My ears rang and my brain vibrated after the gun went off. Jed staggered out of the truck and the passenger followed out his door as I fired again. Jen slumped across the front seat, a little blood trickling from a bump on her head where the passenger had smacked her with the shotgun. Adrenaline surged through me as I stared around, searching for another threat. I’d kill Jed if I had to. He could have hurt my baby. Maybe he had with all the rocky roads and swerving. Fire and rage built in my chest, though it could have been heart-burn and reflux. No one threatened my child. No one endangered my peanut. I hadn’t even met the little nugget but already I knew I’d take that bully on with my bare hands to protect it.
Hannah grunted as she tried to wiggle her way over the seat to get to the driver’s side, though she got stuck and instead flailed a little before she grabbed Jen’s arm. “Come on. You have to drive. I can’t make it over.”
Jen blinked a lot, rubbing at her head, and looked too dazed to do much more than sit there. My stomach twisted; she looked like she had a concussion or something worse. We had to get her to a hospital, which meant one of us had to drive all the way back through the snowy wasteland to town. My heart thumped against my ribs and a smaller cramp rippled through my belly, but a new sense of resolve buoyed me up. I needed a doctor, Jen needed a doctor, and Hannah probably needed a doctor. We couldn’t just sit there in a busted-up truck in the snow waiting for Jed and his pals to return.
The thought reminded me to keep an eye on where Jed ended up, and as I turned, I caught sight of a gray blur in my peripheral vision. I blinked, wondering if it was a consequence of firing the weapon inside the truck and giving myself some kind of concussion, but.... no, another wolf ran past, growling.
Wolves. I clutched my stomach as I tried to whip around and peer out the back window again. Not just one or two, but easily half a dozen or more. All of them circling the truck, staring at us with their eerie gold eyes. My hands trembled as I tried to lift the pistol to aim out the broken-out window. “Wh-What are we going to do?”
“We’re getting out of here,” Hannah said firmly. She reached for the pistol, though, and her voice held steady enough to reassure me. “Why don’t you let me hold that? Just in case your little peanut doesn’t like the loud noises.”
I just looked at her, not processing what she meant. Jen managed to flop over the seat and worm her way into the driver’s seat. She turned the keys and muttered under her breath as the engine rattled.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, about to give the pistol to Hannah, as I prayed for the engine to chug to life and the truck to back out of the ditch so we could get the hell away and find help.
Hannah whispered, “Oh thank God,” just as the truck’s engine turned over and sputtered to life, and I looked over to the window next to me and found... not a wolf. No, much worse.
A bear. A giant, rich chocolate-brown head with giant freaking teeth and a quizzical look on its face.
I screamed and whipped the pistol up, squeezing the trigger before Hannah could do more than shout in my ear about waiting.