Chapter Seven. Bear Attack!
Daniel and Vala spent the night on the ground between two thermal blankets, barely able to sleep. The ground was hard and they both kept thinking about their situation and whether or not they'd be able to get out without the bear finding them. And the thermal blankets barely kept them warm in the cold cave. Chilled to the bone, they'd huddled together and slept fitfully.
As daylight started to lighten the outer chamber, Daniel sat up and rubbed his eyes in an attempt to fully waken. Vala sat up next to him and watched as he picked up his eyeglasses from atop the backpack next to him and put them on. She felt very tired and wished for a long, hot shower and a hot cooked meal. Reaching for her pack, she removed a bottle of drinking water, took a drink and then offered it to Daniel.
He took a couple of swallows and then said, "How many bottles do we have left?"
"Two."
He handed it back to her, watched her cap it and said, "Well, hopefully we'll be out of here and back to the cabin before we use them up. How are you this morning?" Daniel looked over to her and saw that she looked very tired. "My guess is you didn't sleep well, either?"
"No, the ground is hard and I kept worrying about how we were going to get out of here. Why didn't you bring your cell phone?"
"The battery was dead. Don't worry. We'll get out of here. If we don't show up back at Leon's by Friday, he'll come looking for us."
"We'll be out of water by then. Maybe we'd better check and see if Yogi left."
Daniel smiled at the reference and got up. He stretched and then groaned. "My back is killing me."
Vala got up and said she felt the same way.
They quietly crept towards the opening and stood back, craning their necks to see outside. The limited viewpoint showed them that the sun was up and a light breeze was blowing the branches of the trees across the way. Daniel picked up a fist sized stone and tossed it outside. If the bear was still there, it would probably react but nothing happened. He threw a few more and waited. Then he took a step closer, hoping that the bear was not out there. Nothing appeared in his field of vision through the opening so he stepped closer again.
Vala whispered, "Daniel, be careful! He could be right outside."
Daniel turned back to her and quietly said, "I think we'd know by now if the bear was out here. I'm just going to stick my head out and look around."
He had his zat gun in his hand as he stepped closer and said to himself, 'It's now or never.'
He poked his head outside but didn't see the bear anywhere. He stepped further out and looked all around and saw that the bear had left.
"Vala, come on out. He's gone."
Vala carried both their packs and exited the sanctuary they'd found. "Are you sure?"
"No, he could be nearby, but I don't see him. Let's very quietly head for the trail and get back to the cabin. We'll drive down to Leon's and I'm sure he'll want to know there's a grizzly up here."
They started down the hill and made it to the tree line without incident. Daniel felt immense relief to be on their way. He was glad he'd found the cave drawings but his excitement was dampened by the danger they'd faced. 'I want to get out of here and get Vala back to safety.'
Vala was nervous and kept looking behind them, up the trail, hoping that they'd get back to the cabin and out of there before the bear appeared again.
They got about 30 yards from the cabin's back porch when the bear came around the front of the small dwelling. Daniel stopped in his tracks and held his hand out behind him to stop Vala. She'd seen the bear, too and stood still, unable to move. He held his hand up indicating for her to keep quiet and hoped the bear hadn't winded them. Bear's don't have good eye sight and it was just possible that if they didn't move or make any noise, it would go away.
The bear lifted it's nose into the air and sniffed. Apparently, it had caught the scent of something and Daniel hoped it wasn't them. It turned and seemed to look right at them and they stopped and waited to see what it would do. It took a few steps towards them and sniffed again and then started towards them in a quick lope. Daniel stepped forward and shot the zat gun but it didn't slow the bear down. Instead, it seemed to make the bear angry and it charged!
He shot again but the bear wasn't fazed. Vala was frozen in fear and watched helplessly as the bear tackled Daniel and bowled him over. The zat gun went flying and landed a few feet in front of her. She ran for it and held it up and heard Daniel scream her name as the bear pinned him to the ground. She started shooting the zat, hoping that she was going to stop the bear but wasn't hurting Daniel.
It took three more shots before the bear backed up and sat back on it's haunches with a glazed look in it's eyes. She saw Daniel lying on the ground, blood flowing from his upper left arm and heard him yell, "Shoot it again!" She did and the bear fell over backwards. Daniel scrambled away as fast as he could, holding his arm close to his body.
She ran towards him, sank down in the dirt by his side and got the first aid kit out of her pack. She pulled the fabric from his shirt sleeve apart and saw that he was bleeding very badly. Getting the pressure bandages out, she immediately started working on the wound, noting the whole time that Daniel had the zat trained on the bear. But, he was losing a lot of blood and she saw by the look on his face that he was in shock and having a hard time staying conscious.
"Vala, we have to get out of here. Help me to the Jeep and we'll head for Leon's."
"Daniel, I'm not sure you should move. You're hurt badly." She checked his pulse and noticed it was racing. The blood flow from his arm had slowed down but it was still leaking through the gauze and he was very pale and shaking noticeably.
"Help me up," he croaked. Daniel tried to get to his feet but swayed and Vala caught him and helped him sit until the dizziness passed. They she helped him stand and held him up, waiting for him to let her know he was ready to go. When he nodded, she let him lean on her until they got to the jeep and sat him in the passenger seat, where he leaned back and closed his eyes.
The Jeep had been attacked by the bear before they'd gotten to the cabin and the canvas top was shredded. The seats were ripped apart and were missing most of the foam interior. Vala remembered that Daniel's keys were in the glove box so she got them out and started the vehicle.
"Vala, you don't know how to drive."
"How hard can it be? I've flown an Al-Kesh. This can't be much different."
Before Daniel passed out, he thankfully thought that it was a good thing the Jeep had an automatic transmission or they'd never get out of there.
Vala turned the key and remembered that she'd seen Daniel drive this Jeep a number of times and thought she could do it if she had to. And, she had to, so there was no hesitation as she shifted into drive and pushed down on the gas pedal. It lurched forward, causing Daniel to sway towards her. She remembered the seat belt and hit the brake hard, which caused him to land in her lap. She pushed him back up, and saw that his arm was soaked with blood and it was dripping onto the seat. As she reached around him and buckled him in, she said, "Hang in there, sweetheart. I'm going to get us down this mountain and get help. Just hang on."
She turned back to driving the Jeep and managed to slowly follow the dirt track down the slope. It took a while and a few scary stops and starts but finally she saw Leon's house in the distance and started beeping the horn.
Leon was sitting in the kitchen, drinking his first cup of coffee of the morning, when he heard the commotion. He stepped outside to see the Jeep come to a lurching halt in front of the house and noted that Vala was driving and Daniel seemed to be slumped forward and asleep. He stepped off the porch as Jenny came through the door behind him. She watched Leon approach the Jeep and then hurry around to the other side and open the door. Leon reached in, unbuckled Daniel's seat belt and lifted up his friend to carry him over his shoulder to the house.
Vala yelled, "He was attacked by a bear!"
Jenny ran inside and called the local fire department for help. They said they'd send help as soon as they could but it might take a bit for them to get up there. The man asked if there was a clearing big enough to land an emergency helicopter and then said that this would be the fastest way and he would call and have one dispatched.
Meanwhile, Leon carried Daniel to the couch in the living room and started cutting off Daniel's shirt. Vala stood helplessly by, as she watched Jenny and Leon work on him.
"Vala, when did this happen? The blood looks fresh."
"About an hour ago. A bear chased us so we spent the night in a cave and we left this morning and got almost to the cabin when the bear showed up again and went after Daniel and started chewing on him and I zatted the grizzly bear but it wouldn't stop and I kept shooting and finally the bear fell over and…"
She finally stopped speaking and broke into tears as she watched them check Daniel's injuries.
"Zatted?"
Vala realize what she'd done and said, "You know, shoot. We kept shooting at the bear until it died." She hoped they would believe her and wanted to kick herself for making the slip about the zat gun.
Daniel's shoulder and upper arm were horribly swollen and lacerated and bruising had begun around the injury. It was still bleeding a bit and Leon knew that Daniel would probably fight infection from the bite. Who knows what the bear had eaten lately and what kind of germs were in it's mouth.
Daniel started to come around and opened his eyes, moaning from the pain.
"Hold on there, buddy. Vala got you here and help is coming."
Daniel looked at Vala and weakly said, "You drove the Jeep?"
She mutely nodded and looked at him, with tears running down her face. 'He's so pale. Oh no, I can't lose him now.' Daniel slowly closed his eyes and Leon quickly checked his pulse. "He's okay. He just passed out."
In a little while, they heard the thump, thump, thump of the helicopter blades and Jenny ran outside waving a towel and indicating that they had the injured man there with them. The helicopter landed in the clearing and the medics jumped out with their kits and headed for the house.
They went inside and rushed over to the couch, giving Leon, Jenny and Vala enough time to step back and out of the way. One medic immediately started an IV in Daniel's good arm and started checking vital signs. The other medic cut away the bloody bandages that Leon had applied and both medics were making a quick assessment of his injuries.
Daniel had a lot of gashes on his chest and it looked like he put up a good fight. His hands were scraped raw, probably bitten in an attempt to push the bear's face away.
Soon, they had his arm wrapped again and an automatic blood pressure cuff on Daniels good arm. He was moaning from the pain as they strapped him to a body board so they gave him some morphine and headed for the helicopter with Vala on their heels. They climbed in and lifted off while Leon and Jenny stood on the porch watching them take off.
Soon after they helicopter left, Leon heard the sirens from emergency vehicles heading up the road to their house. He met the sheriff's car in the driveway and watched as a Jeep carrying two DNR officers pulled in behind the sheriff. The car doors opened and the four men headed for the porch.
The men introduced themselves to Leon and Jenny and the sheriff said, "We came as soon as we heard it was a bear attack. Do you know where it happened?"
"I'm not exactly sure but it couldn't have been too far from the cabin they were staying at because Vala, the victim's girlfriend, drove the Jeep." Leon pointed to the vehicle in question and the six of them walked over to it and looked it over. The deputy sheriff got out a digital camera and started taking pictures.
"There's a lot of blood on the passenger seat." The DNR officer looked closer. "It looks like the bear attacked the Jeep, too. It's really torn up. I'm assuming that's the victim's blood."
Leon nodded. "That's where he was sitting when they got here.
"Tell me exactly what happened. Everything they said." The sheriff and the DNR officer got out their note pads and pens and started writing. After Leon and Jenny told them all they could, the four men turned and looked at the path leading up the hill.
Okay, we need to head up and find the bear. Can you show us the way?"
"Yes sir," Leon said. The two sheriff's officers climbed into Leon's SUV and the two DNR officers followed. When they got to the cabin, they stopped and got out. It was obvious that the bear had gotten inside the cabin and had torn everything apart. The table by the window had been flipped over and broken dishes and cups were scattered across the floor. The coffee pot was tipped over, leaving a wet stain on the pine counter top. Couch cushions were ripped apart and foam rubber was strewn around the room. It didn't look like the bear made it up to the loft. The deputy sheriff went up to look around and it was neat and clean with the bed made and the two duffel bags sitting neatly along the wall.
The men went back outside and started walking towards the trail head. The DNR officers had rifle's loaded and ready, just in case they came across the wounded animal. The sheriff's drew their hand guns and waited. The senior DNR officer looked around, and saw that the ground was soaked with blood but there wasn't a bear laying anywhere nearby. As they scanned the area around the edge of the clearing, he was puzzled that there were no shell casings from any bullets. He stepped further up the trail and picked some bear fur from the side of a tree.
"It looks like it survived and ran away. Didn't you say that the woman said they shot it over and over again?"
"Yes, she did, although she was really upset, so who knows what really happened?" Leon wasn't sure if it was important but he added, "She said she 'zatted' the bear. I assumed she meant 'shot'."
"Okay, well when something like this happens, people get shook up and say all kinds of things. I'll talk with her and try to find out what she meant. Meanwhile, I don't see any blood, other than what I assume is the victim's. There's a blood trail leading to where the Jeep was probably parked but that's all. If the bear was shot repeatedly and ran up the path, leaving fur on that tree over there, where's the blood?"
The four officers looked at each other, each one waiting for another to offer a solution. When no one did, the DNR officer said, "Okay, I'll have to get a team together and we'll have to go hunt that bear down. I'm also going to have this fur analyzed. She said it was a grizzly?"
"Yes, sir. I wondered about that when she said it. We don't have grizzly bears around here. At least, not since I've lived up here and that's been about 12 years."
"Okay, I'll have this analyzed and we'll find out for sure but it doesn't look like grizzly fur. It might have been just a big black bear. Not all black bears are black. Some are brown and they can get really big. We'll find out and hopefully, we'll find that bear."
They locked the cabin up, got back into their vehicles and headed back to Leon's house.
The two sheriff's officers stepped behind their vehicle and the senior officer said to his deputy, "No shell casings. What do you think happened up there?"
The deputy pondered that for a moment and said, "I don't know sir but I think it sounds kinda fishy."
"I agree. I'm going to have to have a talk with those two when we get to the hospital. Something is definitely wrong here."
They continued writing up their report and then left. The two DNR officers were calling in a team to investigate what happened and hunt the bear.
Jenny watched from the picture window in the living room as the two cars pulled away and said, "Did the medics say which hospital they were taking Daniel to?" She was hoping they could call and find out how Daniel was doing.
"Yeah, they said Denver General. I'm sure they must be there by now. I'll call in a little bit and hopefully they'll have some good news."