The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 14

The pair warily eyed the bear that stood before their cave entrance. They had a shallow home that gave them the ability to avoid direct observation. Unfortunately, this had resulted in a bear now standing outside, eying them just as warily. It was snuffing at them, large inhales of air giving it the information it desired about them.

Hokulani was growling softly, her nails extended. Unfortunately, in Aoloa's estimation, this bear weighed about double their combined weight. He didn't want to fight, but they were trapped.

Aoloa grabbed two thigh bones and tossed one to Hokulani, who grabbed it lightly even as he transmitted his battle strategy to her. They charged the bear from opposite sides, swinging their makeshift clubs at opposite sides of its head.

The bear roared in pain as it was struck, turning its attention to Aoloa. When it did, Hokulani leaped on its back and started trying to tear at its throat with her nails. Meanwhile, Aoloa attempted to dodge away in the confined quarters, but a swipe of massive claws tore open his arm.

The pain stunned Aoloa briefly, giving the bear a chance to swipe at him again, ripping open his opposite shoulder and sending him careening into a wall. In desperation, Hokulani ripped into the bear's eyes, blinding and enraging it. As it began blindly stumbling about, she clawed its nose, further removing a sense.

The bear finally retreated from the cave, stumbling blindly, enraged but unable to find its target. Hokulani jumped off it and monitored its progress away. After a short time, she returned to Aoloa's side.

"Damn, this hurts!"

"Don't move! Let me check it out for you."

Aoloa already knew it was bad. Any attempt to move either arm send pain flaring through his system, and blood was oozing down both arms. Worse, they both knew the conditions of the cave were anything but sterile.

"We both know what I need," he stated. A doctor. When they got injured in battle, they were always taken to a doctor who would remove foreign matter and stitch them up. It was relatively rare, thanks to their armor, but it had happened.

"There's no doctor we can go to!"

"Alcohol. Needle and thread. Something to control this before..." He paused. His HUD was displaying some unfamiliar readings. "Scratch that, get me food. They've been hiding something from us," he ordered as he patched his data to her.

In the upper right corner was a damage readout for each wound. That wasn't what was new. The new thing was a reading of percent repaired, along with another reading of resources available. He was burning through resources fast, and had a feeling food was what... whatever it was... needed. Even as he thought about it, hunger flared in his stomach.

Hokulani hesitated a moment, uncertain. "Go! Anything small will do for starters. I don't want those resources to hit zero."

She nodded, then dashed out. In almost no time, she came back with a couple rats before dashing out again. Aoloa didn't wait for niceties. He started sucking them down, even sucking out brains. By the time he'd eaten them, Hokulani was back with several eggs and some lizards. All of them were consumed rapidly.

He watched the numbers and nodded. Looking down at his arm, he could see that it was almost completely healed. His shoulder was oozing, but mostly repaired. "You know what I think?" She shook her head. "I think that bear owes us. Let's get it."

They were able to feast on bear for a week.