It is starting to get dark now. Jim and I have been out in the woods since five this morning, searching for any sign of a bear. The bears in Clear Water are more of a nuisance rather than a pest. The bear we are looking for (B153) is a different story. This bear is intelligent and on more then one occasion he has been able to escape an inevitable capture. Most of the time, animal control doesn’t send their men into the front line of bear territory but B153 is the only exception. This bear originally only attacked cats and dogs but a week ago a young child was saved from it’s jaws of death. I guess man is to blame, the shortages of food has led a lot of the bears to desperation. What is done is done, this bear must meet its end.
Jim is starting to complain that his feet are burning from blisters he has obtained from today’s trek. We decide to stop by a beautiful waterfall that we have come across. The water lightly falls from above and plummets to the gnarl of rocks below. The sound of thunder radiates from the falls and throughout the valley. Jim decides to sit on a rock in front of a berry bush. While we rest, me and him start to talk on how our family’s are doing. Throughout the day, Jim and I have been silent like the dead. Now, we are more like wolves howling at the moon. Then, there is a rustle in the bush behind Jim. We become silent again. The look on Jim’s face is one that I have never seen before, fear. Even when I got in a car accident with him, I never saw that face. Behind him the noise escalates as the creature gets closer to where we now stand on full alert. Our guns are loaded in anticipation of the bear’s arrival. As if a Jack in a Box, out pops a little squirrel from the darkness of the bush. Jim stares at the tiny critter and just laughs. He jokingly brings the gun to the squirrel’s head and continues to laugh. All of a sudden, there is a loud thump followed by splashes on the other side of the river.
There he is B153, charging us as if he were a bull and we were the color red. Jim is so bewildered, that he shoots a mile from where the bear is. The bear decides to go directly at Jim now. B153 with his great powerful paws rips the gun away from Jim before he can reload. With the other paw he pierces Jim’s skin on his right forearm. Sensing that Jim was no longer a threat the bear turns toward me. I am frozen with fear so the bear takes advantage of that. It rips my gun away and throws me to the ground. The bear is on top of me with is mighty mouth opened wide. The bears breath reeks of fish with a hint of berry. In the distance, I hear gun shots. The bear is startled by the noise and gets off of me. A few seconds later I feel the splatter of blood on my face. At first, I think the bear had gone back for Jim and he was using Jim as a human chew toy. I roll over in total astonishment to see that B153 has a huge gauge of skin missing on the left side of it’s face. The bear’s bellowing overpowers the sound of the falls. The bear grunts then leaves the scene. I am overcome by darkness.
I am awoken by drops of water being pored on my face. I try to piece everything together. My memory comes flooding back to my like the water on my face. The first thing I do is wash the remnants of the blood off my face. Keeping my eyes closed, so I don’t get any of the blood in my sensitive eyes. Once I open my eyes, I see a hairy man hovering over me. At first I thought I was still staring at the bear. He smelt earthy and was dressed from head to toe in fur. I could tell that he had been in the woods for awhile because of his hygiene and lack of teeth. He spoke in grunts asking if I was alright and what on earth Jim and I were doing. While I was out the man bandaged Jim up with a pelt Band-Aid to stop the bleeding. He told us how to get back into the city and warned us that the bear was possessed by an evil spirit. Jim and I did not want to insult our savior so we did not argue. We expressed our gratitude and headed in the direction towards town. Jim started to laugh and pulled a claw out of his pocket, it was drenched in his own blood. In a low monotone voice Jim said “got him”.
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