Jacks And Jokers

17: Predator and Prey

So far the watch was fairly uneventful. What I can only assume were wolves or coyotes howled in the distance, some of the jokers talked in their sleep, and I realized how clean the air smelled. 

Compared to the dingy putrid-smelling twos, nature had the cleanest air I'd ever breathed. If I were being all honest, the air was probably this pristine because of the lack of human interaction. There was also a lack of trash floating around that I was accustomed to in the twos.

I looked around making sure nothing was encroaching on our space. I saw nothing but felt a slight unease. I looked up at the trees remembering jokes about the Vietnamese people my teachers made. Nothing showed itself but I did finally notice the sheer size of the trees hiding us. They rivaled the tallest buildings I'd seen in the twos. Nearly 75 feet tall I got a true perspective on how small everyone was. 

That's when I heard the first twig crack, and adrenaline started rushing through my veins. An animalistic creature started to approach the campfire. I saw pristine white bone where chunks of flesh were missing. In many places where it did have skin, there were small patches of fur, and where you could see any skin, it was bloodstained. It had a head similar to a dear, but the similarities stopped there. It had sharp canine teeth, all stained red. Its ears, which had chunks ripped out, started to go flat and it bared its teeth even more in a growl. 

"Everyone wake up!" I yelled. I looked away for a second then looked back and it was gone. Right after this statement multiple of the same creature came into the clearing everyone was getting up in. Left and right all of them started to howl. Everyone shot onto their feet quickly and got back to back with one another.

"Wolves," Dakota said beside me. I jumped at the sound of his voice. I hadn't even realized he'd snuck up beside me. "I know how to kill them, but that means it'd be pissed off till he passes out and dies of bloodless." He said. I looked around and realized it had been my imagination. These were wolves, not whatever creature I had just seen. 

"I'm all ears," I responded as the wolves circled us looking for their first victim.

"Kick it in the nose as hard as you can! It'll make the nose bleed, and it'll bleed to death!" He said to everyone. "It works on all canines." He said to me. Then the first wolf lunged at him. He quickly pulled his knee out and extended the leg hitting it right on the nose. It yelped, fell back, and growled at him. The other wolves started snarling at everyone again.

Just as fast as they had come they stopped and started backing away in fear. Faster than a grandma making a hungry grandchild food, they ran away. We all looked around to see what had happened to make them flee and saw something horrifying. A bent card. Now in the dark, it looked more terrifying. Its previously bonelike spikes now glowed a cyan blue in the dark, and with that slight amount of luminescence, we noticed it held something. A dead wolf. Its back was broken, its body contorted into a grotesque figure. There was another thing in its hands. A dear skull missing skin most its skin with patches of fur stained red and black. 

Everyone slowly figured out this was a worse threat and slowly started backing away without taking their eyes off of it. It looked around at us, growled, and jumped up over the trees, and disappeared. 

"What was that about?" I asked Dakota. He quickly shrugged his shoulders

"Do you think I know anything about how this stuff works? Just be glad we're not gone like the rest of the jokers and guards." I knew he was right so I nodded.

"We should probably get going so the rest of the wolves don't catch up to us. Where should we head?" I asked him.

"I'm thinking probably north. That's away from the train tracks. We wouldn't want to risk the aces finding us if they wanted to come this far." He was right. 

In agreement, everyone started to head further north.

A few hours after we started walking the sun began to rise. The sun and a high from the adrenaline gave the forest a new beauty that I'd never noticed earlier. There were golden brown leaves still holding onto their tree, birds hopping across large branches, and the soothing sound of branches cracking from footfall. I started to think about what my mom might be thinking right now. Had the higher-ups told her I'd already been hauled out to my new home where I was supposed to stay? What if they killed my parents too? I quickly let that thought slip from my mind as I myself slipped over something else. 

I looked down to what had made me stumble and saw a crumbling clump of differentiating rocks. It seemed to be held together by some grey substance. I remember seeing really long strips of stuff miles long. I think they called this road. I bent down to look at it and pick some black tar-looking stuff.

"What is it, John?" Rien asked. He looked down at where my foot was pulled out from under me.

"Asphalt," Dakota replied. Now I could conclude he had a better education, or he actually paid attention to it. "I wonder what it leads to?" We kept walking for a short amount of time until we stumbled across another asphalt strip. We looked around again seeing the trees starting to thin out. Everyone soon started to head to the nearest exit of the forest. 

All around there were partially collapsed buildings similar to the structures in the twos I'd lived in. "A town!" Dakota exclaimed. "I wonder what town this was!" Everything was dilapidated. Buildings went on for a ways both directions before stopping along the road. Looking forward, all I could see were buildings without end again.

"Do you want to head in? See if there's anything of use or interest?" I asked Dakota.

"Ya, we might need supplies to survive out here." He looked at everyone before someone decided to speak up. 

"Should all of us be out in the open? What if they are looking for us? Some of us should stay behind." A shorter wider kid asked. He walked up to the front and approached Dakota and me. 

"That's a good idea. What's your name?" Dakota asked. 

"Rien," Rien replied.

"I agree with Rien. Any volunteers that want to go into the town with us?" Only one other hand was raised, and it was Rien. "Then let's go," I finished. After a few seconds, we finally started heading to the town. Everything was slowly crumbling down in the town. All three of us walked around looking for anything useful. All of the buildings we checked were extremely empty lacking any basic decor even the twos had. 

When we got back out of the latest building I heard the sound of rocks dropping to my right. I spun around and saw a person running out from a building missing a wall. As far as I could tell they were running for their life. 

I heard a yelp from Rien, then I yelled. "Follow that person!" 

As I started to run Dakota grabbed my shoulder to stop me. "What if they're an Ace?" 

I looked him in his green eyes and said, "Then we'd be the ones running," and started running after this person. 

They were really fast. The town was a maze that finally ran out when the figure finally stepped into one last building. All three of us rounded the last corner and followed in quick pursuit. 

The building may have been dark, but the glint of metal was unmistakable. Dakota, Rien, and I looked around. We were now being stared down upon by sharp spears in all directions. At the other end of each spear stood another person. 

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