The Great Hunt
Alan Linneweber
Prologue
Raven crouched in the bushes, his long, black hair tied back in a tight ponytail to keep it from catching on the branches around him. Through a gap in the leaves he watched the van. It was parked under the trees on the side of this dirt track, far from the nearby town. Dim light shone from the windows at the back and music drifted out from a slightly open window on one side. Occasionally what sounded like a girl’s laughter mixed with the music and the van would rock slightly. Anybody observing the van would think that there were teenage lovers inside. And that was the plan.
No moon shone tonight, just the stars sparkling in the sky. Above and around Raven the gum trees and melaleucas swayed in the breeze. Even without the moon to illuminate them the gum trees had a distinctive shine in the starlight. Crickets buzzed and here and there Raven could hear frogs croaking. Occasionally a loud grunting would echo through the trees, sounding almost like a snoring pig. On a different occasion Raven might have smiled, knowing that tourists would never guess that the sound was actually koalas grunting in their treetops. Now, his mind was concentrated to a fine point on the job at hand.
Raven’s hand clenched around the handle of his weapon. The crossbow had been a present from his father, when he had turned 13. His father had called it a rite of passage to bear his own weapon. Raven had wielded it well over the years since, dealing many blows to those he Hunted. Tonight however, something didn’t feel right. Ebony’s plan was sound, but something about it was unsettling Raven’s stomach. He glanced briefly at his watch, but the dark was too thick and he knew better than to turn on a light. He figured he’d been out here, in the bush, for at least two hours. He’d wait half an hour more, if nothing happened by then, he’d call the night off. He’d been Hunting for longer than any of his crew, he trusted his gut.
He was just getting ready to stand up when something stopped him. He held his breath for a moment, trying to put his finger on what it was. Then he saw it. What seemed little more than a shadow, darker than the surrounding gloom, was slowly working it’s way towards the van. Raven calmed his breathing and slowly raised his crossbow to his shoulder. He knew not to hurry, he had time. He followed the shadow with the tip of the bolt, his finger resting by the trigger. The string was taught and he trusted it to deliver the missile straight to his target. His finger moved across to the trigger and he held his breath, ready to loose the bolt. And that’s when all hell broke loose.
Ebony sat in the back of the van, she was bored. Occasionally she let out a laugh and moved about. Making the bait “jiggle on the hook” as Adam liked to call it. It was her plan, she really shouldn’t complain but she was bored already. She hated playing the bait, she’d much rather be out there, in the thick of things. When she was young she’d dreamed of travelling and having adventures. She would play with her best friend, imagining they were being chased by head-hunters in the darkest jungles in Africa or searching for signs of ancient aliens in South America. They would have adventures for hours in her treehouse, until her mum would call them and they’d have to go inside to eat. Now, all these years later, her mother and her friend long buried behind her, she had the opportunity to have adventures like she'd never dreamed about and she’d assigned herself to the most boring role. She probably wouldn’t even know what was happening until it was over.
“Bugger that!” she muttered under her breath. There was a spare bow under one of these seats. She rummaged under one bench seat and then the other, coming up with an old bow and several arrows. She smiled to herself. She peeked out the back window of the van. Ah! Perfect timing, here came their victim, unaware of what was awaiting him. Carefully, she slowly and silently unlatched the door and then sat back.
She counted slowly in her head, ‘1, 2, 3 - now!’ She kicked out with her right leg, slamming the back doors of the van open. The interior light spilled out and there, mere metres away stood the thing she was hunting. A look of puzzlement went across it’s face briefly before the arrow flew through the air, slamming into it’s chest. There was no way an experienced markswoman like Ebony could miss at such a range.
Adam ran the razor sharp edge of his knife across his forearm, easily shaving a section of hair to the skin. He wiped the blade on his jeans. His eyes drifted past his leg, past the thick branch he had straddled and further down to where, barely a meter to his left, the van was parked. He had sat patiently for a long time, occasionally using his knife to carve graffiti into the branch in front of him. If he felt this bored he could imagine how bored Ebony felt. Absently he slapped the knife gently against the muscle on his right arm. There was no way that Ebony was going to let Raven have all the action this time. Adam could feel his stomach tightening and the hairs standing up on his arms, except for that little patch he'd just cut. He smiled, tonight was going to be fun. He'd learned a while back that, for whatever reason, his senses were better than the others, his body seems to respond to Hunted before he even realized it, sometimes it was almost as if he smelled them coming. Ebony had said once that it was almost as if Adam was born for the Hunt.
A shiver ran through Adam's body and his thighs tightened their grip on the branch. Below him a shadow seemed to drift across the dirt road towards the back of the van. As it got near the van, almost directly beneath Adam, the doors of the van slammed open and light spilled onto the shadow, revealing it to be a human shape, an ordinary person would believe it was just a man. Adam smiled to himself, he was right, Ebony WAS bored with her role. An arrow sang into the figures chest and he toppled backwards, landing flat on his back, it's cold dead eyes staring straight at Adam. The dead eyes flickered back and forth, looking for escape. Adam could imagine the frustration in the things brain as it tried but failed to move. Adam knew that the creature was paralyzed, any Hunter worth his weight knew that as long as the heart of a Fang was pierced it could not move.
A whoop sounded from the van and Ebony stumbled out, one of the old bows in her hand, Adam was impressed that she'd been able to fire it so accurately. That was when it hit him.
'Oh, shit,' he thought and started to swing his right leg over the branch.
Raven dropped his crossbow arm to his side as Ebony stumbled out of the van, laughing and hollering. He started to push his way through the bush out onto the road, the beginning of a curse on his lips. The Fang suddenly stood up beside Ebony and the words stuck in Raven's throat. The crossbow slipped from his suddenly numb fingers as he watched the figure swing it's arm and hit Ebony, hard. The force of the blow knocked Ebony off her feet, backwards into the van, through the doors she just come out of.
"Ebony!" the primal scream ripped from Raven's throat. He would feel the pain later. Right now he had to act. He started to raise his arms and then realized he was no longer holding the crossbow.
"No, no, no, no, no!!" he sputtered as he fell to his knees, groping amongst the leaves to find it, all the time knowing he was going to be too late. He glanced towards the van and saw, while his yell had momentarily distracted the Fang, it was now facing back into the van, there was no way he could help Ebony now. Her only salvation now would come if Adam was willing to try to distract it long enough.
Adam’s right leg came over the branch and he pushed himself into air. Below him he saw Ebony fly backwards into the van and he could hear Raven yelling, but that didn't matter. All that mattered now to Adam was the blood rushing through his veins, pounding in his ears, drowning out all other sounds and thoughts.
Adam hit the dirt road hard and rolled, coming up between the Fang and the van. He tossed his knife from hand to hand and grinned. He could feel his whole body heating up with the blood coursing through him. He could feel it in his toes and the way they tingled, on his scalp and how it made him itch and mostly he could feel the effects of the blood on his groin, the growing heat there making this even more exciting.
"Wanna dance?" he spoke softly to the Fang and lunged forward, slicing with his knife.
The Fang skittered backwards, it's face showing surprise at first and Adam was sure for a moment he saw fear cross the face as well. In the years since he'd, literally, stumbled into the Hunt he had worked to take down many Fangs but rarely hand to hand and never alone before. Fangs were fast, too fast to take down in a one on one fight. The best bet was bows and crossbows, paralyze them from afar. Once he'd even used a grenade, it hadn't killed the Fang but it did enough damage to slow it down. Fangs weren't impossible to kill, just very hard, unless you knew what you were doing. You had to separate the heart from the rest of the body or they'd just keep coming like that damn rabbit in the battery ads. So now, when he saw fear cross its face, Adam hesitated and that hesitation cost him any advantage he'd ever had.
The thing dodged his first slice and then his second and third too. Adam offered up a little prayer that someone would intervene but all thoughts left his head as it lunged forward and grabbed him by the throat. Adam was neither small or light, his large, well muscled frame wasn't something a normal person could just toss around but the Fang lifted him off his feet with ease. Fear and rage pulsed through Adam in equal measures and his vision narrowed, blurring, he knew he was on the verge of losing himself to his own rage but it would be impotent against this Fang, he was lost to its clutches. The creature pulled Adam close to it and Adam's brain screamed at him that it would bite him. Between the fear and wrath battling inside him Adam barely heard what the thing whispered in his ear.
"If you knew how to control your lust you might've had me. But now, all three of you will die," Then it pivoted and flung him into the woods. As he flew through the air, Adam had a chance to think 'Three?' before he hit something, hard, and thankfully blackness claimed him before the pain from his broken bones hit him.
Raven had watched the very one sided fight as he'd scrambled to reclaim his weapon. He'd managed the pick up his crossbow but the bolt had jarred loose and he would need to get a new one in place. As he saw the Fang fling Adam's body into the darkness, Raven knew he would not have enough time. The Fang spun to look at Ravens location, it knew he was the biggest threat now and it would easily get to him before he could fire.
The Fang managed to take one step before an arrow seemed to sprout from its chest and once again, it toppled over into the dirt. Raven managed to quickly slot a bolt into place and stepped into the road. He approached the Fang cautiously, his crossbow trained on it. When he could see the placement of the arrow he knew it wasn't getting up again and he lowered his crossbow. As if that was a signal Kim stepped from the bushes on the other side of the road. Her long brown hair was tied up in a bun, her brown eyes wide. In the light that came from the van Raven could see her pale skin looked even paler than normal, each freckle standing out, even in this dim light.
"Guess it sure does pay to have backup, huh?" he said weakly. Kim looked at him and then the bow dropped from her hands as she dashed into the woods, calling Adam's name as she went. Raven turned towards the van, that was where the first aid kit was, if Adam had survived, he'd need it. More importantly, as far as Raven was concerned was the fact that that's where Ebony was. As he approached the van Ebony appeared in the doorway there was blood on her face but she was smiling a weak smile.
"It's down," she said, looking past him at the thing laying in the road. "At least we'll get paid."
Excerpt from the journal of Kim Davids.
'The Great Hunt has been here since humans first learned they are not alone' that's what Raven says and apparently his family have been Hunters for centuries, so he'd know, right? I dont know whether I'd believe half of the stuff he tells me if it wasn't for the fact I've seen them, vampires (or Fangs as the guys call them), werewolves (Loops), so many things I can't even describe, we even hunted down a goblin once. Apparently there's a lot I haven't seen too. We haven't dealt with a ghoul since I've been around but Adam told me a story once of one they killed in South Africa. I shudder still when I think about what he told me, they eat the dead!
Anyway, I digress. It's hard sometimes, knowing what I know and not being able to tell everybody. 'The Hunt is secret for the safety of Hunters and the unaware alike' thats another thing Raven says. I sometimes find it hard to talk to the others without feeling silly, I'm still so new to it all, it's barely been a year since Adam saved me and I joined them. He puzzles me. He saved my life and then, he argued against me coming, like he hated me before he even knew me. And sometimes I see him looking at me and I think he's interested but then he takes strangers to bed in each town. Guys, girls, he doesn't care, and he's never short of admirers, he's good looking, you know, if you're into muscled sex-gods (by the way, I've shared a wall with him in hotels, when he beds someone it's not "making love" it's fucking. I've heard the screams).
And once again I digress. I was saying I feel like the new kid, Raven's been part of the Hunt since before he could walk and Eb and Adam have been at it for years. And here I am, the girl who says things like 'Are chupacabras real?'. That's me! Sometimes I wonder why I do it. You know, it may be exciting and fascinating but it's dangerous. I met Raven's uncle once. Guy has no left hand, no left ear and no right eye! Lost them all to a pack of Loops. He also lost one of hs sons that night too. Ebony lost her mother to a Fang. And then there's this guy Joey. I'm not quite sure but I think he was a friend of Adams, though I've heard Eb mention him a few times too, like she knew him. But I know Adam and Eb didn't grow up together or anything. It's almost impossible to get a straight answer at the best of times from Adam but at the mention of Joey he shuts up more than usual. Eb can be almost as bad sometimes. STOP DIGRESSING, KIM! Sometimes I have to be harsh with myself.
I guess, as dangerous as it can be, I Hunt because I feel like I'm making a difference. Maybe just by Hunting I can stop someone like Eb losing their mum, I could save someone like Adam and the others saved me. I think that's why I joined the Hunt and why I'll continue to Hunt. Plus, the money is REALLY good.
