Hollow ▪️ S. Stilinski

xii.

"Tracking them by print?" Johanna Argent looked around the dark forest, dropping her hunting bag to the wet forest floor. "Trying to." Scott nodded as he glanced over at the smiling Marianna by the Argent girl's side. "Well, then you've been wasting your time. There's only one creature on Earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man." Johanna squatted down to look at the footprints, glancing over at Isaac's sneakers. "And if you're not trained like me you have no idea that this print is Boyd's, and these-" Johann's explanation was cut off by another.

"Are Cora's." Isaac pointed down at the prints matter-of-factly as he casually leaned against a tree. "No, they're yours." Johanna gave the werewolf an annoyed look. "You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here." Marianna glanced over the beta and she placed her hand on her hip. "Who's she again?" Isaac returned the look with a bit of suspicion. "I'm Marianna, Johanna's best friend and full-time hunter." Marianna answered the question herself. "Johanna has friends?" Isaac let out a scoff, not believing the girl.

"Alright enough, I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting the full moon but that makes you look stupid compared to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in to their urge to maim and kill. They put the peddle to the floor while you three are barely hitting the speed limit." Johanna redirected the conversation. "So, what do we do?" Derek sighed, slightly annoyed that a teenager was Scott's version of 'real help'. "Focus on your sense of smell, actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them." Johanna explained to the group.

"If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent up to two miles, which means we can draw them to us or into a trap." Johanna explained as she dug through her back and threw a net at Scott. "The full moon gives us one advantage, they'll have a higher heat signature. Which makes them easier to spot with infrared." Johanna threw two pairs of goggles at Isaac and Derek. "Thanks, but I've got my own." Derek flashed his bright red eyes as he glanced down at the object in his hand.

"Your choice, just remember we're not hunting wild animals, underneath those beasts are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on their human side. Just because it's suppressed, doesn't mean it's not there, reminding them how to mask their scent, cover their tracks, and survive." Johanna took Derek's goggles back and gave them to Scott. Johanna slung the bag over her shoulder and made her way to the lookout behind Isaac. The three werewolves followed the pair of hunters as Johanna scanned the city below.

"When's the last time you saw your sister?" Johanna took her eyes off the city to look over at Derek. "Nine years, thought she died in the fire." Derek answered honestly. "Do you feel like you can pick out her scent?" Johanna questioned, Derek shaking his head no in response. "Scott, how confident are you?" Johanna looked at the newly turned werewolf, hoping someone would be helpful. "Honestly, most of the time I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell." Scott confessed and Johanna took a deep breath. "Alright, the real problem is when they find their way out of the woods and start terrorizing the residential areas." Marianna pointed out the most important detail. "Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of Beacon Hills." Johanna agreed with Marianna's statement.

"They're not going to kill everything they see, right?" Isaac looked at the two hunters hopeful. "No, but wolves hunt for food, at a certain point they get full, Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need get satiated." Johanna ranted to the werewolves. "We can't kill them." Scott was hoping that Johanna had a real solution. "What if we can't catch them?" Derek was ready to give up. "The maybe we just need to contain them." Marianna offered the solution the group was looking for. "There's no one in the school at night, is there?" Scott racked his brain for where to trap the wolves. "You want us to trap them inside?" Derek questioned Scott in disbelief. "If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside." Johanna shrugged, impressed at Scott's idea.