Predator: A Hunter's Journey (ON HOLD)

Chapter 3 - The Hunt

My squad and I silently walk through the jungle that separates us from the rendezvous point in Bogota. Paul and Rico take off their balaclavas which causes a huff of annoyance from me. I get that we're in the jungle and very few, if any people will see us, but we're still in hostile territory. A glare from me soon gets them to put them back on, however.

As we walk, I get the feeling that we're being watched again. Looking around, I see that there's nothing in the vicinity so I relax slightly, but I still can't shake the feeling. Unsurprisingly, Rico is complaining about not being able to test out his drone as much as he'd have liked to. I'm convinced that he has the mind of a small child.

After a few hours of walking, we decide to stop by a stream to relax for a while. Sitting down, I take off my plate carrier and lay it beside me on the bank. Paul makes his way over to me and unceremoniously flops down onto the dry grass beside me. He quietly sits beside me for a few minutes before turning to me with concern in his eyes.

"Matt, I need to talk to you."

"Oh? What do you need to say? No wait, let me guess, IHOP took your favorite item off the menu?" I jokingly say.

"No, it's not that although if they do, I'll fuck them up." He suddenly lowers his voice. "I think we're being stalked."

"I know. I told Rico but he just shrugged it off. The kid doesn't believe me. Thinks I'm paranoid. But for now let's keep our heads on a swivel, our ears to the ground and our mouths shut. Got it?"

Paul nods before standing up, dusting himself off and walking over to the others. I soon grab my plate carrier, put it on, check the rest of my gear and join them. We set off and continue towards the town but we soon reach a cliff face. Knowing we had no way of climbing straight up it, we began searching for an alternate route up.

We find one and begin to walk up the slope. While walking up the hill, I spot a shimmering translucent object on the side of the cliff. It appears to distort anything behind it. I close my eyes for a second, thinking I'm dreaming and when I open them again, there was nothing there. It's as if I'm having hallucinations. I decide not to bring it up with my squad because I know how it'll end; with me sitting on a shrink's couch.

We reach the top of the cliff and look out over Bogota ahead of us. Taking in the view, I notice that in the vast sea of shimmering lights, there is one area on the outskirts where there are almost no lights. That must be the slum where we're supposed to meet our contact. I only hope that we aren't going to get shot at on first sight by them.

"Alright guys, let's go." I whisper to the 3 other people as we cautiously make our way down the hill.

I come close to tripping on a couple of roots but always manage to catch myself just in time. All the while the feeling of being stalked growing stronger by the minute. My mind begins to drift back to when we were making our way up the cliff and I saw that odd shape. What was it? Was it human? It was certainly human shaped but it looked like it was over 7' tall. No one can grow that tall, right?

We make it to the very outskirts of the city and everything is strangely quiet. Most cities are a lot busier than this, even at 5 am. What's going on here? Where is everyone? Soon, the feeling of being watched starts to get slightly stronger, making me slightly agitated.

We reach the street with the house, if you could even call it that. It was pretty much just a shack made of corrugated metal with a smashed window and a door made of a few 2×4's nailed together. Even though it looked like it belonged here, we knew that the basement was anything but.

A muffled cry from behind wrenches me out of my thoughts. Looking around I noticed that Rico wasn't with us. We decide to backtrack, looking for the source of the noise until me and the other two turn down an alleyway and see something that made my skin crawl.

There, on the ground was Rico, lying face down in a pool of his own blood with what looks like a massive slash mark on his back. I almost had to do a double take when I notice that his head was missing. It definitely didn't look like it was cut off, no, it was torn off. Behind me, I can hear Jonah gagging and Paul whispering a hushed prayer for either us or Rico.

I kneel down, placing my rifle on the ground beside me to look for his dog tags when I notice something else, his spine was torn out. Torn out! What kind of sick person does that? His pelvis and ribs were still there but almost his entire spine was missing. I'm focused on Rico so I don't hear anything drop down behind Jonah and Paul.

A few seconds later I hear a scream of agony and notice the...thing I saw earlier standing behind the limp bodies of my two friends. I freeze up in fear, something that I haven't done since my first deployment to Afghanistan. The translucent thing let's out an ear-splitting roar before charging at me, pulling out a spear.

It throws the spear at me but I roll away just in time. I smirk to myself hearing the spear get stuck in the wall. I pull out my bowie knife that still has a little sicario blood on it and get into a fighting stance. I've been learning krav maga since I was six and it's only taken 20 years but I finally got my 8th degree black belt last month.

The creature decloaks itself revealing exactly what it looks like. It had tan skin with what look almost like tiger stripes. It was wearing minimal armor and it was wearing fishnet underneath it. It's dreadlocks were white with black bands on them.

"What the hell are you?"

It responds with another roar and charges me with its wrist blades, slashing downward toward my head. Anticipating the move, I side step it and counter with a kick to its back. The kick was largely ineffective, only causing it to stumble slightly. I close the gap and try stabbing the creature with my bowie knife. It catches it between its gauntlet and shoves me on the ground.

I become momentarily stunned as I'm thrown to the ground. The creature takes advantage of this and punches me in the face. I scramble back and stagger to my feet, still dazed after the punch.

"Come at me motherfucker. I'm right here." I taunt the creature hoping it takes the bait. It becomes enraged and charges towards me, throwing punches at lightning fast speeds. While his attacks were fast, they were sloppy and easy to deflect, giving me a chance to find an opening. Got it. After a particularly careless punch, I duck and kick upwards, hitting the creature in the jaw.

It wasn't as effective as I hoped, barely causing the creature to stumble. The kick however gave the creature an opportunity to attack. As I regain my footing, out of the corner of my my eye, I spot a fist shooting towards my head. I dont have time to block it as a dull pain radiates through my head. I collapse to the ground, vision becoming blurry. The last thing I see before I pass out is another of the creatures stopping the one I fought from stabbing me in the head.