Hunted

"Where are we, father?" asked the child.

"Have you never seen this place before?" asked the father.

"Yes, but only on tv."

"That's the issue. You watch too much of that crap. You need to see it firsthand."

"Why?"

"This is where men are born? You are a man, right?"

"I guess so. I pull down my pants and see something wiggly."

"Don't do that," said the father as he quickly turns around, worried that his son might pull down his pants. "It was a joke."

"Oh. Hah. Hah."

"Look. Your mother wants me to spend more time with you and I don't want to spend it stuck in that old house, so I brought you out here to the wilderness. My father would bring me here every weekend that he was off of work. It was fun. Very fun."

"What did you guys do?"

"We camped under the stars, fed on the wildlife, fished in the river. It was wonderful."

"Let me guess, you and your father didn't have time to do that after you grew up."

"How did you figure that out?"

"I used my brain."

"Very funny, kid. So, now do you understand why we're here?"

"A little bit."

"That's good enough. So, the first thing that we have to do is grab the stuff out of the car and find a good place to place that stuff here."

"Why can't we just sleep in the car?"

"Why do that when we got all of this out here?" said the father as he stretches out his hands. "The whole point of this trip is to stay away from that disgusting technology for as long as possible. Staying in the car will just ruin the immersion."

"Are you on drugs, father?"

"You got jokes? You must have got that from your mother's side of the family. I never really liked them."

"Can we cut to the chase? The day won't be here forever."

"Fine. Let's get the supplies out of the car," said the father with an annoyed tone.

After a couple minutes, the supplies are brought out of the small car. It's the regular camping gear, tent, cooler, meds, and other useful things. First task, complete. Now, they have to get that stuff into the forest in front of them. Being the head of the household, the father wants to bring most of the supplies while the child takes only a little bit. It's a way to show dominance, but he will be unable to assert his dominance today. His phone rings and his entire body starts to shake. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the fliphone.

"Hello?" answers the father.

"Heibon, is this you? It feels like I can never get to you on the weekend." said the person on the other end.

"That's because I have a family, rookie. What do you need?"

"You need to be sitting down when I tell you this."

"Spit it out."

"Your department's numbers are down. It seems to be the first time in years."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. But, maybe you will be able to find out. That's why I called."

"Give me a few seconds. Let me inform my son on the matter."

"You don't have to." said the child as he picks up the supplies. "I'll take this into the forest while you talk to the rookie."

"Ok. Do that. Just be safe."

"I'll try."

"Ok, Rookie. Tell me everything."

"He took me on this trip. He could at least put his work to the side and hang out with me. That's supposedly the whole point of this excursion. Now, where do I put this stuff down?"

As Yukan looks over the forest, looking for the perfect campsite, he hears something. He assumes that it's just the wind around him moving things, but that is not the case. He is currently in the sights of a big cat and it sees him as some dinner or an early lunch.

"For a forest, you would expect that there would be more open space. This place is crowded."

The big cat leaps out of nowhere and tries to pounce on the slightly tall boy, but it misses and meets its fate. Death by flame.

"What the what?" asked the child with a puzzled expression.

The child looks at his hand and sees smoke coming from it like it's burnt food falling out of an oven.

"What is going on? I guess that I can't leave you for a second. What are you looking at?"

"Fate, father."

"I hate predators." thought Yukan with a serious expression on his face.

His enemy, three large, ravenous dogs growl and turn their sights on him. He is their new target. The prey that they just caught means nothing to them. A new challenger has approached.

"You see me right? Take this!"

Yukan stretches out his right hand and releases a large blast of flame at the three dogs. The wave of flame is strong enough to destroy the corpse of the man, but not the dogs. Yukan expects them to burn up like the cougar in the forest, but they somehow tank the blast. Yukan has never seen something like this before.

"New plan: run." thought Yukan.

Yukan turns around with haste and speeds off. The dogs see this and charge toward their prey. There are two ways that Yukan can deal with this situation. He can use the giant, open environment of the city to escape or he can turn around and beat them with his two hands. He would hypothetically be strong enough to do that, but running would be the smartest move.

First, he runs down the nearly empty streets of the city. He runs into a car or motorcycle every once in a while, but he makes sure to avoid getting hit by them. He also warns them of the beast chasing after him because he is such a good guy.

Then, he decides to take the rooftops. There's no way that he can be followed up the buildings, right? They aren't Spider-Men. Well, today, they are and chase the boy up the walls. No matter how fast he is, they are just as fast, climbing, running, and jumping at the same pace.

"Running and jumping won't get these clowns off of me. Now, it's time to outsmart them. Time to hide." thought Yukan.

Without turning back, Yukan releases two blasts of flames from his hands toward the beasts. This catches them off guard and they are forced to hop to the side to dodge the flames. Using this as a distraction, Yukan hops off the rooftop that he is currently on and slams into the road. He then hops into a yard of a factory before rushing up to the giant door. He opens the door using his strength and then closes it. The inside is dark from the absence of light and is full of many different-sized crates.

"If they are as smart as ferocious, they will be here any second. I need to get up high." thought Yukan.

Yukan looks up and sees things that he can grab onto. He could just leap from there, but he doesn't want to create any evidence that he was here, so he just quickly climbs up the scaffolding and onto the hanging pieces of the ceiling.

"Now, it's time to wait."

He won't have to wait for a long time until the beasts return. They burst right through the door, leaving large holes in their wake. They may have not seen their prey run into this large building, but they know that he is here. They can smell him. He will have to go on the offensive soon, but he may need a weapon. Luckily for him, a pipe conveniently lies next to him. He grabs it and holds it tight.

"Once they get close enough, they're going to get cut in half." thought Yukan.

The beasts get close. As they move in a pack, they stay close together as they get closer to their target. After a minute, they are right under him. This is his chance. He holds the pipe harder than he has before and leaps off the ceiling, stabbing one of the beasts so hard that the floor underneath them cracks.

"One down, but not enough to go three for three. Gotta move." thought Yukan.

Yukan lets go of the pipe and dips. He bursts through the large door, creating an even bigger hole than the beasts. The beasts can't grieve for their fallen ally because their prey still lives. They chase after him, creating even more holes in the door. Yukan sees this from the corner of his eye and decides to think of another plan. It's time to hide some more. There is a manhole cover right in front of him. That's just what he needs.

Yukan reaches the manhole cover and grabs the thing. Then, he pulls it off, hops down, and covers it with the cover once again. He hops into the dirty sewage water and watches the beasts from safety.

"Ha! I guess you monsters can't get through the steel. What a shame. For you!"

"A fellow sewer adventurer? I must be dreaming or I may be in heaven." said a boy.

"What the! Who the hell is that!" exclaimed Yukan as he gets into a fighting stance.

"Chill, fellow adventurer. I'm not one of those guys that you were running from. I'm a good person. I like the crusts of my sandwiches to be cut off." said the boy as he approaches.

"What?"

"The name's Wakai and I frequent these parts,"

"So, you walk through the sewers at night?"

"No. I'm not that weird. This place has a lot of parts for me o use in my inventions."

"You're an inventor?"

"Not really. I was just born like this."

"A weirdo."

"Exac- Hey!"

"Great to meet you and all-," said Yukan as he turns around. "but, I got to get home before my parents start to worry."

"You can't leave unless you kill those Howlers."

"Howlers?"

"That's what those beasts are called. They won't leave you alone until you're dead."

"How do you know what those things are?"

"I'm different from the regular populace."

"What does that mean?"

"Before you try to go home, I have to make sure that you are ok. That's what my master would want me to do."

"Who is your master?"

"I'll show you who he is." said the boy as he walks away. He's a cool guy and he runs an arcade. The arcade isn't far away. I'll show you the way."

"I should start making smart decisions if I want to avoid these situations."