The bear yanked hard on his pant leg and Camden’s body was quick to react. Camden’s eyes went wide as the animal pulled him easily up and over the side of the driver’s seat. Camden was yanked between the driver’s and passenger’s seats, turning and pressing his hands against the backs of both seats. He kicked with his other foot, grunting and hissing and screaming as the bear yanked at his leg, inching Camden further away from Amy, closer and closer to his terrible death.

Camden slid even more with another tug from the bear. Camden’s arms were pressed against the backs of the seats, his face clenched as he held on, the bear still pulling and wrenching and tugging, his other leg still desperately kicking to free its partner.

Amy wrapped her arms around Camden’s, struggling to hold him. She pressed her feet flat against the backs of the chairs to support her efforts, holding onto Camden’s upper body while the bear tried to pull him by the leg through the windshield and out to his death.

Amy knew she’d be next.

Another hard tug inspired another pain-filled hiss from Camden’s clenched jaws, his body pulled past the two front seats, arms straight as he held on, Amy’s grip slipping down his arms to his wrists, clinging to him for dear life. Camden looked up at Amy and she down at him, and she could almost see her own reflection in his eyes. He said, “Run, Amy, save yourself!”

“No, Camden, no!”

“I love you, Amy.”

“Camden!”

With that, Camden turned his attention to the bear and let go of the SUV’s front seats, the creature yanking him out through the windshield and out onto the street.

“Camden!”

Amy was freed of Camden’s weight and could reposition herself to climb into the front seat and search for that flare gun. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot they had. I know we brought it, Amy told herself, it must be up here somewhere!

But her attention was stolen by Camden’s struggle, kicking the bear’s face until it finally let go of his leg. The bear lunged again but, to Amy’s amazement, Camden threw a hard punch, a right cross, and connected precisely on the beast’s snout. It barely registered, but the bear did shake her head in surprise and took a moment to re-assess her adversary. In that sliver of time, Camden rolled over to Harvey's body and pulled his belt buckle open.

Amy shouted, “Over here! Hey, you stupid bear, over here!” The bear turned, snorting and looking back between Camden and Amy in the crippled SUV.

Camden pulled the belt out of his partner's pants just as the bear decided to return her attention to him. He pushed himself to his feet, leaning hard on his good foot and swinging the belt, swatting the bear straight in the face with the buckle. The bear didn’t quite understand what had hit it, though it clearly wasn’t damaged by the little hunk of metal. Another strike further annoyed the bear, but at least it held the creature at bay.

Amy knew Camden’s time was running out, and it snapped her back into action. Gotta find that flare gun!

Amy climbed over the front seat and leaned up to the glove compartment. But when she opened it several registration papers fell out, a few pens and a road map, and nothing else. The bear roared outside, growing more annoyed and impatient and Camden growing weaker with every bleeding minute.

Amy checked under the driver’s seat and found a plastic box with a handle and buckles.

Bingo!

Amy pulled out the box and opened it, the flare gun and two shells locked in place. Amy crouched on the door of the side-tilted vehicle as she pulled out the gun and the two shells and tossed the plastic box away.

She tried to open the gun, wrestling with the latch and dropping the shells. Amy looked down to find the lost shells, one rolling into the recessed area of the armrest. She searched for the other, the bear roaring and Camden calling, “Get outta here, Amy, run!”

Amy found the other shell just behind the seat and, crouching low, made her way out of the SUV and through the cavity that once housed the windshield.

Amy’s legs were aching, her eyes squinting in the light as she emerged from the SUV and tried to stand. She found the latch and the flare gun opened in the middle. She shoved one shell into her pocket and the other into the gun, the only way it could reasonably go. The gun clicked shut.

“Hey,” Amy shouted, grabbing both Camden and the bear’s attention. “Get away from my man, you bitch!” Amy shot the flare, the projectile curving even on the short trip from the gun into the bear’s side. It hit hard and burst into a hot eruption of orange smoke and sparks. The bear turned and roared, backing up even as the flare bounced off the animal’s fatty hide, a small flame clinging to the creature’s oily hide before dying out, gray smoke drifting up from the superficial wound.

Just like Harvey said, Amy thought, but that was all the time she had to reflect.

The bear howled and turned to chase her, anxious for her revenge. And for Amy, it was fight or flight, and she had no choice.

She flew.

The bear chased her around the vehicle, her scream involuntarily leaping out of her throat, the bear answering with a blood-curdling roar. Amy gained a little ground by circling tighter to the vehicle, the bigger bear having to make broader turns. Once she reached the destroyed windshield she saw her chance and jumped up in a scrambling climb to get to the exposed side of the SUV, facing upward.

The bear arrived and swatted at Amy, the tips of her claws hitting her shoe, just an inch from taking her foot off completely. But Amy managed to back up to the center of the SUV’s side, now its roof. The bear reared up on her hind legs, roaring at Amy. It was just short of big enough to jump onto the vehicle, screaming at Amy again before lowering back down onto all fours.

She pulled the second shell out of her pocket and flicked the gun open. She slid the shell in and closed the gun, peeking over the side of the vehicle to track the bear’s movements. One shot, she told herself, but if I can hit her in the head, the eye, that big ugly mouth, that’ll do it. Can’t miss, have to wait ’til she’s close enough.

The bear’s roar came an instant before her massive head lurched up at her, jaws clamping shut, just inches from her face. Amy fell back, heart nearly bursting with fright. She landed on her ass, nearly falling over the side of the SUV. But the gun did fall out of her hand, bounce across the vehicle’s exposed side, and to the ground on the other side.

Oh shit!

The bear started pushing against the SUV, the square vehicle rocking hard. Amy looked around, confused and panicked, two thoughts bursting in her brain. If that bear knocks me off this SUV, I’m dead; unless I can get that gun, but it’s sure to be impossible to get to, once it rolls.

The bear roared as it pushed the SUV harder, Amy knowing what she had to do but terrified to do it.

No, she told herself, don’t freeze up; not again, not now!

Amy jumped over the other side of the SUV. She hit the ground hard, feet instantly throbbing, legs aching from the vigor of her bondage the day before. She looked around quickly, the vehicle rocking next to her, the flare gun nowhere in sight.

C’mon, c’mon, it’s gotta be here somewhere!

Time was running out, the SUV rocking harder, just inches away from falling and crushing Amy in the process. Even if she ducked it, the gun would be lost, and so would her life and Camden’s.

Camden!

Amy looked over to see Camden laying on the road, once again unconscious. But it proved to be what could be a fatal mistake as the SUV came teetering down upon her, blocking out the sun, ending her life.