Inactive - Chapter 2 Hunted

With their mother having departed, leaving them with Chris and the others, Rykar and Loki were finally dragged from their dilapidated hut without much resistance.

Although their eyes had partially adjusted due to the light that had been coming in from the broken doorway, they still had to squint while using their free hands to shield their eyes as they got outside.

Despite the lack of sunlight, the grey clouds above illuminated their bodies after exiting, causing the teens around them to squint and take a few steps back. Even Chris quickly released his grip on them while crouching to wipe his gloves off on the ground, as though even the dirt was cleaner than them.

Despite the ragged appearances of the youths on the training field and the few in front of the hut, they could be said to be the epitome of class in comparison to the two teens which had just entered the light.

The figures of Loki and Rykar were stood up straight to the point that their posture even seemed to reflect confidence, however their faces and attire reflected anything but that. Emotionless eyes returned the stares of the youths in front of them. There was no fear, excitement, longing, hope or anger in their eyes, they simply looked at what was before them in a bored and uncaring manner.

This was something taught to them by their mother throughout their entire lives. Not only telling them as they went about their lives, but there was a constant reminder and emphasis during the stories she would tell.

‘You can do anything until you tell yourself you can’t. Even when the odds are against you, stand straight, because the only person that should be guaranteed to stand up for you is yourself.’

While their posture reflected what confidence they could muster, their clothing showed a totally different story. They were in rags, literally. Random bits of cloth were held together crudely by using small animal tendons and skin which were frayed and tattered. Fragments of messily cut fur from small creatures such as rabbits and squirrels could be seen covering some of the more important areas such as their chest and loins.

With the majority of their bodies being revealed due to the scant clothing, the most dominating features of the boys stood out to the crowd. Their skinny and underfed frames was apparent under their skin which was deathly pale for the most part, with red pigment dotted and lined all over their bodies as though they had been scalded or branded all over.

Despite the midwife and their mothers claims of the boys being perfectly healthy despite the disfigurement of the skin, the rest of the village couldn’t see past the exterior and began ostracising them from birth with the encouragement of their fathers first wife. Even their father denied all responsibility of them with seconds of laying eyes on them.

Without a second glance, they had been labelled as diseased and pathetic from birth.

After he’d finished wiping his gloves off using the grass, Chris turned towards Loki while wincing at their appearance, already regretting his impulsive action of grabbing them.

“Its about time you both paid the village back for taking care of you over the years. We’re going hunting.” Without leaving any room for discussion, he then walked past them and further into the woods in the opposite direction of the village.

For a moment, both Loki and Rykar were stood in place with their heads slowly leaning to their sides in contemplation. No matter how they thought about it, the logic in his words was questionable. At best.

***

A day after having been forced onto the hunting trip with the other teens, Loki and Rykar could be seen trailing at the back of the group while various bags and pouches were strapped to their bodies, throwing off their balance and causing them to stagger slightly.

Despite asking the others repeatedly for the reason they had been dragged out for this hunting trip, all they got in the place of an explanation was the silent treatment. Aside from having the others throw their bags towards them, there was virtually no interaction between them and the other four.

“Somethings going on, this doesn’t make any sense” While the others were talking and laughing up front, this wasn’t the first time Rykar had broken the silence in the rear with his mumbling.

“We’ve always had to get our own food, make our own clothes and even make our own hut. What could they want us to pay for, is there a cost they want us to pay for them abandoning us?” he snickered while he spat out the last few words under his breath.

While listening to him speak, Loki’s gut was twisting within him. He couldn’t put his finger on the reason, but he was sure that there was something very wrong with this hunting trip compared to the others he had seen the teens venture out on.

While laughing up ahead, the conversation of the rest of the party never focused on them, rather, it was as though they were being completely drowned out.

There were no snide comments, bullying, taunting or picking on them in any way over the last day of walking. They had only even noticed one occasion when someone had turned back to steal a sly glance at them, other than that it had been as though they had stopped existing as soon as they left the village.

“There’s no point in over thinking it, we can just see what happens as we go. They have always been lazy, they probably just want us to carry all their stuff for them while they take care of the meat” While speaking in a low voice towards Rykar, Loki was trying to reassure the both of them that all would be fine but then his heart sank.

James, who was walking right next to Chris, stopped in place and unravelled a weird looking rope from his waist.

It was shaped like a Y, seemingly wound together using two ropes before joining them. the ends of the branches of the rope were shaped similar to nooses, making them fear for the worst immediately.

As they caught up to his position while throwing a questioning glance at the rope, it could be seen that they were ready to bolt away within a moments notice. The only reason they had approached was because it was only James, while the rest of the youths had carried on walking ahead.

“Put this around your ankles” he said while throwing the split end of the rope towards them.

Without even answering to the demand, the twins stared back blank expressions. Out of habit, their heads began to tilt slightly to the side as they mulled over the possible reasons they could have been presented with the rope.

Not a single positive outcome came to mind.

“Fix your heads and put the damn ropes on!” Hearing James shout, the twins were forced out of their stupor, raising their heads towards him. Their gaze does not stop on his body, but wanders past it, where they are able to see that the rest of the group is no longer walking ahead of them.

They hadn’t realised when, but the other three had stopped not far ahead and unlike the earlier part of the trip where they had been ignoring the boys, their stares seemed to be radiating heat as they watched the reactions of the twins.

Sweat immediately began to form on the foreheads of Rykar and Loki, the gazes pressuring them as they slowly knelt down to fasten the ropes onto their ankles without breaking eye contact for a moment.

After pulling on the rope to make sure it was secured properly, James pulled the stumbling twins back towards the rest of the group. As they all prepared to carry on walking further into the woods.

“AWOOOOO”

The sound of a deep howl broke through the trees causing everyone to freeze in place suddenly as though they had all been doused in icy water.

“W-w-were n-not supposed to be far in e-enough yet right Chris?” Contrary to James’ earlier expression while he was dealing with Rykar and Loki, he now had a face full of uncertainty as he looked questioningly towards Chris.

Despite his fear, Loki’s eyes narrowed out as he heard the question. Rather than being afraid that there were wolves, it sounded obvious that James was simply scared that the wolves had turned up earlier than expected.

‘Tying up our ankles to prevent escape walking in this direction while expecting wolves we need to get away. NOW.’

Alarms were screaming within his head as his sweating intensified. Looking towards Rykar, he couldn’t tell if his brother had picked up on the clues from James’ phrasing but seeing the rope tightly gripped within the teenagers hand, he felt that their best bet was to pretend he hadn’t realised anything yet in order to find a better time to escape.

Opposite to what Loki was thinking, Rykar had also picked up on the wording from James. However, rather than waiting for the right time to escape, adrenaline was pumping within him as he clenched his fists to the point that they began to numb.

Rather than waiting for the opportune time, he was planning on waiting till James dropped his guard and relaxed his grip on the rope which was attached to them.

As soon as the opportunity presented itself, he would strike. This had to be done as soon as possible because there would be no chance for him to launch an assault once he had covered the five or six metres and was once again within the group as a four.

At present, his body was turned to the side so as long as he turns his head slightly, he would be able to capture any movements that Rykar made. Rykar’s eyes were focused like never before, just waiting on the moment for him to begin turning his back and hoping that the others would also begin to turn away rather than looking at them.

“Its fine, we still have around an hour to walk before we get there. We will keep going forward a while and head back slightly earlier if we finish the hunt.” With the assurance from Chris, James straightened up slightly before throwing another glance at the twins while tugging on the rope, causing their feet to slip as they staggered forward.

“Lets move.”

This was the moment Rykar had been waiting for!

Time seemed to slow before him. He could no longer hear the sound of the leaves rustling, the birds chirping or the crisp footsteps breaking the leaves and twigs on the ground.

All of his focus, every shred of attention he had, was directed to James and his turning figure.

The group up ahead had already turned around as James’ back was finally presented to him and without missing a beat, he Lunged forward.

There rope was only around 5 metres long so it would have taken but seconds for Rykar to reach James, however as he was still accelerating, a blurred figure flashed by his side before his eyes turned hazy as though someone had thrown a warm liquid over his face.

‘They saw it coming!?’

That was all that was running through his head as his hands were swimming across his face in an attempt to get rid of the liquid that was blinding him.

As his eyesight cleared up, the first thing he saw was his hands which were stained red.

Fear assaulted him as he recognised that they were covered in blood. Grabbing at his head in order to identify the wound, the results turned out futile. He couldn’t feel any pain at all. The next thing to come to mind was Loki, who had been next to him!

‘Has Loki been hit?!’

He swivelled on the spot only to find Loki with a similar spray of blood marking his body, however it hadn’t hit him on the face, as only some of the tattered clothing on his torso had been effected.

Despite the roller coaster of emotions, in reality all of this had only taken two or three seconds for him to process.

Relief washed over him when he confirmed the safety of is brother but then the abnormality of the situation dawned on him. There was complete silence, even the birds had stopped chirping at this point.

Loki took no notice of the blood which splattered him and was staring fixedly ahead as though in a trance.

Following his gaze, Rykar lowly turned his head only to be left in the same state of mind as his brother.

Just two metres ahead of him was a wolf standing squarely on the torso of the struggling James while tearing his neck apart.

He wasn’t even able to call for help, the most that came out was a sickly gurgling sound which was interrupted by the wolfs growls as it continued to ravage him without any remorse. tearing at his neck and shoulder again and again without paying any attention to the surroundings.

The wolf appeared famished. Its ribs were clearly shown against its thinned out frame while grunts of satisfaction seemed to be escaping its muzzle as it savoured its meal.

Both Rykar and Loki were dumb struck at this point. Their sense of sound was drowned out by their thundering heartbeats as they watched James’ struggles weaken.

At first he had been pushing against the wolfs legs in futile before finally giving up. His face had been faced away from the twins but they could only imagine the begging look on his face as he looked towards his friends in a silent plea for help.

From the corner of their eyes, a sudden movement startled the twins into looking up.

‘Son of a B*tch’

Expecting to see more members of the pack of wolves, the bodies of the twins tensed up even further. However, after regaining focus, there was not a shred of surprise in what they were looking at, only an anger that served to release them from their shackles of fear.

Leaving behind the three others which were still in a daze, They could make out the figure of Chris fleeing through the woods in terror. He hardly even resembled a human being at this point as he fled while clawing at the ground with his hands and feet, desperately trying to create a distance from the rest of them and himself with only his survival running through his mind.

He took notice of nothing around him as he scrambled through the trees. Not even the pale eyes of the twins burning into his back.

As they realised that they had been left by Chris, all thoughts of retaliation were gone with the wind. All that was left on the minds of the people present was to survive as all costs.