Ficlets

Stand your ground and fight

The polar bear begins to move towards you. Thinking on your feet, you grab a wooden stick and begin swinging it wildly. Amazingly, you absolutely fail to hit the bear.

It lunges forward, knocking Joe over and down the hatchway. There is a horrible scream followed by a crunch and a loud, slightly wet thud.

Luckily for you, the bear has misjudged its attack and has fallen down too. You hear it smack its head several times before it too lands. After a moment you can hear it begin crying out in pain.

Zoe looks down the hatch. You don’t want to look yourself, but you find yourself peering over anyway. There’s very little lighting down there, but you can just about make out the bear, trying to move and not doing a very good job of it. Joe is presumably under the bear. You hope he was dead before the bear fell.

Zoe wipes away a tear and says, “We need to keep moving.” But which way do you go?

Down the Hatch
Walk onwards
Head back to the Coast

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