The Road Home by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 59

After leaving the RV, Eli walked into the woods far enough that the smoke wouldn’t drift back far enough to affect the girls. He found the snow was up to the middle of his shins, but he was determined to treat his pain enough if it was in a rather unorthodox manner. After making his way beyond the tree line, Eli found the abundant stand of Pine trees were crowded together enough that the snow-covered significantly less ground. Walking further, he found a rock large enough to sit on, and brushing a thin layer of snow and ice from it, sat on its cold gray surface. With a tree behind him, Eli sat back against it and, trying to relax, carefully brought out the pipe Aurora helped him prepare and, with the lighter in the other hand, tried to bring fire to the bowl. With his hands still painful, he tried several times but was unable to hold it. Finally, adjusting his loose grip, he was able to light the ground flour and, taking a deep hit, breathed the smoke in, and before he could exhale, Eli felt the effects of the substance bringing comfort to his mind and body while easing the pain in his now swollen hands as his head dropped back against the tree. “Holy fuck,” he said. “This is some potent shit.” He wondered if he should continue and hesitating decided to do so. As he took another hit, he decided to hold it in, magnifying the effects of the active chemical he not only needed but wanted. However, as he exhaled the smoke he felt his body begin to sink into the rock he sat on, but there was something else. From a not-so-distant place, Eli thought he heard a branch snap. Initially, he thought the cannabis was playing tricks on his mind, and holding the pipe up, suspected there might be another substance blended into the dried flowers. “Better not be any acid in this,” he said. But before he was able to bring the pipe to his lips, Eli saw a large shape lumbering through the woods. Then, he saw two smaller shapes. “What the fuck is that?” he asked. He might have recognized it had the night not enveloped the woods to the point of imposing a nocturnal blindness. But within seconds, the unidentifiable form turned and charged at him, and before he could scream he found the face of a bear only inches from him. Within moments, his mind shut itself off as the bear grabbed him by the throat, its teeth sinking deeply into his flesh. Pain did not exist as Eli felt his body being jerked around as the bear ripped his throat out. The flow of blood was both immediate and violent. In less than the timing of a heartbeat, Eli was dead, but the bear was far from finished and throwing his body onto the ground torn his shirt open, and buried its teeth in his abdomen.

The smaller shapes Eli had seen before the attack were the bear’s cubs, and any bear will kill to defend their young. Eli had become a victim of nature and for him, there was no escape. The events of his death unfolded far too quickly. Now, his life had been reduced to a meal for a bear and her cubs and, with no perceived threats nearby, took their time-consuming their human feast. Insisting on feeding first, the sow pushed one of her cubs away, giving out a scolding roar loud enough to be heard from the lake. And sitting quietly in the RV, the girls were shocked into a wide-eyed stare. They heard it too. “What the fuck was that?” Maya asked. Getting up to investigate, Aurora stopped her. “What are you doing?” Maya continued. “Eli’s out there.”

Aurora responded with a tone of caution. “I know,” she replied. “But listen to me. If it’s a bear, we’re going to have to sneak up on it, and we have to do it from a distance – no flashlights.” Maya was terrified, and although she remembered Aurora’s words, none of them made sense. They ran through her mind as a conglomeration of chaos. As she readied herself to frighten off what could turn on them as well, she tried to wrap her head around the very real possibility that Eli now lay in tattered pieces on the snowy ground. “So,” she said. “No flashlights, right?” Under a full moon, they would have to rely on its sparse light to find their way through the woods, hoping to scare off the bear and maybe find Eli alive and well.

“I think it’s a bad idea,” Aurora replied. “Not unless you want to get your tits ripped off.” Usually, Maya wasn’t shy about having a sense of humor, but she found nothing funny about Aurora’s comment.

“That’s not funny,” she replied.

But Aurora was serious and after leaving the RV she brought a necessary bit of reality to her comment.

“Maya,” she said. “I’m serious. They’ll eat anything they can expose and if a bear goes for your hoohahs first, chances are you’ll be conscious for most of it, and you don’t want that.” Her words acted to reinforce Maya’s fear and as they walked towards the tree line, each picked up a sizeable rock from the fire, fully intent on using them.

From where they stood, they could hear the cubs fighting over what was left of Eli’s shredded remains as the sow began cracking open whatever large bones it could rip from his remaining musculature. The girls were horrified at what would certainly haunt their dreams – likely for the rest of their lives. Knowing there was no hope for recovering Eli’s body intact, Maya began crying. “Maya,” Aurora said. “We have to be quiet, and I can’t do this by myself.”

Wiping her eyes, Maya took a deep breath and prepared herself for a confrontation she knew she might not survive.

“Alright,” she said. “What do we do?” Aurora had some small understanding of bears. One could fight off a brown bear. A black bear would certainly maul you, but a grizzly, especially a sow with cubs, would not simply kill but consume whatever its target was. And there was one more rule regarding bears: anything that runs is food.

Peering into the woods, they spoke in whispers so as not to draw unwanted attention. “Well,” Aurora replied. “That depends on what kind of bear it is. I’ll let you know.”

Maya nodded, and soon they began inching forward, following the crunching sounds of gluttony. It wasn’t long before they were within sight of something far more terrifying than any horror movie, something they now wished they had never seen. Although they watched from a modest distance, the girls clearly saw a bear and its two cubs feeding on Eli’s bloody remains. Most of the sow’s head was soaked with blood as the cubs engaged in a horrific tug of war over a length of muscle.

“Jesus Christ,” Maya whispered. “Do we have to do this now? We already know he’s dead, and it’s not like we can just sew him back together. I’m going back to the RV.”

Aurora knew she was right. There was no reason to risk their lives only to see Eli’s body ripped to pieces, partly consumed, and scattered across the sparsely snow-covered ground.

Bears, like all other members of the animal kingdom, have extraordinarily keen senses, but the smell of blood and overwhelming hunger seemed to overpower any other sounds or scents wafting through the moonlit night. Having made their decision, the girls turned quietly and walked back to the RV. Although it was a difficult choice, they knew it was the right thing to do, as there was no sense in becoming a happy meal for a furry family of three just for the chance to see another dead friend.

Once at the RV, they dropped the rocks they intended to use against the bears into the fire pit and, opening the door as quietly as possible, climbed in. The man who earlier stood by watching them from a distance was a welcomed sight compared to what they had witnessed in the woods, with just enough light to see the grotesque spectacle of nature’s most important law. With the light remaining off, the girls sat on one of the side cushions and began crying. They had lost not only another member of their group, but a friend, and all the grief they could express would never bring Eli back.

“He was such a dick,” Aurora began. “Why did he have to go out there? God-damn it, I miss him already.”

Part of Maya’s education in law was to master the English language, but her own grief left her without words. The only comfort they had was in each other and soon moved closer and, wrapping their arms around each other, cried inconsolably. It seemed irrational at the time, but secretly they wondered who would be next and how death might be staved off.