Hunting trip

John and Merik decide to go hunting in the woods John is familiar with. People had been going missing in that area recently, they thought nothing of it until they were caught right in the middle of it

Snow litters the ground once again, footprints can be seen on the ground amongst the woods leading away from a 1967 Ford Shelby, snowflakes falling on top of the car. A mile away from the vehicle John and Merik are wondering the woods in search of wildlife. John’s M24 flung over his shoulder, wearing a brown winter leather jacket, fake fur leading out through the top, folded out to his broad shoulders. Denim jeans and black combat patrol boots. Merik has a real tree jacket fitting him tightly, denim jeans, and black walking boots. Merik has his bow in his hand and is trying to remember where the camp was in this part of the woods where he and John can go for a cup of coffee.

“Hard to believe we have been a part of Salvation for a year now, in a few days it will be the anniversary when we first joined.” John says while stepping over a large log.

“I know nearly a year since we broke into the f*****g white house too.” Merik says while laughing “Should be over this hill I think...”

“Yeah, not everyone can say they broke into the white house and destroyed a top secret file.” John says. “Yeah I can see the smoke.” They approach the encampment made for hunters. John walks up to a man who is putting up missing posters.

“What’s this about? Seems there is quite a few.” John asks the man.

“Oh, a lot of hunters have been going missing over the past months.” The man replies.

“Ah, well, these are dangerous woods. Can easily get lost in them if you don’t know your way around; I am pretty familiar with the area. I will keep my eye out for you.” John says while subtly tapping the man’s shoulder before walking back over to Merik.

“People have been going missing recently. Probably nothing. My dad, the real one, used to take us out here every weekend to hunt for our food, I was eight years old when I shot my first buck. Emily got lost all the time. Nothing to worry about.” John says to Merik.

“Something got me thinking, the only camp in this wood is this one, yet as we were driving up, a pillar of smoke rose out of the back of the woods, the f***s up with that eh?” Merik says putting his staff in his pocket not to attract attention to the million dollar piece of equipment in his hand.

“You have a point, even if people were to get lost they could see the smoke stack from this camp anyway, unless they fell down the hill into the wildlife. We’ll check it out on our loop back.” John says picking up a cup of coffee from the stall. A couple of kids run past them both, John smiles thinking about his childhood.

“How far away until I can start using my bow? Wouldn’t want any questions about it’s origins.” Merik says leaning against a tree with a coffee in his hand.

“We should get going now anyway. We have been out here an hour and I only have a couple rabbits.” John says throwing the remainder of his coffee onto the snow.

“Seems appropriate, on wards John!” Merik says holding his coffee in the air before flipping it one hundred and eighty degrees causing the remaining coffee in the cup to fall into the snow. They both proceed to walk deeper into the woods getting further away from the camp and other hunters.

“Yeah, down here is a good spot. We use to go here back in the day, no other hunters have been down here as far as I can tell. By the way, how is Sharon?” John asks while squeezing through a gap in some rocks.

“Fast. She is f*****g fast.” Merik says tripping over a log “She has been training under a strict schedule she put together with Octavia. Only get to see her about three times a week.”

“She really wants to be one of us huh.” John says.

“Looks like it” Merik says looking round to see if there were anyone around before pulling out his staff and switching it to the bow. John gets low and shushes Merik, pointing towards what looks like a buck in the brush. John raises his M24 and loads a bullet into the chamber, the bullet rings through the hills around them, it goes through the head, the buck doesn’t budge but the bullet sure went through, no blood is seen either.

“The hell?” John says curiously. They approach the buck and John kicks it over to find that it is a cardboard cutout. “Merik. What is this…?”

“Pixie magic?” Merik says looking around them. A stick is heard snapping behind them, John lifts his rifle and quickly spins around scanning the terrain around them. Suddenly a tranq dart is in John’s neck, he grabs his neck.

“Meri-” John collapses.

“The f**k is going on? Show yourselves pixie scum!” Merik shouts turning off his staff and placing it into his jacket before a tranq dart finds its way into Merik’s neck.

“F*****g wankers...” Merik shouts before falling to the floor.

John awakens in a cage in some kind of cabin basement. On the other side of the room is a bloody hand saw and multiple sharp tools, a very dim light in the corner and a metal table in the center covered in dry and recent blood.

“Merik? Merik!” John says, looking around not seeing him anywhere. “Allison?”

“Huh… Wha-” Allison wakes up.

“You okay? What happened?” John asks.

“I’m fine… It seem’s if substances that affect your consciousness are injected into your body, it affects mine too as I am inside your head.” Allison explains. John’s hands are cuffed behind his back to a pipe on the wall. He throws his lower body up and catches his belt with his mouth, he rips out the metal part of his buckle and spits it out behind him to use to pick the cuffs. Merik begins to growl as he wakes up, his skin has gone grey.

“F*****g pixies.” Merik says while he looks around he is in a dark room with a single beam of light coming from a corridor hitting him in the face “John!” Merik shouts “F**k, where is he. What’s that smell?” Merik tries to stand up but finds he is tied to a metal pipe he looks to his left to find a large pile of sausages and burgers, as Merik’s eyes adjusted to the darkness he noticed a pile of bodies in the corner. Merik begins to rock back and forth violently to see if he can make the pipe come loose. “Come on. Come on. I don’t want to be a f*****g sausage! I DO NOT, WANT, TO BE, A, F*****G, SAUSAGE!” Merik shouts picking up speed. Eventually the pipe breaks off and Merik shuffles into the corridor before standing up and seeing John in the opposite room. He takes a step back and crashes into the door.

“Mornin’ chuck.” Merik says blood dripping down his head from the broken glass in the door.

“Was wondering where you were.” John says opening his cage door before putting back on his belt. “I guess this is why everyone has been disappearing.”

“Most likely. Untie me yeah?” Merik says spinning round so his back is facing John.

“So what I was thinking is caniba-” John is cut off and he stops untying Merik as he notices a small pair of pink shoes in the corner. “Son-of-a-b***h…”

“What’s up?” Merik says trying to find what John was looking at.

“A little girl…” John says quietly. She wasn’t on the wanted posters John saw before. He unties Merik and approaches the shoes. “She might still be alive…” John continues. He grabs a knife from the bench and walks out of the room with determination. Merik reaches into his his pocket to check if his staff was still there. He pulls it out and follows John. “They didn’t find it.” Merik laughs to himself.

John never says it, but the truth is the shoes reminded him of when Emily almost fell down a cliff, he had found her pink shoe by the cliff, he had slid over to the edge and grabbed Emily’s hand that was hanging on to a loose rock. ‘John! Don’t you dare let me fall!’ She screamed. He pulled her up. She was in tears and he carried her to their father who had no idea what had happened. The flashback ends…

“I am going to slaughter every one of these b******s..” John says walking past a room with a sleeping man in it. He turns into the room and says:

“You sick f**k.” The man wakes up and sees John approaching him. John thrusts the knife into his stomach multiple times and notices his python falls out of the man’s pocket. He picks it up and checks the rounds, none had been used. A man on the other side of the room drowned in his music hadn’t noticed anything, John walks over and smacks his head off the table, kicking the shotgun away from the man.

“The little girl. Where is she?” John says with a bloodlust. The man says nothing. “I don’t have time for this.” John says raising his python and shooting the man in the crotch. “Where is she?” The man screams but John covers his mouth.

“She has just been taken to the shed…” The man replies. John kicks the man into nail on the wall piercing his neck. John drops the knife and walks past Merik. Minutes later they kick in the shed door. All the girl sees a stretched out revolver firing into one of the cannibals that was preparing the tools to do the unthinkable. An arrow flies past the door penetrating the other man’s heart. All sound is drowned from the girl's ears, she sees John mouthing the words.

“Merik, guard the door! I’ll get the girl, we have to get out of here now!” John shouts holstering his python and releasing the restraints keeping the girl pinned to a metal table. He picks her up and sees his gear on a nearby table, he places the girl on the side and throws on his jacket and slings his M24 over his shoulder. John picks her up. “Think you can cover us Merik? Not sure how many there are but there cannot be only four.”

“Sure. We ain’t letting anybody become a sausage in these woods ever again!” Merik says pulling the drawstring back and splitting the arrow into three.

“Alright, lead on.” John says standing behind Merik. Merik, John, and the girl slowly make their way back to the main camp.

“I’m just going to keep this out, I don’t trust any of these people.” Merik says as they approach the camp.

“Oh thank god!” The father of the girl sprints up to them and takes the girl out of John's hands. “Thank you! With all the disappearances I was scared something had happened.”

“It almost did. She was almost a sausage!” Merik says lowering his bow. “We were taken into a cabin deep in the woods where we were tied and locked in the basement. My friend here noticed your child’s shoes in the corner of the room he was locked in, we then found a man sleeping killed him. Found your daughter in a shed along with three cannibals, we killed them too, then we came back here.” Merik says while smiling “No. We are not murderers we are.... If you have any problems you can speak to our lawyers. Also we believe the disappearances are to do with the cannibals too and they were most likely made into sausages”.

“Okay….Cheers….Want a sausage?” The girl’s father says.

“No. No I do not.” Merik says walking backwards.

“And, I am gonna throw up.” John says. “However, we do need some meat to take back with us. Preferably not human meat.” Most of the camps hunters gave up their bucks, rabbits, pretty much anything they caught, however John and Merik only accepted a buck and a few rabbits. “Oh and before I forget.” John says walking over to the father. “Here is 250 bucks. It’s for the therapy your daughter is going to need.” John slides the bills into the man’s pocket and walks away. As they are walking away John turns to Merik. “What happened to me today, does not leave these woods.”

“Okay, okay. But I swear to god. With you as my witness! If any f****r mentions f*****g sausage or burgers. They will be waking up in the river.” Merik says before telling John what was in the room he was in.

They return to the facility and head up to the dorms. Emily runs up to John.

“John! How was the hunting? I haven’t been there in years.” She says.

“Er- It was interesting to say the least.” John replies.

“Well I hope you brought back some red meat I am starving!” She says.

“Oh god, I am gonna be sick.” John says covering his mouth and running to the bathroom to throw up. Merik throws a rabbit in her direction.

“Go nuts.” Merik says, his skin still grey from the experience.

“Hey Merik want a hotdog?” Jason says poking his head round the door of the rec room.

“Do not. Say that. After what I have seen!” Merik says walking into his room and slamming the door.

A couple hours later, John is in his room changing the supporting bandage going around his body from his battle with the mech two weeks before.

“Allison, how’s it looking?” John asks, stretching his arm.

“It is making a very quick recovery from what I can tell.” Allison replies. John throws a shirt over his body.

“I don’t get it.” John says.

“Get what, John?” Allison asks with curiosity.

“Why- How does trouble or danger always find us?! It is like the world is throwing everything it has at us to get rid of us, but it never goes to plan for it. I am not one to think about religion, but it seems like we have a guardian angel.” John says emptying a magazine out of his M9 and gradually taking it apart.

“And this upsets you?” Allison asks.

“No. No it doesn’t. But it is always a close call, or a near death experience with one of us but we never actually die, we always pull through. Y’know I am starting to think we are immortal.” John says, stopping what he was doing and placing his hands on the dresser.

“Maybe you’re right. I wasn’t going to bring it up, but now that you mention it, the shock wave from the mech on the oil rig should have shattered your body, regardless of the suits capabilities, but you got out with a broken collarbone…” Allison says. “I cannot explain it.”

“This just get’s better and better.” John says under his breath. He throws throws the M9 back together and lays down on his bed staring at the ceiling.

Author's Note

Fairly short chapter, probably the shortest one of the book so far.