by Al K. Line
Talia understood for the first time the importance of the work everyone was involved in back home, why Inspections and so many other seemingly ridiculous chores were carried out with such regularity and such efficiency — Vorce didn't want their world to fall into ruin like this city and the whole country had.
She was in a quandary. Her admiration and respect for Vorce grew, realizing what it was he had done, what he had saved them from, whilst at the same time she was learning things that made her cringe and felt wrong. The Hunt was not what it had seemed. It wasn't giving Prey a chance to win. They were tracked with ease, Vorce staring at a screen. It would be easy to give orders, tell others where to go, what to do, when he knew exactly where the Prey was, which direction they were looking in, how they were holding their weapon.
This was entertainment, pure and simple. It hardly seemed like any form of Justice to Talia. It was what? Fun?
As the Elders continued to discuss a new strategy, Talia and her friends grew uneasy, each of them clearly thinking the same. Too many revelations, too much new information to process, too many new sensations and the assault on the senses was almost overpowering in its intensity.
When they'd woken after their voluntary sedation, Talia found herself in the city, as confused as her friends, although the Elders seemed unconcerned, having done it a number of times. There was no time to take it in as Vorce had them walking immediately. How they arrived was a mystery. A miracle.
While they walked, Vorce told them what to expect. He told them not to get overwhelmed, to focus on The Hunt and let their training in the various buildings of The Island guide them in their actions.
All children learned how to hunt from an early age, it was one of the games encouraged by the adults. They would take turns to be Hunter or Prey. Hide-and-Seek, they called it, but as she walked down a grass-covered road, the abundance of greenery wonderful and joyous but marred by the destruction, Talia realized that the game was much more than that.
It set them up for the proper training they did when older. All Islanders knew how to handle weapons, knew how to track and had killed. Yes, seals and birds and fish, but The Hunt was such a major part of their culture it was taken for granted you learned these things, even if the chances of you ever being involved in the real thing were slim.
Well, here she was. In the strange building, in a strange room full of weird and wonderful things she hardly understood, and now their Prey had evened the odds for herself. And Vorce was extremely unhappy.
"Talia, Talia." Cashae clicked her fingers in front of her face.
"Eh?"
"It's time, time to go." Cashae nodded to Vorce and the Elders. They were reaching for weapons, pulling on their packs, just like her friends. She must have looked like a fool, lost in dreams when she was being spoken to.
"Hurry, Talia, we must go," said Vorce, frowning at her inattention.
"Sorry." Talia looked at the countdown on the strange black box. "Don't we have to wait? I thought we gave Prey an hour to get a head start?"
"Our Prey is not abiding by the rules, so why should we? And besides, I think this is rather apt, don't you?"
Talia watched the digits change, realizing what Vorce meant. She nodded and shouldered her pack, took up her weapon.
"In three, two, one," counted Vorce. "Go, go, go."
The timer showed 01:11. Vorce was cheating, but she supposed he had a point. Arcene hadn't played by the rules and he was using the numbers stuck in her head to give them an advantage.
Still, it felt wrong. This was not how it should be. Arcene would believe she had a minute she didn't have. Talia closed the door behind her and they ran down the stairs, out into the open.
They jogged down the road in Arcene's direction, spread out in a line, six Hunters out to catch their Prey.
No Noise
Talia did as instructed, and kept her presence in The Noise hidden. It was imperative Arcene couldn't sense them, just as Vorce said he was sure Arcene would maintain her hold over her own presence. But what of the dog? Surely they could trace the dog? Vorce doubted it, but she was welcome to try. So, as they ran and discussed what was now a new plan, Talia entered The Noise and searched for life.
There was plenty of it, but nothing large enough to be a dog, and certainly not one as huge as Leel. Talia picked up tiny splashes of yellow, and even little wisps of almost colorless life — worms and tiny creatures burrowing under the ground, hidden in the rubble. There were birds and there were other creatures she had no names for, not stopping to delve deeper and understand their natures as they weren't her focus. But there was no dog.
How did she do that? Could you mask the presence of another creature if you wanted to? She had never heard of it. But then, she didn't have a close bond with an animal, so maybe that was how it worked? It didn't matter, the main thing was she had tried to find them but failed. If Vorce couldn't, then what were her chances anyway?
So, it was to be a game of hide-and-seek like when she was a child, before the fun changed, took on an edge and turned into training. Physical exercise and practice with weapons. No, this was no game, she had to remind herself of that. This was real. This was The Hunt. It was death, and she had to keep that at the fore of her mind.
She had been Judge, and put Arcene, herself and her friends into this situation, although they were excited to be chosen. Talia had a responsibility to keep herself and them safe. This was new to them all, but her friends were in her care. She wouldn't let them or Vorce down, or the people on The Island she called friends and family even if some still treated her like an outcast because her mother had succumbed to The Lethargy.
She would show them all. Show how good she was. Tales would be told for years of how she was the best Hunter there had ever been, how she had delivered the death blow. Maybe it was better it would never be screened. It would go down in history as her defeating an adversary so powerful that she could even stop technology, but Talia had overcome all obstacles to bring Justice to her people.
On they ran, Vorce giving instructions, warning about the buildings and to tread carefully, to always take stock of the situation before rushing headlong into places where floors could collapse or walls could fall. Watch out for glass, it was everywhere. There were things hiding under the grass, there to cut you, or worse. Look before you act. Don't rush in without thinking how to get out. Get into the mind of your Prey. All things they had been told a thousand times before, but now it was different. It wasn't a game. It was real.
If they failed to get Arcene before dark, they were to return to the camera room. Chances were, they would find her long before then, but there was to be no Hunt at night, not unless everyone was together and there was little choice. Hunt in the day. It was how it had always been. They never hunted at night when the risk to their safety increased.
The Elders gave additional instructions to the three younger ones, warning of the many dangers on the mainland and explaining the endless strange things they saw as they moved down the street.
There was so much. Overhead cables that had allowed communication and electricity into every building, every home. Strange posts that ran down the street — they would come on every evening to illuminate the streets. It happened in every city and town, all across the world, the planet lit up like a billion candles. How had they never heard of this before? How wonderful would that be to walk at night and be able to see?
Vorce kept quiet, focused on the task at hand, but Talia and her friends listened rapt to the hints of the world they had never known and never been told of. She had thought they had been taught all that the world once was, but apparently not.
Even seeing the rusted hulks of the cars and the buses brought it to life. It was different hearing how people used to travel in such things than to actually see them lined up along the sides of roads, or abandoned in the middle at strange angles, or queued where roads intersected.
There were what were called traffic lights, where cars would stop so o
thers could pass, all managed by people or computers to make the city function, same as it did everywhere else. Amazing! Yes, and the lights were different colors so people knew when it was their turn.
And what was that? That, replied Elder Janean, getting into her stride, was art. Made and put there just so people could admire it. Yes, but what did it do? It didn't do anything, its purpose was to allow people to stop, touch it, admire the shape. She remembered lots of art from when she lived on the mainland, before she left to start a better world with Vorce. She warned to be careful of any animals they might encounter. Sometimes there were strange creatures at nighttime, getting in even though the fence should stop anything like that happening.
Fence? What fence?
Vorce cut off Elder Janean with a sharp word and stopped them all, making them move into the shelter of an almost intact building not far from the end of the street.
"Closer, come closer, and be quiet. Elder Janean, why do you do this every time? Please, can we stay focused? This is your life, and if you want to keep it I suggest you remain vigilant. This is not a game, this is The Hunt. Do you think our Prey is chattering like a washerwoman and playing games? No, she will be plotting, planning and hiding, and we must stay alert or you will never get out of this terrible place. Do I make myself clear?"
There were bowed heads and murmurs of agreement. Even Elder Janean looked chastised, something Talia wouldn't have thought possible.
"Now, let The Hunt begin."
A Big Fence
"Ha, Leel, stop it." Arcene tried to shove Leel off but it was no use. The daft lump had her pinned down. Leel sat on her, paws either side of Arcene's head, and went in for another of her favorite moves — the full face lick. Arcene squirmed, trying to escape, but it was no use. Leel licked from her chin right up to the top of her head and Arcene had to take it. It was as gross as always but it somehow felt right, as if Leel knew that just as it was entirely inappropriate to play while you were being hunted to be killed, it was exactly the time that a little light relief was in order.
Arcene smiled despite herself, but knew they shouldn't be messing about. They could be attacked at any moment. She had to stay focused if she wanted to hide both herself and Leel from those who could otherwise find them easily through The Noise.
Leel went in for another round, but Arcene poked out her tongue to tell her off. Bad idea. "Ugh, ugh. You licked inside my mouth! That is the grossest thing in the world, Leel. Come on, time to get up."
Uh-oh. Arcene saw it coming. Leel was about to bark. No, no, no. They'd give themselves away in a second. She'd been whispering and if Leel made a sound you could be sure it would be heard for miles. "No, Leel, they'll hear us." Leel pricked up her ears, turned her head to look for the people, then closed her mouth. She knew Arcene was being serious, understood the situation. Arcene had explained, and it was one of those times when she was certain Leel understood. Whether that was true or not was debatable, but she thought she did.
She got a certain look, like her brain could process important information, and Arcene wondered at such times what Leel really thought and understood — more than she let on, was the conclusion she always came to.
"Okay, now, about this wall. Or I suppose it's a fence. Hmm." Leel stood and stepped off Arcene. After a wipe of her face that did little but spread the slobber more evenly, Arcene got up. They both stared up at the fence.
There had to be a way over it, or through it. Arcene had encountered plenty of obstacles in her life, and the one thing she was certain of was that if there was a barrier then there was a way to get to the other side. It stood to reason. If you built a fence then you had to get through it. There were always people working both sides to construct it, so how did they get back over? Nobody built a prison they couldn't escape from, and this one was no exception. She simply had to find out how to beat it, get her freedom and some room to breathe. To think.
Or did she? Maybe she should just hide? Watch and see what happened, how her Hunters acted. See how experienced they were. What weapons would they have? Guns? If so, then she would need a different strategy than relying on hand-to-hand combat. Bow and arrow? Crossbow? Sling? It could be anything. She needed to know.
It would be no good running down a street with them a good distance behind if that meant getting shot in the back. Somehow, it didn't feel like that was the way Vorce would operate, but then again, he'd decided it would be fun to hunt and kill her and televise it for other people's enjoyment. So she guessed he could stoop as low as it was possible to stoop when he thought such acts of cruelty and barbarism were what people who declared themselves civilized did as punishment for supposed rule breaking you didn't even know was a crime.
Maybe I am greedy? Heck, I am, I know it. But I like food, surely that's not a crime?
Arcene set her shoulders. She'd come to a decision.
"Come on, Leel, we're going to hide. No barking," she added hurriedly, as Leel opened her mouth to agree to the game.
Arcene and Leel turned their backs on the fence and headed to the next street, hoping that Vorce would come straight down the main road thinking she was easy prey for a team of six. They hadn't seen anything yet, and they had definitely underestimated Leel.
They walked, no point running everywhere just for the sake of it. Stealth was the order of the day now, and that meant being careful where they trod. The streets were a mess, and Arcene didn't want to leave a trail, so they moved off the grass and close to the buildings where patches of paving slabs were still evident between the rubble and glass.
It wouldn't be easy to move silently here, too much was on the ground. They would be heard. What to do? Which way to go? The best thing was to get some distance, then watch and wait.
With Leel staying close, Arcene stepped on bare patches wherever possible, and ramped up her hearing until every footfall sounded like a giant stomping down on buildings.
She could hear nothing but their own passage, so guessed they were safe. For now. They were on a side street running at right angles to the main street, the fence a block away. It really was a limited area, and if her pursuers broke up they could cover a lot of ground quickly. But still, there were plenty of places to hide so it wouldn't be easy for them to find her if they hid.
They kept moving, Arcene scanning in all directions, Leel taking the rear so she could follow as close as possible in Arcene's footsteps. Leel was silent, amazingly so, the years of hunting paying off, even though she usually just made a mad dash and relied on speed and bulk rather than cunning and stealth.
They got halfway down the street then took another turn, heading back toward the fence. Arcene believed it best to stay close to it as one way or another they had to get over it. She spotted a likely place to hide and they weaved between hulks of ancient cars and entered through a wooden door, out of place amid the steel and concrete, into a building Arcene knew was once a church. It sat amid once modern architecture, still relatively intact, the brick and wood holding better than the crumbling concrete.
Arcene felt out of place and time as soon as she stepped inside. At the far end was a simple wooden cross high on the wall. Scattered church pews covered the tiled floor, most of them turned over, piles of leaves and litter sweeping over them where the wind had blown them into mounds like the tide coming to wash away the sins of the past.
But this was no longer a place for worship, a lost religion Arcene had heard about many times but never even came close to understanding. When The Lethargy came, some clung to faith stronger than ever, but most lost it, or the values were perverted, becoming something else over the years until what were once rules to live by morphed into something else. Arcene never understood any of it.
The small main room was an off-white, simple and mostly unadorned, but it still held that eerie sense of silence you only found in places of prayer or learning. Churches and libraries, they always made you want to whisper, even though there was nobody to tell you to be quiet.
Arcene, w
ith Leel bumping against her side, moved carefully between the upended benches and avoided stepping on the brittle books scattered everywhere. She may not have the faith those who worshiped here once had, but she wasn't about to insult it by putting a dirty boot on their book of worship. They made it to the far end and stepped up onto a raised platform.
Scrawled across the wall beneath the cross were the words "Why have YOU forsaken US?" in red, and on the floor were the remains of a man, little more than bone and cloth. A book was clutched tight to his chest. It was one of the saddest things she had ever seen.
"Come on, Leel, let's go through to the back, see if we can get higher." Leel sniffed the corpse, then followed Arcene into an anteroom. There was nothing but decay, the place ransacked for anything of use, but Arcene found the stairs that led up. They climbed, the silence closing in as their footsteps dulled on the stone steps that spiraled tightly in a space Leel found it hard to maneuver in, her shoulders brushing the sides as they went higher.
Doubt crept in as they ascended. Was this a bad idea? Was she trapping them? Or was it a safe refuge, the last person to find sanctuary in the church? Best to keep going, try to get an idea of what was happening outside, what her Hunters were doing. Ugh, now she was capitalizing it too, like they deserved such importance!
As they turned, and climbed higher, the light dimmed until it was hard to see, but they made it to the top only to be confronted with a closed door. Arcene tried the handle but it wouldn't budge. She crouched to peer through the keyhole but there was nothing but black. The key must be in it on the other side, and she didn't dare try to break it down for fear of alerting Vorce and his team to their location.
"Sorry, Leel, but we have to go back down. This was a bad idea. We need a bigger building, one with lots of windows I think." Leel moaned, and tried to turn, but the space was too tight. Arcene shifted her position, back up tight against the wall on the small landing, and coaxed Leel forward until she squeezed next to her. Arcene slipped past and down a few steps to give Leel room to maneuver then they both descended.
