Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 67

Hayden paused to let the others catch up. Today was a special day, the trainers were letting them have it off. There would be a few days while they discussed among themselves to figure out what to do next. This was only the second day they had off since starting.

Willow smiled back at Rick as he brought up the rear, and they all paused to look out over the valley they called home. Behind them was a cliff wall, the sheer rock rising high above their heads.

“Where to now?” asked Rick, glancing over at Hayden. He was enjoying his time outside of the compound. The council had agreed to let them out for training purposes, but someone forgot to inform the guards that today had no training. They had jogged out, just like they normally did when on a training mission, and the guards had no clue it wasn’t just like any other day.

The trainers had decided that they would need to build their stamina at running across country, so they had gotten into the habit of jogging out of the compound each morning and running for several hours around the valley before returning for the rest of the training each day. This had several benefits, one being they had learned the valley very well, and the second was that they were getting better at running with each other. They joked often that it was almost like being part of a wolf pack.

“We’re here,” said Hayden with a grin.

Willow raised an eyebrow. “For this being some big secret, I have to admit I’m not very impressed.”

Hayden walked behind them, and seemed to disappear into the rock. Rick and Willow were speechless. Sticking his head out from behind the sheet of rock, he waved for them to follow.

Looking at each other, Rick and Willow approached the same spot. As they walked up on the almost invisible opening, their breath left them in shock.

“This is amazing!” whispered Willow, as if afraid to speak louder.

“Who do you think built this place?” asked Rick, running his fingers along one of the branches. Old pieces of fruit, that had yet to fall, finally succumbed to gravity and hit the ground in a series of splats.

“It must be leftover from the war,” said Hayden.

“What if we made this place our secret getaway!” said Rick suddenly, causing the other two to look at him.

“What are you, five?” asked Willow.

“No, seriously. The council has really been struggling lately with all the people moving around and the chaos is starting to get on people’s nerves. This would be a great place for us to be able to come and get away from all of that. We could learn how to take care of these plants and collect the food, learn how to preserve it for ourselves, and just get away from all that craziness.”

Hayden looked at him from out of the corner of his eye. “I don’t know. What do you think happened to the people who originally owned this place?”

“Maybe they didn’t make it. Maybe they were killed on their way here, or maybe they made it and died out here. Whatever happened to them, they aren’t here now.”

It was obvious Hayden wasn’t very impressed with the idea, but it was Willow who spoke up.

“We need to make sure there isn’t anyone else here. Let’s spread out and search the place. See if there are any signs of someone even having been here.”

They all nodded at that and each of them headed off in a different direction. All of them knew that the chances of getting away from the trainers again wasn’t very probable, but it was nice that they had the moment to pretend.

Hayden found the doorway first, and called the others using the bird call they had been practicing. As the other two converged on his location, he examined the heavy metal doorway. It was partially hidden by fallen rubble and thick overgrown trees. The door itself was huge and made of metal, shaped in a circle.

“Doesn’t look like the stone hut I was looking for,” muttered Willow as she arrived just ahead of Rick.

“That looks like a military bunker,” said Rick, stepping forward to examine it closer.

“Judging the number of plants growing in front of it, I would hazard a guess it hasn’t been opened in a long time.”

The three approached the door, and after a few minutes, they all began trying to open it. Rick was actually the one who found the lock. It was solar powered, and with all the overgrowth, it had powered down. After clearing away the brush over the lock itself, they busied themselves with removing the overgrown bushes and small trees that were growing in the way of the door. By midafternoon they had cleared enough that the door could open, and it looked like the lock had charged enough to work.

“Now comes the fun part, actually getting it to open.” Rick studied the lock pad, watching as different screens popped up based on what he did to it. The whole process was foreign to Willow and Hayden, but Rick had loved to play with the electronics his father would bring home at night when he was a little kid. He had been really sad the day his father told him he was getting too old to play like that.

Willow was just about to give up and head back to the compound when Rick shouted in glee.

“Got it!”