Bears Beware! (3 page)

To Joey's surprise and confusion, when he pulled the trigger his weapon didn't fire. There was the small sound of the click of metal against metal.

‘What is wrong with you?' called Ted, annoyed at his son's
incompetence. ‘You had the perfect shot lined up.'

‘There's something wrong. The ammo's sticking,' Joey called out.

Hank shook his head. ‘Nothing wrong with those rifles. I checked them thoroughly and loaded the bullets this morning.'

Bindi and Katrina gave each other a knowing look.

‘Take another shot, Joey,' called Hank.

The bear was intent on something in the distance and didn't notice the humans' interest in him. Joey took aim again and pulled the trigger. Again nothing happened.

Ted grew impatient and took
aim. ‘Let a real man take care of this.' He lined up his rifle and pulled the trigger. The same thing happened. The soft click of the trigger against his finger, but no bullet was fired.

‘These guns aren't loaded,' Ted growled at Hank as he checked the barrel of the rifle. Sure enough, it was empty of bullets.

‘That's not possible!' called Hank as he approached to take a look. While the bear watched on, the men inspected the three rifles.

‘I don't understand.' Hank shook his head.

Ted glanced at the bear. ‘Our target's not going to stand around waiting all day.'

‘Not to worry, I always carry extra ammunition.' Hank grappled inside his shoulder bag, becoming more and more angry as he did so. ‘Hang on a minute.' He turned to Katrina and Bindi, who were watching anxiously. ‘Have you girls touched these guns?'

Nobody spoke but Katrina went bright red for the second time that day and started to stutter. Bindi realised it was time to come clean.

‘We, ah, took the bullets out of the guns.'

Three pairs of disbelieving eyes turned on Bindi and Katrina.

‘YOU DID WHAT?' roared Hank. His face was tomato red.

Bindi stood her ground, refusing to be intimidated. ‘You won't be killing any bears, at least not today.'

‘Where are my bullets?' Hank exploded with rage.

Bindi took a step back. ‘We buried them.'

‘Why, you –' Hank advanced on the girls.

All of a sudden the forest was shattered by a loud rumble. The ground shifted and Bindi felt a sharp jolt followed by a strong shaking. It was similar to the sensation she felt when they were out on the boat the day before but this time it was much, much stronger.

‘Earthquake!' cried Katrina, glancing at the shaking trees above her. ‘Quick, we have to get away from here!'

Alarmed by the quake, the bear took off through the forest, away from the humans.

The group started running with Katrina in the lead. It was impossible to speak above the roar of the natural world being ripped
apart beneath their feet.

They were aiming for an area of open land, out of the way of the heavily wooded area they were in. Trees were cracking and splintering beside them, roots were being unearthed and branches were falling from above.

A large branch struck Hank hard on his right shoulder. It was all he could do to stay upright and stagger as fast as he could after the others.

Up ahead, Joey tripped over and fell hard onto the buckling ground. For a moment it looked as if he wouldn't get up again. Bindi reached out a hand and pulled him back up.

‘Quick!' she yelled. He dimly nodded and followed her. There was the sound of a deep rumbling and the earth seemed to tilt sideways.

Bindi could see the open grasslands in the distance. They would still be in danger from the ground splitting but at least they wouldn't have to worry about a tree falling on top of them. She focused on running as fast as she could while dodging the flying debris. Finally they made it out into the open grasslands. The tremor continued but the air around them was clear.

A few moments later the shaking subsided. The group began studying the damage around them.
The forest looked like a tractor had driven through it. It was a mess.

Ted saw Hank stagger out from the woods and ran back to help him. The others did their best to get their breath back and take in their surroundings.

‘That was a big one, all right,' gasped Katrina.

Joey nodded. He looked thoroughly stunned and was very pale. ‘Thanks for helping me back there,' he said quietly to Bindi.

Bindi nodded. ‘I'm sure you'd do the same for any living creature.'

Joey looked away and they all turned their attention to Hank as he approached. His shoulder was
cut quite deeply and would need stitches. His right arm hung loosely by his side.

‘Are you okay?' asked Katrina.

Hank nodded. ‘I'll survive. We need to get back tonight, though. This bear hunt is officially over. I dropped the food pack when we ran. We're going to need the supplies.'

Nobody spoke as they picked their way back through the foliage and clambered over fallen trees and branches. Bindi noticed Hank grimace more than once as he swung his body over logs. He was in more pain than he was letting on.

They finally located the food
pack among the piles of leaves and splintered wood. Or what was left of it. Ted groaned as he picked up the shreds of fabric that remained of the backpack. There was no food in sight. An animal had already devoured it all.

‘Is this what you meant when you said no fancy meals and cushy surroundings?' Ted asked Hank, and by the tone he used Bindi could tell that he wasn't joking.

Katrina pointed to some fresh tracks in the dirt. ‘Looks like fox tracks.'

‘Impressive that they know to get fresh food while they can!' commented Bindi.

‘Good for them but not so good for us,' said Joey. He and his father looked extremely uncomfortable at the thought of going hungry.

‘It doesn't matter anyway. We'll be out by nightfall,' Hank gruffly reassured them.

The going was slow as they picked their way back through the forest. Hank found it difficult to manoeuvre his body over the many fallen trees in their way and often needed help. All around them the forest floor was littered with broken branches,
uprooted trees, and deep chasms in the earth. The quake had left the area a different place from the one they had delighted in that morning.

‘I just want to go home,' whinged Joey. His foot ached from where he had tripped. He was hungry and worried about being out in the dark.

‘You're lucky you have a home to go home to!' declared Katrina. ‘Spare a thought for all the animals that have lost their tree or nest homes today.'

Joey rolled his eyes. ‘Spare me the lecture. You nearly got us all killed.'

Nobody spoke much after that. They trudged on towards the river
as the daylight faded and dusk grew into night.

They finally reached the river where just that morning Bindi and Katrina had been discovered. Bindi felt her step lighten. She remembered it was only two hours from the bridge back to town. Soon this day would be over and they would be sitting in Tony and Mia's kitchen eating a hot dinner and falling into bed.

Just then Katrina let out a cry. ‘Oh no!'

Bindi raced to catch up to her friend. ‘What is it?'

The bridge crossing the river was nowhere to be seen.

‘Is there another crossing?' asked Bindi, trying to stay positive.

Katrina shook her head. ‘No. And the river is at its peak this time of year. It's way too dangerous for us to try to cross.'

Hank looked furious. ‘There's nothing we can do now. We'll have to camp here for the night.'

With that he sank down onto the ground and leaned back against a rock, closing his eyes.

The others stared at him. Ted shook his head, disgusted. ‘Thanks for the help, Hank.'

Joey looked as if he was about to cry. ‘So, aside from bears, what other wild animals are out here at night?'
he asked, sounding much younger than the gruff teenager of earlier.

‘There's fox, wild deer, goats, bald eagles, but mainly bears, big bears like the ones we saw earlier,' said Katrina matter-of-factly.

‘And we don't have any bullets?' Joey checked with his dad. Ted grimly shook his head.

‘Despite the fact that you had a gun pointed at one earlier and that they are the largest predator on earth, bears are shy and don't seek out humans unless provoked or afraid,' explained Bindi. ‘Isn't that right, Hank?' She glanced at Hank who shrugged resignedly, not bothering to open his eyes.

‘In fact, only one person has died from a bear attack on Kodiak in the last 75 years,' added Katrina.

Just then Joey, who had been simmering with resentment for hours, lost his cool. ‘Don't you two ever stop? You've ruined everything! If it hadn't been for you, we'd have our trophy now. Earthquake or no earthquake.' He grabbed a handful of rocks and threw them into the bush angrily.

Bindi glared back at the sullen boy. ‘If it means that beautiful bear gets to live, then I'm glad.'

The boy laughed a horrible laugh and shook his head. ‘You haven't achieved anything here. So
we didn't get a bear today. You can't stop my love for hunting. I'll just go on another hunt some other time.'

Bindi looked downcast. ‘That's too bad, Joey. I thought maybe when you saw the bear up close that you'd appreciate what a magnificent animal it is. It's such a waste of life to kill for no reason other than sport, or a horrible rug.'

Before Joey could answer back, Ted held up a hand for silence. ‘That's enough. Right now we have no food, it's dark and we want to survive the night. I'll take first watch. You kids try to get some sleep.'

Joey snorted and lay down heavily on the rough ground, and turned his back to the others.

Bindi made a quick assessment of their situation. ‘We can try to deal with the food situation in the morning. In the meantime, we don't have sleeping bags but we can keep warm if we build a fire,' she suggested.

‘Great idea,' agreed Katrina. ‘I've been trying to get enough service on my phone to text my parents but I'm not sure if any of my messages are getting through. The network might be down because of the quake.'

The friends busied themselves by collecting dry wood in the
surrounding area and lit a fire. Once it was burning they sat around the warm glowing light and watched the flames. Katrina glanced at her phone every few minutes to see if there were any messages, but her inbox remained empty.

Bindi groaned as she shifted her stiff body on the cold ground and sat up. She looked around her. The fire was now nothing more than a few black pieces of charred wood and grey ash. She guessed it was still early from the dim light and although the others
were still asleep she felt like getting up. Her tummy was telling her that it was well past time to eat!

Joey stirred and opened his eyes. He looked like he'd hardly slept a wink.

‘Good morning,' greeted Bindi in a low voice.

‘Don't know what's so good about it,' he muttered. ‘My whole body aches and I'm starving.'

‘Oh, come on!' she said. ‘We're out in nature. It's a beautiful day and we have this incredible river right next to us full of fish. It's crying out for us to go fishing!'

‘We don't have any fishing gear,' pointed out a grumpy Joey.

‘How hard can it be?' challenged Bindi.

Bindi made her way down to the river. She wasn't at all confident about her ability to catch fish but she felt the need to remain optimistic and at least try to keep the group's spirits up, despite their situation.

Joey sighed and got up to follow her, grimacing as he moved his stiff joints.

‘Amazing that yesterday there was a natural disaster but today nature just keeps on going as if nothing had happened,' said Bindi, looking into the crystal clear waters of the river.

Joey grunted.

‘There!' Bindi pointed with excitement at a salmon that had flipped right out of the water and dropped back in as if it were dancing. She watched in delight. More and more fish leapt out of the water.

‘It's like they're just showing off to taunt us,' moaned Joey.

‘We're not the only ones who are thinking about a fish breakfast,' said Bindi as she pointed to two Kodiak bears that were slowly making their way down to the river's edge on the opposite bank. Their large frames lumbered awkwardly down the slippery slope.

Joey let out a cry and made a move to stand. Bindi held out
her hand and touched him on the shoulder. ‘Stay a moment, will you?'

Joey eyed her suspiciously. ‘Why should I? I can't shoot them. They're of no interest to me.'

‘These guys are Kodiak's number one tourist attraction. Let's make the most of a private showing!' suggested Bindi.

Joey wavered for a few seconds then sank back down on the riverbank to sit next to Bindi. ‘I guess there's nothing better to do.'

They watched in silence as the two bears slowly entered the water and stood firmly grounded, despite the fast current.

‘What if they come for us?' murmured Joey.

‘Shh,' said Bindi. ‘Watch.'

The two bears stood waist deep in the water and watched the river intently. Neither moved. Their focus was intense. They stood like statues and watched the water.

A good five minutes went by with no movement from the bears when suddenly one bear swatted a giant paw into the water, which sent a fish flying onto the riverbank beside them.

‘Wowzer!' cried Bindi.

‘You've got to be kidding!' cried Joey.

Bindi and Joey could hardly
believe their luck. The bear had handed them their breakfast! The bear hardly seemed to notice and had gone back to studying the ripples on the water just below the tip of its nose.

As Bindi and Joey watched, the two bears scooped up fish after fish. Some they ate straightaway, some landed on the bears' side of the river, some on Bindi and Joey's side. It was a very impressive spectacle to watch.

‘I never knew a bear could move so fast!' admired Joey.

‘Aren't they amazing?' exclaimed Bindi.

Before he could even think
about what he was saying, Joey answered quietly. ‘They are. They are amazing.'

‘Thank you, bears!' shouted Bindi. She grabbed a couple of salmon. Joey grabbed as many as he could keep hold of and together they raced back to share their feast with the others.