Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 65

They crested a hill, and stepped out from under the cover of trees. Spread out before him was the largest city Xun had ever seen in his life. It was still in ruins, but the sheer size of it had kept nature at bay.

“It will be dark in a couple hours. We need to get to a secure place to spend the night in case there are vampires or Slavers nearby,” said Gerald.

Everyone nodded and headed down the hill towards the edge of the city. A feeling of warmth filled Xun as he snuck a glance at his dad. He was walking next to him, finally wearing clothes that fit, but still bȧrėfoot. The cold didn’t seem to bother him, and Xun wondered what else would be different about him.

The past couple of days, they had traveled mostly in silence. Only resting long enough to eat and sleep a couple of hours. Gerald and the others seemed to finally accept his dad when two werewolves attacked them in the middle of the night, and he had fought them both off by himself. When he scratched one and bit the other, they started to revert back to their human forms. Xun wasn’t able to get to them before they started to mummify, shrinking down to dry husks.

They had theorized that something about Xun had caused the mutation to mutate again, causing the wolves to revert to their human form, but because of the energy necessary for the change, it caused them to mummify. Only by touching his dad with his blood was he able to save him. And once he had changed his dad, his dad was similarly tainted with the same mutation changing affect against the wolves.

Xun was fine being different, but he could tell that the others, particularly Byrd, were uncertain of him. Gerald questioned him on how he could be different, but Xun wasn’t sure.

Craig had given his dad his spare set of clothes to wear, and they had reached a mutual agreement of peace to Xun’s delight. Despite the hurried pace, those few days were the best of his life since losing his dad so long ago.

As they entered the ruins, Xun noticed areas that only seemed to be destroyed. Gerald quickly showed them a door, hidden by rubble, as the last rays of the sun faded. They descended down into a series of tunnels that seemed to be well maintained.

“During the war, our ancestors retreated to the sewers beneath their city, to a place they had prepared. The stories shared from one generation to the next, tells of how they knew there would be a war of some kind and had prepared the place to make sure we could survive. When the monsters came, they fought to keep the sewers safe, and then to keep them maintained for us to live in now.”

Opening another door, one that was very heavy and thick, Gerald continued in a soft quiet voice.

“Many modifications needed to be done over the years to make this place safer, but we managed to survive the purging days, when the vampires came in droves, fighting themselves instead of sending the weaker Slavers.”

A shiver coursed down Xun’s spine at the thought of how strong a vampire must be if they were stronger than the Slavers.

As they traversed deeper into the tunnels, all talk stopped. A scene that was very familiar to Xun appeared. Old blood stains on the walls, crumpled bodies against the walls and in corners, and general destruction everywhere.

With a groan, Gerald rushed forward, towards the remains of a woman. It was obvious he wanted to hold her, but she had been dead for too long. Even the cold that seeped from the very walls and floor had not stopped the decay. Xun was surprised he could even recognize her.

His dad moved over to a wall that was heavily damaged, and sniffed at it.

“They were trying to get through here. I can smell the wolves that had tried to break the wall down.”

“Why? There’s nothing there?” said Gerald puzzled. They all moved over to the wall and began to explore it. Byrd was the one who found the switch that made the wall swing open. They were all stunned.

“In all the years I’ve lived here, I never knew this wall opened.”

“None of you knew about it for a while,” said his dad, sniffing the entrance. “It smells unused and kind of stale. There’s a scent though, that calls the wolf in me.”

As they all moved to explore it, Craig hesitated.

“We should look for the kids before we go any further. If there is something there to find, it can wait a while longer. The kids may not be able to.”

Gerald nodded, and everyone moved back to let Byrd trigger the switch to lock it in place. Xun saw his dad linger a breath longer than everyone else before turning to follow. He was relieved the wolf didn’t control him anymore.

As they moved through the tunnels, they saw small signs that someone had been there recently. Small footprints of a child’s bȧrė foot in the mud, small wire traps with rats captured still hanging, half eaten by other rats, piles of cloth piled under large pipes that were obviously used as tunnels were a few that Xun noticed.

Turning a corner, they saw something that stopped them all in their tracks. There was a crumpled form, too small to be an ȧduŀt, laying in the middle of the tunnel. They rushed to it, and Gerald turned it over, to show a young girl, maybe six or seven. She was still breathing but just bȧrėly.

Her body was skeletal, and covered in scrapes and bites from rats. Picking her up, she opened her eyes and whispered, “Tommy? Where are you? I can’t see you…” Her hands fluttered a moment before she fell back unconscious.

“She said there were two, Tommy must be the other one. I’ll take her back to the room we picked out to sleep in and get a fire going. See if you can find the boy.” Craig and Xun’s dad nodded as Byrd returned with Gerald and the girl.

Xun followed behind his dad and Craig as they tried to retrace the girl’s footprints. It was obvious she had been delirious as they weaved back and forth across the tunnel. He was amazed she was still alive.