The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 13

That night, they dropped down to the ground, and started heading north. Aoloa had plotted out a bath that would take them into Turkey, then across northern Iran to Afghanistan. The goal was to avoid pure desert, and give them enough game to eat with decent access to water.

He had dismissed the idea of stealing a car, and horses didn't react well to them. That meant they'd be traveling on foot. As much as possible, they planned to follow waterways and avoid people. They could, in theory, seek asylum from the Russian or Chinese embassies, but there was too much chance those countries would simply use them as experiments to perfect their own hybridization programs.

They traveled as quickly as they could, eating stray bugs and snakes as they went. They made it to mountains by dawn of the next day, and were able to find shelter from the sun. "Are you sure this is the best plan?" Hokulani asked as they cuddled against each other.

"No," he replied with a frown. "But I don't trust humans or their governments to treat us well. Heck, I never would have thought I'd be set up to be killed for asking questions. I don't want to run through the Sahara to try and get to good hunting grounds in Africa. I don't feel good about trying to hide in Europe. We could try getting on a ship, but that could get ugly, too." He sighed. "If we can make it into India or Thailand, we could probably hide out for the rest of our lives."

"What if we just hide out in Turkey? I mean, we're practically there, anyway. I just want a home. Going fifteen hundred miles to hide in mountains isn't my idea of fun. Plus, I want to be able to sneak some wifi once in a while."

Aoloa frowned slightly, but brought up a map in his comms and shared it with Hokulani. "There's a national forest about two hundred miles from here. About a week's travel would get us there."

Hokulani rewarded that idea with a smile. "Good food, nearby, civilization we can leach off of. Works for me."

And higher population density. Truth be told, we're used to the comforts of technology, though. He sighed. "Okay, Turkey it is."

---

The jackal eyed Hokulani mistrustfully. She was ignoring it, her eyes on a squirrel. Aoloa, on the other hand, was downwind from the jackal, creeping up on it. They found the other carnivores somewhat less skittish than the large herbivores.

Aoloa pounced, his hand wrapping around the jackal's throat, sharp nails digging into its throat. It yelped in pain, writing around, but he bit down on the back of its neck before ripping at its throat with his nails. It quickly bled out, collapsing under him.

Releasing the jackal, Aoloa stood up to find Hokulani trotting over to him, dead squirrel in hand, her orange and black hair bobbing slightly. He gave her a blank look. "Really?"

"It's food!" With that, she bit a hunk out of it. Aoloa shook his head slightly, before he started eating on the jackal. Hokulani stripped down the squirrel in almost no time, tossing aside bits and pieces as she finished them. Aoloa ate the heart and liver from his kill, dumping a few unappetizing organs on the ground for the ravens to finish off. The rest he brought with back to the cave they were using for shelter.

They'd used a combination of animal trails and tree paths to get a fairly secluded home that was unlikely to be disturbed by unwanted guests. Most of the predators were smaller than them, so they weren't too worried. They'd agreed that thinning out the other predators in the area would be a good idea, in general, to help them get more prey.

Hokulani flopped down on the floor of the cave, naked. She'd gotten rid of the clothes as soon as she could, wearing them only for warmth, as needed. Aoloa had followed suit. Clothing tended to catch of various branches of trees, much to his annoyance.

Their first "sanctuary" had proven useless, as it was all barren land. Moving a little further north, they'd found a wooded preserve they could use. They were close to the border of Armenia, as well, which gave them some options if they needed to change the nationality of where they were, for some reason.

Aoloa eyed her as she licked the blood from her hands and face, even as he did the same. The one thing he couldn't get over was how pretty she was. He'd watched plenty of videos of humans, and even the trimmest females was top-heavy. He'd wondered more than once if humans had been crossed with goats or cows in the distant past, but couldn't find any evidence for his theory.

It didn't take long for them to finish appreciating their company. Then they gathered up their clothes to go visit Igdir for a technology fix. It was while they were reading news after hacking into a home's wifi that they discovered their presence hadn't gone unnoticed. Apparently, rangers had noticed that there was something killing and dismembering predators in the preserve.

"This isn't good. They're going to start looking for us."

She glanced at him. "It's only local news, right now. If we chill out, it shouldn't attract attention. We just need to make sure we act more like normal animals."

"They noticed we're hitting predators, too."

"Do you want to move on?"

Consulting their maps, he found another forest preserve in Armenia. If they left immediately, they could arrive by morning and start digging in for a new home. After a bit of discussion, they agreed to move on. It put them in a smaller country, yet close to a metropolitan area. Overall, it seemed likely to be the best location for a while.

They quickly made it to the border of Armenia, a winding river, and assessed how best to cross. There were occasional bridges, but those involved armed checkpoints and guards. They couldn't afford that. "We're going to get wet, aren't we?" Hokulani asked.

"Yeah. We are," Aoloa grumbled in return. "I hate swimming."

They stripped down and made it across the river. They did manage to avoid their clothes getting overly wet, but it still wasn't comfortable. Once they'd crossed, they quickly got themselves lost in the countryside. In no time, they were back on a preserve, looking for their new home.