Under the Ice

More than happy to satisfy his growing thirst with a swig of water. Jack was in the process of reaching down for his canteen when he realized with a start that he wasn’t alone. His pulse once again quickened as he slowly turned and set startled eyes on a young grizzly cub contentedly grazing less than a dozen meters distant.

No stranger to encountering bears in the wild, Redmond immediately contemplated his options. Since a cub was not likely to initiate an unprovoked attack, his best move would be to get out of the area as quietly and quickly as possible. Forgetting all about his sore legs and back, he stood and began to make his way across the summit’s broad plateau. The cub seemed completely unaware of the mortal’s presence, and his apprehensions already easing. Jack hurried across a tiny, trickling stream.

It was as he cut through a copse of stunted evergreens that he spotted yet another bear. This mammoth brown beast was obviously the mother, and because of a sudden shift in the wind, she had already gotten the human’s scent. Cursing his misfortune, Jack started to go for the rifle slung over his shoulder.

But since Rangers carried no bullets while on maneuvers, it would be useless except as a bludgeon.

As the adult grizzly scanned the portion of the plateau that lay downwind, Redmond was thankful for the bear’s poor eyesight. With his white fatigues, he would be hard to spot as long as he didn’t make any quick, jerky moves.

The possibility of sliding back into the thin thicket of trees crossed his mind, but the evergreens would provide little cover and were much too fragile to climb. Even if a climbable tree were available to him, a bear could follow him up into the branches just as easily as it could run him down on an open field. That left him with but three options. He could furtively slink off and pray that the grizzly failed to spot him, directly confront the beast and attempt to scare it away, or — the third alternative was probably the safest bet, but was surely the most difficult to do — he could lie down, cover his pulse, and play dead.

Because the beast had yet to locate him. Jack decided to try to soundlessly slip away through the thicket of trees that lay behind him. Not daring to completely turn around, he took a shaky step backward.

He followed this with another and could actually feel a tree limb scrape up against the back of his leg as a muted, high-pitched grunt caused a sickening heaviness to form in his stomach. Breathlessly turning his head, he peered through the limbs and had his worst fears realized — the cub was suddenly galloping straight for him!

Sandwiched between the two bears as he was, and certain that the curious offspring would all too soon give him away. Jack did the only prudent thing left to do. He dropped to the ground, gathered himself up into a tight fetal ball, and began praying in earnest.

He was well into his second Hail Mary, when the cub reached his side. The beast sniffed his prone body from head to toe, and Jack was positive that his pounding heart was going to pop right out of his chest.

His terror further intensified when the air vibrated with a deep, throaty roar. Daring to open one of his eyes, he focused in on a horrifying sight that would stay with him for all eternity. For standing directly before him, less than a half-dozen meters away, was the mother grizzly, her huge brown frame fully erect, her red eyes locked directly on him. He snapped his eyes shut as the bear let loose with another deafening roar, and seconds later, the beast was upon him.

It was the smell that gave the adult away. Its heavy musky odor sickened Jack, and as he fought back a rush of nauseous bile, he felt a series of hard poking jabs to his back. Another series of blows were centered on his legs, and when the bear’s cold nose actually touched the back of his exposed neck, the Arctic Ranger lost control of his bowels.

Fighting the natural instinct to get up and run like hell. Jack desperately tried to center his thoughts.

Never one to easily frighten, his panic filled him with a sickening dread, and for the second time in his life, he prepared to meet his maker. Past experiences suddenly flashed in his mind’s eye as clearly as if they were being projected on a picture screen, and he instantly relived his first brush with death almost ten years ago. He was assigned to a tank batallion in the Black Forest, and a noxious engine fire and a stuck turret hatch claimed the lives of two of the tank’s four-man crew. Miraculously, Jack had been one of those pulled alive from the smoking wreck, though it took two full days of cardiovascular treatment to bring him back to consciousness.