The woods were quiet, and peaceful. There were four deer grazing in a football field sized area. Two bucks, a doe, and a calf. All of the deer seemed to be careless, except for the doe, who was looking about for danger ready to protect her calf no matter what. Dana and Brian inched closer. The doe stuck her head down for a moment to eat. Dana and Brian were about 150 meters away from the deer, Dana noticed the doe put her head down and he saw his chance. He pulled his rifle off his back and brought it up to his shoulder, and he began to dial the scope on the biggest buck. He glanced at his brother and said “Whatta’ ya think the range is?”

Brian replied, “About 430 or so feet I would say.”

Dana dialed the scope in for 430 feet. They were downwind from the deer, so he didn’t have to worry about them smelling him or about it affecting his shot. He braced himself against his rifle and got ready to fire. A crack boomed throughout the woods, the bullet impacted right below the buck, dirt flew up where the bullet hit. The deer ran away before he could get another shot off, the forest had awoken as the birds flew from the trees alerting every animal within the mile that danger was about. “Damn, just missed.” said Dana. “You know, we should really look towards getting a rangefinder, it would really help ups bag more bucks.”

“Well I don’t have the money to buy one, and I’m guessing neither do you.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”. They began walking back to their tree stand, and on the way they saw claw marks in a tree along the path they had used a few hours earlier, but the marks were not there then. They immediately knew what this meant. There was a bear in the area, and judging from the size of the claw marks it was a respectably sized bear. They picked up the pace and hurried back to the tree stand, and on the way they ran into another hunter. He was geared up in woodland camo and a bright orange vest, he had black face paint on with streaks running through it where he had been sweating in the humid Maine summer. He had a long thick beard down to about the middle of his chest, and spoke with a very throaty tone. “How you boys doin’?”.

“Well other than mis-calculating our last shot we had on a good buck, alright I would say.” Brian replied.

“Ohhh tough luck. I’m Harry by the way.”

“I’m Brian, and this is my older brother Dana.”. Harry looked around for a second and just as he was about to say something Dana interrupted him and said “Seen any bears around here? We saw marks on a tree back down the trail some that weren’t there when we passed through earlier.”

“No, havent seen much of anything.”

“Well, we better be going,” said Dana.

“Just keep an eye out,” Brian added. He nodded, then they were off. When they got back to the tree stand, they were extremely tired. They climbed up and sat down. Dana pulled out some deer jerky and offered Brian some. “I’m good, i have a PB&J.” Brian said. They both sat there and ate for short while, before Brian said he was going to take a quick nap.

When Brian awoke, Dana was gone. He loudly whispered Dana’s name a couple of times, then he noticed a lone buck about 50 yards from him. He reached for his rifle and took aim, he dialed his sights in for 50 feet. He began to put pressure on the trigger, and right before he fired a loud roar erupted, a huge bear grabbed the deer and sunk its teeth into the buck’s neck. The buck shrieked with pain, then the bear dragged the deer off into the bushes. The woods fell silent as they had been before. About ten minutes later he heard rustling in the bushes behind him. Thinking it was the bear he sat as still as possible and did not make a noise. Suddenly Dana emerged and began climbing back up the tree. “Where the hell have you been?” Brian said angrily.

“I went on quick run to look around and see if I can bag a buck, why do you look so startled?” Dana replied.

“I just watched a buck get mauled by a massive bear about ten minutes ago, that’s why!”.

“Well how was I supposed to know that would happen, I could have been killed.”

“We should just call it a day and go home” Brian said.

“Yeah, i’m with you on that one.”.

They climbed down and started heading back towards their truck, but it was a two and a half mile walk so it was going to take around two hours. The path they were on was littered with shadows as night began to fall, the woods were dead silent. “Do you smell that?” Dana suddenly burst out.

“No? what is it?”

“It smells like blood.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know lets check over here.”

Dana started off the trail, he pulled a branch out of the way to reveal a body.

“Oh my God!” Brian yelled.

“It’s that gentleman we met earlier with the beard, what was his name?”

“Harry.” Brian said

“Looks like he had a run in with the bear as well, Brian”

“Yeah, we’d better hurry back to the truck and call the police!”

“And Just leave him here?!” Brian yelled.

“Shhhh, quiet down! The bear might be around still! Look I don’t want to leave him here either, but he would just slow us down. The way I see it is that the faster we get back to the truck, the better.”

“I guess you’re right. I hope the bear doesn’t come back for him. he’s barely recognizable as is.” They set off again, this time at a much faster pace.

They came out into a clearing, and the truck was about 200 yards away. They slowed to a walk, and made their way to the car. Suddenly the woods behind them exploded with roaring, they turned around to see a bloody bear standing on its hind legs, it brought its front legs down hard and pounded the ground. Brian and Dana were stunned.

“Run, Brian!” Dana screamed as he pulled his rifle off his back. Brian ran as fast as he could towards the car, but in his frantic running he dropped his rifle. Dana tried to hold it off. Dana cocked the bolt back and aimed, but right before he could fire the bear swatted him away with his huge paws and then started after Brian. “Dana!” Brian screamed.

“Keep running! I’m fine! Get the Handgun in the glovebox!” Brian was almost to the car but the bear was gaining on him quick. He got to the car and opened the door, jumped in and slammed it shut. Just as the door shut the bear smashed into the car almost flipping it, then the bear smashed through the window with his massive claws. In the process he sliced clean through Brians tricep leaving a huge gash, blood went all throughout the front of the car. He dealt with the pain and reached for the glove box, he opened it and inside was a H&K P226 with one clip, but it wasnt loaded. He remembered that his brother stashed the ammo in the center console, he reached for that and found a box of ammo inside. He opened the box to find 17 rounds inside, but as loaded the first round into the magazine the bear smashed into the car again and the rounds rolled under the seat. He leaned over to reach for them, and as he did the bear tore the headrest off the back of his seat, he felt around under the seat and grabbed four rounds. He loaded them as quickly as possible, cocked the gun, and unloaded four rounds into the bear’s chest. The bear groaned and stumbled around for a bit before falling over on its side. He ripped the sleeve off his shirt and patched up his arm the best he could. Brian slowly got out of the car to examine the bear, it was taking short quick breaths. He spoke quietly “Even after all you have done, you still don’t deserve to suffer.” and put the his final round into the bears head. It lay there motionless, The smell of blood once again filled the air. He grabbed his cellphone and ran to Dana. Dana was sitting up, but he had a broken rib.

“Well hasn’t this turned out to be a crazy night in the woods.” Dana said chuckling.

“Yeah, sure has.”

“What happened to your arm?”

“The bear took the window out and slashed my arm, it hurts like hell, but Ill live.”

“You did good. Im proud of you.

Brian smiled and called the police.