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The Hunter
Rain started to fall on a vast green forest, breaking what was an all too uneasy silence. John felt that the rain always brought out the smells that were locked inside the forest as if it were a huge beast being given release to breathe out. It gave him even more of a rush as he lay in wait. He and his hunting partner had been sitting there under a camouflage tarpaulin cover watching the carefully placed deer carcass for almost half a day.
With the rain starting to fall it hit the flies on the deer sending up a black cloud of pure noise. It took ten seconds for them to settle back into a state of relative order. John hoped the noise that the rain made on his cover wouldn’t attract unnecessary attention or that it wouldn’t wash away the dirt and foliage he had put on top of it earlier. Chris tapped the cold steel of his rifle lightly as he rested it on his knee.
“Why are we waiting for so long? We’ve done nothing but watched a piece of rotten meat.”
“Hunting. What else?”
“This ain’t like no hunting trip I’ve ever been on before. What are we after exactly. The lazy ass lion that’s still hitching a ride from the Serengeti?”
“Wolves boy. We’re hunting wolves. Word has it that there’s a mite too many pups in this area. Ranger is afraid that the problem might get out of hand. So the first thing I reckon the pup is going to need is a meal. This here should prove to be a big attraction once the stink goes up a bit.”
“I thought that pups fed from their mum at the start.” John narrowed his eyes.
“Not these pups.”
“So if we’re hunting shouldn’t we lay more traps or something?”
“Wouldn’t do much except hold em for a bit and make them mad. Most of them are mongrels so it shouldn’t take too much firepower to take em down. It’s the purebreds you have to watch out for. Takes one of these babies to work the magic.”
John rolled a long, silver bullet in his fingers, letting the various shades of light reflect off the surface.
“Now I’ve been familiarising myself with the area and I reckon the most likely points of attack are…” Chris held up his hands. His face showed that his mind had come to a conclusion that he couldn’t believe.
“How long did you want to wait here?”
“Till nightfall.”
“It wouldn’t be a full moon tonight would it?”
“I believe so. Yes.”
“So this is about hunting werewolves? Oh get real.”
The penny began to drop with John as well.
“How long have you been working with the agency?”
“Two years.”
“What role did you fill during those two years cause you sure as hell ain’t a hunter. The others they sent were professionals but you? No I don’t buy it.” Chris sighed.
“Two years in administration but I’ve wanted to be a hunter my whole life. I’ve studied techniques, prey, predators, everything.”
“It shows but book smarts can only help you so much. You’re missing the one vital component that makes you a hunter.”
“That is?”
“Experience.”
Chris nodded towards the corpse lying in the ferns.
“I killed that didn’t I.”
“My eight year old boy could have taken that thing down with his bare hands. When you were at your desk job what exactly did you do?”
“Took files from case officers and filed them. I also date stamped paperwork and made coffee.”
“Did you ever read any of it?”
“I skimmed a couple of pages now and then. Mostly it seems cute. A sort of dating agency for hunters where the women go for the guys with the biggest kills.”
John held his head in his hands.
“You have no idea how much trouble you are in do ya son? This isn’t some dating agency. Sure we hook up with the opposite sex now and again like you say but it’s lust pure and simple. A need same as hunger or breathing. We get it out of the way and move on. The hunt is what it’s really about and shootin a couple of deer will only satisfy you for so long.”
“So you mean to say that we’re actually hunting werewolves.”
“In a manner of speaking. You’re looking to hit mongrels and males. The females are endangered. I’d rather keep em going. Need someone to bear the next good hunt.”
“I’m speechless.”
“Good keep it that way I don’t need to hear any opinions. Do you know how to tell the mongrels from the purebreds?”
“No. Until two minutes ago I didn’t believe in werewolves.”
“Right well in my opinion you’ll be lucky to even get a shot off at one of them but if you see one a mongrel will always have different markings on their fur, to show that they have been bitten instead of born.”
“How exactly am I supposed to see this at night?”
“Like I said, I’ll be surprised if you get a shot off.”
“Right that’s it I’m leaving.”
Chris got up and dusted the dirt and leaves off his camouflage trousers and prepared to leave when a large hand grabbed his shoulder and forced him to sit back down with a soft thud.
“You can’t leave now. It’s almost time for them to arrive and I don’t want your scent warning them off. Besides they might make a meal of you and that would mean that I would have wasted a whole day watching the wrong corpse. Uh uh son that ain’t gonna happen. You started this and you can damn well finish it.”
“Fine. I’ll stay but I want paid double at the end of this.”
“Good luck with that. I’ll be surprised if you see the other side of tonight.”
The two stopped speaking and concentrated on the forest looking for any signs of movement. The rain stopped making their task a little easier. John pulled the cover off himself a little to get a better look at the carcass. He sniffed the air and smiled. It was perfect. After a couple of hours Chris was sleeping so John took the opportunity to head out around the area and set up a couple of insurance policies. The kid was a liability he hadn’t counted on and things being as they were he couldn’t afford anything to go wrong.
He moved lightly, almost swimming through the green. He took care to set up snares and shallow spike traps using stingers that he had acquired from some rookie highway patrolman who mistakenly thought he was going too fast. When they saw what he was carrying in his trunk they were of the opinion that he wasn’t moving fast enough. He figured that the traps might stall them long enough for the kid to get a decent shot. He wasn’t worried about his scent as a mixture of mud and wolf musk kept it under control. By the time he got back into the small dug out the moon was starting to rise over the treetops, making silver light dance through the branches.
John shook Chris awake.
“Keep em peeled. It’s almost time.” In moments there were numerous sounds that were coming too often to be separate incidents. John handed Chris a night vision headset.
“Here. I brought these just in case they supplied me with a rookie.”
“Thanks. What about you though?” John shook his head lightly.
“Don’t need anything but my eyes and my instincts.”
“Ohh you’re one of the night stalker subjects aren’t you. I read about you guys. A few hunters got so annoyed with the night vision goggles being so cumbersome that they actually transplanted their eyes with an animal that could see in the dark like a leopard. Apparently some of the yakuza caught wind of this on the internet and its all the rage over there now. I never met someone who had done it though. Cool.”
“If you say so. Switch on your goggles and shut up.”
Chris did so, if a little hesitantly. A pack of large dogs were carefully picking their way through the forest. Chris began to line up his shot as the first one reached the deer. In a fast, fluid motion John grabbed the rifle and pointed it downwards without making a sound.
“Coyotes.” He whispered harshly while giving Chris a scowl.
“What?”
“They’re the bait don’t shoot em. The mongrels like fresh meat. They aren’t so picky as to what it is though.” A strange howl was heard off in the distance.
“Get your gun up.”
“But that was miles away.”
“Gun up now.” Chris did so but took his time about it not expecting to see anything. However when he looked up he found that the pack of coyotes were tucking into a hearty dinner, oblivious to the army of eyes that surrounded them. The wolves kept themselves hidden in the forest but they couldn’t hide the shine of their eyes from Chris. The forest was silent except for munching. John picked up a dry twig from his kindling box and snapped it. The coyotes looked up. The forest held it’s breath before chaos broke out. The wolves were upon the coyotes in an instant. Two or three got caught in the snares.
They howled in anger as they struggled to break free. Their struggles were in vain as Chris was firing and reloading like a madman. They yelped as they went down. Red blood mixed with the ground and coated the fur to make it gleam in the moonlight. Chris yelled, satisfied with finally getting a kill that meant something. He was finally a hunter. John yelled in anger.
“You idiot. Now they know where we are. Take the silencers off and let them hear you. Maybe that will make them keep their distance long enough to get a shot in.” John didn’t look worried as much as annoyed.
Chris soon lost his idiotic grin when he looked past the bodies on the forest floor, their tongues lolling. Eyes upon eyes stared back out of the darkness.
“Looks like the reinforcements are here.” The pack started to move. John took out a silver remote with a shiny red button at the top.
“I would advise you to get down.” John ducked and Chris scrambled desperately to get as low as possible. John put his ear to the ground. Chris followed, not hearing anything.
“That’s it. Just a little more…Now.” He pressed the button.
Nothing happened. Chris peeked his head up to see where the wolves were before John grabbed his head and pushed it down into the dirt. Chris fought to breathe for a second before he was let go. He was about to shout at John before an almighty “BOOM” sounded. Chris watched as bright light showed parts of the cover getting ripped to shreds by shrapnel. When the ringing in his ears died down. John smiled and signalled Chris to get up out of the dugout.
Chris emerged from the makeshift shelter with his mouth agape. Before him lay a field of death and destruction. At that point Chris began to understand the level of hunter John was and he saw it as something closer to a butcher or warlord then to a hunter. The radius of the blast damage had felled most of the trees. Those still standing were damaged almost to the point of falling. The forest floor gave him the biggest shock though, as what had to be fifty to seventy wolf corpses lay strewn in various conditions. The ground ran thick with blood. There were still incredibly some yelps among the fallen.
John smiled but a grim look stayed in his eyes as he swiftly assessed the damage.
“Damn. Still some breathing. Should have packed more C4 into her.”
“What the hell was that?”
“Modified Bouncing Betty anti personnel mine. I call it the Woodsman.”
“The Woodsman?”
“You know the story of little Red Riding Hood right?”
“Yeah. The Woodsman cut the wolf up releasing the girl and her grandmother.”
“Bingo. Same principal applies here. I just modified the height of the Betty’s bounce and packed it with an extra kick, namely C4.”
“A bit overkill don’t you think?” John frowned and shook his head.
“No. Are you blind? It only got the job half done. Come on we have to finish the job.”
Chris slowly gathered his wits and followed John as he proceeded to kick the corpses and shoot the twitchers. It was an ugly business that made Chris grateful for his desk job. John suddenly became enraged when he saw a particularly small pup.
“Scumbags. Mindless filth. What madness drove them to this? She couldn’t have been more than 5 years old. They should have killed her outright then spare her to suffer this fate.” Suddenly the amount of disappearances in the area started to make a bit more sense in Chris’ head.
“That’s probably Miranda Walker. I saw her on a milk carton recently. She's been missing for a month”
“Shut up. Don’t give them names. They died the moment they were bitten. A mongrel probably turned her. Notice the amount of black tufts on her white fur. She didn’t stand a chance. At least she is at some kind of peace now.”
Suddenly one of the wolves struggled free. It was quite obviously crippled from the back. Its cries were distorted as if it was trying to use a voice box that it didn’t have. However it only came out as a set of distorted howls and barks. John shot it without a moments hesitation. Chris gave him a cold look.
“I suppose you have to forget that they are human too.”
“No, but you do. Once they turn any human qualities they display are simply for show. For all intents and purposes they are wolves in human skins.”
“Monsters you mean.”
“No I meant what I just said. Humans are monsters. They are capable of far worse then these things. No there is a difference between monsters and animals. These things fall under the latter description.”
“Which are you I wonder?” Chris silently muttered.
John gave no indication whether he heard the last comment but a long, uncomfortable silence followed while John took care of the rest of the killing. Chris carried his weapon loosely by his side. He had lost all taste for killing. John suddenly stopped the halfhearted slaughter and sniffed the air. His eyes widened.
“Get ready. This isn’t over.”
“How do you know…?”
“Something just doesn’t feel right.” Five howls sounded from the outer ring of the devastation.
In seconds five majestic wolves stood side by side. The biggest of these took the middle position. Two were dark brown, two were a smoky grey and the leader was pure white. Each wolf’s coat was pure in colour and well looked after. Their eyes visibly shone a golden yellow though only John could see it as Chris still wore his night vision goggles.
“Purebreds. Chris you’d better run if you’re interested in living past tonight.” Chris turned his back and started running as fast as he could but after a few seconds he realised that he would have no chance of making it past the dugout, never mind making it through the forest.
John seemed to be having some kind of standoff with the wolves. His guns pointed straight at them, daring them to come closer. Their attention was focused entirely on the hunter. From his studies Chris realised that the large white wolf was the Alpha and although her death wouldn’t stop the wolves, it would buy John some much needed time. He closed his left eye and brought the crosshair of the sights up to the female’s head. A shot rang out echoing across the forest.
Smoke rose from the barrel of John’s gun as Chris clutched his chest. He gnashed his teeth in pain as he fell to his knees.
“Why?” The wolves’ fur shrank back into the skin. Bones clicked and cracked as they changed form into humans. Chris slowly removed his night vision goggles. The moonlight shone down on a strange scene. In the middle of a battlefield full of blood, trees and moonlight stood a family reunited. John stood there with the newly appeared woman in his arms and four children running about his feet. John told them to wait. The woman nodded, her long white hair gleaming. She was young and beautiful as were the children. The family revelled in the destruction before them.
John walked over to a dying Chris.
“I am truly sorry. I did try to save you. If you had just kept running you would have been spared but you understand I couldn’t allow you to kill my family.”
“Why did you kill the others?”
“They were not pure. You saw what they did to that child I couldn't let that sort of creature roam free for long. Besides, as I already explained I am a hunter.”
“Do me a favour will you?”
“What?”
“When they bury me, make sure they bury me as a hunter.” John nodded his head. This done Chris closed his eyes and breathed his last. John walked away from Chris, his golden eyes gleaming in the moonlight. His mate came over to him.
“Who was that my love?”
“A hunter my sweet. He was a hunter.” John smiled as he began to mull over the story he would give to the ranger in the morning. Soon another blanket of silence fell on the forest as a small pack of wolves crossed the battlefield disappearing into the darkness.
