Carmen and I saw his chute in the northern part of the biggest hill’s forest, and pointed.
“Damn, that boy must be shook,” Devon said, still chuckling about it, with Matt nodding and grinning his face off.
Poor Tex.
Matt walkie-talkied our coordinates to base when we had to stop because the foliage was too thick to drive further. We got out and I grabbed my medical bag. Tex’s chute was no longer in sight, but he couldn’t be far. If he got stuck in a tree, he could disconnect the chute and drop, or climb down.
It was funny to see a handgun in the back of J.D.’s pants as he walked alongside Sean ahead of us. I knew they’d been to the range. J.D. was not a fighter, but Sean wanted him to be able to defend himself if it came down to it, which it probably would in the end. For all of us.
We walked for about five minutes up the incline, which was steeper than it looked. Lots of fallen trees and dead limbs.
“Tex!” I called.
The others started calling too. A few minutes passed before Carmen stopped about fifteen feet away from me, tilting her head to listen.
“Hey, guys?” she said. Everyone stopped, turning to look. The sound came first—sprinting footsteps pounding the leaves, and a deep male voice, hollering. The hairs went up all over my body.
We each froze, staring up the incline. And then Tex appeared, running straight for us, his face screwed up in fear. What the hell? Was it rebels?
Everyone one of us pulled out our guns, pointing.
And then Tex’s voice rang down the hill, making his adversary very clear.
“Bear!”
Sure enough, not forty steps behind him, was a huge brown grizzly, bounding down the mountainous incline with quick ease, making angry growling sounds.
All at once, our group turned and ran, screaming, panting, leaping fallen logs. A crack and shout had me skidding and looking around to find Sean on the ground. He waved J.D. away when he tried to give him a hand.
“My ankle! And where’s my gun?”
The others kept sprinting, and Tex flew past us down the hill at top speed. I looked up and felt myself pale. The bear was too close, and was making a beeline right for Sean, who was scrambling around in the leaf litter to find his gun.
I pointed my gun at the bear, but before I could shoot, J.D. jumped out into its path and began waving his arms wildly around, yelling like a damned fool, and he shot his gun once, twice into the sky, making me cower. The bear stopped, lowering its head to watch them.
“Get!” J.D. shouted, roaring in his cute voice. “Get out of here!!” He shot again, this time in the direction of the bear, but missed. The bear sniffed the air and grunted, then turned and swished its furry butt back up the hill.
I ran to Sean and fell to my knees, lifting his pant leg. His ankle was already becoming discolored and swollen. J.D. crouched with us and let out a whine when he saw the injury. I opened my med bag, but Sean shook his head.
“Let’s get back to the Humvee first, then you can wrap it on the way back to base.”
“Okay.” I spotted his gun a few feet away. It had slid under some leaves, and I grabbed it.
J.D. and I put our guns away, and got under Sean’s shoulders. It was awkward with our height differences, and with me carrying my medical bag in my free hand, but we managed to make it all the way back down.
Tex, Matt, and Devon were coming back up the hill to find us, but not looking like they were in any rush, though they did appear relieved to see all three of us. Followed by alarm at the fact that we were carrying Sean.
“Hey, you good-for-nothing sacks of shit who left us to be eaten by a bear!” I said. “Come help!”
The three of them ran up and took Sean from us. J.D. and I slumped the rest of the way down. When we got to the Humvee, Carmen was standing there, her lips pressed together, with something I couldn’t read in her eyes.
“What?” I asked, feeling pissed off.
She brought the back of her hand up to her mouth, and tried to turn away, but just as the others got to us, she exploded with laughter.
For real, though? I put a hand on my hip.
“Did you see how fast Tex was running?” she asked, bending over and grabbing her side.
