Minutes later, feeling a thousand times better, he got himself together and went to work securing their next tank of gasoline. He found a similar SUV on the lot and went to work opening the fuel tank door. For a few seconds, he considered whether it made more sense to borrow the new SUV than take its gas, but he’d gotten comfortable in the other one. He knew its limits. Ted also considered taking a sportier vehicle, like that Camaro, but there was nothing like it on the lot.
While thinking through all his options, he noticed Kyla standing behind the gift shop building. He looked away, afraid she was using the public restroom, but was glad to know where she was. His duty as protector of his sister’s daughter went on no matter what.
Ted used the syphon to drain a full five gallons for his red plastic fuel container. After securing the cap and grabbing the hose, he took a few steps toward his truck. Motion caught his attention in the back seat of a plain-looking mini-van parked in the next row. Since everyone in America was supposed to be gone, there was no possibility it was two teenagers rolling in the hay. An activity Kyla’s mother fretted about constantly.
But what was it?
He allowed himself a few tentative steps toward the van, stopping when he was next to the open sliding door panel. When the attack happened, the owner of the van had been loading or unloading, like the van back at the lighthouse. The father’s clothes were on the ground below him. A child’s pajamas were there, too.
Don’t look at them.
With deliberate slowness, he craned his neck to peek around the edge of the door…
The thing on the seat was about the size and shape of a large, rolled-up sleeping bag. It was brown and furry, like someone had left a snuggly blanket on top of the bag, but it was also moving.
Ted’s heartbeat picked up the threat before his brain. He instinctively knew it was dangerous, but his mind was unable to spell out what it was. As his flight response kicked in, he remained fixed on solving the riddle, if only so he could tell the others what to be afraid of.
Was it a dog? An oversized racoon?
He took a step back, wondering if he could lock it inside. He’d have to close one door and then run around to the other side of the van to shut the other. But it could be done…
Kyla interrupted his plan when she screamed. He whipped his head to see what she was dealing with behind the building. A brown blotch ambled through the brush about twenty feet from her, grunting and snuffling. It was the moment he figured out what was in the van.
Ted glanced inside one last time. A small head had popped out of the furry ball. A young bear cub seemed to listen for its mother. When it saw him, the thing showed a level of confusion he could appreciate. It let out what at any other time would have been a cute little growl.
Over by Kyla, the mama bear stood on her hind legs, looking right at him.
“Oh, shit!” Unwilling to leave his gas can, he carried it as he crouched down and hustled away from the den on wheels. He suspected there were other brown furballs in the rear of the van. If he scared them all, their mama would be relentless in terminating the intruder.
As he got a few cars over, he poked his head up to confirm mama was lumbering toward her babies. It was the opening he needed. “Kyla, get out of there!” He assumed she’d heard him, so he ducked down and continued his way across the parking lot.
Ten cars later, he was far enough from the scene of the crime. He sprinted to the front of the store, shouting as quietly as possible. “We have to go right this second!” Ted tossed the gas can and hose in the rear hatch of their SUV, then slammed it shut, keeping an eye back where he’d come from.
“What about my shirts?” Emily called from inside.
“There’s a pissed-off mama bear coming to protect her cubs. We have to be out of here in ten seconds! Hurry!”
“Oh! I will!” she cried out.
He scrambled into the driver’s seat, trusting the women would jump in after he started it up. Kyla appeared from around the far side of the building; she’d gone the long way to avoid the bear. Meechum, rifle out, waited until his niece was inside, then climbed in the rear door after her. Emily was the last one in. When she slammed the door, Ted hit the gas, causing her to roll sideways in her seat and almost tumble onto the center console. “Whoa! Let me get buckled.”
“Sorry,” he replied, laughing a bit at her struggle.
Once safe and off the lot, he looked back. The fat mama bear stood next to her den, watching him drive away. She seemed to study him intensely, almost daring him to come back. He slowed to a crawl while looking in his side mirror at the majestic creature.
“Why the hurry for bears?” Meechum asked from the back seat. “We could have blown them away with some 5.56 NATO.”
Emily gasped. “You’d shoot a mama watching over her kids?”
The Marine spoke matter-of-factly. “I wouldn’t take pleasure in it, but we’re in a warzone. We have requirements to fulfill which are necessary for our survival. If we have to kill to keep our people alive, we have to be ready to do it swiftly and humanely.”
After seeing baby bear’s little head stick out of its puffball of fur, he wasn’t sure
