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he was quieter than usual, and the others left him alone. Even JD refrained from making any inane comments. If they’d been able to see Carrie’s face as she left the ranch, they’d have seen that she too had grown very thoughtful.
     
     
     
    Chapter 4  :  Solo Journey
     
    The first six miles were uneventful. It was a clear day, a few degrees cooler than when Carrie had traveled overland to the ranch with the others. She saw a hawk circling overhead, and it seemed to follow her for some time. She imagined it curiously gazing down at her from its birds-eye view, wondering where she was headed and whether she’d scare up anything for it to kill and eat.
    That reminded her of the drone they’d spotted in the skies over Breckenridge, and she kept an eye and an ear out for any other aircraft. But there was nothing, and she soon got into thick brush that kept her focused on the ground at her feet so she wouldn’t trip or tear her clothes on the blackberry whips, which were beginning to lose their leaves but not their thorns.
    She came to an extensive blackberry patch with some berries left, and stopped to eat a few. Then she heard a grunt.
    Her first thought was, bizarrely, that it sounded like a rhinoceros. The dark, fuzzy shape that rose out of the brambles several yards away was not quite as big as a rhino, but it was just as alarming. It was a young black bear also enjoying a snack, and it had reared up on its hind legs to get a good look at her. The added height made it twice as intimidating, and Carrie froze, physically unable to go for her gun.
    The bear whoofed and grunted again, then dropped to all fours, where it was out of site again behind the thicket. Carrie had to decide instantly whether she ought to run for it and put some distance between her and the bear, or slowly back away and prepare herself for a possible fight. She opted for the latter, thinking clearly enough to realize that running wouldn’t do any good and might just attract the bear’s interest.
    She moved slowly and cautiously backward, facing the bear’s blackberry patch and keeping her senses on high alert. With her right hand she pulled her gun out and took the safety off, and with the other she picked up a large stick that was underfoot. It wouldn’t do any damage, but she thought it might help dissuade the creature from attacking if it came to that.
    But it didn’t come to that. She never saw the bear again. It went its way and Carrie went hers. After twenty more minutes of hiking around the area, she relaxed and even chuckled to herself. She put her gun away and dropped the stick in favor of a longer, heftier one that would actually be useful whether or not she encountered more wildlife.
    As she went on her way she felt lucky, but also a tiny bit disappointed that the encounter had ended so anticlimactically. “I ran into a bear, but I just walked around him” wouldn’t make as good a story as if she’d had to run or fight for her life. That made her wonder what she was trying to prove with this solo excursion.
    Hadn’t she come through the mountains, and even been the one to save the horses when it really counted? She didn’t need to become Rambo just so McLean and the others would accept her-- they had accepted her from the start. But whether they did or not didn’t affect her personally. She was Carrie; wasn’t that good enough?
    “ I’m Carrie!” she said, with belligerent inflection. It came out louder than she had intended, and
    she stopped, afraid someone would hear. Then the absurdity of that fear made her laugh. Who was out here to notice, except for the bear? She let loose, bellowing with laughter and figuring the bear would steer well away from a crazy laughing woman.
    She trudged on, stopping to rest only once in ten miles. She was in good shape, better now than the previous month, and she’d paid attention to the terrain when setting her route. She kept off roads but didn’t try to climb steep slopes or cut