Between a Bear and a Hard Place(38)

“Asthma,” Claire croaked. “I... think I’m having an attack, but I can usually... stop them.”

“Take a minute. When you kill a couple Lupines they usually get skittish for a little while. And I doubt running off in the dark to find the bears is going to do much good. There were two of them, right?”

As soon as the younger woman said that there had been four, Jill felt a new sense of resolve harden in her chest, but she knew that they both needed a second to calm down, and for the moment at least, the wolves were at bay.

For the majority of their short respite, Claire laid out the short version of their escape from GlasCorp’s headquarters and the running around the woods, hiding in bushes. She talked about the strange, static-voiced gasmask men, and how Rogue and King had summarily dispatched a whole host of them. The whole story was unbelievable and slightly incredible, but then again, Jill had gone from being a detached, emotionless scientist to mate to a pair of werebears in the space of three weeks, so she had a feel for the absurd.

“You ready?” she asked, offering Claire a hand up. “We need—”

“Miss Jilly?” Jacques’s voice squelched over the radio transceiver. “Ol’ Jacques got the machines up and running again. Or maybe it really was that somethin’ was jammin’ up the works. Either way, you got the girl, I’m guessing?”

“Yeah,” Jill said. “Got her. She’s safe and mostly healthy. Said she woke up from being unconscious. Wolves were attacking her, but—”

From out of nowhere a snarling wad of iron-gray leapt from through the air. It must’ve been waiting beside where they were seated, but as soon as Jill turned her back to a bundle of underbrush, it leapt. She turned, open mouthed, in shock, as the wolf’s paws contacted her shoulders, hard and heavy and rough.

Claire raised her gun closed her eyes, and emptied all six bullets in a direction that was, she hoped, vaguely pointed at the wolf. Four of them missed completely, but the last two hit home. They thumped eerily into the creature’s flesh.

Jill hit the ground, hard. The transceiver bounced across the forest floor to Claire’s feet, and Jill booted the wolf off her chest. The creature stood for a split-second, then slumped over as the silver in its stomach and its leg began to dissolve the flesh.

“Good shot,” Jill said, breathing hard, but standing on her own power. “Shots.”

Trembling, Claire dropped the revolver into the spongy mess of leaves and sticks and earth at her feet. “I just,” she swallowed hard. “What did I—did I kill that thing?”

“Saved my life,” Jill said. “Although you almost ended it too.” It was a joke meant to relieve some of the tension she knew Claire was feeling – she’d felt the same thing, that horrible realization of having ended a life, even if it was a threat – not so long ago.

“I’m sorry,” the younger woman stammered. “I’m... I’ve never...”

“No, no,” Jill grabbed her shoulder and fetched the pistol from the ground, along with the radio. “We’re fine,” she said, holding down the push to talk button. “Claire here just bagged her first Lupine.”

“Jesus Christmas,” Jacques said, throwing out one of his adorably countrified semi-swears. “You sure you’re okay? No scratches? Wouldn’t want to have to amputate anythi—”

“Not now, Jacques.” She turned to Claire. “He’s joking. Jacques, say you’re joking and you’re sorry.”

“I’m joking, and I’m sorry,” the radio said. “We don’t have much time for coming around to comfort though. If you two are together, I think I also have a bead on the bears. They’re moving too, but not very fast. She said she don’t know what happened to ‘em?”

Claire grabbed the handset when Jill offered it. “No,” she said, the poor thing’s voice still shaking from the shock and the apparently subsiding asthma. “I was... well, Fury and Stone and I got attacked in the woods by some Imperial Storm Trooper looking guys, and then there were two other bears, and...”

“Calm down there, sugar,” Jacques said. He was better at this than Jill knew. “Everythin’ fine. You’re fine, Miss Jilly’s fine. Thanks to you,” he added quickly. “She’s fine. Now slowly – tell me what happenin’ with the bears?”

Claire swallowed hard, gathering her courage, and then recounting all she remembered about the events leading up to her blacking out, and then waking up alone in the woods with a bunch of wolves around her.