Alaska Gold

CHAPTER 45 IT’S NOT PERSONAL—I’M JUST HUNGRY He was hungry so food was important at this moment. He was heading toward the river for salmon, but he’d been deflected. First, there was the female human, but her mate had surprised him with thunder, scaring him away. More recently he had chased a large male elk, which had been recklessly rushing through the woods in order to escape from the odorous humans. The elk’s panic had made it vulnerable to the grizzly. The bear ran after the elk for a short distance, but it was too fast and agile for him, so he stopped chasing it. Elk meat was good eating. Actually, he had never caught a live elk, but a few times he found elk freshly killed by wolves. He’d chased the wolves away just long enough to eat some of the elk before they rallied to take it back. None of that was on his mind at present. His singular thought was to negotiate the trail, downhill to the river—to the salmon. His bad luck in finding food didn’t depress or sadden him. He never felt sorry for himself. In his many years of living in the wilderness he had mastered a stoic mind-set. He would go for long periods only eating berries or pine nuts and sometimes large grub worms that he could find in rotten logs. In fact, at this moment his nose was pushed to the ground as he trotted along, sniffing for any scavenger food that might be available. He was hungry and would eat anything at this moment. That all changed in an instant. A much more appetizing fragrance crossed his senses—another human. No, his nose detected two different humans just ahead. He moved cautiously this time, making sure not to underestimate these smelly, weak, loud creatures again. His singularly-focused mind zeroed in on the enticing scent as he picked up his pace. . . . Grim and Billy had been walking for about ten minutes since leaving The Hunting Party outside of the lava tube. For the first hundred yards or so they attempted to move quietly by watching their feet placement and not talking. However, being stealthy quickly became too tiresome; soon the men were stomping through the woods without regard to making noise or being detected. The other side of that coin was that they couldn’t detect other creatures—human or otherwise—who were also in the neighborhood. Because of this, they were taken fully by surprise when the enormous bear almost magically materialized in front of them. The bear did not rise up on its hind legs in the traditional dominance ritual. It did not growl. It did not hesitate. It seemed to McGrath that the monstrous grizzly was expecting them, and was not in the least surprised by their presence. Intuitively, he realized the bear had already formulated an attack plan. McGrath thought of the witty cliché: you only have to outrun the other guy when you encounter a bear. Up until this point he thought it was a joke. Now, on a very basic level, it was a Truism. He instinctively turned and ran for his life, only looking back once to see that Grim had not yet moved and the bear was charging at a full run. God! How can such a huge monster be so fast? Grim’s survival instincts in this situation were suicidal. He chose to stand and fight. He raised his rifle to make a sight picture, but it never came level. The bear hit him at nearly thirty-five miles per hour. The impact hurled Grim into the air, knocking the rifle from his grip, and bashing him momentarily unconscious. However, cruelly Grim was only stunned for a few seconds. He was destined to fully experience the last moments of his life. He opened his eyes to view a mammoth, non-forgiving spectacle of ferocious hate inches from his face. The putrid, hot breath of the enormous creature triggered his gag reflex, but his body was paralyzed in fear denying him the relief of vomiting. Then the bear almost gently placed a broad paw on Grim’s chest and slowly pressed his full weight until Grim could not breathe. Grim could feel his rib cage breaking—crushing. The pain was unbearable. He would have screamed but the weight on his chest did not allow him to take breath in or out, or to make any sound. The most awful part was that he was vividly awake and aware of everything happening to his body, but had no control over his fate. He could distinctly feel each bone break and each muscle strain and pop under the tremendous force on his chest. Miraculously, he felt the large knife on his belt. His left hand was touching it—the same knife he’d used all those many years ago to kill the other grizzly. Believing that his luck had improved, he managed to snap the safety strap and pulled the blade from its leather sheath. He would cut the heart out of this fucking bear and again establish his dominance. He would again confirm his reputation as The Bear Killer. In one fast motion Grim swung the knife in an arc….and died. . . . As soon as the bear sensed Grim’s movement he opened his massive, powerful jaws, engulfed his head and crushed it with a single snap. The human’s hand jerked spasmodically flinging the knife into the air, landing uselessly yards away. The human’s legs jerked and wiggled several times, a post-life nerve response. The bear reacted to the movement by taking another large bite at the neck, and then shaking the body in a ragdoll fashion to ensure death. The head detached and rolled across the forest floor. Blood continued to leak from the body, darkening the ground. The bear stood silently over the body for several minutes—watching for any movement. Finally he was satisfied the human was indeed dead. The bear walked over to the severed head and swatted it with his claw. The deformed, mutilated head rolled several yards, stopping against a car-sized boulder. He pursued, taking the skull completely into his mouth and crunched down; eating the soft, warm blood-filled brain. After the deformed head was sucked dry of its nourishment it was casually spit-out and never thought of again. Next, the bear gripped the body in his jaws, ripping and tearing away several huge bites. After eating his immediate fill, he dragged the remains deeper into the brush and covered it with dirt and branches. It was now safely hidden from the wolves so he could take his time dining. Billy had not witnessed the gruesome killing and feasting, because he had blindly ran off into the forest, afraid to look back.