there, would flatten them just as a matter of moving freely around. With the new and exciting scent in his nose, he crunched his way through the woods, headed straight for the source of the odor.
“Finally,” Bill said. His line had pulled taut and the end of his rod bowed with the weight of a catch. “I think I’ve got one here.”
“Pull it in, buddy.”
Bill stood up from his chair. He smiled and jerked the rod back hoping to hook whatever was on the other end. He worked the reel steadily.
“Careful,” Clive said. “Don’t lose it.”
“You’ve got this.”
Bill tuned most of the chatter out. He kept fighting the fish. For what seemed like an eternity he kept reeling the line in. A silvery glow approached the surface of the water.
“That’s it!” Bill said.
He churned the reel further and pulled on the rod until a small trout popped out of the water on the end of his line.
“Looks like a nice little speckled there, Bill,” Clive said. “Nice work.”
“Little being the operative word,” Sam said.
“Hey, it’s something,” Bill said proudly. “What are you having for dinner?”
Bill held the fish for a moment while Arnold snapped a picture with his phone.
“I can’t tell who’s uglier,” Arnold joked.
Bill dropped the trout into the cooler and snapped the lid in place.
“Hey, look at that!” Sam shouted. He stood from his chair and pointed across the river and toward the raised forest a few miles in the distance, in the foothills below Rydell Mountain. It was a clear day, but at that distance it wasn’t yet clear to the others what Sam was pointing at.
“What? What is it?”
“Look!” Sam said excitedly. “The trees over there. Something’s happening. Pass me the binoculars.”
Arnold grabbed the binoculars and before passing them away he took a look through the lens himself. His face when ghostly white. He dropped the binoculars and started backing away from the river slowly.
“Careful with those,” Bill snapped, pointing at the binoculars in the grass. “Those aren’t cheap, ya know?”
Arnold didn’t acknowledge Bill, he kept his eyes trained on the forest across the river and kept backing up.
“Arnold,” Clive said. “What is it?”
Sam grabbed the binoculars from the ground and held them in front of his eyes. He could see a huge dark mass trampling trees. From just over two miles out it looked like a massive bowling ball running over the forest.
“What the hell is that?” Sam said.
“We’ve got to go,” Arnold said, terrified. “We’ve got to get the fuck outta here. Now!”
Bill picked up the binoculars. Immediately, he saw what looked to be a giant bear running straight in their direction.
The enormous grizzly had closed the distance fast. Now only a mile-and-a-half from the river, Clive didn’t need the binoculars to know they were in danger. The four men sprinted toward their campsite. Bill and Clive grabbed their rifles. Arnold and Sam didn’t stop and kept running for the Dakota Trail that led to where they had parked before hiking in. With his rifle in hand, Bill turned and ran in the same direction as the other two. Clive hesitated for a moment near his tent and watched hundreds of trees give way like a massive game of dominoes. He couldn’t help himself, he wanted to see a glimpse of whatever giant creature could be causing such destruction. The ground around him started to rupture. The sheer weight of the great beast caused the entire riverbed and the surrounding area to quake with its every step.
“Clive!” Bill yelled from the treeline. “What the hell are you doing? Let’s go!”
Clive stood mesmerized as tiny cracks in the wet sand beneath his feet revealed themselves. The giant bear closed to a quarter mile from the shoreline. The Tyson River was a quarter mile wide itself, and about twenty-five feet deep most of the way across.
“Clive! Come on!”
Arnold and Sam had reached the mouth of the trail. Arnold stopped and turned around looking for his other two friends.
“Don’t stop,” Sam said. “What’re you doing?”
“Where are they?” Arnold said.
“I don’t know, let’s just keep going.”
The two took off running again. Arnold then hesitated and pulled up again.
“What is it?” Sam said.
“Bill has the keys.”
“Shit.”
Back at the riverbank, Clive watched in horror as the creature came into view on the opposite shore. He stood frozen, captivated and terrified by an angry grizzly bear the size of a hangar. Bill’s jaw dropped. He lifted his rifle and fired off a shot.
Less than two miles away, Jen heard the report of a rifle echo through the trees. She swapped her shotgun for her rifle and carried across her chest as she pressed further along the Johnston Blue Trail. A flicker of hope lit within her that she’d actually find Don McNeese, though she wasn’t sure she wanted to know why he was firing off his rifle.
Bill’s shot went into the ground just off to Clive’s right. The adrenaline pumping through his veins made him erratic. The sound of the gunfire though caused the massive animal to stop running and to rear up on its hind legs as if to investigate the source of the sound further. Standing straight up the bear blocked out the sun. Clive took the opportunity given and fired a shot straight at the giant bear. The bullet hit the animal and it let out a bellow that burst Clive and Bill’s eardrums. Bill fell to the ground holding his head. Clive doubled over for a moment then threw another rifle shot at the monster.
Arnold and Sam felt the vibrations from the beast’s roar rumble through them. They both stood frozen with fear.
Jen stopped when she heard the noise. Was that a bear? For a second she thought a fighter jet was flying low overhead. She thought about turning back for the truck and calling in reinforcements before continuing the search.
The bear leapt into the river and crossed it as though it was a puddle in two seconds flat. Clive readied another shot but it missed the mark as the bear brought its giant paw down on the campsite. Clive’s legs were immediately crushed and trapped under the bear’s clutches. The animal swung its massive head low and sniffed Clive’s body before taking him between his front teeth and biting him in half.
Bill soiled himself and turned and ran. The bear let out another mind-splitting roar that knocked the man flat on his front. The bear stepped toward Bill, lowered his muzzle and sucked him into his jaws as if he was a blueberry.
Arnold and Sam turned and ran up the Dakota Trail. On hearing the second beastly roar, Jen too turned and began jogging back to the truck.
As the men ran they could feel the ground begin to tremble beneath them. A shadow loomed overhead. Sam turned to look only to see a humongous paw sweep right at him. The grizzly knocked
both men off their feet. Arnold popped back up and kept running. Sam’s leg was broken. He laid wailing off to one side of the trail. The bear ripped his head off and tore him in half before sliding the man’s body down his throat. The bear then pounced on Arnold. The man was crushed to death and laid lifeless on the packed trail.
Jen felt the earth shake. She picked up her pace and figured she was only a mile out from the mouth of the trail. She saw movement to her left in the corner of her eye. Something was running along side her just in the trees. Her mind flashed back to the huge mountain lion snapping at her from behind glass. She stopped running and aimed her rifle at the trees. A panting male German shepherd bounded toward her from the forest. Jen lowered her rifle and held out her hand. She’d grown up with dogs and had always managed a quick rapport with them. This dog seemed exceedingly friendly and excited to see her. He licked her hand and ran his head beneath her fingers. The dog’s fur was crusted with mud and she could tell he’d been through a rough experience.
“What are you doing all the way out here?” Jen said to the happy creature.
She noticed he was wearing a collar. The tag on the collar read “REESE”.
“Is your name Reese, huh? Is that your name?”
The dog whimpered and swished back and forth against her legs.
“I wonder if you’re Don’s dog?”
She didn’t recall Tom mentioning whether or not Don’s wife had said anything about a dog.
“I think you should come with me, boy. Yes I do.”
She scratched behind the dog’s ears, then stood up to keep running. The ground suddenly began to shake violently. A thought flashed through Jen’s head that it was an earthquake, something she hadn’t experienced in years. She stood still for a few seconds and looked at the dog while listening to what sounded like trees collapsing not too far off.
The source of the sound became clear. Jen couldn’t believe her eyes. A shadow grew over her and she looked up to witness an enormous grizzly bear towering above. Jen froze in place, not knowing if the creature knew she was there. She knew running would be a fool’s errand. The dog went berserk, jumping and barking. That’s when the bear looked down and Jen knew she was in trouble. The bear swiped at the dog, but the German shepherd deftly spun out of the way and took off like lightning into the forest. The giant bear gave chase for half a stride. Jen managed to avoid falling trees and saw the bear’s massive backside right in front of her. She aimed her rifle and fired a shot, bullseye. The bear shrieked and as it turned, Jen fired another shot on target. The bear stood on its hind legs and Jen, terrified, saw the thing was twice as tall as the tallest tree. Undaunted, she chambered another round and hit the bear center mass. Then she flung the rifle over her shoulder and against her better judgment she ran down the Johnston Blue Trail, the opposite direction from where her truck was parked. Gotta make it to the ridge, she thought to herself.
The injured bear, stunned for a moment and leaking blood from a half-dozen different places, sank back down to all-fours and just paused for a minute. Jen ran as hard and as fast as she’d ever run in her life. The fact that the trail was downhill only helped. She could feel her heels hitting her in the butt as she sprinted. Less than a mile away she knew the rocky ridgeline had several small pockets and caves within it. They were among the first places the police searched for missing persons who might use them to shelter themselves from the elements. They’d often found illegal weapons caches and camping materials used by big game poachers as well as porn magazines, various narcotics and empty cases of booze.
The huge bear picked up Jen’s scent and gave chase. Only a quarter mile to go, Jen felt the earth move again. With pure desperation she gave it everything she had. She shook off the pain in her legs and the ache in her lungs. The bear closed fast. Jen could see the trail dip steeply. She veered off the beaten path to her left and headed into the trees. The wind from a sweeping paw nearly swept her off her feet. Twenty feet ahead of her the forest floor ended, she knew a small bluff, the top of the rocky ridge lay ahead. The bear pounced, Jen leapt forward. The grizzly crashed down just missing his prize. Jen flew over the rocky edge. Her longguns came off her shoulders and tumbled to the forest floor. She landed in a somersault and glanced above her to see trees fall near the lip of the ridge now behind her. The bear snapped his mouth in Jen’s direction. She slapped her right hand out instinctively and it hit against the bear’s snout that was larger than she was.
Jen ran for the rocky ridge now only fifteen feet in front of her. She reached the mouth of a cave and the bear jumped off the edge of the ridge and was behind her again. Jen pushed into the blackness of the opening. She felt along the right side with her hand as she moved quickly away from the light. Jen figured she’d gone forty feet by the time she hit the back of the cave. The bear stabbed at the small opening with its paws. It tried to get into the opening with its snout. The mouth of the cave was just too small for the animal to gain any leverage. Jen sank to the floor and watched the opening darken with each of the bear’s attempts to get to her. Again the massive bear stuck its nose near the opening, taking in big breaths. Jen held her nose at the stench of the monster’s breath.
The big bear gave up for a moment and lingered in front of the ridge. Jen held her knees up to her chest and tried to control her breathing. You’re okay. You’re okay. You’ve made it. Relax.
After a few minutes, the bear began scratching at the rocky ridge. An idea occurred to Jen in that moment. She moved from sitting to kneeling and drew her pistol. Again, the bear poked at the opening with its snout. Jen opened fire, emptying her magazine. At least half of her bullets hit the bear in its massive nose causing it to squeal and jump back. The bear immediately retreated and bounded off into the forest, putting distance between it and the rocky ridge. Jen fell back with her gun in her hand. She shook all over and shivered with sweat. She sat there in the cave for another hour before daring to move.
SIXTEEN
The drive out to the site took them the entire morning. Driving back into an isolated section of forest where there were barely roads, they came upon the heavy equipment they’d left behind the previous fall. They lifted the tarps and filled the fuel tanks. Earlier they’d dusted off their hardhats, and fished their orange safety vests from their lockers. They sipped coffee from thermoses and told crude jokes during the drive. Once everyone was out, the drivers parked the trucks in familiar muddy ruts alongside the logging road. The crew chief, Rick, cursed as he got bitten by a mosquito on his elbow, the first casualty of the season. His second-in-command, Gus, handed him a can of bug spray.
“Damn things start early out here,” he said.
Rick said, “Even the cold nights don’t kill ‘em. Hardy bastards.” He sprayed a puddle of repellent into his hands and wiped it over the back of his neck and his arms. He passed the can on to the rest of the crew.
“You’re the first bit every year,” Gus said. “Seems like, anyway.”
A true logger. Deep tans and bodies covered in bug bite welts. Part of the job.
Rick downed the last of his coffee when something caught his eye. A gap in the forest, a space in the trees that let the sky shine through in a way that seemed alien in the dense woods. Rick saw it, a little ways back from the road. A big gap. He walked away from the crew a short distance into the trees for a closer look. Right at that moment an explosion of swallows lifted off a fallen tree. Startled, he jumped back, cursed at the birds then trained his eyes back on the clearing a short distance away. The birds overhead squawked their protests and flew high and away. The morning was still and muggy. Rick walked through the brush to the clearing in front of him. He stopped mid-stride. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“What the hell?”
“What’s up, Chief?” Gus hollered from the road.
Rick said, “Didn’t you tell me this past week we’d had a wind storm out here?”
“I might’ve done,” Gus said. “Can’t recall off the top of my head, why?
”
“Get out here and have a look.”
Gus walked over, walkie in one hand, thermos in the other. He stepped from the trees to the edge of the clearing next to his boss.
“Jesus,” he muttered.
The two men stood dumbfounded at the flattened forest laid out in front of them. As far back as they could see, nothing but otherwise healthy evergreens laying still, stretched out all over the ground like a giant wood floor. Nearly every tree in sight had been snapped off near their base. Some were broken from their trunks about half way up.
“The wind didn’t do this,” Gus said.
“Not unless it was a damned tornado.”
“In Alaska?”
“The hell if I know,” Rick said, “never seen anything like this in my life. Looks like it goes back miles. The whole damned forest is gone. These are healthy trees, not rotters.”
“Jesus, how would this happen?” Gus said again, hardly believing his eyes. He removed his hard hat and scratched his head under a mop of greasy hair. “Well, what do you wanna do?”
“Let’s clear ‘em out,” Rick said. “Might as well take advantage. Definitely gonna have to file a report with Forestry though. Somebody needs to know about this.”
“Yep.”
Rick and Gus looked at each other confused as the ground around them began to shake. Gus pointed in horror and the men on the road behind them started yelling and scrambling into the trucks as they saw a giant grizzly bear across the clearing come rumbling in their direction. Rick and Gus hopped over fallen logs and tree stumps as they ran back to the road.
The first truck, loaded with crew, quickly backed up and spun around to head back out of the forest. The driver of the truck mashed the gas pedal into the floor. He glanced at the giant bear and struck Rick just as the crew chief was about to get into the other pickup. The driver stopped amidst screams from the other men to keep going. Rick laid in the road bleeding and unconscious. The driver and Gus lifted the man up and tossed him in the back of the other pickup. The driver got back into the white pickup and sped down the rough forest road. The monstrous bear closed in fast. Gus jumped behind the wheel of the second truck and followed the others.
