Jack Kilborn - Endurance

She’s not doing this. Don’t let her be doing this.

“Florence... please...”

Florence touched Letti’s cheek, wiped away a tear.

“Of all the things I’ve done, Letti. All the soldiers I helped to heal. All the hungry I helped to feed. The vaccines I gave. The dams I built. The villages I helped to save. Of all the things I’m proud of, the thing I’m proudest of most of all is you. You’re the best thing I’ve ever done with my life, Letti.”

The tears came fast now.

“Oh… Mom… ”

“I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

They hugged. A final, desperate, loving hug.

“I always wanted to grow up to be just like you,” Letti said, sniffling.

“You grew up to be even better.”

More boxes toppled, and the door opened a crack.

“Let’s go!” Deb implored.

Mal shook his head in agreement. “We really gotta get out of here.”

Letti tried one more time. “Mom... please... don’t do this.”

Florence gently pushed her away. Then she winked.

“It beats dying of cancer. Now go find Kelly, and let your old mother kick some ass.”

The door opened halfway, and the freaks began to slide through. Letti watched Mom turn around and face them, knife in hand, standing tall and proud.

Then Letti followed Mal and Deb through the door, not looking back, not able to see even if she did because her eyes were blurred with tears.

# # #

Kelly had seen big cats before, at the zoo. Lions and tigers and cheetahs. But she’d never seen one in the open, without some sort of barrier to protect her.

JD was a large dog, over a hundred pounds. But he was friendly, and never killed a single thing, not even the rabbits and ducks that hung around their house.

The cougar was almost twice as big as her German Shepherd. Big and muscular and wild. It looked like it could bite JD’s head off.

“We need to run,” Cam said, taking Kelly’s arm.

“Not without my dog. JD!”

Cam put his hand over Kelly’s mouth. He whispered, “Do you want that thing chasing us? Let’s go.”

Cam pulled on Kelly, but she resisted.

I won’t leave JD behind.

The mountain slunk closer to the dog, ears flat against its head. JD growled, then charged, biting the cat on the paw.

The cat rolled, cuffing JD across the muzzle, sending him rolling into the woods. The German Shepherd whimpered, and the cat stared at Kelly, right in the eyes. It made Kelly’s stomach do flip-flops.

Cam’s right. We should run.

She and Cam took off, sprinting away from the creature, heading for a copse of trees. When they reached them, Kelly hid behind a thick one, sneaking a glance behind her.

The mountain lion was bounding toward them.

Kelly gasped, feeling just an instant jolt of terror that she couldn’t move. Then, out of the bushes—

JD!

The dog slammed into the cat’s side, clamping its jaws onto the larger animal’s neck. They rolled in a tangle of limbs, teeth, and claws, JD growling, the cougar roaring.

Then JD yelped, and was still.

JD! Oh, no...

The cat shook its head, then once again looked in Kelly’s direction.

Kelly took Cam’s hand, and they ran like hell.

It was dark, and they couldn’t see where they were going. Kelly’s feet kept slipping, and branches whipped at her face and hands. She stumbled a lot, and fell twice. Her finger still hurt. So did her heel, where the rat bit her. But she ignored the pain. She ignored everything except the overwhelming desire to get as far away as possible.

Kelly wasn’t sure how far or how long they ran, but Cam got winded before she did. Then Kelly took the lead, urging him on. They darted through the trees, plowed through bushes, traversed a deep ditch, and eventually the ground became rockier and they began to run uphill.

“I can’t,” Cam finally said, heaving. “I need to rest.”

“It might still be behind us.”

Kelly knew Cheetah’s could run over sixty miles per hour. She didn’t know the land speed of cougars, but she knew they were faster than humans.

“Just gimme a minute,” Cam said. “My lungs are gonna pop.”

Kelly stared into the forest, listening for movement. She closed her eyes to tune in better. There were normal forest sounds. Crickets. An owl. Some kind of night bird, chirping. And something else.

Running water. A brook, or a maybe a river.

“Do cougars track by scent?” she asked.

“What? I dunno.”

“Come on.”

Taking Cam’s hand, she dragged him toward the sound. It wasn’t easy to pinpoint, and she had to stop often to listen. Eventually, they made it to the bank of a brook. The water was black, maybe fifteen feet wide. She had no idea how deep it was, but it didn’t seem to be moving very fast.

“We need to get across,” Kelly said.

“It’s probably freezing. It’s coming down from the mountains.”

“It will wash off our scent. And I don’t think cougars can swim. Right?”

“I thought they could, but they just don’t like water. But you’re right. We’ll be safer on the other side.”

Pleased that Cam agreed with her, they made their way down the slippery bank. Kelly thought about taking off her gym shoes so they wouldn’t get wet, but there could be sharp rocks at the bottom of the creek. She chose to keep them on and plunged her foot into the dark water.

The temperature made her gasp. The weather was nice, probably around seventy, and Kelly wasn’t chilly even though she only wore jogging pants and an oversized tee shirt. But the stream felt like stepping into a bucket of ice.

“Is it cold?” Cam asked.

“Real cold.”

“Then let’s move fast. The less time in the water, the better.”

Once again Cam grabbed her hand, and he led her into the water. Each step she took, the water climbed a few inches, and each inch made Kelly catch her breath. By the middle of the stream she was waist-deep and starting to shiver.

“Almost there,” Cam said. “You can do it.”

The bottom was muddy, and sucked at her shoes. The current was also much stronger than it looked, and Kelly could feel it beginning to push her away from Cam. She clung tightly to his glove, afraid she was going to lose her grip. If Cam let go, she’d get washed away.

There are waterfalls around. I saw one. I’m a strong swimmer, but how long would I last trying to swim upstream? What if—

Then her footing slipped, and she fell forward in the water, dunking her face, dropping her scalpel, sure she was going to be carried off.

But Cam held on. He pulled her past the deep part, and Kelly managed to stand up again. Cam continued to guide her along until they were climbing up the opposite bank.

They sat down on the dirt. Wet. Shaking. Exhausted.

“Thanks,” she managed.

As pumped up as Kelly was, she still yawned. She had no idea what time it was, but it had to be getting close to dawn.

“We need to keep going,” Cam said.

“I’m freezing.”

“Come on.”

They trudged another hundred yards into the woods, but Kelly was getting colder rather than warmer. Her teeth began to chatter.

“I’ll build a fire,” Cam said.

Kelly shook her head. “Those men might see it. Or the cougar.”

“We need to warm up or we’ll get hypothermia. Come here.”

She went to Cam, and they sat down next to a large boulder. Cam put his arm around her, holding her close.

It warmed Kelly up. But it did more than that. For the first time in hours, she felt safe.

“What about my family?” she asked, her face against Cam’s neck.

“We’ll find them in the morning.”

“And JD?”