Once Camden had stepped into full view, halfway between the side of the cabin and the front door, the bear lurched out from behind the SUV. It roared as it charged, teeth white and gums pink, lips curling as it opened its gaping maw.

Camden held his ground, jabbing at the bear with the thicker, broken end of the branch. The bear roared and swatted at the branch, even as he tried to jab her in the eye or the mouth, the snout. He knew he couldn’t hurt the creature, but he was hoping to be able to annoy it enough to scare the thing off. But he knew the risk was that he would only enrage it further, drive it to a vicious and probably lethal attack.

The bear kept swatting, growling and grunting while Camden jabbed at her face. He managed to drive the bear back a few steps, but the bear finally clamped her jaws around the torn branch, a tight grip that he could feel all the way down the branch. She pulled and her strength surprised him. He’d never been so close to something so strong, and he knew she would make quick work of him if she had the chance.

But he was also the best line of defense to secure Amy’s safe passage, that was his mission, and he would not fail, no matter what the cost.

The bear finally managed to pull the branch out of Camden’s grip. He turned scrambling to draw the bear toward him as planned. But the animal was much closer than he'd anticipated, and he was already halfway around the side of the cabin and then around the corner before he could call out, “Now, get outta there!”

But the only response was the bear’s, a bloodthirsty growl that was getting louder fast. His heart was pounding, his mouth dry. He knew what kind of death came at the paws of an angry bear, and that the black bear was no longer the docile cousin of the extinct California Grizzly. Skulls were gnawed, guts eaten out of living victims while they screamed out their last breaths, pleading for the release of death that didn’t seem merciful enough to come. These animals had been emboldened, angered by encroachment on their natural territory, lured into contact with man by garbage cans and careless pets.

But there was no time to think or to worry, only to run toward that opened window and hope he could get through it before the bear could grab hold and pull him back out.

Camden leaped into the opened window face-first, arms pointing forward over his head to narrow his naturally broad shoulders as he launched himself through the opening. But his thick, chiseled torso stopped short against the jab, his tight gut hitting the sill and slowing his progress. Camden reached out but found nothing to grab a hold of, no way to pulling himself back into the cabin.

He braced his hands against the jab to push himself in and away from the bear’s grip, just seconds too late.

The bear grabbed his ankle with her powerful jaws, teeth ripping through his flesh and into his bone. He clenched his jaws tight, silencing his own scream to prevent alerting Harvey and Amy from either coming back into the cabin or just driving away.

Camden kicked the bear with his other foot, landing blow after blow against the bear’s face, pain shooting up his other leg as the bear clamped down, tighter and tighter with every kick from his other foot.

Then the bear began to pull, and he had nothing to grasp onto, no way to stop the bear from pulling him out and gutting him right here and then.

Another few kicks didn’t help, but his hands reached out and found the jab of the window, pushing against the wood to keep from being pulled out of the window. He kicked again and again with his free foot, finally landing a shot in the creature’s eye, her only vulnerable spot. The bear lost her bite on his foot just long enough for him to pull free and topple into the cabin, blood pouring out of his ankle.

Camden stumbled across the cabin, the enraged bear peaked by the taste of human blood. It roared as it tried to push itself through the window, far too small for its mammoth frame. The animal wailed out its frustration as it clapped its jaws, mouth gaping wider, teeth flashing as it pushed its way toward him, inch by fateful inch. He knew it was only a matter of time before the animal breached the window and made it into the cabin.

He pushed himself to his feet, pain rocketing up his leg with the slightest bit of pressure. Those long fangs had dug deep into his bones, a bite meant to deliver excruciating pain and render any prey vulnerable to the death stroke which both knew would come, sooner rather than later.

Camden staggered to the front door and pulled, but the door didn’t give. He gave it a push and the door wouldn’t budge. Another few hard pulls at the door convinced him of what his instincts were already screaming at him.

The bear jammed the door up!

Another glance at the opened window near the door told him where Amy and Harvey had gone, and what his only avenue of escape could be. Camden hobbled to the window and winced as he pushed his wounded leg out and to the outside. He lowered his head down to push through the opened window.

Wooden cracks and shattered glass told him what his head needed to see to confirm. The bear pushed through the window as it crumbled around her. But her massive black body spilled into the cabin like a flood, like the inevitable onslaught of the natural world.

Like fate, like grim death.

He toppled out of the window and rolled away from the cabin just as the bear hit the second window, its tremendous head and neck lurching out of the opening, desperate to consume something, anything … someone, anyone.

Amy ran out of the vehicle and wrapped her arms around Camden to help him up. “Get back in the SUV,” he rasped at her.

“Not without you!”

The bear screamed out to interrupt her anger and rage to devour them, inching its bulk through the second window with a bit more experience, a bit more knowledge, knowledge it was about to use to deadly effect.

Amy and Camden pushed up off the ground and staggered to the SUV while Harvey slid the side door open from inside. Camden and Amy toppled in and Harvey slammed the door, clicking just as the cabin wall gave to the bear’s insistent weight and pressure. Wood creaked and splintered, more glass shattered and the bear toppled out of the shattered cabin, not far from the vulnerable SUV.

The engine already running, Harvey behind the wheel. There was just barely time to throw the vehicle into gear and back away in a scrambling skid away from the cabin, the bear throwing its massive paw at the vehicle in a desperate bid to prevent their escape.

Crunch!

They skid a bit to the side but kept rolling backward, engine growling. But the vehicle had sustained an injury to its driver’s side wheel, and it was limping heavily, able to go only so fast, especially driving backward.

And the bear was chasing them, on all fours and gaining ground quickly.