“It’s no good.”
Travis didn’t like what he was hearing, but wasn’t surprised. Data and Fahd and Sarah and Sam were delivering the verdict on the video he and Nish had brought back from the dump.
“You can see too much of the dump,” said Fahd.
“No one’s going to be scared out of their wits by a bear ripping apart a garbage bag,” said Data.
“We’re going to have to try again,” said Sarah.
Travis let out a long breath. “Okay,” he said. “What can we do?”
Sam had some ideas. They would set up in the deep woods just behind the dump and try to film one of the bears in the wild. They could then combine this with the better shots of the bears taking swipes and runs at each other in the dump, but only the ones that didn’t show the garbage.
Fahd jumped in: “And we can do a third series of shots showing dummies being ripped apart or blowing up or whatever. If we edit them in, people will think the bears are ripping people up. We just need to find a few dummies.”
“No problem there,” Sam said, looking right at him.
Fahd had heard the joke before, but still didn’t get it.
“Fine!” Nish interrupted. “There’s only one problem. How do we find a bear in the woods?”
“He comes to us,” Sam said. “You have to attract them – that’s what hunters do.”
“We’re not going to shoot them!” said Data.
“Yes we are,” said Sam, “with a camera.”
“Hunters bait them,” said Simon. “They put out rotting meat.”
“Gross!” said several of the Owls together.
“The bears are attracted by the smell,” Simon continued. “It has to be a strong smell, that’s why they use meat that’s gone bad.”
“Where are we going to find a smell that powerful?” wailed Fahd.
“Think about it,” said Sam.
There was a pause. No one understood.
Sam slowly raised her hand and very deliberately pointed, as if she were taking aim, at the source of a smell powerful enough to attract the attention of wild bears.
Nish!
Travis thought to himself, It’s a good thing that we’re capturing this on film, otherwise no one would ever believe it!
They were deep in the bush behind the garbage dump. They knew they were in the right area when Jesse found a large beech tree with sharp, regularly spaced scrapings across the bark. “A bear has scratched here to sharpen his claws,” he announced.
Travis looked up, way up. For a bear to reach that high, it would have to be twice the height of Travis. At least. He shuddered.
“What’s this?” Nish called from farther up the trail.
The others hurried along. Nish was standing over a huge black mound of what looked, on first glance, like mud.
“Bear dropping,” said Jesse.
Nish giggled. “How come we don’t call it ‘dropping’?”
“Because most of us have the decency to use a toilet,” said Sam.
“At least this proves a bear has been here recently,” said Simon.
“Time to get ready, Stinker Boy,” said Sarah.
All eyes were now on Nish. He was, already sweating. His face was twisted like an old sock.
“We’re not going to do this,” he wailed.
“We are so,” said Sam. “Now get your stuff on!”