Flare

Deep in an arctic environment, I sit in isolated exhaustion. Any semblance of strength has been drained, and so I rest. While a blizzard forms, too seeming to accompany white-out conditions, I sit still. I can't move; not yet.

My nose begins to feel as though it were running, and I could tell it was rather chilled. Yet, to be honest, the rest of me was warm, so I lowered the mask I had equipped to insulate my frigid face. After the masks' warmth took hold, I fell to my back and into the snow. Sinking a couple inches, I felt an intense relaxation wash over me.

As a second coat, or perhaps a blanket, the snow that conformed to my body around me too kept myself safe from the piercing cold. As enjoyable as it was, and as deeply as I wished to stay, I could not. With a worrying noise being emitted from north of me, animal-like in it's ferocity, I felt a burst of desired adrenaline. Too, resting helped bounce me back to what was, while not peak condition, a large improvement, and allowed for my attempted escape.

Walking slowly, but not slow enough as to allow close following from the creature, I came to a wall of stone. Cornered would be a fine word, yet not one I had wanted to admit in such a fear-filled time. The noise, not having faltered in it's terrifying nature, came ever closer to my location.

As illogical panic swept over my body, and the scrambling for anything useful in my pack proceeded, I found a worthwhile tool. Gripping my flare gun, which had been handed to me by a nearby residential ranger of the lands I'm roaming, I aimed upwards. My finger yanked the trigger back, but to my dissatisfaction, nothing came of it.

The flare gun had no ammo, nor was I handed any to begin with, all the while, the dangerous beast was still nearing. Silhouette's are oftentimes more horrifying than the thing bringing upon their formation, but such thoughts only present themselves in hind-sight.

Crackle after crackle whispered danger into my ear loudly, and as the beast stomped, I remembered the noise of crunching snow from before this moment; how lovely it once was. Now, seeing as I lack the desire to check my watch, the heinous footsteps remain the only measure of time until my demise.

I can't run well; my snow shoes cannot stay atop such fluffy and soft snow. Too, the rocky wall obstructing my path doesn't allow much free space to roam.

Soon, and to my unfortunate luck, appeared the creature. A polar bear, larger than a normal sized vehicle, was walking towards me. A moment later the monster was no more than 20 feet away when a large pile of snow fell on top of and completely surrounded me. Frantically shoving the snow away, as to allow further vision of the beast, I finally created a large enough hole to peak: Nothing.

I cleared away, and brushed off the rest of the snow, and to my surprise, there was no bear around. It must have only been 4 seconds between the time I last saw him, and the moment I peered back to his location. No beast could escape that quickly. The first thought, however irrational, was of a vanishing act, but such things are not possible...

I sat for many moments in confusion, understandably for anyone who witnessed a disappearing act unlike any in the world, but a feeling of desire for movement overcame me, and so I stood. Something compelled me to not sit still, perhaps survival instincts, and so I began walking in a randomly decided direction. Though moving was not a large challenge, sight was.

The snow blotched out the view of my surroundings, and then, extremely upsetting as it was, the sound of heavy foot-steps reentered my radius of hearing. Someone once told me, and though their name escapes my conscious mind, I appreciate, that odd occurrences are abundant in the territory with which I currently reside. Spontaneous disappearance's have been rumored, which I can be witness to, and other happenings, though too I cannot recall, have occurred as well.

While the steps, never nostalgic in their heart-wrenching eerieness, became, yet again, my countdown to the end. It's at that point that my trip became a true regret. So distant was this land, and as harsh as I had been warned it was, I ventured onward.

Money is nice, which too was a defining word I would have used for this trip had it not been interrupted by a mammoth-sized polar bear. But money allows perks... The reasoning for my presence was pure curiosity, and too linked directly to the size of my bank account. Not having a family can lead you to odd places.

"Odd" is a rather suiting name for a massive polar bear, though I sense a lack of peril with such a title, so perhaps "dangerously odd" is more suiting; for Death and I have never brushed shoulders in such a direct manner.

I'm not cornered this time, at least not in the sense that one direction is blocked from further passage, but I cannot run; not now that he is so near. My only hope, because this is all I could muster in a survivalist way-of-thinking, was to curl into the fetal position, and hope for mercy. As the steps neared, my body jolted.

It was in this nervous and uncontrollably shaky state that I realized playing dead was no more a ward against the bear than fleeing, so I rose and continued on.

After walking for what seemed like hours, but was rather more like two minutes, I found a cabin. Racing to it's door, and opening it, heart-pounding, I stepped inside. My fear level, though still very present, shrank, and I could semi-relax.

In my brief moment of relief, I heard a thunder-like sound from outside. Opening the door, and glancing out revealed the cause: a polar bear. Still large in it's inherently scary nature, it was charging the cabin full-speed. I bolted for the opposite wall of expected impact, and stood in anticipation. In my frantic state, I took many quick looks around. What I saw, though not being connected to any past events, had set myself up for the moments to come, allowing the exclusion of ignorance. Laying around the cabin were boxes of rifle, and flare-gun ammunition; empty. Too, a case for a rifle lay open, and strewn out upon the flooring.

From outside, and in triumphantly rapid succession, I heard gunshots. The sound of a large animal crying out filled the cabin, and the shots continued repeatedly. Only until whoever the shooter was had run out of ammo did the gun-shots cease.

When both shots and bear-sounds were no longer audible in the cabin, I slowly eased the front-door open. Peering outside, I saw the riflemen.

"Come out." He said, or rather yelled, so his voice was able to be heard clearly through the blizzard. Though I took very little notice, the man sounded familiar.

As my body exited the wooden oasis, I was able to spot the bear. Laying in pain, on his back, bloody holes peppered throughout his torso and shoulder muscles, he wheezed. Such a beast does not fall with ease.

"They're on their way." Yelled the man, as he loaded his rifle.

Looking up to the sky, I saw a lit flare shining bright, even through the harsh conditions.

"We're safe?" I asked loudly

"I... You're safe." He replied in a reassuring tone.

Confused, yet relieved, I watched the man, who, at this moment I noticed was wearing the same outfit as my self, walk over to the large bear, put the barrel of the gun against it's skull, and pull the trigger.

Blood erupted from the entry wound, and as I witnessed the gun fire, and the bullet penetrate the bear, I felt a tidal wave of relief swamp my body's nerves. And then, I felt a sudden and irresistible urge to lie on my back, and fall asleep. In the middle of a blizzard, I found myself napping, and the fellow comrade who had laid the creature to rest took almost no notice. He just walked on.

What seemed like a few minutes passed, and I was, for at least 10 minutes or so, asleep. I awoke to find myself entirely covered, from head to toe, in a reasonably thick layer of snow, but nothing I could not simply brush off. Coughing and brushing down my suit proceeded, as did the weary glances in all directions. My bearings had not yet been reestablished.

As my peaks in all directions concluded, I noticed several key figures missing: The helpful ally, the dead bear, and any sort of weaponry. One thing remained, however, and that was the cabin. Seeing as it was a partial safe-haven earlier, I figured I would explore it once again.

Walking inside, and to the surprise of myself, or anyone had they been placed inside my shoes, lay a closed gun-crate, many boxes of ammunition, both of the rifle and flare-types, and not a sign of tampering.

I grabbed everything in sight.

In a terrifying state of panic and anxiety, I rushed outdoors and chose a spot to the side of the cabin, hiding stealthily behind some brush and logs. That's when, as mind-shattering as it was for me to absorb and comprehend, I saw myself running from the depths of the forest, and into the cabin, with the bear in a frenzy behind. As the bear charged the cabin, I popped out, and firing off a signal flare, I too grabbed the rifle I had discovered earlier, and aimed steadfast towards the animal. The air filled with the cracking sound of gun-fire.