We chant-scream, “GO, CAT! GO, CAT! GO, CAT! GO, CAT! GO, CAT!”

Now or never. I have a jackknife in my pocket, but don’t dare lower my hands to take it out. Besides, a small knife isn’t much of a weapon against a creature with fangs that big.

“GO, CAT! GO, CAT! GO, CAT! GO, CAT! GO, CAT!”

With a swish of its tail, the beast explodes from its crouch and runs away. So fast and furious that in the time it takes to exhale, the mountain lion has vanished.

My knees are so weak I nearly fall down.

Mia, sobbing in relief, gives me a hug that nearly breaks my ribs.

“Dude,” Tony says, lowering his arms. “How did you know to do that?”

I shrug. “My brother Phil. He’s two years younger, and when he heard about this trip, he was freaked out that I’d get eaten by mountain lions. Which almost happened, so thank you, Phil! Anyhow, to make him feel less scared for me, we looked it up together, what to do if confronted by a lion. Five things. Don’t break eye contact. Make yourself look tall. Never run. Back up slowly. Shout as loud as possible.”

Mia says, “I wanted to run.”

“Worst thing you can do. It will trigger an attack for sure. Running down prey is what it does.”

Deke gives me a punch to the arm, a little too hard to be friendly. “Pretty cool, Danny boy. Impressive. But you didn’t have to worry. I could have killed it with my bare hands. Seriously. That skinny, mangy thing couldn’t have weighed more than seventy pounds.”

Imani, hands on her hips, confronts him. “Fool! You are a fool, Deke! A mean, stupid fool! You didn’t save us, he did!”

Deke stares at her like he stared at the big cat. Then he laughs, whooping it up and clapping his hands. “Wow! She speaks!”

Imani shakes her head, disgusted.

He turns to me. “Hey, no hard feelings, Danny boy. I was just teasing.”

It’s obvious he doesn’t mean the apology, that it’s just more teasing, but I decide we’ve got more important things to do, like finding shelter, so I go, “No hard feelings. We, um, need to keep moving.”

Deke gives me a scornful look. “Keep moving? We won the cave. It’s ours. We can build a fire, make a hot meal.”

“Lions defend their lairs. It will come back.”

He makes more of a fuss, but when the rest of us start moving, he does, too. And as we slog along, exhausted and hungry, searching for a place to get out of the rain, I’m thinking there’s a creature even more dangerous than a mountain lion.

His name is Deacon Bailey, and if we’re not careful, he’s going to get us killed.

14. No Reason to Starve