The hunter's bow

The final strike

Aksel's pov
I gripped my rifle as Finka ordered "let's get moving! We need to reach the rally point in an hour" I sighed but started walking with tinker before I looked over and asked "how're you holding up?" She looked at me and asked "do you think I'm that fragile?" I shook my head no and replied "just checking in on a friend" I heard her chuckle before she replied "I'm fine, happy to get moving again" I nodded and stretched before I heard Thatcher "stop talking" I mimicked mockingly "stop talking" as Ash sighed muttering shortly after "here we fucking go" thatcher turned and asked angrily "what did you say?!" I mimicked again increasing the mocking tone as I repeated every word "what did you say?" He grumbled "why you fuckin brat" I laughed at him before replying suddenly deadly serious as I tightly gripped my bow "watch where you step old man, we wouldn't want you to have a heart attack" he rolled his eyes and asked "what're you going to do? Shoot me?" I reached behind my head gripping the fletching of an arrow before I growled out in a harsh gravelly tone "I just fucking might"
Finka stopped and yelled "enough!" We stared at her before she spoke "thatcher get back to the RON, now!" He looked at her in betrayal before he spoke "and that fuckin walking ego gets to go?" She nodded and replied "he's a stealth expert, I'll be needing his expertise. I cannot deal with you two constantly at one another's throats. Now get back to the RON and wait until we get back. Fucking children" as he walked past me I smiled victoriously letting him know exactly how I felt before walking after the group my hands now firmly on my 416 as Tinker leaned over and whispered "you should try to get along with him" I replied back in the same tone "I'll get along with him when he finally croaks, the fuckin relic" ash spoke "I don't know why you two have it out for each other so badly" I replied "I've spent my entire life being question by superiors, I've proven them all wrong. Now that I'm a bit prideful that fuckin dinosaur, who thinks he's always right, thinks he has the right to question anything I do? lort(bullshit), he can fuck off and die. The only thing he's good for"
       I heard Finka "enough, well deal with this after the mission. But one of you is getting sent back to base" I rolled my eyes but kept quiet as we walked. Occasionally we saw a sentinel patrol, most of the time we let them pass to keep the fact we were making a move quiet. I stood after the patrol past and continued on the course to where we were meeting Nomad before I stopped and looked at the ground seeing a track I didn't recognize. I pressed my hand next to it and muttered to myself "a new enemy" I heard Tinker "the brief talked about the wolves still being active on the island" I nodded but couldn't shake the feeling something was off with the whole thing, if these wolves are supposed to be ex-ghosts, they should know better than to allow themselves to leave evidence. I know I certainly never leave my tracks undisturbed like this, I looked in the direction the tracks go, it was the direction the sentinel patrols have all been moving tonight. I sighed and shook off the urge to go investigate as Finka asked "we good?"
       I looked to my left in the direction of the tracks and made my decision "ja, we're good" as I stood and the team continued past me. I stared in the direction before following the team only to have tinker whisper "what's the problem? You look spooked" I replied in the same tone "those tracks, they seemed to obvious. Something about them was unnatural, the wolves should know better" she nodded as we continued until we reached the rally point and I did my typical ritual and quickly hid myself away, avoiding any chance at being the one to give away our position. The team set up a small perimeter until nomad walked up, Finka and Her started talking as I leaned against the tree scanning the forest until Finka spoke "let's go, nomad has our ride" I sighed as I pushed myself to my feet before turning and following the group as we followed Nomad. Finka kept asking questions to get a better idea of what we were assaulting and the forces on target while I looked around before tinker looked back at me to say something and I gasped lightly as I saw the moon seem to dance in her eyes.
I looked at her and she looked ethereal before I shook from my stupor and listened as she spoke excitedly "we're gonna kick some ass and put a stop to this" I nodded along not trusting my voice before I thought to myself and asked 'am I falling for her? I can't be we just met what the fuck' I sighed internally and continued after the group thinking about what just happened before we got to the buggy. I sat in the back using my legs to keep me in position as nomad took the wheel. I didn't like the fact we were taking a car and making a lot of noise on the main road but Nomad had been on the island much longer than me and she was willing to take the risk so I sat quietly and watched the road behind us. It didn't seem like anyone was out tonight, but high seemed strange to me. I heard Ash "nomad is it usually this dead?" She replied "no, there's always checkpoints or patrol convoys. It's never been this quiet since we arrived" that made my anxiety jump, the weird tracks, the unusual quietness, something was going down tonight.
We had a bit of a drive to go but the longer this island seemed dead the more my anxiety climbed, I looked around for even a single light from a patrol only to see nothing. I asked "what happened to the patrols? We ran into 3 of them on the 3 klick walk to the rally" nomad spoke "well cross that bridge when we get to it, for now we free the doctors and get them to erewhon" I sighed but agreed that was the best plan. By the time we got there it was close to midnight, I pulled down my NVGs and saw the world painted in a green glow. I looked at the building and saw no outer guard I sighed muttering breathily "no fuckin way this night gets weirder" as Nomad spoke "we're gonna have to breach with explosives, ash you're our resident expert" I saw ash grin as she lifted her CREM and took aim. We set up breaches on two doors and nodded once we were set. Finka radioed "Nomad, we're good to go" Nomad replied "as are we" just for the charges to detonate and a thick plume of smoke to fill the inside of the lab.
I rushed inside holding my 416 in a high ready as I walked in and went to the right seeing a sentinel soldier shaking his head from the blast, I fired killing him before I fired 3 more rounds into his corpse as I moved past i shifted my aim to the next silhouettes seeing a scientist emerge from the smoke frantically. I pushed deeper as I heard the others firing only to have the smoke start clearing with its exit revealing that all the soldiers had been killed. Nomad started talking to the lead scientist as I took up position next to one of the doors looking out expecting reinforcements from sentinel but they never came. I wasn't at all liking the way the situation grew even as it was in our favor. I looked at Finka and almost yelled "get thatcher to the road! We need to get him!" Nomad looked at me in shock before she spoke "you figured out what's bothering you, haven't you?" I yelled "those tracks! They led to the cave that loops around to our base camp!" Finka shouted into the radio "Thatcher grab your gun and run to the road! Sentinel is gonna be there any second!"
He replied "aye lass, I'm moving" I looked at nomad as she grabbed the scientist and we all ran to the buggy. I silently kicked myself for not figuring it out sooner, I'm a master of this kind of stuff and I couldn't figure it out? Damnit all. I braced myself in the back of the buggy as Nomad pushed the car to the upper limits of its speed and we tore back towards the spot on the road next to our camp. I stood and gripped the back of the turret ring to hold myself upright while scanning for any sentinel activity. Even now the place seemed unusually dead, I radioed "thatcher how's your escape going?" He replied huffing "the fook do you care?" I replied angrily "answer the damn question dinosaur" he replied "things are a bit sticky, I've got atleast 15 tears chasing me" I patted Tinker's shoulder and radioed "get to the road and we'll give them a parting gift" I heard a chuckle from thatcher as the comms went silent. I checked my magazine and yelled "du har officielt vred mig!(you have officially pissed me off!)"
      Finka turned and yelled "1 minute!" I smirked as Thatcher spoke in comms "I'm at the road" ash replied "we're 1 minute out" thatcher replied as gunfire filled the comms "Oh Bullocks 'ake it 45 seconds" I sighed as we came around the turn and I saw the Star Wars like tracers flying criss cross through the air. Tinker reacted first and hoisted the Minigun to the left before opening it up shredding the forest with the rounds as I heard some screams from the enemies that the Minigun managed to reach as the buggy came to a halt and I jumped out charging into the jungle as the rest of the team disembarked. I made a quick stealthy advance up the left flank before I got to the side of the sentinel line where I lifted my 416 and braced it against a tree trunk before I unloaded the remaining 72 rounds into the 8 enemies I saw. As soon as the gunfight started it fell to a tense silence as we waited for someone to make a move we could react to. I reloaded quickly and leveled my rifle again just to see 2 sentinel troops trying to escape, my justice was quick and accurate as they fell face first into the mud dead.
We all returned to the buggy and I sat in my seat at the back as Nomad spoke "we're heading to erewhon just follow me when we get there, alright? The locals can be a bit rude" I shrugged and looked at thatcher decided to throw a jab at him "cant be any meaner than the fossil" he sighed and the rest of the team braced for the inevitable fight which never came. I sighed and muttered "fuckin buzz kill, can't even entertain me" we drove up the mountain before suddenly coming to a stop infront of what looked like a camouflage net. We all disembarked and everyone except Nomad and I as we walked towards the camo net. She looked at me and asked "so you spotted it?" I nodded and replied "I always look for the unnatural" before she yelled "hey, over here!" And everyone came over swiftly before she parted the net and we walked inside. One of the locals commented "more people nomad?" As the scientist looked around fearfully and I simply followed Nomad, never taking my hand off the grip of my rifle before we walked into the main chamber of the mountain and I saw all the stalls and people running around, families and children ran around. I looked around and could only get out "det er smukt....(it's beautiful....)"