Briggs had strung a rope between two trees and draped the ground tarp over the rope, rigging an A-frame tent using some more rope and some rocks to tie down the sides of the tarp. Hawke made do with a life vest as a pillow for his head, another to elevate his ankle and Briggs' suit jacket as a blanket. With the onset of darkness and the warmth from the nearby fire that Briggs had kept going, he'd slept harder and far more soundly than he had expected.

It was dark when he woke, achy and confused. Rolling over turned out to be a bad idea as his ankle shrieked pain up his leg and through every nerve in his body. Even his teeth hurt and Hawke blinked back tears and moved his jaw around violently mouthing the words he wanted to shout. He made enough noise that Briggs glanced over his right shoulder and raised a finger to his mouth.

He levered himself up on an elbow, watching Briggs who sat on the remaining life vest, leaning back against one of the tent's anchor trees, head cocked, shoulders tight and alert, right hand resting on Hawke's .45 millimeter. From inside the tent, with a fire skewing his ability to determine exactly how dark it was, it was impossible to judge the relative pitch of night, but in the woods around his cabin, the birds usually started the morning chorus around four which made it some time earlier than that. It was probably long past the time he should have taken over the watch and let Briggs get some sleep.

After a few seconds of silent breathing and casting his hearing, he heard something moving through the brush to their left. He held his breath, focusing his ears on estimating location and his mind on judging relative size. Whatever it was seemed to be moving on a slanting parallel path to their makeshift camp. It was still to their left and the sounds did not grow louder as if it was moving nearer, nor did they dramatically lessen as if it was moving away. Instead it sounded as if it was moving in a constant direction that stayed on their left, perhaps angling to some place in front of where he faced. And from the amount of crashing brush and the volume from the twigs snapping underfoot, it sounded big.

A buck might be the right size and frankly, the best option he could come up with sitting in the dark listening to whatever it was continue to push through the woods nearby. In his experience, deer weren't really nocturnal, preferring dawn and dusk, but they were far preferable to the other large creatures that might be in this forest: elk could be nocturnal, moose usually were and so were bears. If they were lucky, the animal might just be passing through. Even if it were curious about the fire and the smells of humans, it probably wouldn't linger or investigate.

After a few minutes of strained listening, it sounded as if the animal, whatever it was, was continuing to move, not coming any nearer but not moving far enough away for Hawke to let down his guard.

Briggs pushed upward and moved with quiet, careful steps into the mouth of the tent. He'd rigged it only for sleeping and protection from another sudden storm so it was barely wide enough for both men to sit side by side. Hawke sat up, legs stretched in front of him and Briggs sat down near Hawke's left foot, leaning towards him to speak.

"It's been out there since just after midnight." He lifted his left wrist and Hawke could see the outline of two wristwatches, his own chronograph and Briggs' broken dress watch. "It's made a complete circle around the camp in the last two and half hours."

"You should have woken me," Hawke said, pitching his voice to the whisper Briggs had used.

"Why?"

There really was no logical reason for both of them to be sleepless and anxious, hearts thudding and muscles clenching but Hawke was still annoyed.

"Any idea what it is? Did you see it?"

Briggs just shook his head. "Close enough to hear, not to see, and without my glasses…" He shrugged. "I'm guessing it's about fifty yards out." He looked out the mouth of the tent in the direction where the animal had gone and his expression made Hawke's stomach churn. "It sounds big."

"Yeah." Hawke tried to remember what he knew about elk, moose and bears, but most of what he knew was based on the theory of mutual avoidance. Usually they wanted nothing to do with humans. "Why don't I take the watch? You look like hell."

Briggs opened his mouth as it to argue but yawned instead. Rubbing the back of his neck, he squinted at Hawke.

"You really think I can sleep?" He jerked his head towards the fire. "With that out there, stalking the camp?"

Hawke took the pistol from Briggs' hand. "I think you're gonna try. We both need you rested, Michael."