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Do something.
Searching around quickly, I found the leg to a chair. But I couldn’t strike. Everything was happening too fast, everything moving much too quickly for me to pick out the enemy. I could swing if I wanted to, but I’d just as easily hit Boone as I would the bear.
Swing anyway!
I ran in, holding the makeshift weapon out before me. The dervish-like combo of man and bear were still grunting and roaring. They held onto each other for dear life as they spun again, throwing off ropes of sticky blood in every direction.
I picked my target, trying my best to time the blow. Then I raised my club…
… and brought it crashing down.
Thirty
BOONE
There was a loud THUNK as something struck the bear hard. Or maybe the bear itself struck something, I don’t know which.
All I knew was that both sides of my back burned like fire.
All at once I felt the animal pulling away. As if all the fight had suddenly gone out of it, and its only interest was to be as far away from me as possible.
That was just fine by me. More than fine, actually.
I let go, and immediately realized my arms were spent. Something grabbed me around the waist and I felt myself being yanked backward. The bear whirled at the hips and
twisted away, yanking the screwdriver savagely from my hand before bounding away on all fours. It grunted as it ran, trailing blood, lumbering clumsily yet quickly toward the snowy opening.
Together we watched it go, disappearing into the storm.
“You alright?”
Jeremy was there, helping me to my feet. I nodded numbly, not taking my eyes off the space where we’d last seen the animal.
“What the fuck?”
I was too winded to speak. My arms felt like they weren’t even my own. My lungs burned like someone had poured gasoline down my throat and followed it up with a match.
I opened my mouth but no sound came out.
“Relax,” Shane said, coming up behind me. He took my other arm and helped me sit down near the hearth. “You… you just wrestled a bear.” His voice was admonishment, mixed in with a hint of forced admiration. “Maybe don’t talk for a while?”
I nodded again, shaking the cobwebs from my head. Morgan ran up from the other room. I heard her gasp loudly, and both hands went over her mouth.
“You’re bleeding!”
That much I knew. How badly I was bleeding was an entirely different story.
“It mauled your back!” she cried. “It… it…”
“It’s not that bad,” Shane countered. “I’ll agree it looks bad, but it doesn’t seem that deep.”
I wished I could see. I could certainly feel the pain of my shoulder-blades, as well as a warm stream of what could only be blood running down both sides of my back.
“We have to clean it,” Morgan said. “Right away.”
Shane kept watch while Jeremy ventured over to the doorway. He dipped outside and returned with two armfuls of snow. I waved him away.
“Not here,” I said when I could finally speak. “Downstairs.”
