by Raylan Kane
The trail ahead of her narrowed and the trees on either side grew closer to the trail itself. The bears right behind her, Jen ignored her better judgement and held the gas pedal to the floor. The truck slammed into the skinny spruce trunks. Jen’s forehead hit the steering wheel, a spurt of blood hit the dash. Her foot slipped off the gas, but she pressed aggressively again with her foot and the truck wailed as it continued its forward momentum through the foliage. The truck slowed considerably at the bottom of a hill. The closest bear swiped at the vehicle and the back end of the truck swung around. Jen grabbed the handle of her door and jumped from the pickup. She crashed with a thud to the dirt. The two massive bears, enthralled with the truck batted the thing around while Jen, woozy-headed and in shock, fled into the woods.
Jen ran until her lungs felt as though they were being stabbed with hot pokers. Her chest heaved and she fell to the forest floor gasping for air. She felt the ground tremor mildly beneath her, she stumbled back to her feet and kept running. She could hear the sound of the river close by. She’d been running in the general direction of the trail, but as a function of running through the deep woods, she’d cut off a lot of distance created by the trail’s meandering nature. Jen made it to the river crossing and swiftly pulled herself across.
She stopped on the opposite side and gathered water in her hands and gulped down the glacier-cold pools in her palms. She heard the vibration of the rocks and retreated from the river, running toward the pillars of smoke to her north.
For two hours, Jen managed to elude the grizzlies. Adrenaline had carried her deep into the canyon. She clung to a glimmer of hope she might make it out of the forest alive. Her body screamed at her to stop running. She slowed to a trudge through the heavy brush. Cuts and scrapes lined her cheeks, but she ignored the sting.
Ahead of her she noticed the trees thin out at the base of a large treeless slope. She looked up and saw a huge hole in the side of the slope. A ridge of trees lined the top of the slope a fair distance above the hole. The ground around her shook once again. Trees snapped off and flew past. The two bears had followed her scent. Jen had nowhere to go. She looked at the hole in the side of the hill and clambered up the hillside as quickly as she could.
She reached the entry into the cavern and looked back to see the massive beasts at the base of the slope behind her. Jen pulled a penlight from her belt and shone it into the opening. She ran down into the cavern and tripped over a body. She ran the penlight along the body and her stomach jumped into her throat as she saw David’s face. Another lump laid nearby, it was Sivers. With no time to think one of the animals neared the entrance to the cavern. Jen ran deeper into the dark chamber. She held the penlight in front her watching for tripped hazards. A beam of light spilled onto the cavern floor ahead of her. The smell of the giant grizzlies behind her filled her nostrils. The beam of light was from a small hole in the cavern ceiling above her. She grabbed onto a large thick tree root and pulled herself up the dirt wall of the cavern toward the small opening. At the top of the wall she reached her hands through the opening and pulled her head and shoulders out of the dark cavern. She felt something brush near her feet as she slickly scooted the rest of the way out and found herself back in the forest atop the slope.
The bears batted at the opening Jen had escaped through, throwing dirt out of the opening onto the forest floor where she stood. The giant animals were far too large to fit through the hole. Jen ran from the hole in the ground down the slope’s ridge, keeping her eye on the hole in the side of the hill to see if the grizzlies would put two-and-two together.
Mid-way down the ridge Jen noticed a metal box with a plunger handle sticking out of it and a wire extending from its base and down the slope toward the huge cavern opening. Her mind raced a mile a minute and she realized Sivers and David had laid TNT into that cavern. The bass from one of the bear’s guttural roars shook the ground below. The thought occurred to her that the beasts were running back toward the opening on the slope below. Jen wrapped her fingers around the plunger on the box and pushed her arms down hard. The entire slope rumbled with a deep sonorous wave. The giant grizzly bears inside the hole exploded into enormous chunks of fur, flesh and bone. The ceiling of the cavern below Jen crumbled and the entire forest around her gave way in a massive landslide. Jen was thrown from the force of the blast into the trees and everything went black.
TWENTY-FOUR
Jen woke up with raindrops falling on her face. She sat up coughing feeling as though she’d just been run over by a truck. The sky was dark and gray. She had no idea how long she’d been out. She looked around her and saw a flattened forest half-covered in dirt and rocks. She wiped wet soil from her cheeks and attempted to stand up. She fell back down again with a sharp pain in her left ankle. With support from a large branch laying nearby, Jen managed to stand. She was relieved to be alive and buoyed by the thought that she’d actually killed both of the giant grizzlies. Still, she couldn’t stop thinking about David, Cain and Deputy Sivers. Their images flashed again and again through her mind.
Disoriented and directionless, Jen limped her way through the forest slowly, hoping to find any kind of landmark that might prove familiar. The rain came down harder as the day grew later. Jen hobbled through difficult terrain. The wet ground made it all the more arduous. An hour later Jen was relieved to hear the sound of rushing water. She came out of the trees to the wide river she was sure was the Tyson, though this was unknown part of the river to her. She collapsed to her knees and drank in the fresh water and splashed the mud from her face. She sat back and noticed a lifeless lump a short distance down the bank.
The lump turned out to be one of two bodies dressed in Forestry Service uniforms. One of the bodies had been torn in half and with most of its face missing. Jen couldn’t tell if the person had been male or female. The other body was a man with one of his arms torn away. Another short distance down the bank was a motorized dingy. Jen limped over to the craft lodged at the side of the river. She flopped herself into it and desperately pulled at the start cord. Jen couldn’t hold back the tears and the emotion as the outboard engine roared to life. She guided the rubber dingy out to the middle of the river and with the current.
The river meandered through the canyon and Jen had yet to see any familiar features letting her know where she was. She wondered to herself if perhaps this wasn’t the Tyson River but the Ryback River instead. The Ryback flowed out of the canyon’s east side, an area she was less familiar with, but she knew the Ryback actually came within a mile of Branson where some of the locals had their cabins and docks. Jen felt relief at the thought of getting that close to home. She checked the fuel gauge on the outboard and there seemed to be plenty. She eased off the throttle to conserve fuel just in case and as she did an echoing sound caught her ear from the forest to the right of her. A dog barked incessantly nearby. She looked over and saw a German Shepherd running and jumping along side her in the trees, clearly trying to get her attention.
“Reese!” Jen hollered, overjoyed to see the dog was still alive.
She steered the craft over to the riverbank. The dog was shy about the approaching the dingy. Jen slid over to the side of the boat and reached for the dog.
“It’s okay, Reese. Come here. It’s okay.”
The dog was panting and clearly the worse for wear. He stepped gingerly toward Jen. She held her hand out non-threateningly and the shepherd gently licked her finger.
“It’s okay, buddy. I’ve got you.”
The dog moved closer and Jen grabbed him and pulled him toward the boat. The dog resisted but Jen held his front legs with an iron-grip. She pulled him over the edge of the dingy. He plopped down onto the rubber floor and spun around a bit panicked.
“It’s okay, Reese. You’re okay now.”
Jen’s smooth tone seemed to settle him. Jen revved the engine and directed the boat back out over the middle of the river. Reese laid down next to her and propped his head on her leg. He let out a whimper
as he looked up at her and Jen gazed at him with weary eyes. She looked up at the wide river that lay ahead and with a steady hand on the rudder guided the boat back towards town.
OTHER BOOKS BY RAYLAN KANE
I, Maximus (Max Hart #1)
Kill Me Tomorrow
COMING SOON:
Griz 2: Dead Woods (Griz #2)
All titles available on Amazon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Raylan Kane began writing as a commercial copywriter and transitioned into writing fiction in 2011. Since then, he has penned numerous novels, novellas, and short stories. He enjoys readings and writing in multiple genres, including crime, thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy. Raylan currently lives in the Rocky Mountains, in the heart of grizzly country, with his wife and two bulldogs.
