Page 4 of The Boy Who Cried Bear
Max nods. “Count of three. Fall back two steps. Look over my left shoulder, across the creek.”
“You got it. Now, three … two … one.”
As Max falls behind, he gets a granola bar out of his left pocket, acting like it’s stuck and that’s why he’s slowing down. Then the bar pops out, and he looks over his left shoulder. Way over it at first, like he’s just realized he’s at the back of his group. His gaze swivels forward, slowly, just gazing at the forest as he turns around.
Something moves, a blur of brown disappearing behind bushes.
Was that a bear?
It must have been. It was at least as tall as Gunnar. A bear on its hind legs.
Could it have been a tree stump? Or a bush?
Not unless stumps and bushes can move.
Whatever it was, it’s behind the bushes now, and when Max peers, he can still see the top of its brown head above the branches.
“I’m not seeing things, right?” Gunnar says right beside him, making Max jump. “There’s something behind those bushes. Right—” Gunnar swears as the top of that brown head disappears.
“It dropped to all fours,” Max says. “They only stand up on two legs to look around or scare other predators.”
“By ‘they’ you mean bears.”
Max nods.
“Couldn’t be a moose?” Gunnar asks. “No antlers, so maybe a doe?”
Max considers. Moose are as tall as a man. He calls up the mental image of what he’d just seen. A round furry head with what looked like ears.
Max shakes his head.
“Shit.” Gunnar takes a deep breath. “If it’s following us, we need to tell Kendra. Come on. Stay right beside me.”
Gunnar takes his bear spray from its holster and picks up speed. Max has to jog to keep up. He looks ahead and realizes they’ve fallen behind. The others are up around the bend, and they can’t see them. Max’s heart starts to pound.
They shouldn’t have fallen so far behind. That means they’re separated from the group. Just two of them, with no gun. If the bear is stalking them, and it realizes that two people have fallen back—one of them just a little kid …
Max glances left again and—
Something’s there.
Something’s right there.
“Gunnar?” That’s what Max tries to say, but the word won’t come out. There’s something in the woods beside them, moving behind the thick bushes.
There’s a break in the bushes, and Max sees fur. Brown fur and then a massive paw with long, curving claws.
“Gunnar?”
It comes out as a squeak, and Gunnar doesn’t hear him, and there’s a bear, right there. A bear moving fast, still on its hind legs.
That’s not how it works. They can’t move like that on two legs. But this one is, and it’s right on the other side of the bushes and then the bushes drop low and the bear looks over and its eyes meet Max’s and they aren’t bear eyes at all.
They’re human.
CHAPTER ONE
Casey
