Grizzly by Gary Paulsen

Author:Gary Paulsen [Paulsen, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-80407-5
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2011-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

The cold, clear water tasted good. Justin wished he could lie on the muddy bank forever, just drinking and resting.

But there was the grizzly. She would soon discover he was gone and come looking for him. He had to fight the pain and keep going, crawling if necessary, until he was home.

He still had his backpack, but his rifle was gone and his binoculars were in pieces. He was completely defenseless against the bear.

Slowly Justin inched to his feet and waded into the river, hoping his scent would be lost in the water and the bear would be unable to follow him. His plan was to cut a wide circle around her territory and—he hoped—make it safely back to the ranch.

He sloshed through the freezing water and crawled several hundred yards downstream. The wind was merciless, whipping at his cold wet pants legs and boots.

Resting on the bank, Justin checked his pack. The bottom of the pack had been ripped and his bedroll was missing. Most of the contents were probably scattered across the burn. In the zippered front pouch he found a small box of matches and stuffed them into his coat pocket.

The sun was going down, and he was cold, tired, and hungry. He had never been this far into the mountains. He walked on, keeping up a slow but steady pace until the light was almost gone.

At dusk, he found a sheltered hollow. Using his good arm, he scraped up some pine needles and gathered a few sticks of dry wood for a fire.

Once he had a small blaze going, he sat down to examine his wounds. He tried to take his coat off but found that the sleeve was glued to his bad arm with dried blood. He decided to leave it alone for the moment so that it wouldn’t start bleeding again.

Lying down on the hard ground as close to the fire as he dared, Justin tried to go to sleep. His arm continued to throb, and it was hours before he finally dozed off.

It seemed as if he had been asleep only a few minutes when he heard something crashing through the brush near him.

Justin sat up and whirled around. He found himself face to face with the grizzly. She stood on her hind legs a few feet from him, growling and sniffing.

Justin scrambled to the other side of the fire, crouched low behind the blaze, and waited.

The bear moved closer and snorted. She swayed back and forth, her eyes glowing red in the reflection of the flames, as if she was trying to make up her mind whether or not to charge through the fire at him.

Justin held his breath, waiting, knowing he might die now, that he couldn’t do anything to stop her. But suddenly the great beast dropped to all fours, turned, and padded noiselessly back into the shadows.

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