The bear does not seem to be moved by her introduction.

“Just asking you not to eat me, Mr. Bear,” Dawn tells it. She waves her hands above her head and takes a step backward, keeping her voice calm and her movements slow.

The bear growls again. Louder this time. It stands up on its hind legs and peers across the clearing at her and yawns, and Dawn can see drool in its mouth, and sharp, yellow teeth.

“Don’t eat me, Mr. Bear,” Dawn says again. “Please?”

But the bear doesn’t seem to be listening. It drops down to all four legs again, and begins to approach her, and even though it’s just walking, it’s faster than Dawn expected, and closer, too. It’s thirty feet away and closing fast, faster than she can walk backward.

(Don’t run, the book says. Don’t scream or make sudden movements.)

Dawn’s not sure she can control herself; she’s too scared. She’s half afraid she’s going to pee her pants.

She’s. From. Suburban. Sacramento.

The bear keeps coming. It’s looking right at her, and now she can smell its terrible breath and see right into its eyes, and it looks mean and angry with her, like a friendly discussion isn’t going to scare it away.

Dawn’s still backing up, trying to remember what she’s supposed to do next, when she backs into a log and loses her balance.

And as she falls flat on her ass, she glances to her left and sees another bear emerge from the trees, a smaller bear.

A baby bear.

And that’s when she knows she’s screwed.

Dawn screams.

Chapter 25

A MOTHER BEAR IS DANGEROUS, the book in Dawn’s pack says. Especially if she perceives you as a threat to her cubs.

Dawn wants to explain to this approaching mama bear that she’s in no way a threat to anybody. That she’s actually literally a Bear Cub herself. That she just wants to get back to her group, and then down off this mountain, and then back on a plane to Sacramento.

But she’s flat on her ass and the mama bear’s approaching. The time for conversation is over.

If a black bear attacks you, the book says, fight back.

Fight for your life.

Dawn reaches around for a weapon. A stick or a rock or anything she can find. The bear keeps coming toward her, snuffling and snarling, and Dawn screams and she can hear voices behind her, somewhere in the forest, but they seem so far away, and the bear is much closer, and she can’t find anything she can use to defend herself.