This was another type of noise, thought Belinda as she strained to listen in the darkness. It wasn’t the low growling she’d heard just before she’d so mercifully blacked out. This was a scratching sound coming from above.
The sound was repetitive and persistent. Belinda tried to imagine what it could be. The only thing that came to mind was the image of a dog digging a hole to bury a bone.
She called out, and the scratching sound stopped, only to resume a few minutes later. If it had been a human being up there, a voice would have called back. That meant it was an animal, desperate to get in.
Tears of hopelessness and utter fright trickled from the corners of Belinda’s eyes. She was buried alive, and nobody was going to find her. A wild animal was trying to get at her. Belinda groaned as she weighed which way would be better to die.
Belowground, she prayed as the female bobcat above tried to claw her way down to her cubs.