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Holly hit the bear trap with her fist, which accomplished nothing, but jarred her injured leg, sending fresh waves of pain radiating through it.
Had the trap fractured her bones? If so, she was in even deeper doo-doo than she thought.
She shook off this depressing train of thought and attacked the springs with renewed energy. But it did her no good. Her frozen fingers simply weren’t strong enough to compress the springs. The trap’s jaws remained clamped firmly around her lower leg.
Untying her boot and trying to slip her foot out of the trap that way didn’t work. The jagged teeth dug into the tough fabric and held fast. The only result was that she threw up from the pain.
Crap. My leg is definitely broken. She wiped her mouth and tried to spit out the revolting sour taste. If I can’t get free, I’m going to freeze to death out here.
It was a sobering thought. She was already shivering, and the weather was only going to get worse as the afternoon progressed.
And once night fell, she’d be done for. If one of the area’s predators didn’t get her, hypothermia would. The worst part was that she could see her pack from where she sat, tantalizing her with the hope of rescue.
Her laptop was useless, too. The park had no cell service, so she couldn’t use her phone as a mobile wireless hotspot and get help that way.
She felt around frantically, trying to find a branch thick and sturdy enough to help her pry open the trap. No luck there.
Then, gasping in agony with every move as the heavy trap pulled on her injured leg, Holly crawled under the bush.
Its skeletal twigs grabbed at her hood and hair as she wriggled into its depths. She grabbed the thick metal stake and pulled on it with all her fading strength.
If only she could uproot it, then she could reach her pack and the precious satellite communicator it contained…
But the stake had been pounded deep into the earth to anchor the trap against the full strength of an enraged bear. And the layer of rust on the chain connecting the trap to the stake was deceptive. She could find no weak link.
Her one hope of saving herself now was if someone happened to be in the area. Like, maybe, someone determined to fake sabertooth footage…
It was a slim chance, but she didn’t have many options left.
She took a deep breath and screamed for help.
Time passed. She grew hoarse. No one came. Her watch informed her she’d been stuck in the trap for over two hours now.
It was almost a relief when the pounding rain and sleet transformed into flurries of snowflakes.
Holly decided to ration out her cries for help. She timed herself. Every fifteen minutes, she would shout for fifteen seconds, pause for thirty seconds to listen for a response, then shout again for another fifteen seconds.
The wind picked up. It was snowing harder now. She huddled in a miserable ball, her knees drawn up to her chest and her hands tucked under her arms.
December days were short in the northern Rocky Mountains. Soon it would get dark, and the temperatures would drop even further.
Her teeth were chattering violently now, and intense shivers racked her.
Regrets chased themselves through her mind. Maybe she should have gone to New Jersey for the holidays, and just gritted her teeth and enjoyed the time with her dad. Now she’d never know.
She wondered how long it would take for search and rescue teams to find her when she missed her scheduled check-in by computer tomorrow morning.
By then, a foot or two of new snow might blanket her body. Could be that no one would find her—whatever was left by then—until the spring thaw.
Her watch read 5:00 pm. Nearly sunset.
She pushed away her morbid thoughts and began shouting for help again.
This is hopeless, she thought, sagging in exhaustion. Her throat hurt and the snow muffled all sounds. Her face was numb, and it was getting hard to think.
What else could possibly go wrong today?
Then, a flicker of movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She twisted around and stared straight into a pair of large, golden eyes.
