Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 61

Xun tightened the straps on his bag, happy to be outside the compound after being cooped up for so long. He always enjoyed getting out in the winter.

Gerald finished packing his belongings from breakfast, and stood up, hefting his spear. Xun also had a spear, even though he had never used one before. Gerald had ȧssured him it was far more useful than the sword he had. So far, the only thing he had used it for was as a walking stick.

“The surroundings are clear,” said a young woman who Xun had only seen briefly. Her name was Byrd, and like her name depicted, she was very flighty, never staying in one place for too long.

Gerald nodded and she was off, scouting the area they were going to be heading in. She would return to them briefly throughout the day, to keep track of any direction changes they made and to inform them of anything she had seen. Xun liked her. She didn’t have any of the drama that the people back in the compound had. She reminded him of some of the hunters he had met at other compounds, and while traveling between compounds. They couldn’t stand to stay in one place, and were always on the move. It made perfect sense to him that she had volunteered to go on this trip.

The other individual that was with them, stood as well. He was a large man, reminding Xun of Rick, but this man was less talkative. His name was Craig, but Xun had a hard time talking to him. He seemed very distant, almost cold.

Moving through the trees, Xun tried to imitate the way these men walked. Their steps made no sound and they seemed to avoid brushing against branches and tree limbs. He found it tiring, moving as they did, which surprised him. He was used to moving constantly, and not getting tired from walking all day.

“Your father was from the family of Crusaders. They were very loyal to their family, and it was considered an honor to marry into it. My sister, in retrospect, must have wanted to join them, since she obviously got with your father. What is puzzling is why they left the family and traveled up here. I never heard anything about someone getting kicked out, or going missing. It would be interesting to visit them and ask.”

Xun listened as Gerald talked. He didn’t think he could catch his breath enough to answer if he asked a question. Thankfully he didn’t.

“Our family is known as the Stalkers. We specialized in nighttime raids and attacks on the vampires and monsters. The first thing we teach our children is how to navigate by the stars.

“The Crusaders are known for daytime raids. We worked well together for the longest time, but something happened when I was young, and the two families went their separate ways. I’ve heard stories from my father about how the two families would relay information about monsters in the area, and manage to hunt them down, without one side taking too much credit. But whatever happened, my father refused to talk about it. We’ve stopped hunting the monsters down, and merely kill them as they attack.

“The city we lived in, had grown to the point we could no longer provide enough food for everyone, which if I must say, is an excellent reason to split off a group. We were only a week out, when a woman from the city caught up to us. Monsters had overrun the city. Half our number turned back to help fight the horde, but it never occurred to us that they wouldn’t catch up to us, that the horde was so large our people couldn’t fight them all off.”

He grew silent, and they walked for a while as he seemed to be collecting his thoughts. Xun noticed, that even while he was lost in thought, his eyes were constantly scanning the ground for tracks, the trees for marks, and even the skies.

Finally, he cleared his throat and continued, “We had traveled more than a month, leaving signs for our comrades to follow so that they might catch up to us. There were discussions daily about whether we should turn back, in case our original ȧssumptions were wrong, when another woman showed up. She told us that the city was in ruins. We didn’t get a chance to hear much more from her as the monsters that had followed her, arrived. The fighting lasted for days. Many of my best hunters, and friends fell. We had no choice but to keep moving, because the number of monsters that were attacking us, continued to grow. We would have been overrun and all of us killed had we tried to hold our position or turned back.

“We arrived at your compound a couple of days later. I ȧssumed from the tall walls and armed guards patrolling the tops, that the compound had plenty of experience fighting the monsters. It wasn’t until we had gotten settled in that the woman told us she had left her children behind to flee to us.”

Xun had heard of parents leaving their children before. All of the compounds he had lived in prior to this most recent one, had been overrun by Slavers. He was very familiar with the selfishness of people.

“Let’s rest,” said Craig as they came to a small stream.

Xun was grateful. His legs weren’t as long as theirs, and he was sure that was why he was tiring so much faster than normal. He didn’t complain though. This was a dangerous time to travel, and the only chances the children had of still being alive rested on their speed. Truth be told, he didn’t expect to find them alive.

He saw Gerald speaking to Byrd briefly. She pointed in a direction and he nodded.

“Rest time is over. There are werewolves to the west, heading our way. Byrd saw six. We don’t have a prayer of killing that many here. If we can make it to the cliffs just east of here, we might be able to survive.”