The river started somewhere up in the mountains we could see in the distance, but the falls coming from the cliff face marked the end of any possible navigation. There’d be no portage over terrain that rough, it looked like a shear wall on each side of the falls. It sure was pretty though. The falls had hollowed out a small lake or a big pond over the years, and the water away from the impact zone was crystal clear. You could see tiny fish darting in and around, chasing each stroke of our paddles. We beached the boats and everyone got out to stretch their legs and come up with a new plan.

I was leaning towards starting a fire in one of our boats and tossing embers onto the island until a good fire cleared all the dangers for us. Everything changed though when Allison called out, “Hey guys, there’s a cave.”

The entire group closed in on her position as we all started talking about the possibilities. A cave sounded like a great defensible location, but I didn’t look forward to trying to clear the thing with nothing but torches and an axe. Caves with a surefire light and a MP-4 had been bad enough back in the real world. Debbie didn’t decide either way, just letting us argue the merits when the choice got taken away from us. A roar like a thundering freight train came from the depths and the biggest damn bear I’d ever seen came charging out of the dark at us.

I planted my feet and swung my axe, yelling right back. I’ve run into black bears in the woods before. A bear is a scavenger not a predator. If you raise a ruckus it’s not worth the calories the bear would burn to fight you, as long as he’s not cornered a black bear will back down. This wasn’t a black bear. It smashed me out of its way with one paw, almost negligently and I flew through the air and slammed into the rock wall. When I tried to get to my feet I couldn’t move my arms or legs, and just lay there helplessly as I watched the bear attack the others.

Debbie, Jeri, and Allison all opened fire on the thing, and while I think Debbie was shooting arrows faster, Allison’s were going in deeper. The bear rose up on its hind legs and roared, like it was having trouble deciding which one of them to slaughter first. That crazy asshole John charged him while he was up, and even though his head only came up to the things sternum he laid into it with those two hand axes. The bear stuck down at him with one of those massive paws but a bright yellow light flared around Steve’s hands and John only staggered at the blow. He kept right on swinging both hatchets, but suddenly I felt a bolt of pain in my back and I closed my eyes and screamed from the agony. When I opened my eyes again I could move. My health regen had apparently just fixed whatever that smack into the wall had caused. I lurched to my feet with my axe in hand, desperate to help.

John was dragging Steve, who was bleeding from his ears and nose, away from the fight. Everybody else was doing their best to bait the bear into their direction without getting close enough to die. Hunter won, if you could call it that. He darted in and slashed with the spear, but he’d over extended and was slow to pull back and the bear dropped down to all fours and went after him. I got in first. I slammed the head of my axe into the small of its back, doing my damndest to penetrate through the layers of hide and fat where it was thin and hit the spine. I lived through it because it worked.

The bear forgot all about Hunter when my axe bit. It spun around to come at me, but the torque that put on its wound was too much and it’s back legs splayed out from under it as I backpedaled furiously. Covered in a dozen arrows and now paralyzed from the waist down, the giant bear continued pulling itself towards me, slavering. I knew it was only a matter of time until it bled out so I kept my distance, but Hunter ran in screaming. He actually stepped on the thing’s haunch to line up a better shot and rammed his spear home in it’s throat. The bear made a wet gurgling sound instead of a roar and collapsed to the ground.

“Holy fucking shit.”

That was Allison but it summed up my thoughts pretty nicely. Debbie rushed over to check on Steve, apparently he’d been casting some kind of protection spell on John that had overloaded. Steve wasn’t coherent yet, but the bleeding had mostly stopped and John assured us that his vitals were good. Jeri and Hunter were trying to roll the bear over like they were planning on skinning it even though it was the size of a damn car. You could make a respectable teepee from the single hide. I ignored them and staggered out into the woods.

“Jack, where you going? Help me move this thing.”

“Yeah, if momma bear has babies I wanna kill their asses now before they grow up. I’m making torches. Who’s coming with?”

Since the pocket rocket had done pretty much dick all to the bear, we left Jeri behind to keep an eye on Steve while the rest of us checked out the cave. Debbie told everybody to just run like hell if there was a full grown cave bear on the inside, and nobody argued with her. Either because they agreed or because like me they thought if we got caught in the close confines of a cave with one of those things we’d be dead before we even realized the fight had started. I tossed a burning branch into the cave ahead of us. The flame guttered but stayed lit and cast a feeble light around its immediate vicinity. Each of us carried another torch and I called out to everyone to spread out, to maximize the light.

Nobody got eaten. I figured out that the whole does a bear shit in the woods thing wasn’t an effective rhetorical device when I stepped into a truly gargantuan pile of bear stool. There were a few partially eaten corpses and the rank smell of cave bear throughout the entire cave, but nothing dangerous. Without talking about it, we all headed back out into the daylight at roughly the same time and drifted back down by the boats where Jeri sat with Steve. Debbie bumped my shoulder and looked over at me as we walked.

“You know, Jack. That cave would make a pretty good warehouse for the company. Easy access to the river, defensible, and we got enough bear meat to feed us till we get established.”

I shrugged and nodded at her description.

“That sounds pretty accurate. If you could train up the stink the place would be impregnable. I imagine you’ll want to clean the damn place though.”

“No practical concerns, Jack? I’m willing to admit you know this wilderness stuff better than I do. Before I propose it to the group, you see anything wrong with it?”

“Fearless leader doesn’t want to look wrong in front of the minions?”

“Remember the whole don’t be an asshole thing we agreed on? Help a girl out, Jack. Just answer the question.”

I looked over at her and sighed at the expression on her face. She looked vulnerable and determined all at the same time and I felt something shift inside and tried to bury it. “Sorry, Debbie, it’s just reflex at this point. It makes sense. If you pitch it I’ll back your play.”

So that’s what happened. It didn’t take much argument, everyone bought in without much hesitation except John. He was worried about Steve, thinking it was too dangerous to take a risk with a head wound. Since there weren’t really CT scans available back at the village it was a pointless worry, and it took Steve pointing it out before John backed down. We dragged our boats up away from the edge of the water in case a sudden rainstorm changed the water level, and everyone split up between making camp and clearing out the cave.