Page 65 of The Last Resort
I’m such an idiot. Dan said, don’t go into the woods alone.
Why had she come walking in the woods on her own? And without her whistle. She hadn’t even bothered to buy bear spray. Rachel’s bottom lip trembled.
I’m going to be this year’s cautionary tale. The stupid out-of-towner who didn’t follow any of the safety rules.
She glanced back at the side of the track and all hope of surviving a tumble down the side of the mountain died. The odds of her becoming a bear meal were now very real.
“Oh fuck,” she whispered, as tears welled in her eyes. This was not how she had ever thought she’d die. Old and in her bed had always been her choice for when the time eventually came. But eaten by a bear was going to be a horrible, bloody death.
She had to take a chance. The small cub to her left was preoccupied with a stick, swatting at it with its paw. If she could just make a dash past it, then she might stand a chance.
All those things she’d read in the pamphlets about standing still and not running, didn’t stack up in a moment of sheer terror. If the mother bear came after her, she would probably have to take her chances over the edge of the trail. Crashing into a rock or a tree on the way down would hopefully give her a mercifully quick death.
The mother bear ambled closer, its head moving left and right as it took in and assessed the threat which Rachel posed to its little family. A second huff, this one laced with anger echoed in the silence of the trees.
Rachel turned, ready to run.
The loud whirr of helicopter blades split the air. The bear stopped in its tracks, confused by this new and clearly more powerful enemy. The chopper moved into position and hovered directly above them. The noise was ear splitting.
“Rachel. Don’t move, you can’t outrun her,” came a familiar voice over the chopper’s PA system.
“Dan,” she whimpered.
The nearest of the bear cubs startled by the roar from the helicopter’s engines and blades, quickly scrambled over to its mother. Seeing that part of the path was now clear, Rachel was tempted to make a run for safety.
“Don’t!”
From his vantage point in the sky, her brother-in-law could see the same opening.
Okay. Okay. Don’t run from the bear. Got it.
But that was all well and good if you happened to be safely hovering fifty feet in the air, not so much when you were standing a yard or two away from an overprotective mother. Fortunately, the bear had now turned her attention away from Rachel and was busy with comforting the frightened cub.
The screech of an airhorn had Rachel covering her ears. The other cub raced toward its mother. As the airhorn continued its deafening blast, the bear family finally decided they’d all had enough. The mother bear shifted behind her two babies and urged them away, following close behind.
Rachel kept her eyes fixed on the retreating bears, only stirring from her fear-induced stupor when Dan, suspended by a rope, suddenly dropped onto the trail next to her. He locked the airhorn and tucked it into a holster.
“Are you alright?”
She nodded, too afraid to speak in case she threw up all over him.
Rachel stood numb with shock as Dan carefully strapped her into a harness. She barely noticed what was happening. Then her feet were off the ground, and she was being lifted into the air.
“Rachel!”
Her brain came back on line, and she laughed. “Dan Brocks, am I glad to see you.”
He could lecture her about the perils of going unprepared into the Colorado wilds to his heart’s content. All that mattered was that she was still in one piece and her day was not going to end with her being the main dish for a bear family supper.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The loud hum of a helicopter had Matthew stepping away from the design model table and heading quickly for the door. Unexpected visitors were not welcome.
“That had better not be some nosy townsfolk thinking they can come out here to spy on us.” If it was, they’d be getting told to beat it.
“Rachel,” he called out. No answer. She must be somewhere else in the building and out of ear shot. Making for the stairs, he headed down to the foyer, ready to do battle with any trespassers.
Through the front windows he caught sight of a huge red and white mountain rescue chopper, sitting in the middle of the parking lot, its blades beating the air. He raced across the marble floor and flung the front door open.
