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Which is exactly what the grizzly did, bringing him closer to where they stood. Then he reared up, as if he had caught their scent. Standing 6 feet tall, he stared at them intently.
Every fear has its own feeling. There's the fear when you hear a sound in the middle of the night. The fear when you're approached by a stranger on a darkened street. The fear when your house is broken into. This time, fear came from feeling small and slow and insignificant in the presence of a creature who views you as prey. It wasn't panic. It was a solitary, strangely confined feeling.
We gotta go, Jennifer said. We gotta go.
I have to make a stand, Robert said. And if it comes to that, I don't want to have to try to kill this bear with a handgun from a moving raft.
OK, whatever you need to do, Kalin said.
Jennifer walked the raft into the river and held it there just in case. The bear crested a small dune 40 yards away and started to charge toward them.
For a moment, Robert paused. Alone, he would have dealt with the bear then and there, but Jennifer and Kalin clearly wanted to avoid a confrontation.
Let's get the hell out of here! he yelled.
They jumped into the raft, and their momentum helped launch the cumbersome inflatable into the balky current. They pulled hard at the water. The river was 40 yards across and braided with bars of sand and gravel. At one point the raft started to scrape bottom, forcing them to jump out, calf-deep, and push, paddles in hand, bear spray in mouth, push and push, until they were floating free again. Back aboard, Jennifer glanced over her shoulder.
The grizzly was running along the riverbank, closing fast. Then he was running beside them.
The bear's coming down the bank, Robert yelled.
Let Kalin and me take care of the boat, Jennifer said, and you get ready to shoot.
OK. Just don't get between me and the bear. They knew they first had the revolver, then the bear spray. That was their defense, the game plan. But beyond that, nothing.
The bear's crossing the river again, Robert shouted.
The huge animal clambered up the opposite bank. There, the current ran faster and the embankment was higher -- perfect for leaping down onto the passing raft.
Keep us away from that bank, Robert called out.
But that's where the current is!
The bear crashed full speed along the shore, disappearing briefly behind a knoll, then reappearing, almost next to the raft.
Jennifer struggled to steer toward the middle, but Kalin's strokes overpowered hers. The raft began side-slipping, passing just below the high bank and then into a more open stretch.
Now he's in the river, Robert yelled.
Kalin looked back. The bear was muscling forward, full speed, mid-channel, and gaining on them. Thirty yards. Twenty-five.
Neither Kalin nor Jennifer had come to the Arctic to kill a grizzly. But now Kalin was convinced there was no other way to escape. To stop an attacking bear with the Ruger, Robert would have to hit it in the head or the spine. Each bullet would have to count, and for the animal's sake and for their own, he could not risk wounding it.
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