Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 57

Matilda squeezed through the tunnel and pulled herself into the cold room. She landed on a pile of blankets and old clothes, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She could hear the dripping of water somewhere, and the scratching of rats running along pipes. There was a faint cough to her right, and she turned, reaching out.

The boy who was hiding in the shadows, huffed in amusement, and scurried away down another tunnel. They were so small, she was having a hard time keeping up with him. It wouldn’t be long before she was too big to play this game, but until then, she would enjoy it.

After finding him a second time, she sat down, signaling an end to the game. He came up to her and crawled in her ŀȧp. He was getting bigger too, but she gladly wrapped her arms around him and rocked back and forth. They listened to the noises of the undercity as the sun fell and the gloom grew.

As her legs began to fall asleep, she stopped rocking, and he moved towards the tunnel that led to the place they called home. She followed him to the small room that was stuffed with various fabrics, leathers, furs, old clothing, blankets and many other unnamed items. He motioned for the metal box that sat on the shelf, and she gently pulled it down, trying not to let it scrape the concrete and make noise. Prying the lid open, she pulled out a handful of dried meat scraps.

Matilda carefully separated what was left into two piles, then pushed his to him. They sat in silence, chewing the tough meat.

“We can’t stay here much longer, Tommy. Winter is coming and it will start getting much colder. We need to find food too.”

He ignored her whispers, curling into a ball, buried in the soft bedding. She knew he wasn’t sleeping yet, but wasn’t sure if he understood her. Tommy didn’t talk. She never remembered him saying a word. He had cried when their mother left, but hadn’t said a word after the tears dried up.

Tucking the empty box under her arm, she carefully made her way down another tunnel. It was so cold on her feet, that she was starting to lose feeling in her toes. She would have to start wrapping rags around them again. As she turned down another tunnel, pausing to let a rat scamper by, she thought about the last winter. They had bȧrėly managed to make it. The little bit of food she was able to find wasn’t enough, and they had both lost a lot of weight.

This winter if they lost any weight, would be really bad. She didn’t want to end up like old lady Yama. She had lost her last tooth and couldn’t gum the bits of meat well enough. She had withered to almost nothing before she died.

Shivering at the memory, Matilda began checking the traps she had set earlier that day. They were simple, constructed of bits of metal wire. The rats would run through them and get trapped. There weren’t as many rats as when they first started living in the undercity. She only found eight, less than half of what she had caught this time last year. She placed each one in a cloth bag that hung at her side, until she was done. Then she headed down a different tunnel, thinking to herself.

Maybe the rats were getting smarter. They recognized her traps, maybe, and avoided them. She stopped several times to let some scamper out of her way, and scared a few away from a door at the end of the tunnel. It took both her hands to open it, but it moved smoothly without any sounds. Inside was a knife, a piece of stone, and several racks. She lay the metal box down and shoved all the bits of dried meat into it before pulling the rats out of her bag.

It took her longer to skin and butcher the rats than normal. Her hands were shaking from cold by the time she was done. Winter must be a lot closer than she thought. With a frown, she cleaned up her mess, picked up the box, and smeared more rat fat on the hinges before shutting the door back. By the time she had returned to the room they called home, she couldn’t feel her toes or fingers and she could see her breath.

Placing the box carefully back on its shelf, she dived down into their nest and snuggled Tommy who was already asleep. It took her several minutes to stop shivering before she was finally able to fall asleep.

The next morning, she woke to find frost on her eyelashes. Snuggling closer to Tommy, she hated the thought of getting up, but the need to pee was too strong. As soon as she started to rise, Tommy did too. Apparently, he was already awake, and hadn’t wanted to get up in the cold either.

Returning from the room they relieved themselves in, Matilda paused in a sunbeam that peeked down from a hole high above her head. She raised her face up to it, closing her eyes, and enjoyed its touch. A sudden shadow passed in front of her hole, blocking the sunbeam momentarily.

Snapping her eyes open, she quickly grabbed Tommy’s hand and motioned to him the danger sign they had developed over the years. A look of fear came over his face, and he darted off, leaving her to chase after him. Breathing hard in the cold air, she dodged into a tunnel that was almost too small to squeeze into.

No sooner had she fallen on the pile of clothes, the worst sound she could imagine echoed in the tunnels, Tommy’s scream.

Tears began streaming down her face as she hurried to the next tunnel. All sorts of horrible visions were dancing through her head as she peeked through a crack. The figure of a monster was blocking her vision. She couldn’t tell if he was okay or not. Then she heard a sound behind her and whirled around. Another one was coming slowly down the tunnel towards her.