Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I saw Possum quite a bit over the next half hour of my hike. He’d appear above me, between clouds and tree branches, coming in tight to make sure I was still close.
I’d just topped a massive rock when I spotted the river down below.
My smile went wide when I spotted a mother bear and her cubs.
There were four of them in total, playing in the river while their mother hunted behind them.
I took a seat on the rock and got my camera out, along with my tripod.
Keeping an ear out in my immediate surroundings, I started snapping away at the bear cubs having the time of their life.
The snow got heavier about ten minutes into the photoshoot, and the pictures started getting tricky.
They’d probably be pretty darn cool, though.
Ears and hands freezing and satisfied that I’d gotten a good couple of photos, I started back up the trail, smiling when I spotted Possum on the tree branch right above my head.
“Are you getting hungry?” I asked him.
He chirped at me.
I pulled out one of the dead fish that my father had slipped me on the way out and tossed it into the air.
Possum caught it, swooping down almost to the ground before rising back up and taking it somewhere that I couldn’t see to eat.
I walked for another hour or so, spotting several mule deer, a bull moose, and a bighorn sheep.
The moose would be a favorite, I knew.
I was close enough that I could capture some good shots, and the snow gathering on his back was so pretty.
Plus, his eyes had been directed right at me.
He hadn’t been amused, and I’d decided to leave before he got any more curious as to why I was there.
I was mostly in the woods when I heard rocks sliding, indicating that someone was coming down the trail.
“She has to be here somewhere.”
I froze, my camera tucked close to my chest.
“Her car’s still here.”
My stomach soured at the man’s words.
“I’ve walked this trail back and forth twice now. I haven’t seen her,” the man said, frustration clear in his tone.
I scanned the trees, making sure that I couldn’t see him, which meant he couldn’t see me.
“No, damn.”
He must be on the phone.
“I’ve looked everywhere,” the man replied. “She’s not here. Maybe she took an off-path course down to the river.”
I bit my lip. “I tagged her car for you like you asked. That was really all you wanted.”
Tagged my car?
“Well, if you want her so bad, you come find her. It’s getting cold, and I’m not waiting around.”
My stomach sank.
Fear slithered down my spine.
“Well, she’ll have to see you eventually, won’t she?”
My fingernails dug into my palms.
A screech sounded from above, and then Possum landed in the tree above me.
“Oh, man. That’s the biggest bird I’ve ever seen!”
I heard the cock of a gun, and then I was screaming.
I don’t know what came over me.
I screamed so loud that the man must’ve startled and dropped his gun.
The gun went off, and I found myself running before I’d thought it through.
My fingers closed around the bear spray almost on autopilot, and then I was yanking the pin free and spraying it before I’d gotten much thought into what I was doing.
The man, who’d appeared in my line of sight as soon as I passed the big trees between me and the trail, froze.
I sprayed, and he was crying out and screaming.
The moose I’d been watching scrambled off.
Possum screeched again.
And I stopped, picked up the man’s phone, the shotgun, and started to run down the trail.
The man stayed behind screaming, likely hating himself and the world as the bear spray did its thing.
My sore foot protested the quick movements as I all but tripped over every single fallen log, rock, and uneven surface on my way down the mountain.
By the time I got midway, I was dying.
I was tired, out of breath, and had no idea what to do with the items I’d collected.
Hell, I didn’t even know how to shoot.
I should call someone.
Tell the police what had happened. Let him know that someone had put a tracker on my SUV. That the man who’d been trailing me had been talking to someone on the phone about me.
I didn’t know what the man’s plans were for me, but I did know that I wasn’t going to be here to find out when he finally came up for air.
I was so focused on what I was doing—that being not falling down the mountain—that I didn’t spot the burly looking man in the game warden uniform until I all but ran into him.
An “oomph” left his lips as he caught me and kept us both from eating dirt.
“What the…”
I gasped and stepped back out of the man’s arms, my eyes wild.
He must’ve read the desperation on my face because he stepped back with his hands up.