The Hunt

52 children slowly fan out in tightly disciplined groups some by foot, like Chucks group. Others rode on dirt bikes and 4 wheelers; one group rode in a modified school bus with rugged tires and pulled a trailer. The children were looking to keep their food storage up to par, and maybe even expand their territory if the opportunity presented itself. Their numbers have been growing over the last couple of months and they have been struggling to keep up. The herds seem to have changed their patterns, which is really starting to worry the new Lead huntsman of the section.

Bobby is 17 years old and an up and coming elder. Nestled high in the trees overlooking his hunt, the humidity has beads of sweat constantly rolling down his face. Bobby is one of the taller kids standing about 6'3" and is long and gangly which his peers seem to take joy calling him the "Crimson Stork" because of his thin long legs and his hell fire red hair. He lets out a slow sigh as he lifts the binoculars back to his face again. Being one of the older kids he remembers a lot about how things were before all the adults died about 7 years ago. Even though he does miss his mother and older brother he loves the freedom of being on his own without the "Old ones" as they call them now, dominating his life. He has real responsibility now; his life means something now. As pride pushed out the sorrow of his family he had a new family now a bigger family and in some cases, he felt a better family. Even though so many things have changed no TV, no Madden (which he liked in particular…His team were the Steelers) no McDonalds all the food from the restaurants and stores has been looted years ago after the…

A sudden explosion of movement and sound snapped him out of his thoughts and he once again became laser focused. A Huge beast burst out of the old subway station and was barreling towards his western wing of hunters. "Great" he exclaimed in spite of himself. He spoke into his radio "Cowboy you got eyes on this"? "I sure do Red 1 that sure is a bigun! You think I need to send the southern wing to help bring up the rear"? Bobby thought on this for a second biting his top lip like he always does when he is thinking quickly on something important. "Yeah, he said calmly go ahead and get them headed in that direction we need to make sure we bring it home. Judging from here that beast could help us catch up on our meat storages.". "OK sending the southern wing now; yeah I'm sick of carrot potato and pecan stew. Be nice to have something more with it" said cowboy responding with excitement. While changing his radio channel while looking at the massive beast making a break away from Scout Team Alpha excited him. "Cowboy to south wing", "south wing here" they responded to him quickly. "We got a real live one go North West about three blocks past the old Varsity and we should have it cornered there contain and help west wing bring it down." "OK headed northwest two blocks from the varsity" promptly responded the south wing and repeated the instructions to ensure clarity. He knew that the Southern wing would get there on time and he knows why Bobby sent them in to help. The Southern Wing is one of the most fearless hunters they have. As a group they have brought down some of the biggest and terrifying game to date.

Their leader Mark seems to be born to hunt. Mark is the best with training the dogs they use to hunt hogs, and bears. Those were for normal game… What they are about to face is far from normal and most of the hunt team has never seen one alive. "cowboy to Red 1"…"Red 1,go ahead cowboy" "hey Red 1 I'm going to head out in that direction to oversee everything". "OK Luke get on over there we don't need to get anyone else hurt" responded Bobby dropping the code names for a moment to get his point across. Luke smiled and scampered down fire escape of an old high-rise that he was his perch for too long he thought. Once down he put on his cowboy hat and mounted his dirt bike, brought his rifle over his shoulder and checked it over as he dusted it off as he activated it. It gave off a barely audible hum as it powered up quickly. One thing about the time they live in now even though it's hard he thought it sure is cool, Luke thought. Who would have thought that he would actually have a goddamn laser rifle to do what he wants…it wasn't like it was on Star-Wars, but he will defiantly take it. He started the bike and spit out a wad of his chew before he speeds off to meet up with the advancing wings kicking up gravel as the rough tires angrily spinned to gain traction before straighting up.

When Mark got the call that his team was going to back up the west wing he was interested but when he got the rest of the information that they will help bring down a conformed Hyperphant his excitement was clearly palpable. He never seen one before only knew about it from the hunting logs and some of the rare videos captured by other packs that he had a relationship with. In his first life Mark was very interested in animals and hunting with coon hounds and other such animals. He had no clue that one day this knowledge would help keep him and others alive. Too overcome the pain of losing his parents he threw himself into learning everything there was about hunting…Then the new creatures started to appear, strange and cunning animals that has been known to decimate whole hunting packs if not careful. Mark told the driver the direction to go and they speed off to meet up with the west wing, while in the back he barked off his expectations to his crew. He knew how important it was to keep calm and disciplined. He knew his team would do well because he prepared them for this moment.