[ WP ] Three friends . Four AM . No dialogue

As one might be prone to do in dire times like these, I'm sure all of us wanted to scream and run like terrified children. But to the chagrin of our instincts, we had to remain in complete silence, for the sake of safety. 
 
 It had started as a carefree camping trip, just me, Andy, and Jeff going out to experience the great outdoors. We had spent the late afternoon hiking, and after a dutch-oven cooked meal in a nice little clearing that seemed good to us, we crawled into our tent and descended alongside the sun into our own slumber. 
 
 But in an unbelievable stroke of luck, Jeff had been restless and gotten up to take a little walk around 4 in the morning. And that's when he'd heard something prowling through the underbrush. 
 
 Mountain lion. 
 
 We hit an even bigger jackpot of luck when Jeff decided not to make any noise and to just slink back to the campsite to shake us awake. He could n't have known at the time, but we were not prey. We were intruders in this big cat's territory, and it only wanted us out. 
 
 We tore down the tent as quickly and silently as we could, but not quick enough. As we started trying to make our way out of the clearing, we all heard a quiet growl from no more than a few meters away. Frightened looks all around, of course, but we somehow all knew that making a ruckus would not be the best course of action, so we maintained our silence. 
 
 Creeping along as stealthily as we could, a slow exodus was made from our makeshift campsite and back to Andy's Jeep parked about a quarter mile away. The distance would n't have been more than a few minutes hike for us during the day, but the darkness and the necessary silence made the journey take several hours. 
 
 There were a few close calls where a noise or shadow in the distance made us all consider finding a God and getting on our knees, but we made it safely back to the Jeep in the end. Speaking to the park ranger the next morning, we found out we were definitely lucky to have gotten out unharmed, but that the lion had never intended to kills us. 
 
 Close calls, man.
