The Hunt

Chapter 1 (Part 2)

"Now?" Wynn says, "At night they presume to attack?" He sounds surprised.

"How can they be here already?" Clemente asks. "I must have miscalculated..."

"No." Father says. "They are travelling day and night. The bird tells me they bring sunlight with them. A machine they have, it's new. We must move."

I stand with my mother and listen through the open window. I hear the rustling of the trees, the creaking of the night, owls, birds, rodents. The sounds of the forest.

"I don't hear people." I say to father. He looks at me.

"Use your nose, the bird tells me they are masking their sound, they have machines that are playing the sounds of the forest all around them."

We move into the routines of leaving with speed. We have it well practiced. My brothers leave the room, moving fast and gathering the needed possessions. We'll leave through the back, head south.

We have an advantage in the night. Full strength and speed. We can fight if we must, but we will be outnumbered, and we have no protection from their darts.

"Let's go." Father says. As we run into the trees the wolves are howling again, surrounding us on all sides. They will move with us, at a distance.

The trees tower high above, blocking the sky. Blue light trickles through the canopy. The ground is soft, covered in leaves, twigs and decaying plants. The ground is alive with life, insects and night creatures rummaging and feasting. The smell of life and death in collision. One feeding the other.

I sniff, using my nose as my father suggested but I cannot smell pursuit. We must be safe for the time being. The scents of the forest fill the air.

We're running with light steps, leaving no trace of ourselves. We are very hard to track. And we are moving fast. The landscape stays constant, high trees towering, mulchy ground below.

I listen for the wolves and hear them around us, out of sight but nearby, their feet padding lightly on the ground.

We can run for hours at night without tiring. We are faster than people and their machines. It's in the daylight when we are at risk, so we will put as much distance as we can between us and them before we have to take cover in the morning.

We've been running for several hours, lost in the repetativness of it. I wonder if the running will ever end. And I find myself wondering what caused this hunt to begin in the first place. My father stops running.

"Something's wrong." he says. We are all stopped now. My father ahead, my two brothers either side, gazing into the trees. Mother and I stand in the middle of them all. Mother's black hair is moving in the breeze. I can't hear anything unusual.

"What is it Father?" Clemente asks. My father drops to the ground and holds his ear to the forest floor.

"They're coming." he says.

"Impossible!" Says Wynn. I can't hear them, I can't smell them, I can't see them."

"Nor I." says Clemente.

"I know. They are masking themselves. Disguising themselves as forest in all but their looks. But they are coming. They are ahead and they are behind. When daylight falls they will be upon us with speed."

"How do they track us so?" My mother asks.

"They track the heat of the wolves, and they know we will be near. They will spread out in the daylight and find us at our weakest." He replies. He is thinking, a frown on his smooth, white face. His eyes are closed.