Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 25

“So, I was looking for books to read.” Xun didn’t normally open up like this, but he had never encountered someone like Rick. The guy was just so easy to talk to.

“That’s rough. I know it’s hard on all the outsiders who come. If they stay, it’s only because they worked really hard to find a good spot to fit. Like Bob, for example. No one runs the bar better then him. He’s been there for years. He was there when I was born. Come to think of it, I wonder how old he is now.”

They were sitting at the table in the map room, enjoying the snacks that Xun had in his bag. Rick didn’t have a problem with him grabbing something to eat later, but had explained the reason the lady had been unhappy with him, was because they liked to keep tabs on who was eating what. When you take the food out and don’t eat it in front of them, they can’t tell if you’re the one who ate it. It was to make sure everyone was getting the right amounts of nutrition to grow right.

Xun had explained his problems with his new job, despite not knowing Rick at all. He just seemed to unlock a gate that Xun never knew he had. Xun had never talked to anyone like he was with Rick.

Rick understood his dilemma. He told Xun that the last guy who had his job really had been doing a good job, but that some of the other people thought it wasn’t hard enough. None of the monsters that plague the rest of the world, or the werewolves and vampires, bother them here. They didn’t think the job was necessary. It was decided to kick the guy out after he had compiled all the info on the table, but then they found out that the wolves territory changed. They started hunting the herds more, which made the herds change their routes. It was a huge mess, because there wasn’t anyone qualified to do the job after the guy left with his brother.

Xun asked Rick what they looked like, and wasn’t surprised when they matched the description of the two men he had seen killed. If they weren’t used to monsters, they wouldn’t have expected the cat to attack them. With his concerns clarified, he looked at Rick suspiciously.

Rick laughed, “Don’t start thinking I was behind anything. I only know because my dad’s one of the council leaders. You probably saw him this morning when you got your job ȧssigned to you. His name’s Jerome.”

Xun looked at him again. “How? I mean, you look nothing like your dad?”

“Well,” he paused, looking thoughtful. “My dad always said I look like my mom, but I’m not sure. She died when I was a baby. She loved to fish and got attacked by a shark. My dad encouraged me to do things with the other leader’s kids, but I really can’t stand them. They’re all bullies, and I just don’t have the heart for that. My dad tried to get me a job with the guards, so I started going to the gym every day to get my muscles built up. You know, so I could look the part? But it’s not the job for me. They finally put me in here. I keep the place clean. Make sure dust doesn’t build up on the books and no one causes trouble. Hardly anyone comes upstairs anymore, so when I saw you, it scared me. You can look pretty scary.”

Xun shook his head. The thought that he looked scary compared to Rick was ridiculous.

“It’s good to know that someone still wants to learn for the sake of bettering themselves. Most kids hate books so much that as soon as they don’t have to read them anymore, they stop.”

Xun couldn’t believe what Rick was saying.

“But, there’s so much information here! Everything you need to know to survive!”

Rick laughed again. “I would hazard a guess you know just as much as what is in those books, if not more. You’ve survived way more than the people who wrote those books.”

Xun thought about it, and finally had to agree.

“But if I can’t do everything these people want me to, they’ll kick me out, and I want to learn as much as I can before they do.”

Rick leaned forward, gazing at him intently. “Okay, I’m not a good reader, but I can help you a little. What do you want to learn?”

“Where do I start? I know how to cook over a fire, but I would like to know more. How about information about the monsters and vampires?” There was so much swirling in his head, how could he name them all?

“Well, there’s a section on camping that could help you with the cooking, there’s also a section on survival in the wilds. Apparently before the war that killed just about everyone, there were people who wanted to make sure they would survive when the end of the world happened. I don’t imagine that included surviving a bomb falling on you, though.”

“What’s a bomb? I remember reading about the war in the newspapers, but I haven’t had a chance to read all of them.”

“Well, a bomb is something that blows up. Like when you have an egg that’s no good, how it’ll explode?”

Xun nodded, though he wasn’t sure how a bad egg had anything to do with people dying. Maybe they wanted to die from the smell?

” I was taught that when the government found out about the vampires, they tried to kill them by releasing a bioweapon. I don’t know what that is, beyond a type of weapon, but it made the vampires really mad, and so they began killing people left and right. It got so bad that the people in power were dropping bombs on their own people trying to kill the vampires. When that didn’t work, they tried sending the military during the day to hunt them down.”

Xun was trying to follow along, but he didn’t know what some of those words meant.

“The vampires merely waited until dark to take out all of the military. They had infiltrated so well, they were everywhere. The books say that the vampires started making the monsters so they could hunt us down easier, but if that was true, why is our compound so safe?”