The Space between Atoms 46

 Hurriedly tucking himself in, the snuffling behind him caused an urge to do the other kind of evacuation.  Although his eyes were adjusted to the dark, having been awake all night, the moon had completely sunk below the horizon.  Shapes were vague.  Terah knew the fishing hut was directly behind him a few yards.  He’d walked straight here.  Sound in the dark took on a reality of its own, an urgency amplified by the lack of light.  He had to turn and face it.

It was a bear.  A black bear.  It was sniffing at the fishing hut door.  The garbage bag of baked goods was in there, and this creature was hungry from hibernation.  It wasn’t a huge bear, but the thing about even a small bear was its natural weaponry and lack of social restraint.  Terah stood as still as the tree he’d watered, although he knew the bear could smell him.  He recalled reading that the scent radius for a human, when it came to bears, was measured in miles.  What must a city smell like to such a nose?

What should he do?  He knew little about bears beyond their being dangerous.  For some you were supposed to play dead, right?  Which kind was that?  And he couldn’t abandon Lindsey.  She’d brought him along on this journey.  All the travel equipment he had was in his pack in the shed.  Ironically, there was a gun club just down the road.  The bear swiped at the door handle with its paw.  It couldn’t figure out how to turn it.  Could it?  Intoxicated by the smell, its instincts told it to keep at it.  Easy food, high in fat.  Fear kept Terah from noticing the cold. For a bit.

Watching the bear cluelessly batting at the handle started to feel like watching a movie, and Terah was aware that night’s chill was still of the winter species.  What’s more, he was seeing more clearly.  The sun would soon be cresting the eastern hill.  A ruby-throated dawn was awakening.

The bear, swinging its head around, ambled off.  Another unwelcome sound.  A car.  Terah ducked behind the tree.  Why did someone have to come fishing this morning, of all days?  He couldn’t get to the hut before the fisher, and the stranger would find Lindsey in there.  Terah was quickly tiring of all the question marks.  Why didn’t they tell you how to handle such things in school?  He had three degrees and no knowledge.

The man emerging from the car looked larger than the bear.  Whistling—assuming he was alone—he slammed the door and walked toward the shanty.  He turned the knob.  “Funny,” he muttered.  “I thought I left it unlocked.”  He padded his pockets.  “Dammit!”  No whistling now.  He tramped back to his car and the speed with which he pulled out told him this was no happy camper.  Terah raced to the door and rapped rapidly.  He couldn’t get in either.

Lindsey knew better than to answer if someone knocked.  “Charlene, it’s me!” he called.  “Wake up!”

A groggy Lindsey opened the door.

“Fisherman.  He’s probably coming back.  Grab your stuff.”

Although sleepy, she knew necessity.  Emergency blankets quickly stuffed into packs, they each grabbed their respective things, and Terah pulled out the garbage bag.  Lindsey pulled the door shut and they set off in pink twilight.  He quickly tried to explain, without going into too much detail.  He’d answered nature’s call.  The bear.  The car.

The trees weren’t terribly thick here, so they’d need to distance themselves from the hut in case the fisher returned with his keys.  “I gotta go,” Lindsey said as they were out of sight of the shanty.  Privacy was at a premium here and as she found a fallen log to use as a kind of seat, Terah turned his back.  Just as he could hear her peeing, he spied the bear.  It had followed the food and hunger made it bold.

“Bear!” he said, by way of explanation and he began to scamper off toward the lake while Lindsey was incapacitated.  The bear followed him.  Terah knew he’d have to give up their provisions.  He couldn’t outrun the bear, and he had to keep it away from Lindsey.  He hammer-threw the garbage bag down the hill toward the lake.  It landed well before the water and the bear charged after it.

Walk slowly back away from a bear, Terah recalled.  Don’t make eye contact.  No worries there.  The bear was ripping into the food.  Terah turned and hurried back toward Lindsey.  Her pants were up and she was moving through the trees.  Terah followed, winding himself.  Eventually he caught up.  “The food smell will cling to our clothes,” she said.  “We need to keep moving.”

The lake and the bear meant their options were north and west.  Presumably there was a road to the west since the car had to have driven in from somewhere.  They continued north, with the lake at their right.  Lindsey then started to angle away from the rising sun, deeper into the woods.

“Do you know where we are?” he panted.

“We’re in the woods,” she said, not exactly helpfully.

“Look, I didn’t invite the fisher.  Or the bear.”

“It’s not that, Cal.  Just leave it alone.”

They were walking briskly through trees still lacking leaves and air that smelled hopeful with anticipation.  The bear hadn’t followed them, contented to eat all their provisions.  Now that they were moving the morning chill felt bracing.

“It’d be ideal if we could break our scent trail,” Terah said.

“It’d be ideal to be sittin’ down to breakfast in a comfy house, too.  I got an idea that Wednesday won’t let us come to harm.  Well, me, anyway.”

“You really think he’s a demon?”

“Nobody really knows what demons are.  Some people say they’re entities that’ve never been human, like nature spirits, and others say they’re the ghosts of the evil dead.  Others say fallen angels.  If Wednesday’s a demon, I’d go with evil dead.  And I’m afraid he wants me alive.”