4:01 A.M.
WYATT GOT TO HIS feet in one fluid motion. Standing tall, Wyatt looked the mama bear directly in the eye. In a strong, firm voice, he said, “Get out of here, bear!”
Marco clamped his hand around Blue’s snout. Darryl pushed Zion behind his back.
In a softer voice, Wyatt warned them, “No screaming. No sudden movements. And whatever you do, don’t run.” His eyes never wavered from the mama bear. “Slowly stretch out your arms to make yourself look as big as possible. If you’re wearing a coat, unzip it and hold it open.” Out of the corner of her left eye, Natalia could see him following his own advice as he spoke. “Bears normally stay away from humans, but there’s the fire, and she’s got her cubs.”
Time stretched like taffy while the bears and the humans stared at each other. The three animals were the color of midnight, the only lighter patches of fur around their snouts. Natalia’s heart hammered in her ears as she fixed her gaze on the mother bear. The bear’s eyes were as big as chestnuts, gleaming in the pulsing radiance from the fire.
On her knees in the bivy bag, Natalia suddenly felt dizzy. She swayed involuntarily.
The mama bear made a woofing noise. Saliva glistened on her big, white teeth. She snapped her jaws, biting the air. Her cubs shifted anxiously back and forth.
“She’s going to charge!” AJ’s voice shook.
“I don’t think so.” Wyatt slowly moved behind Natalia. He stepped over her bent legs until he had one foot on either side. His knees pressed into her shoulder blades, steadying her, keeping her from falling over. “She doesn’t want a fight any more than we do. She’s just afraid and trying to intimidate us.” He raised his voice. “Go away, bear! Go away!”
For an answer, the mama bear growled and laid her ears back. Blowing and snorting, she swatted the ground with one front paw.
“Calm down!” Wyatt ordered. “We’re not going to hurt you or your cubs.” In a softer voice, he said, “If she does attack, whatever you do, don’t play dead. Try to hit and kick her in the face and muzzle.”
Suddenly, the bear started to gallop toward Natalia.
Now there were only a dozen feet between them. Natalia’s heart seized in her chest. Her legs were still bound up by the bivy bag. This was going to end the way her dreams always did, with blood and terror.
Seven feet.
“No!” Natalia shouted. “No! Go away!”
Wyatt’s commands joined hers. Then somehow, with his strong arms assisting her, she was on her feet.
Three feet.
The bear was close enough that Natalia could smell her, a sweet musky smell. Soon those heavy jaws would close on her flesh. This was it, then.
But at the last second, the mama bear pivoted on one huge paw, turned, and ran back toward her cubs. Bumping and shouldering them ahead of her, she pushed them back into the trees, away from both the fire and the people.
And then all three bears were gone, as if they had never been. As if they had just been another of Natalia’s bad dreams. Over the years, the nightmares had lessened, but never completely left her.
For a long moment no one stirred. Then everyone began to talk at once, exclaiming and even laughing nervously in relief.
AJ exhaled noisily. “That was close!”
“She was trying to bluff us,” Wyatt said. “Trying to make sure we stayed well back before she took off.” At some point he had wrapped his arms around Natalia, and now he gave her a long squeeze. His soft lips touched the back of her neck, and for a few seconds she forgot everything else. Then he let her go. He started pushing down the bivy bag so she could get out.
Lisa was shaking her head. “Maybe it’s actually a good thing we don’t have any food.”
“And that the bears didn’t think I smelled like barbecue,” Ryan added.
Darryl scrubbed his face with his hands. “The only thing we probably smell like is sweat.”
“Were those grizzly bears?” Zion asked, wide-eyed.
“Black bears,” Wyatt said. “And black bears are mostly scared of you.” He turned, to Marco. “Good thing you managed to keep Blue quiet.”
“And that he’s such a good dog,” Susan crooned, moving closer to scratch behind his ears.
Feeling stiff and sour-mouthed, Natalia finished freeing her legs from the bivy sack. On the outside, the sack was slick with dew, the way her skin was now covered with a fine sheen of sweat.
“Well, I guess we’re all wide-awake now,” Wyatt said. “Might as well get ready and get back on the trail.”
The sun hadn’t yet broken over the horizon, but it was light enough for Natalia to notice the exhaustion etched on people’s faces. And to see tatters of smoke eddying through the tree trunks.
Ignoring the pain of the popped blister, Natalia thrust her feet into her boots. After tying her laces, she pulled on her headlamp and switched it on. Scratching a mosquito bite on her arm, she checked to make sure no one else was using the trench Wyatt had dug behind a tree before making for it.
When she came back, people were shoving feet into boots and pushing things back into packs and pockets. With Trask already on his back, Wyatt was looking at the map, illuminated by his headlamp.
“Where are we exactly?” She stifled a groan as she shouldered her own pack.
He pointed, then traced a route with his finger. “We’re going to have to cross a creek here, then we’ll gain some elevation, drop back down again, and then skirt this little lake. After that, it’s only another three miles or so until we hit a road.
Natalia picked out Basin Falls on the map. It didn’t look like they had come very far. “Are we even halfway there?”
“Maybe a little more.”
That didn’t seem like nearly enough. Everyone was hungry and tired. Tired to the bone.
Trask was fussing, arching backward, his face creased into an angry frown. He must be hungry as well as tired. Fishing in her pocket, Natalia found the chunk of KIND bar she’d saved. She held it out to Lisa. “Is it okay if I give Trask this?”
Lisa put her hand on her heart. “That would be really nice of you. Thank you.”
As Trask reached for it with his chubby hand, Natalia thought of Conner. For the first time, the memory of her little brother wasn’t as sharp as a blade.
“We need to start moving,” Wyatt said. “The wind is picking up.”
He was right. She felt the wind push her hair back from her face.
Which meant it was pushing the fire straight toward them.