The Bear

 Frank stumbled his way through the forest.  Something was after him.  

It was a blind, rushed, panicked thrashing through the woods.  The noise he made cracking branches and kicking through leaves left little chance of being missed by anything nearby.  Most of the forest creatures fled from the man, but not the bear.

It was enraged, hungry and territorial.  Frank looked back and saw it still following him.  The sight made his heart jump and he increased his speed.  If he couldn’t lose the beast by random direction, maybe he could outrun it.  

In Frank’s adrenaline filled state of mind he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to do in a bear encounter.  A sharp realization struck him – a poster at the start of the trail flashed in his mind – Don’t Run.

Too late for that.  Something about bear spray.  He felt his jacket, searching for the can, and finding only a ripped strap where it ought to have been.

He thought about what else to do, as his energy was waning and his speed slowed.  Play dead or fight?  He hoped it was the former, because he was too tired for the latter.

No. The poster from before definitely showed a cartoon standing tall with a stick-weapon, and not a small lump on the ground.

Frank’s hope sank as he heard the bear knock down a small tree behind him.  He looked for a rock or branch to try and fend it off.  The creature closed the gap while Frank scrambled on the ground, trying to stand up.

It was the bear that was standing first, and it roared as it brought it’s claws toward the terrified man.  Frank put his arms up defensively and screamed.

Everything went black.

“Congratulations, you failed!” said a cheery voice.

Frank opened his eyes and found himself at the start of the trail.  His arm woke up and he pulled back his hand from the Experience Square next to the final bear warning.

“Dad, you’re supposed to touch each of the warning instructions first, THEN do the bear encounter.”

Frank stood there in shock.  He had heard these Virtual Trails were impressive, but maybe he shouldn’t have jumped the que to get the experience when there was a lull.  He went back to the start of the line of warnings and loaded the virtual bear spray into his cyber inventory.