Survival Instincts, page 34
The bear let go and grunted.
Lynn sagged onto the pavement as relief washed through her. Whatever Dani had done agitated the bear into lifting its paw long enough for Lynn to suck in air despite the pain.
The bear’s nails raked along her arm. The heavy leather of her jacket protected her against much of the onslaught, but fire still spread along the length of her triceps. Lynn clenched her jaw to keep from crying out.
Massive paws moved along her back. Each stomp threatened to crack her spine. Then the bear pushed down and dug its nails in for leverage just below her backpack.
A ragged scream tore from Lynn’s throat.
With a bone-rattling growl, the bear pushed off and jerked her body backward like a ragdoll in the process.
She skidded to a stop and breathed in carefully. Sharp pain exploded along her chest and back. She was in too much agony to gauge how broken her body was and in too much shock to find out.
Dani cried out.
The pain in Dani’s voice acted like a bucket of ice-cold water. She didn’t have time to be hurt. Lynn wiggled her fingers and toes to make sure nothing was irreparably damaged, then pushed up on her hands and knees. The pain was searing and all-consuming, but the impact of it paled in comparison to the view that greeted her when she got herself to lift her head and open her eyes.
Dani’s bravery—and absolute stupidity—had spooked the bear, but instead of running away upon hearing the racket, it had charged her. It was a massive animal with matted and muddy fur, half an ear missing and dark wetness coating its flank. She looked upon its broad back as it stood on its hind legs, front paws on the bed of a rusty pickup truck.
As Lynn watched, Dani climbed onto the cabin, knife in hand, and turned to lock gazes with the bear. She crouched and held her abdomen with her knifeless hand.
The only reason Dani wasn’t dead yet was Skeever, who hung on to the back of the bear’s leg and prevented it from putting its paw on the bed by providing a counterforce.
As Lynn watched, the bear jerked its leg hard enough to shake Skeever off.
Skeever jumped back right away, and his teeth renewed their hold, but the damage was done: the bear was able to push up. The rusty metal creaked, and the bed sank down under the weight.
Dani wobbled and winced as she sank down to her knees. She raised the knife and set her jaw.
“Jump!” Lynn had meant to shout, but the word came out a broken croak instead. She realized the advice was bad anyway—if Dani jumped the six feet to the ground, she wouldn’t be able to walk on her knee, let alone run, and the bear would be upon her in seconds.
Dani was trapped.
Lynn’s hand shot down to her tomahawk, but it was going to be useless against something as massive as a bear. Instead, she twisted her body to locate Dani’s spear. Her heart sped up into an even more frantic gallop as she located it perhaps five feet off. The tip was stained; Dani had already drawn blood. She reached out and closed her hand around the cool metal. As she did, her head throbbed in the same rhythm as her screaming shoulder. She drew the weapon to her and had to pause and squeeze her eyes shut for a second to clear the sparks that exploded behind her eyelids. When she opened her eyes again, the sleeve of her right arm was slowly turning red. Time was running out quickly—the more blood she lost, the more of her meager energy reserves would go with it.
The bear growled and lowered its head, getting ready to pounce.
Dani gripped the knife harder.
Lynn forgot about her pain in the face of certain death for Dani and pushed up. She forced her legs under her, but they almost gave out right away. She used the momentum of her failing muscles to stumble forward and inhaled sharply. “H-Hey!”
The bear ignored her.
“Lynn! Help!” Dani was pale as a sheet. When the bear tried to rake her with its claws, she nearly tumbled off the cabin as she scooted back.
There were maybe twenty feet between Lynn and the pickup, but it could have been a mile for all the progress she was making. Her entire body felt broken and bruised, and she could barely feel her legs. Adrenaline kept her pushing forward, even though her path wavered. “Drop!”
Dani shook her head. There was sheer panic in her eyes.
The bear planted its front paws on the cabin, put its back paw on the side of the truck bed, and pushed up.
Skeever barked and renewed his hold, jerking savagely on the bear’s flank.
“Drop! Now!” Lynn reached the back of the truck. Just four or five feet separated her from the bear, but she needed to get closer than that to do damage. She needed to get up. With a pounding heart, she slid the spear onto the bed of the truck, then used whatever power was left in her muscles to push herself up. Her right hand was covered in blood and left a handprint. She ignored it and looked up to check on Dani, who slashed at the bear’s paw when it lashed out. “Roll off!”
Dani nodded once and slid off the cabin. She landed with a thud.
The bear pushed up heavily and sniffed the cabin top. Its massive head swung from side to side, searching.
Skeever’s nails scratched along the metal as he pushed himself between the bear’s flank and the side of the truck bed. His bloody teeth sank into the soft skin where the front leg met the torso.
The bear roared and finally focused all its attention on Skeever. It waggled back, then twisted to snap at Skeever, who scrambled to stay clear but held on.
Lynn finally managed to crawl up the back of the truck and stood on legs almost too weak to take her weight. She sucked in a breath. Her lungs burned; her ribs extended with lightning bolts of pain. She forced herself to pick up and raise the spear. “He-Hey!” She planted her feet more solidly and took a deep breath. “Hey!”
The bear looked up, but its jaws continued to snap. It shook itself to get Skeever off. When he refused to budge, the bear threw itself against the side of the bed.
Skeever yelped as he smashed into the metal and let go.
Before Lynn could react, the bear’s jaws snapped shut around Skeever’s paw, and it jerked its head up. Muscles rippled under matted fur, and Skeever went flying. He landed out of view beside the truck and whined once, then went silent.
Intense hate flared through Lynn. “You fucker! Yeah, look at me! It’s j-just you and me now!” She swayed as she gripped the spear with both hands.
The bear turned in the narrow space and faced her. It shook out its massive body and growled.
Lynn stepped back until she no longer felt the truck bed under her heels. She crouched despite the pain. The spear reflected the blood-red sunlight as she leveled it with the bear’s chest. “I’m here, asshole. Yeah, now you see me, don’t you?”
Dull brown eyes fastened upon her, and its jaw flapped as it growled. It struck out with a blood-covered paw.
Lynn weathered the threat; the bear was too far away to hit her—and too far away for her to make the kill. Where’s Dani? She hadn’t seen her run away. And Skeever? She jabbed with the spear, only barely grazing the bear’s forepaw. Worry threatened her focus, but she couldn’t afford to let it: she was tempting a bear.
It struck out again, then stepped closer, covering half the width of the bed in a single move.
That’s it. Come here! She jabbed again, and now she drew blood.
The bear jerked and shook its entire body before it finally did what Lynn had been both hoping and dreading: it tensed and pounced.
Lynn had exactly one second to panic, then she clutched the shaft of the spear between her side and her arm, tensed all her muscles, and let herself fall backward off the truck.
Too late.
Razor-sharp claws grazed the front of her thighs as the bear landed on the edge of the bed. Its momentum caused it to slide forward.
Lynn landed roughly on the concrete, her fall only slightly broken by her backpack. She managed to hold her head up and kept her grip on the spear.
The bear slid over the edge.
Lynn adjusted the angle of the spear as best she could to hit it square in the chest.
The weight of the animal as it landed on top of her was crushing. The bear howled and trashed. Claws raked across the ground next to her head.
Lynn made herself as small as possible and weathered the assault. The weight on her pain-ridden body made her scream. Warm wetness ran down her arm and chest. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Her heart galloped in her chest as hot breath rushed over her, rank and putrid. She shuddered.
The bear whimpered. Its breathing halted, restarted, then stopped. The weight increased.
Seconds ticked by, and Lynn craned her neck, searching for air.
Silence settled over her like a heavy blanket. Her vision swam. She took a tiny breath, as much as her chest would expand. Another. Panic clawed its way up her chest. Dimly, she realized she wouldn’t be able to get enough air into her lungs while trapped. Unlike when Dean had tried to choke her, she didn’t panic this time. She forced herself to remember all the times she’d held her breath until her lungs nearly burst and forced the panic down. With as much calm as she could muster, she took another shallow breath and tested if she could move anything. Eventually, she found a way to plant her foot against the wheel casing of the truck and use it as leverage to slide out past the shaft of the spear—the only place where something other than Lynn’s body held up the dead animal. It took every bit of energy she had, and no amount of worry about Dani or Skeever could get her upright for at least a few minutes.
During those minutes of recovery, Skeever limped over. He sighed and lay down by her side, muzzle on her arm.
Lynn turned her head slowly. A sob tore through her throat. “S-Skeeve.” She hissed as she moved her right arm, but it was worth every bit of pain to feel his fur under her fingertips. “Are you okay, boy? You saved our asses, y-you know that, right?”
He licked his muzzle. His eyes pleaded with her to make the pain stop.
“Sorry, Skeeve. I’ll have a look soon, okay? I need to find Dani first.” The moment she said it, adrenaline drowned out much of the pain. She’d been so consumed with her own suffering that she hadn’t realized that she should have heard from or seen Dani by now, and the fact that she hadn’t was terrifying.
Getting up was excruciating, but she managed. As she used the truck as leverage to push onto her feet, she also got her first glimpse of the spear tip sticking out from the bears back. It had gone straight through, ripping up everything in its path as the bear’s weight forced it on.
Lynn shuddered and swallowed down a rush of bile. How can I still be alive?
Skeever got up too. He lifted his left front paw—the one covered in blood—and kept it off the ground as he hobbled alongside her.
Lynn used the truck to make her way to the front of it, both eager to reach it and dreading what she would find when she did.
Dani hadn’t moved from where she had fallen. Blood smears covered the windshield and the hood, and a pool of it colored the asphalt underneath Dani’s crumpled body red. Her eyes were closed and her skin the color of chalk.
Lynn’s legs nearly gave out as she saw her worst fears become a reality.
Chapter 20
“No no no no no!” Lynn fell by Dani’s side, instantly trying to find where the blood was pouring from. When she pulled up Dani’s shredded coat, five gashes of various lengths and depths appeared along Dani’s belly. It was hard to judge how extensive the damage was with the sea of red and the diminishing light, but it was bad. Very bad.
Skeever pressed his muzzle against Dani’s cheek and lay by her side protectively.
“Dani! Wake up!” Lynn rolled Dani’s limp body over and carefully pressed down on Dani’s abdomen to see which gashes were deepest.
Dani gasped, and her eyes fluttered open. “Wha—?” She tensed, and blood gushed from the wounds.
Lynn grabbed her hands and held them. “Quiet! Quiet! You’re hurt, okay? You’re hurt.” Her voice broke, and she realized she was crying.
“Lynn…” Dani’s voice was barely more than a whisper. She went limp again, but her eyes remained opened to slits. Tears streaked down her dirty cheeks.
“I’m here. You’re going to be fine. I’m going to take care of you. Just lie down and try to stay awake for me. Can you do that?” She squeezed her hands.
“T-Think so.” Dani sucked in a shallow, shuddering breath.
Lynn forced herself to focus. Her raging heart made her woozy. She was sure her shoulder was mangled, probably still bleeding, and the pain was only getting worse. She had to calm down and prioritize.
“H-How b-bad…?”
Lynn smiled despite the pain. “You’re okay.” Dani was alive; that was all that mattered. She would keep her alive. “I’m going to bandage you up, though. I like your blood inside your body, if at all possible.”
She didn’t quite manage to sell the cheer in her voice, but a ghost of a smile flitted across Dani’s lips. “M-Me too.” She took another shallow breath. “You?”
Me? “Oh, how I am? I’m good. Don’t worry. Nothing that can’t be patched up. Same as you.” She slid her backpack from her shoulders and opened it. Everything was wet, and glass shards had pierced every strip of cloth and leather. She couldn’t use any of it to bandage Dani’s wounds. “I’m going to find your pack. Lie still, okay? Don’t move a muscle.”
Dani hummed. Her eyelids fluttered shut.
“Hey!” She tapped Dani’s cheek softly. “Stay awake, remember? That’s your one job: you have to stay awake, or I’ll get really mad at you.”
Dani frowned and forced her eyes open. She looked around but seemed unable to focus her gaze on anything.
Lynn’s insides churned, but she didn’t have time to give in to her worry. Dani was bleeding to death right in front of her eyes, and the only one who could do anything to prevent it was Lynn. “I’ll be right back.”
“N-Not going…a-anywhere.” Dani smiled again. It was so weak that it spurred Lynn on to hurry.
As she retrieved Dani’s pack from nearby the cart, her mind kicked into overdrive, spewing out questions she didn’t have answers to: Where had the bear come from? Were there more? How was she going to get Dani back to health? When would they be able to travel on? If they missed the two-week deadline the Homesteaders had Dani under, would they come look for her? Would Dani survive long enough to wait for that? She shook her head to clear it. She didn’t have time for those questions.
Her gaze landed on the cart. The body could attract all kinds of predators, but she didn’t have time to think up a solution to that problem right now. She left it where it was.
Dani was half asleep by the time Lynn fell by her side again. She had started to shiver, and her jaw was set.
“Wake-up call, Dani.” She plopped Dani’s backpack down and angled it to catch the last of the twilight. She didn’t have time to make a fire.
“I-I’m here.” Dani turned her head sideways. “V-Very…s-sorry.”
“About what?” She finally found a pair of Dani’s pants and pulled her knife from her boot to cut it in half through the crotch and then lengthwise down the leg.
“W-Wolf.” Dani exhaled shakily and very slowly moved her hand until it touched Lynn’s knee.
“Wolf? What?” She looked around but didn’t see anything.
Dani’s fingers hooked behind her knee and applied just the barest hint of pressure to get her attention. “N-No.” She stopped for breath. “Before.”
Finally, the dots connected. Lynn shook her head. Do you really think that matters now? “Forget about that. I don’t care. You’re redeemed, if that helps. Just focus on staying awake, and I’ll never bring up wolves again, I promise.”
Dani managed a nod. “Tha—” She gasped and winced. “Thanks.”
“You got it, Settler.” She finished the work with two long, broad strips of leather. “Now, this is going to hurt. A lot.” Lynn folded one of Dani’s woolen sweaters into a rectangular package. “Ready?”
Dani nodded and squeezed her eyes shut. “Go.”
Lynn unbuttoned Dani’s jacket, pulled her sweater up, and pressed the improvised compress against the wounds.
Dani hissed and tensed, then settled again.
Seeing her in pain was hard, but Lynn had to push on. “Hold it.” She put Dani’s hand on the wool.
Dani gripped it lightly and pressed with whatever strength she had to give.
Lynn reached under Dani’s back and got both cut-open pant legs under her. She tied each down with a hard yank and a strong knot. Applying pressure was all she could do to stop the bleeding without shelter and light.
Dani cried out in agony as Lynn tied the knots. She arched off the ground, then crashed back down. Sweat pearled on her forehead.
“Shhhh… Shhhh.” Lynn ran her hand along the unmarred skin of Dani’s arm. She’d been carefully holding in her tears, but seeing Dani hurt so much shattered the dam again. “Shhh.”
Dani heaved for air. Fresh tears fell.
Lynn sat up and tried to focus. What was the next most pressing issue? She had many: It was getting dark, and she needed shelter. Her own shoulder was messed up and still bleeding, so she had to tend to that. Skeever was hurt, but she didn’t have enough light to look him over either. Everything in her pack was drenched and full of glass; Dani’s spear was stuck in a bear, and who knew what else was going on that she was forgetting about. There was a lot to think about, but the most important thing they needed was shelter and a fire. Without either, Dani wouldn’t survive the night.
Dani groaned. Her shivering was getting worse.
Lynn didn’t have time to sit here and think. “I’m going to find somewhere to sleep. Skeever is going to stay with you, and I’ll be back before you know it. Do you remember what your job is?”
