The bear's bloodied teeth began to slowly inch closer to Jack's neck, and his arms started to shake as he felt his strength slowly weaken. It was clear that Jack was clearly outmatched with the bear's strength. But he had managed to save that woman from a horrible fate, even for a moment. Jack could still try and go for his revolver.
But if he were to let one of my arms that was preventing the bear from eating him, well, you will know what happens next. Jack had never felt so scared in his life, something like this was something you don't experience everyday.
For once, Jack had thought and believed that this was going to the end of his life. With a bear eating him as his final moments because he made a selfless decision. That sounded really bad and sucked to be honest. The smell of blood from the bear's mouth was awful. And Jack felt his body wanting to gag.
His grip is slowly fading. It won't be long till his arms finally give up his strength.
With a final breath, Jack calls out to Walter. "Walter, help." He lets out softly. But he doubts that Walter can hear him from here.
Jack turned his head away from the bear. Not wanting to see how he was going to die at this moment. But in doing so, Jack saw a glint of light from up the hill he had just run down from.
Jack gasped.
In what happened in a quick second, a bright flash of gunfire erupted from the barrel of Walter's rifle.
It happened so fast. Jack hears a crack, followed by the sound of a gunshot, ringing in the back. A loud roar coming from the bear above him, as it backs away from Jack. Feeling the weight of the bear off him, Jack gets back up and finally pulls out his revolver from his holster.
"I got it," Walter said in shock as he quickly loaded another bullet into the chamber. It was a near impossible shot, but somehow Walter had managed to fend off the bear from Jack and bought him some time.
"Stupid, Jack, and his stupid plan." He mumbled in frustration. This was not how he expected their second mission to turn out, it was drastically different compared to what went down yesterday. Walter could see Jack still standing in the same position he was trapped in.
"Get up, Jack! Get away from it!" Walter yelled on top of the hill. He gets up from his prone position and makes his way down to provide Jack with support.
Jack heard Walter's voice calling out to him from up top. But the bear was still a few feet away from him, nursing its bloody ear that Walter shot. Walter gains some speed and slides down the hill as fast as his weight can carry him.
Jack aimed his revolver at the bear, but the fatigue on his arms were making it difficult to keep the barrel aimed at it.
The woman Jack had saved quickly limps over and gets behind Jack for protection. Soon later Walter catches up to them as he reaches the bottom, "Thank you, thank you so much! You saved my life!" She thanked them profusely.
"Don't thank me yet. We still got the others to save as well. What's your name?" Jack asked, never taking his sight of the bear, but he could hear the woman standing right behind him.
"I'm Eve." she said, her voice still petrified after her near-death experience.
"Nice to meet you, Eve. I'm Jack. And that gunshot is from my partner, Walter." Jack quickly introduced themselves to Eve.
"Where did you two come from?" Eve asked as she took a roll of bandage from Jack.
"We're from New London," Jack answered.
"Wait, you're from a new city?" Eve said in surprise.
"Yeah, we've been here for almost a week. But we're here now, which city did you guys come from, Winterhome?" Jack asked.
But Eve shakes his head, "No, we're not from Winterhome. We came from Tes-" she tried to explain, but Walter finally runs up to them and scolds Jack for his reckless decision.
"God dammit, Jack! Now we are in deep trouble. What's your plan now?" He asked him.
The bear from before was now pacing around them, looking for a perfect moment to strike, "I'm thinking of one as I go," Jack said.
"You're thinking!?" Walter yelled, never taking his eyes off the bear.
" Look, I'm doing my best here, alright!?" Jack yelled back.
"Well, your best is not good enough! Think harder!"
The bear roars at them again, clawing the snow to charge at them with all its might.
"I can't believe we're in this mess because of you." Walter groans as he finishes loading another round into his rifle. "All of this trouble better be worth the price we've paid."
"Later, Walter, we still have lives to save." Jack said
Walter gave Jack a glare, "If we die here. I'm so going to kill you."
"That doesn't make a lot of sense."
Meanwhile, back in the cave, the other survivors are doing their best to keep the other bear out, but after hearing Walter's rifle firing in the distance, it was hard for them to ignore it, "Hey, did you hear that? Those were gunshots out there. We're saved!" One of them spoke.
But one of them did not feel the same way about it, "Hey, Just wait a moment. That could be from raiders for all we know." she said cautiously.
One of the survivors peaks his head out and takes a look, "Okay, I see two strangers, and they're with one of ours. They are both armed, but they don't look like raiders," he said.
"What about the bear?" the woman asked again.
The survivor peaks through the small opening of their barricade and sees the bear that was now distracted by the newcomers, "One of the bears is still on them, but the other is not letting its eyes off us. Should we do something? Should we help?" he asked.
"And risk ourselves in the process!? We barely got here ourselves!"
"We still have our weapons, and with only one bear to deal with on our end. But I'm not quite sure if we should attack now. I say we hold, and wait." Someone suggested.
Coming back to Jack and Walter, there was still the bear that was staring at them.
"Jack, I'm going to try to aim for its head," Walter said, preparing his rifle for another shot. Taking aim with his scope, Walter sends another bullet down range, and hits one of the bears right in the head.
"Got 'em!" Walter said.
But Walter's victory was soon thrown away as the bear he had shot only shook it off. Letting out another roar as it was angered by Walter's attack.
"Okay, those bears are pretty tough, I don't think my rifle can take it down. I don't have enough bullets for this type of situation."
"I think that bear has a thick skull. You're just making it angrier," Jack said.
"Yeah, well it's body's too thick either." Walter countered.
"Can you shoot it some more?" Jack asked.
"I said I don't have a lot of bullets, Jack! I'm not wasting all of my ammo on it!" Walter shouted.
Jack still has the captain's gun in his hand, "But I have this." he said.
"That's not enough to help us either," Walter said, rolling his eyes at Jack's revolver. But then an idea came into mind. Slinging his rifle, Walter quickly digs into his pack to look for something.
"You guys got any fire? We can use it to scare them. The bears hate it." The woman suggested.
"Unless you got something that can help us," Jack said.
"That's exactly what I'm looking for." Walter replies as he continues to search for whatever he was looking for.
Jack takes a quick glance at Walter, "What? Walter, we don't have the time to build another torch. What are you looking for?" Jack asked, keeping his eye on the bear as the sound of Walter rummaging through his backpack sounded behind him.
"Aha! Here we go." Walter said as he ignited them, its red glare was not as bright due to the daylight, but the flames were hot enough to burn some fur.
Jack turns his back and sees Walter holding up two flares in his hands.
"Oh, the flares! Good thinking, Walter." Jack said as he grabbed one of the flares.
"This should be good enough to scare them off. Come on, keep close." Walter said, pulling out his revolver and cock back the hammer.
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A/N: It took a while, but I was trying to make the gloomy cave encounter more eventful.
In the game, we never really knew how the scouts fought the bears up close. So, I had to make do with Jack and Walter. The scene writes for itself, obviously Walter would stay put and shoot from afar. I'm not sure if I did Jack's suspense scene with his near death with the bear was good enough. But I was satisfied with the final writing and kept it as it is.
And Jack, well, being Jack, he took his ice ax and rushed down to attack the bear head on, whether he did it out of bravery or selflessness to save the woman is up to you. Jack is an optimistic character, so it's in his character to act this way. Same for Walter with his pessimism, even if it may come off as annoying to some, he is the main reason they are alive and for the rest of the story. Again, Jack's attitude towards the Frostpunk world is a good trait. But without restraints, Jack will not survive long with his naivety. Walter's discontent is there to balance out Jack's hope.
One last thing to point out, I have read comments, and I'm not sure if I want to include any characters that isn't mine for this story. Because I need to take in factors, I can't just put them in just for the sake of it. Like would this character help Jack and Walter? Is this character beneficial for the story? How would it effect the already established plan I have for this story?
Okay I'm done here.
Thank you all so much for reading.