Part 3After the ICU

I ran, my lungs burning, my feet slipping on the ice. The young woman who had spoken up before tried to intervene again, but Michael cut her off.

“Not another word. I have a medevac on standby. Nothing fatal will happen. But if you say one more thing, you can go down there and join her!”

The girl shrank back, terrified into silence.

The bear, true to her warning, was driven into a frenzy by the scent of blood. I desperately scooped up snow and rubbed it on our bodies, trying to mask the smell, but every step I took left a fresh, bloody footprint. The massive animal followed my trail, its roars echoing across the frozen wasteland.

The extreme cold and blood loss made the world swim. Finally, my legs gave out. As I collapsed, I saw the bear lunging. In a last, desperate act, I rolled over, shielding my son with my own body.

The bear’s paw, bigger than my head, slammed into my back. A sickening tearing sound filled my ears. I felt its claws scrape against my spine, and a river of hot blood streamed down my back.

I arched my body, trying to let the warmth of my blood cover my son, hoping for some small sign of life, a whimper, a stir.

Nothing.

I reached up a trembling hand and placed it under his nose. There was no breath.

Scrambling forward on my hands and knees, I screamed at the helicopter, a raw, animalistic sound of pure agony. “Michael! He’s not breathing! Even a monster doesn’t eat its own young! You’re a beast! We’ll haunt you from our graves!”

My scream seemed to stun him. He ordered the pilot to descend. When he saw the vast, bloody slush on the ice below, the color drained from his face. Before he could speak, one of his men rushed forward.

“Boss, we got a reply to that text she sent! It says… it says in one hour, we’ll all be meeting our maker…”

That message sent Michael into a full-blown panic. He pointed a shaking finger at me. “Lara! What did you do?! The jammer was on! How could you get a reply?!”

I stared back, my eyes burning with hatred. “What’s the matter, you coward? Scared now?! It doesn’t matter how I did it. The message is right! In less than an hour, you’re all going to hell! Every last one of you monsters!”

Fear warred with fury in Michael’s eyes. He fell silent, but Nina stepped forward, pointing at me with a trembling finger.

“Lara, what are you doing? I brought that equipment myself! It’s impossible to get a signal through it! You and Michael are family! Why would you try to scare him like this?!”

She turned and clutched Michael’s arm. “Michael, let’s just bring her up. I’ll forget you ever promised to protect me. My feelings don’t matter. As long as you’re okay…”

Her words reignited his rage. He turned to his men, his voice dripping with venom. “You guys like to play with knives, right? Use her as a target. Anyone who hits her gets ten million dollars, on the spot!”

“Bring the chopper in closer! Let’s make this interesting!”

A deafening cheer went up. The next second, a hail of blades rained down from the sky.

My back was mangled; I couldn’t get to my feet. I could only roll on the ice, trying to shield my son’s body. But my movements were clumsy, and within seconds, five knives had embedded themselves in my legs and ribs.

A blackish tint immediately spread from the wounds.

The knives were poisoned.

As I rolled, one of the knives in my ribs was driven deeper, tearing through my stomach and into my son’s back.

A sharp, piercing cry erupted from the bundle in my arms.

Seeing my son’s body, now covered in his own blood, I finally broke.

“Michael! Pull me up! Get us to a hospital! The knives are poisoned! My son… he’s really not going to make it!”

The raw terror in my voice seemed to cut through his rage. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and looked down. The sight of the black blood spreading across the ice made him lose his composure completely. He grabbed one of his men, shaking him violently.

“You said it would just be a few scratches! What the hell is this?! Call the medevac! Call them now!”