They had constantly kept walking for almost thirty minutes now and he seemed tense.
Wendy said," Don't worry. i got the smokes. Just remember the plan."
John replied with a nod and gave a gruff of his vocal chords.
" I do", he said with a lot of grimace in his voice. He said, after a pause, " And the smokes was if there were more than one bear. Here there are two.", he finished the sentence with a stern that meant that it was better that she not console him on their sudden misfortune in the plan.
But John did remember the plan. Sarah had to take all the jewelry from the store and stash it in the woods or have one of her guys do it. Then she had to leave the state and hide in one of the John's friend's house. Wendy and John were to dig up the stash on the break of dawn and leave through the park. They were to pick up Sarah and then move to Mexico. Everything went accordingly, except for the damned bears. His voice was interrupted by Wendy's soft calling.
Wendy said," Look". She pointed towards a roughly covered part of the ground not ten paces away.
She put her right hand's index finger to her lips, so as to hear for the bear's steps. When they heard nothing, they started taking little steps forward and bent down slowly. They moved a couple handfuls of dirt and then smiled. They put their supply bags down very slowly, almost to a whisper, and took up the stashed bags. John looked at his phone for the last time. 5: 45. They quickly discarded their sim cards and and left it in their supply bags, which they left where the stashed bags had been. John said, whispering, "Fifteen minutes, we can't walk."
They covered up the dropped bags with dirt again and started their return journey with big strides.
No bears, fence was already clipped, so even if they went out after 6:00, they could easily get out. Then ten minutes or so passed with them walking, and suddenly Wendy stopped, turned around and hugged John with all the warmth she could muster.
John was smiling. He said, " Abusive parents don't have good kids, do they?"
Wendy replied, with the most mischievous smile, " No but they have intelligent ones."
They started walking casually once the flagpole came into view.
John said," I just hope she's okay."
Wendy nodded. She replied, " Sarah might be our little sister but she knows her drills well enough."
John couldn't get this thought of his mind. He started again," I know that.... I just....".
Wendy shushed him. John was getting angry, so he was about to speak again. Wendy on the other hand, put her palm on John's lips and signaled with her nods to look around. Then they looked and listened. Wendy looked over John's shoulder to the back and he saw her widen her eyes in utter fear. She shoved him aside and started firing her Colt. She fired all six shots and missed all of them. John heard something thudding on the ground with pace, so he took out his gun while simultaneously turning around. He saw it running towards them and shot at it. By the third shot, he hit it. It fell and stopped not ten long steps away from them. Wendy looked at it a little closer and grabbed John and started running.
John was surprised by his sister's actions, so he asked her while they were on the run for the fence.
"Its just a wolf. Its wounded now.", he said with his voice shaking.
She was shocked too, but by her brother's stupidity. She replied, also with a shaky voice, " Yeah, great find. Jackass, where there is one, there must be a pack."
Then they suddenly stopped. They heard the same small-footed thudding again. But this time from their sides. They didn't stop, rather started running faster.