The Test [Book One of The Test] (Watty Award Winner 2014)

Chapter Nine

The Test

Chapter Nine

Next thing I knew, we were running. The screams and cries grew louder and more desperate. 

"Help, please, somebody help." It was coming from the direction of the shacks.

The first thing I noticed when we got there was the blood. There were small red drops in the grass that made a trail. We kept walking in the direction of the trail. I'm sure not just my jaw was dropped as our eyes saw the scene before us.

There in front of us stood a bear, tall and black. I realized that the blood trail was its own once I saw a gash in it's leg, blood pouring on the ground. Someone had attacked it. The bear's gaze was locked to the person standing in front of him. That person was Danny.

"We have to do something." Jack whispered beside me, hoping he wouldn't grab the bear's attention. That didn't work though, it shot its head in our direction and began coming towards us.

Those around us ran, pushing and shoving, knocking me and Jack down. The bear got closer to our bodies that were now on the ground. I noticed from the corner of my eye Jack starting to get up. He tried helping me up but it was to late.

The bear had made its way to us, pushing Jack away from me and pushing me down. It started digging its nails into my leg. I let out a scream of pain and terror that seemed to mix with another scream coming from behind me. I didn't focus much on the things around me, though, I just started pushing it off and failing due to my lack of muscle. Its claws caught my arm, causing a gash to form and blood to spew. My thoughts were getting more incoherent as more of my blood drained from me. 

But then a screech of pain came from the beast. Somehow, it was pulled off me but I could still hear it screeching. It was still alive.

I looked up to see Luke holding my head up to see if I was okay and then he began applying pressure to my wounds to stop the bleeding.

Pain took over my body, I just wanted it to stop. The blood pouring from me, the pain from my wounds, all of it needed to stop.

I heard a wail come from the other direction and I snapped my head that way to find Jack standing over the bear. It wasn't moving. Many different shovels and other tools were sticking out from it, all aimed at its heart. Jack turned slowly, blood covered his hands and shirt. He took off running. He didn't stop to see if I was okay or to help Luke who was now picking me up from the ground, he just ran.

Part of me wanted to run away from this too.

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"I don't know how, but you're alive." Luke said, still staring at me with awe.

Him and Danny had grabbed a shirt and used it as a cloth to clean my wounds. They had wiped the blood from my arm and legs, only to find the wounds healed, scars marking the place of where they were minutes ago. I was now sitting up, staring at each of them. I decided to ask the question that seemed more important than my suddenly healed wounds.