Life in Paintings

Chapter 50 - A Tight Fix - Bear Hunting, Early Winter

Chapter 50 – A Tight Fix – Bear Hunting, Early Winter

I'm sitting in snow in the middle of a forest when I open my eyes.

My clothes are still soaked with water.

This is going to be unpleasant.

I'm already shaking from the cold. It's cutting deep into my bones. My clothes are getting a weird kind of crunchy, while the water on them turns frosty.

Unpleasant was really the understatement of the day.

I kind of killed myself in the last painting, so I guess I have to pay for it now.

It's nice to know that some rules don't seem to change, however gruesome they are.

I get up. It takes all of my energy to do so. I'm just shaking and suffering, but I know I should probably move. Maybe I'll find some cabin in the woods. Or maybe I'll find people to help me.

Or maybe I'll find something even worse waiting for me.

Somehow, I'm guessing the last option will be the winning one.

So, I walk at an incredibly low speed. I'm just dragging my feet, and trying to rub my hands on my hands to warm myself, but my hands are red from the cold, and my fingers hurt, and I'm shaking and this is awful, and then I heard sound coming from my right, and I suddenly have a bit of hope, that maybe some people will be there, and they'll have a fire, and I'll be able to get a bit warmer.

But before I get to where to sound is coming from, I hear growling, and people shouting and I hear a gunshot.

None of this is good.

For my own preservation, I should turn away.

But what's the point anyway? I'll just freeze to death either way.

So, I pick up my pace, fueled by my adrenaline, my blood pumping from being scared, and then I get to a clearing.

The scene in front of me is not a good one.

There's a man hiding beside a tree with a gun in his hand, pointed at the bear that is about to lunged at another man, lying in the snow.

I have barely one second to take in this scene, and to decide what to do.

I don't think I'm a good person if I'm being completely honest. And I don't think that if this was real life, I would have acted like this. But it's easier to be heroic when the threat of death is not actually real.

Maybe doing something good, and saving someone will help me in the next painting.

So, I lunge myself between the bear and the man.

The bear takes a swing at me, automatically.

I never actually realized how big bears are. And how truly strong and terrifying they are.

One hit from his paw and I'm practically knocked out.

The bear has crushed some of my bones, there is not questions about it.

At least, this gives the man some time to run away.

I'm too weak to see his reaction, or to tell both men to just run away from here.

I'm almost too numb to feel the bear eat my flesh.

Almost.