With Washerman charging, I found myself with no choice. With the gun specially made for my paw-like hands, I fired three rounds. The first hit his left shoulder, the second hit his left horn, and the third hit his right shoulder. Despite my fears that the little handgun that had been issued to me not being enough to put down something as large as a Bison, I still didn't want to have to kill him. My shots were aimed to disable him, not to kill him.
But the results largely confirmed my personal fears. Washerman's fur was too thick, as were the bones of his skull and shoulders, and in places they were padded with many layers of muscle. I could see some blood soaking into his fur where my shots had hit his shoulders, but he still kept coming at full speed. The thing that saved me was the shot that hit his left horn. The heavy bone managed to stay in one piece and deflect the bullet away from Washerman's head and body, but the bullet left that horn looking particularly weak as a spiderweb of cracks seemed to erupt where the bullet hit it. The effect of this made Washerman instinctively veer to his right, my left.
I took this to my advantage and dove to my right, rolling away as Washerman thundered past where I had been standing. Then from a kneeling position, I fired the remaining rounds I had into his rear hip. I hoped that would be enough to disable him that he could be restrained. The fur around his hips was not as thick as it was around his shoulders, and I was able to see more blood ooze out of the bullet wounds. But Washerman did not go down. He continued on, if now with a slight limp from the wounds to his rear hip.
"Give it up, Washerman!" I roared at him again, trying to get him to back down. With no rounds left in my gun's clip and likely no time to stop and reload, I wouldn't get the chance to pull the same stunt I'd just pulled again. I had to get him to give up... though the scent of his blood in the grass also triggered my predatory instincts. And they soon combated with the instincts to give the much larger and combative creature space. I did my best to make sure that I kept my mind focused.
"Give up?" Washerman grunted back, turning his head back to me, as he began to turn around, "Give up?!"
The turn was made close to a large pine tree. The horn that had been shot during his first charge caught the soft wood tree and left a fairly good sized "slash" through the bark and a good portion of the tree itself. I also noticed that despite the cracks in the bone, the horn didn't break.
"You're wounded,and the others will be coming," I answered, "Give up and we'll try to see that you're treated fairly."
"Why would I give in to a traitor like you? An animal that kills other animals!" Washerman bellowed and charged again.
The wounds to Washerman's rear leg and hip hurt him more on this charge. The small clearing was filled with large boulders and close to a slope that was rapidly rising up to the regions above the tree line. And while the boulders here were easily small enough for Washerman to hurdle, the wound to one rear hip limited that, forcing him to circle around them, which slowed him down. I narrowly avoided being crushed by rolling behind one of these boulders.
When I got back to my feet, I saw that Washerman hadn't tried to turn around again yet. It offered me one opportunity to try and get him to the ground. I lunged forward as he reached one large boulder and began to turn around. My fore-paws caught him by one shoulder and pushing with all my might, I managed to get him to topple over onto the rock he had tried to avoid. He gave a pained grunt as this happened.
However, my momentum carried me forward and I ended up running over him as Washerman went down. He then rolled off of the rock and landed a punch against the back of one of my hips. He missed my tail, but the strength behind the blow was still powerful... even though he was rolling over after being knocked down. The punch sent me flying forward. I managed to catch myself and kept from landing hard against another large rock, which looked rather jagged. But the momentum gained from the blow combined with the momentum from my charge to knock him over resulted in my mass sliding forward and colliding head first with the rock.
The impact left me disoriented, like a football player who'd just endured a really hard hit. It wasn't enough to get a concussion, but he still didn't quite know where he was for a moment. It left me slow to getting up, and as I tried, it allowed Washerman to approach slowly.
"Now, who's to give up?" Washerman asked as he stood up on his rear legs.
He still limped from the gunshot wounds to his hip, but it still wasn't enough to really stop him. And I was still trying to get to my feet again. Washerman didn't give me the chance. As soon as he was close enough, he delivered a kick that caught me in the gut. It knocked all the wind out of me and sent me flying through the air. I rolled as I flew through the air, and while my tail rotated as I tried to find a way back on my feet, I landed hard on the other side of the rock and on my back. And as I lay there, gasping for air, the fight between us was over, and I'd lost. Washerman slowly limped around the rock and stood over my face.
"Take your death with some semblance of dignity, traitor!" Washerman growled at me and raised one foot above me.
I could see the large two toed hooves above my face and head, what had been the rest of his human toes being nothing more then dew claws behind them. He was fully intent on crushing my skull in. He was standing on the wounded hip, but I was too out of breath to do anything. It was over. Washerman was going to kill me. I only hoped that Officer Howard would be able to break the news to Molly gently. Everything that went through my mind were thoughts of her, and how much I loved her.
And then gunshots rang out. Two handgun shots came out from the edge of the clearing near where Washerman had taken his dose of the Animatrix Serum. One hit him in the nose and the second hit him in the same horn I'd shot earlier. This time, already weakened by my shot, the horn shattered and fell to the ground nor far from my head. The shot to the nose sent Washerman staggering back, with blood pouring from the wound. But the most powerful shot was a lone rifle shot that caught Washerman from behind. It hit him in the back, just to the right of his vertebrae and sent him tumbling toward me.
Washerman fell face forward and landed on top of me. Luckily for me, the bulk of his weight in his head, chest, and shoulders landed on the ground. I managed to get my arms up to catch his gut and legs. I soon saw several Park Rangers come forward to pull Washerman's legs off of me.
"You okay?" one of them asked.
"I... will... be," I gasped out.
"So he had the serum on him," came Agent Blustunn's voice as he approached from the other direction.
Once Washerman was off of me, I sat up up for a moment before a stinging pain in my hips where Washerman had punched me made me lay back down. The Park Ranger that had fired the rifle that had taken Washerman down noticed this, and was quick to come for a closer look.
"I very much doubt you're alright," he told me, "do you feel any pain in your back?"
"Only in my hips," I managed to sigh out.
"Is anything numb?" Agent Blustunn wondered.
"No," I answered, "I'll be fine."
"Let's let the paramedics be the judge of that when they arrive," Agent Blustunn answered, "they have to be on the way to collect the leading ranger and Agent Harris. Just lay still for now."
"I told you, I'll be fine," I insisted, managing to sit up again.
This time things went easier, though I did still feel some slight pain where Washerman had landed the blow to the back of my hips. The worst of it was still from where he had kicked me. I was still regaining my breath from that.
"I'll be bruised for awhile, but I'll be fine," I managed as I got to my feet, apparently astounding Agent Blustunn and the Park Rangers who were the first to arrive.
"You're sure?" a different Park Ranger asked in amazement.
The pain was rapidly sinking into a dull ache. I'd managed to avoid taking a real serious injury beyond a few bruises.
"Yeah," I managed, "thanks to you."
Escaping serious injury was lucky, but I also knew how much of it was because of their arrival on the scene, and the gunshot wounds I'd managed during Washerman's initial charge. The gunshot wounds to Washerman's back hip slowed him down and hurt his mobility. It made the large rocks that had likely ended up in the clearing from years of small rock slides and blizzards becoming obstacles that slowed Washerman down. And while he'd still possessed the advantage of strength after becoming a Bison, it wasn't enough because of these obstacles and he couldn't kill me quickly. By the time he'd won the fight, Agent Blustunn and the others had arrived. And human technology again triumphed over animal strength.
"Those rifles got him," I then finished.
"Luckily," the Park Ranger commented, "We typically do not use these all that often. Only when we've had incidents of a bear attacking a camper for no apparent reason... which is rare."
I glanced down to Washerman, who was actually still breathing, but it didn't look like he would be able to hold on for long, now.
"What about Bison?" I wondered, remembering how close Washerman had actually come to killing me, "wouldn't you have trouble with them?"
"There are no mundane Bison in Glacier," the Park Ranger answered, "I'm no sure how much of that is how mountainous the park is or from human hunting in the eighteen hundreds... but BOTH are factors."
"I see," I commented.
I then turned back to see Agent Blustunn looking down at Washerman.
"I wonder how we're going to get him down the trailer like this?" Agent Blustunn wondered, "a lot of the trees were fairly thick in places..."
"I can drag him back down to the trailer," I sighed, "if you can give me a few moments."
"I thought you said you weren't seriously hurt?" Blustunn questioned.
"Doesn't mean I won't admit to being bruised," I answered, "He did come close to killing me at the end... dangerously close."
Agent Blustunn only sighed in response.
"I had hoped we'd be able to take him alive," Agent Blustunn sighed.
"All of us did, I think," I answered.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Getting Washerman's body down the hill and to the trailer that had been gathered took time. As Agent Blustunn had feared, the places where the trees were very thick downhill toward the campground area where the chase had begun was troublesome maneuvering Washerman's body through. When I'd felt recovered enough from the bruising I'd taken in the fight, I did manage to drag Washerman's body down, but the distance was still substantial, and even if there weren't any trees to maneuver the size of Washerman's transformed body, I did have to stop and pause every few minutes. The Park Rangers seemed to understand the natural lack of endurance that all cats seemed to have when it came to things like this. I had the strength to drag Washerman's now two thousand plus pounds of weight, but I couldn't do so for very far.
By the time we'd made it back down to the campsite area, paramedics had arrived and were loading Agent Harris's body into the ambulance. The other leading agent would probably remain there until he could be transported to Kalispell and be transfered to something that would take him to Helena or to wherever Agent Harris's family lived and could be buried. Officers Won and Barnes were supervising the area as I managed to drag Washerman's body out of the trees and into the slightly more open area of the camping area. Several of the FBI agents following me moved to help as I got to the trailer.
"He did have the serum with?!" Officer Won gasped as he approached. It was really more a statement the a question, but it still sounded somewhat like a question.
"Yes," I nodded, slightly out of breath from pulling Washerman's body back to the trailer.
Once Washerman was completely loaded into the trailer, I dropped his rear legs, which I had been holding on to to drag him.
"You okay?" Officer Barnes wondered as I stepped over Washerman's body, "We heard you roaring at him and we heard a lot of gunshots."
"I'm going to be a bit sore for awhile, but I'll be fine, yes," I nodded, "thanks to Agent Blustunn and the Park Rangers."
Officers Won and Barnes turned to the agent who was supervising the scene.
"So what will you do with him now?" one of the rangers asked Agent Blustunn.
"Washerman's body will be taken to Helena," Agent Blustunn sighed, "my office will see to his burial from there."
And with a metallic "clink" the trailer door was shut.
"You'll need to follow our units for awhile," Agent Blustunn then finsished.
"Of course," the Park Ranger that had been driving the vehicle answered, "that can be done."
"Good," Agent Blustunn answered as Washerman's case essentially closed.