cried out.
With a powerful surge, the grizzly ripped him open from manhood to sternum.
Fargo was only partway through the first hobble. Darting around the horses, he plunged into the woods. He went about ten feet and sprawled flat.
Brain Eater was chomping on the second Swede’s innards. His guts had spilled out and the bear had part of an intestine in her mouth and was shaking the ropy coils.
The other man was whimpering and convulsing.
There was nothing Fargo could do. He stayed flat and drew the Colt. It wouldn’t do much good but he wasn’t going to be ripped apart without a fight.
Brain Eater wolfed a hunk of flesh. Straddling the dead man, she nuzzled his neck and head and sank her fangs into his forehead. As easily as if she was peeling the crust of a pie, she peeled the scalp from the cranium and spat it out. She licked the blood that welled, then spread her jaws wide and closed them on the man’s head. It burst like a melon and she lapped at the oozing brains as if she couldn’t get enough of them.
Hampered by the hobbles, the horses were trying to flee and whinnying in panic.
Fargo wished he had the elephant gun. He had a perfect shot.
Brain Eater went to the other Swede. He had stopped moving. She pawed at his body and when there was no reaction, she ripped off an ear and a swatch of hair. Underneath gleamed the skull.
Fargo told himself to look away but didn’t.
Brain Eater’s teeth were so many razors, slicing through flesh and crunching bone. Once again she indulged in her favorite food and when she was done, she licked the brain pan clean.
The horses had gone about ten yards. One was bucking and struggling to break free of the hobble.
Brain Eater raised her dripping maw. She broke into motion and swiped at the first horse. A leg cracked and the horse squealed and went down. The bucking horse tried to kick Brain Eater but the grizzly dodged and raked her claws from tail to ribs.
Fargo figured she would be busy for a while eating. He crabbed backward and stood. The grizzly was tearing at the second horse’s belly. Turning to the south, he stealthily made his way through the woods to the creek.
More running. His feet were sore and his leg muscles protested but he ate up the distance. He wondered how many more hunters or gold seekers he would encounter. Three men had died and he was indirectly to blame. With the bear after him, he invited death on everyone he met.
No sooner did the thought cross his mind than two women came flying up the creek toward him. Both had cornstalk hair and wore plain homespun dresses and bonnets. At the sight of him they stopped and one called out,
“God in heaven,” Fargo blurted. They were the Swedes’ wives. He ran to them and they stepped back and thrust out their hands as if in fear of being attacked. “It’s not me,” he said. “It’s Brain Eater.”
Fargo pointed to the north. “Bear. Do you understand that word?” To get them to understand, he raised both hands and curled his fingers into claws and growled deep in his chest.
The other one mumbled and then said in atrociously accented English, “Are you crazy man?”
“At last,” Fargo said. “Brain Eater is after me. You have to run—”
“Where our husbands?” the woman anxiously asked. “Where Sven? Where Olaf?”
“Dead. Brain Eater killed them and—”
The woman turned to her friend.
To Fargo’s amazement, they raced past him. He grabbed at the second woman’s arm but she jerked away. “Don’t go back there. The bear will kill you, too.”
They didn’t listen.
Fargo stared after them. That way lay certain death. He stared to the south. That way lay his only hope. He turned north and went after them.
For females in dresses they were remarkably swift. Farming wasn’t for the puny, and these two were antelopes. One of them glanced back and said something to the other and both ran faster.
“Damn it.” Fargo was trying to save their lives. He hoped one would trip so he could overtake them but his luck was true to form.
The best Fargo could make of it, she had called him a slut or an ass. The first didn’t make any sense, and as for the second, he’d been called worse.
The pair were abreast of a wide pine when a gigantic mass of muscle and fur swept from behind it and was on them before either could stop. They screamed in unison and died singly with savage sweeps of the grizzly’s paws.
Fargo drew up short. He had tried but they hadn’t listened. Whirling, he got out of there. He expected the bear to feast on their brains and that would gain him time. The thud of heavy paws proved otherwise.
Brain Eater was after him.
Fargo willed his body to its utmost. He had already run so far and so hard that he couldn’t sustain the pace for long. He was worn out. His hip hurt like hell. His clawed leg hurt worse. But he refused to give up.
As inexorable as an avalanche, Brain Eater closed the distance.
Fargo had one consolation. Bethany had escaped. She was a sweet kid, the kind he’d like to have himself one day, maybe when he was forty or fifty and ready to settle down.
He chuckled at how ridiculous he was being. Here he was being chased by a killer bear and he was thinking of the family he’d never have.
Rocks and boulders covered the ground ahead. He avoided the largest and was almost to bare ground when his left boot became wedged. Momentum carried his body forward and he pitched flat. The pain set his head to spinning. He almost didn’t hear the grunt behind him but he did smell the blood and the pungent bear odor. Rising to his knees, he turned.
Brain Eater stood a few yards away. That close she was immense, a mountain of ferocity unrivaled by any creature on the continent.
Fargo’s chest constricted. She had him. He could shoot her but he couldn’t stop her.
The grizzly whuffed and pawed the earth, her dark eyes glittering with bloodlust. She slavered in anticipation of sinking her teeth into his body.
“Go ahead,” Fargo said, his hand on the Colt. “I’ll make you pay.”
Brain Eater opened her mouth and swept forward. Fargo had the Colt out in a blur and jammed the muzzle into her mouth. He fired just as a tremendous blow cartwheeled him like a feather in a gale. He slammed down close to the creek with one leg in the water. His body pulsed with pain but he made it to his knees again, and he still had the Colt.
Brain Eater was shaking her head. She was bleeding copiously from her mouth, and drops flew all over. She roared, and saw him, and charged.
This was it, Fargo thought. He aimed at her left eye, fired, and missed. The slug scoured a red furrow above it.
She was almost on him. He fired again and her eyeball exploded and then she rammed into him and it felt as if a herd of buffalo were trampling his every bone. Somehow, he stayed conscious. He was on his belly and he had scratches everywhere. He heard coughing. He raised his head and shook it. The fuzziness cleared enough for him to see Brain Eater, doing more head shaking. Blood dribbled from her mouth and the empty socket where her left eye had been.
Fargo grinned. The Colt
Brain Eater fixed her remaining hate-filled eye on him. Her lips curled from her teeth and she hurtled at him.
Fargo aimed at her other eye. He had to be sure so he didn’t shoot until her face was inches from the muzzle.
