Page 33

" C ome on, Monica." Andy released his hold on Wendell and grabbed Monica’s arm as if protecting her from the polar bear, leaving Wendell to fend for himself.

Andy rushed up the stairs with her.

"What about me!" Wendell tried to get to his feet, one handcuff dangling from his wrist as the polar bear came for him.

"That's Craig," Andy whispered as he led Monica up the stairs to check on the other two detainees.

"Oh, that's good to know." She wondered who he was and why he had arrived at the cabin.

She glanced downstairs. Wendell backed up, screaming, "Help me!" Before the bear took a swipe at him and knocked him out.

Monica smiled and gave Craig a thumbs-up. He growled in his fiercest polar bear way.

She and Andy entered the bedroom, but neither Denny nor Eloise was there. They couldn't have escaped! She headed for the bathroom, and both were standing in the shower, still handcuffed, hiding from the polar bear.

Andy shut the bedroom door and joined her in the bathroom. "Okay, so here's the deal. You come out, and we'll let Denny out of his cuffs to get dressed. It's the only way you'll survive this situation with the polar bear coming after us. Agreed?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Denny said.

Now, this was more like it! Cooperation. Finally.

Monica and Andy left the bathroom so Denny and Eloise could leave the shower stall and join them in the bedroom.

"If you fight me at all, I will have to leave you for the bear and take Eloise and my partner to safety.” Andy didn’t mind using threats if it got what he wanted in a tense situation like this.

"I'm not going to cause any trouble. You've got guns. There's no way I can protect myself."

Andy released one of Denny's cuffs while Monica held her gun on him.

"Okay, get dressed. You don't need to have the cuff removed from your wrist to do it."

Monica was glad he had left Denny's one wrist cuffed. That way, they could put him back in cuffs more easily once he was dressed.

"You can't keep us cuffed," Denny complained.

Eloise looked out the window. "Ohmigod, is that the bear?"

Believing Eloise wasn’t bluffing, Monica glanced out the window. Andy trained his gun on Denny while he dressed. The polar bear suddenly rose on his hind legs, and Eloise immediately jumped back. Monica knew Craig was doing it for show.

"He's going to get us!" Eloise screamed.

"You've got to be quiet," Monica said, "or he's going to come looking for us."

"You got to arm me." Denny pulled on his socks.

They had both Wendell's and Denny's guns, but arming Denny, even if they were facing a wild bear, was out of the question. Monica could imagine him shooting them and uncuffing his girlfriend, and they would leave Monica and Andy for the bear to eat.

"What...what about Wendell?" Eloise sounded shaken up over the whole situation.

"We had to get away." Monica knew he couldn't be dead, but sharing that wasn’t a good idea. “He wouldn’t cooperate with us, and we didn’t have time to do anything but run.”

"We'll never leave here alive," Eloise cried.

"No, you just need to keep your wits and lower your voice."

"You have to release us," Denny pleaded. "I swear I'll help you kill the bear."

"Killing polar bears is illegal," Andy said.

"Hell, he's going to kill us. It's self-defense."

"I tell you what. I'll leave you here, handcuffed, and Monica and I will take Eloise out to my vehicle and bring help when we can."

"No, no, I don't want to go outside with the bear out there," Eloise said. "He'll rip us to shreds."

"Let's get the handcuffs on," Andy told Denny. "Then we'll all check out the downstairs. Once we lock the door, the bear will go away. He's outside, isn't he?"

Eloise was watching out the window. "Yeah. And he looks...ohmigod, he's growling at me. He's got huge teeth."

"We have to secure the front door and check on Wendell," Andy said. "Put your hands behind your back, Denny."

Denny looked mutinous, scowling at Andy.

Monica figured he didn't want to comply because he felt more vulnerable to a bear attack, more so now than before, because he didn't want to be taken into custody.

She totally understood. He knew he could fight a man.

A polar bear? There was only one outcome for that.

"I swear I'm going to lock you out of the bedroom, and you can face the bear on your own," Andy said.

Denny frowned at him. "Are you recording all this?"

Nope. Not this time.

Then Denny finally turned around, but Andy knew that trick. "Get on the ground. Lie on your belly."

If he tried to cuff Denny while he was standing, he could swing around and try to take the gun from Andy.

Denny reluctantly knelt on the floor and then got on his belly.

Andy put his knee to his back and cuffed his hands together. "All right. Let's go.”

"We can't go down there with the bear roaming about," Denny said.

Monica quickly put Eloise’s socks and boots on.

If they had been all polar bear, no. Then Andy helped Denny up. "All right, you go first."

"Me?" Now, Denny didn't have so much bravado. Not when he faced a polar bear instead of a man or woman.

"Yeah. You're not going behind us and shoving us down the stairs." Andy didn’t trust him in the least.

"What if you did that to us and we were left at the mercy of the bear?" Denny asked.

"We have our cameras on, remember?" Though Andy had never said he did.

Denny just scowled at Andy, not appearing to believe that would be enough to keep them from just leaving him and Eloise for bear food.

"Go." Andy gave him a little shove toward the door.

"What about Eloise?" Denny asked.

"She'll be right behind you," Monica said.

"But you have the guns," Eloise pleaded.

"Go." Andy opened the bedroom door for Denny.

Downstairs, they heard the cracking of wood being split apart.

“Ohmigod, what is the bear doing?” Eloise shouted.

The woman would have gotten them all killed if they’d been actors in a B-grade horror movie.

Denny's face was filled with terror. He looked like he was ready to be torn apart by a vicious bear.

"If you care anything about your buddy, Wendell, get a move on." Andy was beyond fed up with this bunch.

Denny finally started to walk toward the stairs, glancing over the balcony, looking like he wished he were anywhere but here. Craig had destroyed the front door while they’d been in the bedroom.

"I told you we shouldn't have come here," Eloise said. "Not when you were already injured by the polar bear at the other cabin. Not that I believed it. But now I do."

"Shut up," Denny said.

"Keep your voices low," Andy warned, amused to playact about the seriousness of the situation. He was so glad his brother had shown up to come and help them out.

"I can't believe he would come here too," Denny said.

"He's hungry," Eloise said. "Idiot."

"Watch your mouth, or you'll get a fist in it," Denny said, which would be hard to do with his hands confined behind his back.

But it made the abuse charges that Helen had filed against him sound as though they had been real.

"Go down the stairs. Slowly," Andy said.

Denny started down them, but Andy waited with the others while they watched. He jerked his head back to look at them. "Hey, you can't make me go by myself. I can't check on Wendell with my hands cuffed behind my back."

Andy just wanted him to sweat a little. Not that he wasn't already. Denny was shaking so severely that he was barely descending the stairs.

"Go, Eloise," Monica said, right behind her.

"No. You can't make me." Eloise sat down on the top step and wouldn't move her butt.

"You are such a coward." Monica sounded exasperated.

If the bear had been all polar bear, Andy wouldn't have had any of them risk checking on Wendall until they saw the bear amble off.

Monica grabbed Eloise's arm and hauled her around Andy and down to where Denny was slowly descending the stairs, one snail step at a time.

"Wendell could die before we get down there," Monica said.

"Whose fault is that?" Denny asked. "If you hadn't broken into the cabin?—"

"Wendell came in alone and left the door wide open." Monica continued to struggle to take Eloise down the stairs. “We came in through the back door and shut it. The bear destroyed the front door.”

Andy moved past her to get this show on the road. He grabbed Denny's arm and hurried him down the stairs so the women could reach the bottom.

"Okay, now, after we revive Wendell, we will go out the back way. We'll make sure the bear isn't there and use your car to hide behind until we can reach my vehicle." Andy just hoped they could get them in the vehicle and secure them.

"We're safe here," Denny said. "Safer than out there."

"You're not safe here." Andy didn’t want to have this going backwards.

"He can't get upstairs to the bedroom, and we can lock that door," Eloise said.

"You better believe a polar bear can climb stairs. And look what he did to the front door? The bedroom door is just a couple of pieces of plywood." Andy shook his head at her and hurried Denny over to Wendell, who was stirring.

"Wendell, hey, are you all right?" Denny asked, looking from his buddy to the front door that was splintered and in ruins on the living room floor.

Eloise peeked out the front window, and Monica followed her while Andy checked on Wendell. He sat him up and then flashed his light in his eyes. Wendell suddenly pulled away from him, and Andy quickly cuffed him.

"Hey, the bear got you," Denny said.

"Where is he?" Wendell asked.

"Outside right now," Denny said.

"Ohmigod, there are two of them, and one is heading this way!" Eloise screamed.

"Now you've alerted them," Andy said, pretending to sound angry with her. His cousin Rob was the new bear on the scene.

Eloise rushed for the stairs, but Monica grabbed her arm and yanked her toward the back door.

"We have to get out of here," Monica said. "Both of them could come right in here looking for their next meal after you practically told them to come eat you."

Andy got Wendell to his feet. If the polar bears had been wild, he would have barricaded them all in the bedroom and waited.

"Okay, Denny, Wendell, this way." Andy grabbed them both and started hauling them toward the back door.

Denny balked. "We can't go outside."

"You can stay, and I don't have to bother charging you with any crime because you won’t like having a confrontation with polar bears.

" Andy wasn’t ready to leave them behind.

He wanted them to be incarcerated. But maybe that would convince them to leave.

"All of you. Or, you can come with us and have a chance to reach the car and get the hell out of here. "

Eloise was shaking so hard that she looked like she would shatter into a million pieces. Monica opened the back door quietly, then pulled Eloise onto the snow-covered deck. She quickly pulled her off the deck and headed around the side of the cabin.

Andy pushed Denny forward, holding Wendell's arm because he kept tilting as he walked, as if he was having trouble with his balance. Andy quietly closed the back door once the three men were on the deck.

Eloise was crying now.

"Shh," Monica said to her. "Be quiet. Do you want to get us all killed?"

Andy loved how Monica was playing her role. He knew his brother and Rob were listening to the conversations with their excellent hearing, most likely amused.

Then he came around the corner of the house with Denny and Wendell. Eloise and Monica were hunkered down by Eloise's car with the flattened tires.

Then Eloise scowled. “You tore up my tires! I will sue you for this. I’ll have you fired for it.”

“Shh,” Monica told her.

Eloise grated on Andy.

The sound of the bear trashing the kitchen made Monica glance through the kitchen window. "One bear is in there, breaking things up to get to the food."

"Where's the other?" Andy hadn’t seen Rob again.

"Hopefully, he'll go into the house so we can reach your vehicle, but we have a long hike," Monica said. "Should we go through the woods like we did when we came here? Maybe they won't see us?"

"They'll see, hear, and smell us." Andy had to ensure their detainees didn't plan to run off alone.

Their only chance to get out of there was to stick with Andy and Monica, who were armed.

"Let's get to your SUV then," Monica said.

She headed into the woods anyway because she and Andy had left a trail there for them to trudge through.

He followed her with the other two men, watching for signs of the other bear, and then saw his cousin, Rob.

Andy smiled at him and inclined his head.

But he was certain his cousin and brother would be concerned that he and Monica had three arrestees and didn't have a vehicle to carry them back to White Bear safely.

Andy and the others kept moving toward his vehicle when Rob ran into the woods out of sight.

"One's gone," Andy said.

"Yeah, but he could show up at any minute," Denny said. “And there’s still the other.”