RECO 2 stood at the mouth of the cave. “ROZZUM unit 7134, are you in here?” The only response was his own flat voice echoing back. But he sensed movement somewhere down the tunnel. So he switched on his headlights, raised his rifle, and marched inside.
The RECO marched past animal bones and rock piles and wide cracks in the walls. His blocky head swiveled from side to side, scanning for any sign of Roz. But she was nowhere to be found. So he turned and marched back toward daylight. And then a deafening roar filled the cave.
From the shadows flew a giant body. Mother Bear charged into the robot and smashed him against a wall. Then Nettle and Thorn jumped in, and together the family went to work. They rammed his legs. They slashed his chest. They muscled him to the ground.
On his way down, RECO 2 squeezed the trigger. There was a flash of blazing light and the walls began to crumble. Nettle grabbed her brother by the scruff and pulled him outside as an avalanche of rock thundered behind them.
Mother Bear howled.
The rifle exploded.
Stones clanged against RECO 2.
The avalanche slowed and settled as a cloud of dust billowed out from the cave.
“Mother?” Nettle peered into the darkness.
“I’m here,” said a weak voice.
The young bears dashed inside and found their mother half-buried. They pulled heavy stones from her body and dusted her off. “I have broken bones,” she rasped, “but they will heal. Where is the robot?”
RECO 2’s headlights switched back on. Stones tumbled as the robot staggered to his feet. His body was scratched and scraped. His head was badly dented. His left arm was completely useless, so—thwip—it was tossed aside. Then the one-armed robot limped out of the cave and continued the hunt for Roz.
“Don’t worry about me,” Mother Bear growled to Nettle and Thorn. “Kill the robot.”
With his heavy limp and his grinding gears, RECO 2 was easy to track. The young bears caught up with him as he was entering a grove of pines. But they didn’t attack, not yet. There was a better place to finish him off up ahead. So they hung back and followed him across the mountainside.
The distant rumble of the waterfall grew louder with each passing minute, and then a slash of white appeared through the trees. Soon, the robot was standing beside the roiling, frothing river, just above the falls. He was too badly damaged to leap over the falls or to wade through the rapids or to climb down the cliffs. But he had to continue his hunt for the target. So he started limping upriver in search of a safer crossing.
There was a rustling, and the young bears exploded out from the trees. They threw their heavy shoulders against the robot’s body, and he stumbled sideways onto the riverbank. Nettle reared up and wrestled the robot, twisting and shaking him with all of her strength. RECO 2 felt his feet slipping on the rocks, he felt his body tipping over, and then he plunged into the white water. And he brought Nettle with him.
The current immediately swept Nettle toward the falls. She rolled through the rapids, crashed into one rock and then desperately clambered onto another. RECO 2 stood straight up, and the river rushed around him. He took a step, slipped, and disappeared beneath the water. But then he was up again.
Thorn ran to help his sister, but she was pointing upriver and roaring, “Use the logs!” When the younger bear turned around, he saw what she meant. A jumble of broken logs were wedged between the rocks of the rapids, and a moment later Thorn was on top of them. With water sloshing over his back, he forced a paw between the logs and pried the top one loose. It splashed into the river and wound its way down through the rapids only to roll harmlessly past the robot. Then it dropped out of sight.
The bear tried again. He popped another log into the river, and this one spun just in time to ram its full weight into the robot’s chest. RECO 2 went sailing backward and sank beneath the surface. When he reappeared, the river was full of heavy wooden torpedoes. One log pounded the robot’s shoulder. Another slammed his face. More logs knocked him closer and closer to the falls. The current became too much for the injured robot, and it carried him away. He grasped for anything solid he could cling to. But the rocks were too slippery. So he settled for a fistful of fur.
Nettle had been hanging on to one rock this whole time. But now that the robot was pulling her, she started losing her grip. She couldn’t hang on much longer. Finally, she cried out, “I’m sorry, Thorn!” and she let go.
Nettle and RECO 2 surged toward the rumbling falls. The bear felt the robot release his grip. She watched him glide over the edge. Then she closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.
But it was not Nettle’s time.
Reader, what happened next is hard to believe. You see, the river didn’t fall away beneath Nettle; it tightened around her! Hundreds of fish surrounded the bear! They pressed their faces into her fur. They thrashed their tails against the current. And they slowly pushed her away from the edge. Farther and farther they went, gradually moving upriver, until Nettle’s brother pulled her from the water.
The bears collapsed onto the riverbank. And when they looked down, they saw hundreds of fish looking back up. “Thank you!” roared Nettle. “I’ll never eat fish again!” The fish smiled and sank into the rapids.
“I thought you were dead,” said Thorn, breathing hard.