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CHAPTER6
PENELOPE
I stiflea scream as the massive creature breaks free from the shadows and starts crossing the lobby toward us. In the light of the emergency sconces, I see its face first, quickly followed by its large, hairy body. My breath catches in my throat and nausea swirls in my stomach.
Oh my god, it’s a bear.
I slap both hands over my mouth. The thing must have walked right through the automatic lobby doors. I’ve seen birds and squirrels make their way inside, no doubt looking for food. One time, I even saw a raccoon. But a bear? Bears don’t usually wander all the way to the tree line. It’s too close to roads and people and noise. Which means it must be hungry.
Stupid cabin-life! Know where bears don’t hang out? The city.
My hand aches from how tightly I’m squeezing Elijah’s shoulder. No doubt I’m digging my nails into his skin, but maybe he hasn’t noticed. I can feel my pulse throbbing in the palm of my hand, but my heart is thumping too loudly in my chest to hear the bear’s snarled breath.
“Go away, get on out of here!” A loud voice booms from the darkness.
But the bear only gives an intimidating growl in response and it makes the room fall pindrop silent.
“What do we do?” I squeak. My voice sounds tiny and distant, nothing like my own.
“Just don’t move,” Elijah replies, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“Are you insane? There’s a friggin grizzly bear in the lobby! What do you meannothing to worry about?!” My voice breaks and I think I might be sick.
“Penelope, I need you to stay calm,” he says.
That’s easy for him to say, he’s trained to deal with all kinds of crazy situations. I’m just a regular person trying desperately to live a boring life managing Bunker Lodge. I’m not trained to deal with emergencies beyond someone needing CPR, and I’m certainly not trained as a bear-wrangler. I think back to all my walks through the woods. Here I was worrying about some make-believe truck I thought belonged to my ex when I should have been worrying about being eaten by a bear.
I try to steady my breathing as the animal groans and steps closer, sniffing a potted plant before pointing itself in our direction once more. I don’t know how much longer I can keep standing here. My mind is whispering for me to trust Elijah and wait it out, but my legs are burning with the desire to run. I wonder if I could make it to the storage room before the bear caught up. Even if I could, what about all the other people down here?
“Seriously, Elijah, tell me you have a plan,” I whisper in his ear.
“I do, I just hope it doesn’t come to that.” His voice is barely audible.
“You’re not going to shoot it, are you? Not here in the lobby. Not anywhere, the poor thing.” Tears well behind my eyes and I swallow hard.
“Stop it, I’m not going to shoot it. This gun wouldn’t do anything other than maybe piss it off anyway. It’s not nearly big enough for that.” He shakes his head.
“Okay, then what the hellareyou planning on doing?” I push my body flat against the wall.
“Just stay still and keep quiet. It’s obviously here looking for food. When it realizes there’s none around, it may just head back out the way it came.”
“Cool stay here and be bear bait… got it,” I mumble to myself.
My eyes are locked on the grizzly, but my mind is barely processing everything that’s happening.What are you supposed to do when you see a bear? Run? Freeze? Back away slowly? Dammit. Why didn’t I pay more attention to that training they gave on the first day? Maybe I can reach that drawer behind the register and just offer him a snack. I think there’s a bag of trail mix somewhere. Do bears eat trail mix or is it honey they eat?
I shut my eyes tight for a split second and reopen them only to see that the bear is closer now, only about seven feet away. I gasp, the most noise my body is willing to make. As much as I want to scream, my entire voice seems to have faded away. I’ve had nightmares like this, not about bears, but about being trapped like this. Isolated. Helpless.
“Get behind me.” Elijah’s words are a growl. “Now!”
I hardly have time to process Elijah's words before the bear brambles up to us, roaring as it stands on its hind legs.
Shit.
