The Path of the Hunter Part 2

The Mangled remnants of a decayed corpse eagerly rushed towards the scent of food. The sound of warm blood flowing inside the two bodies just feet away enraged the monster’s thirst. With every beat of their hearts the beast felt a warmth rush through its body, as if this hunger reminded the flesh of what it felt like to be alive.

“I Just concentrate my energy into my fist like this” Jone Faux said with a tense voice. He stood with his fist tightly clenched beside his chest. Jone grunted as he shifted his legs, adjusting his balance like some invisible force was pushing him back.

Cain Winchester inspected the other boy and nothing seemed unusual to him outside the grunting. As he looked at the clenched fist that was supposedly full of energy Cain felt the air begin to grow thick and his breathes became heavy. Nothing about Jone was special expect for an odd pressure Cain was feeling as he focused on the fist only increased.

What was this? This pressure began to remind Cain of fear, his body screaming as if a savage beast stood in place of the five-foot-tall boy.

The zombie was now within striking distance as Jone confidently looked up at it. Calcified patches riddled the monster’s head and its limbs seemed to be held together by some sort of small tendrils that extruded from the muscles. This may have been a weak sub type but it was nothing Cain would have felt comfortable punching.

Jone yelled at the top of his lungs as he lunged towards the menacing husk of flesh. His arm extended into the zombie's head like it was bowl of pudding. The sounds of bones shattering and flesh ripping built up to the explosive force unleashed as the head split in twain.

Cain couldn’t deny he was impressed, he also wished he had stood further back. As he picked the decayed chunks of flesh from his hair, he began wish he had gotten a haircut before running away from home as well.

“Your hair looks like a bloody tissue!” Jone spat out in laughter.

Cain grunted in irritation as he dug in his pack for the mirror that he used for looking around corners. He pulled out the broken piece of a mirror with black tape wrapped around the edges. Looking in the mirror he could see his shoulder length blonde hair was half drenched in blood. “Crap” Cain moaned out in a grief-stricken tone “You’re right”. He pulled his hair to the back and tied it in a knot to hold it back. “It’s gonna suck to wash this out but at least I won't have to put up with it getting in my way for now”.

“Sorry” Jone said as he rubbed the back of his head “I didn’t think it was going to blow up like that”. The young boy giggled as he blushed out his embarrassment.

“Was that how you killed that zombie from Alda?” Cain looked at the corpse that laid just feet from him, it looked more like it was on the wrong end of a shotgun than a twelve-year old’s fist.

“Umm kinda” Jone awkwardly replied. He reached towards the small of his back and pulled out a small wooden knife from his belt. “I actually had to use this to finish it off, my punch only broke through the shell on the head”. Cain looked at the wooden knife, it looked long in Jone’s hand with a wooden blade about ten inches long.

“Why do you have a dagger made out of wood?” Cain asked the young boy. “That isn’t good for anything but dead flesh”.

“That is exactly why” Jone replied with a confused look in his face.

Cain had to take a few seconds before saying anything else, attempting to refrain from calling Jone an idiot. A wooden staff and a knife made of wood; did he rob a toy store before leaving home? “Ok you don’t want to kill anything living, weird but I’ve seen some people like that before”. Cain had to remind himself that Jone was still a child, it’s probably better he values life to that extent. He did have a legitimate concern come to mind as he thought that, the world doesn’t care that he is a child or an innocent one to add. “What if you get in a fight with somebody who is using a sword or gun? Your wooden toys do nothing to protect you from that stuff”.

“This is made out of the wood from an adamant tree” Jone held out the handle of his wooden dagger for Cain to grab as he continued. “These trees are the strongest in the world, so resistant to cutting that the trees have to be dug up instead of being cut down. They use some sort of electrical torch to cut it into pieces afterwards, they say the torch was made before the outbreak as some sort of anti-ship weapon” Jone clearly had no idea what the term “anti-ship weapon” meant by his whimsical tone.

Grabbing the handle of the knife Cain felt as if he was holding a rock. For something slightly smaller than a foot and a half it felt heavy, at least three pounds. The blade was about two inches wide and half an inch thick making it feel extremely unwieldy to use as a weapon. Cain thought about Jone’s staff, if it was made out of the same material than it would have to weigh at least ten pounds.

“Are you a human?” Cain asked Jone. He began to think about how this boy’s physical strength rivalled that of a fully grown man. What kind of humanoid monsters could grow so strong as a child? A sprite? Effigy? A Vampire maybe but they had supposedly starved out after the outbreak.

Jone looked up at Cain dumbfounded once again “What else would I be?”

Cain didn’t want to answer that. Not many mystical creatures survived the outbreak and the ones he had met previously tried eating him before worrying if he wanted to be friends or not. “A kid that throws way too hard of a punch”. Cain placed his backpack back on his back and started walking towards the path the boys had been on before Jone spotted a walking punching bag.

“I thought you would have been more impressed with my punch” Jone said with a surprisingly happy ring to his voice. “How much aura can you concentrate in one punch?” He asked ecstatically, looking up at jone with anticipation.

“What? I can’t do that kind of stuff” Cain replied looking over to see the bright joyful eyes of Jone shift to a dark brown. Cain stopped in his tracks, did Jone actually think everybody could do this kind of stuff? Cain started to wonder if this kid was actually some sort of orphaned Sprite.

“Yeah, you can” Jone said snapping out of a seemingly shocked state. “I sensed you building up your aura when we first met. That is why I was so excited I almost screamed”.

Cain thought back to the previous day. That odd humming sound was Jone holding back his excitement? “You felt me using some sort of magical energy that I had never heard of until just now?” he sarcastically asked.

“My dad told me hunters don’t usually talk about aura skills” Jone claimed “He said it was safer that way.”

“I guess that makes sense” Cain could think of what people would do if they knew a select few warriors had super human powers, use it for their own purposes. “So, what do hunters do? Or I guess, what do they hunt?”

“They hunt whatever they want to hunt” he awkwardly stated. Jone tried to think about the best way to explain what he knew about the Hunters but felt as if he would fall short if he tried too hard.

“There's not much to hunt outside of the dead these days” Cain grimly stated. “I’m sorry but this Hunters Guild just sounds like a group of monster hunters with an above average ego”.

“You sound like you don’t like monster hunters by the way you say that” Jone jokingly stated. Looking up at Cain, Jone could see a stricken look in his eyes. “Why don’t you like monster hunters?”

Cain picked up his pace and began to outwalk Jone. The last thing he wanted to talk about was his feelings towards monster hunters. Jone began to jog at a brisk pace to catch up with the angsty teenager.

“Your last name is Winchester, right?” Jone asked between breathes as he jogged faster to get ahead “My dad worked with a monster hunter that was a Winchester once, any relation?”

“No” Cain barked at Jone. “If your dad trained you to use this aura thingy, why isn’t he training you to be a hunter anyway?”

“Because that isn’t his job” Jone stated as if it was obvious.

“Not his job? Whose job would it be then?” Cain asked as his voice aggressively spiked.

“That’s why he told me to go to Haven Lock City and look for Black”. Jone released a deep sigh before adding, “My dad only ever spent a week with me”.

Once again, the ridiculousness of Jone had sent Cain reeling back from shock. “Only ever? As in you only spent one week of your entire life with him?” Jone nodded in response to Cain’s query. “And he trained you to use some sort of magical energy and then sent you to a city with ten million biters in order to look for someone that may not even be there so he can train you even more?”

“Yep” the boy calmly replied.

Cain felt the weight of his previous suspicions lifted up from his shoulders. The only type of monster that would have abandoned their children only to lead them into their death would have to be the human type. Cain felt it was probably best to stop talking about this subject before his family got brought back up again.

“What do you know about this guy called Black?” Cain asked Jone.

“Not much outside of him being a powerful hunter” Jone replied, obviously wishing he knew more. “My dad told me that he would be waiting for me and a few other people to test.” Jone began to radiate a vibrant energy of excitement as he continued. “The Hunters Guild has always kept an eye out for strong warriors and invites them to test their strength in order to join the ranks”.

“They definitely sound like they have an above average ego” Cain mockingly replied.

“I’m sure they will be waiting for you too” Jone said to Cain with the same vibrant energy in every word.

“Why?” a confused Cain asked.

“Because you’re strong too” Jone said with a vivacious smile stretching across his face. Cain genuinely began to wonder if Jone had suffered from a stroke again.

“That’s why I'll be just fine without them buddy” Cain said to Jone as he condescendingly patted the boy on the head. Jone didn’t seem the least bit disheartened by Cain pessimism towards the hunters or any of his snarky comments. The boy never seemed to skip a beat in his steps and nothing Cain said would make this kid admit how silly his stories sounded. Maybe he was just so naïve he did not notice that Cain was picking on him.

The two were getting close to the city, rusted cars from over a decade ago began to become a common part of the scenery around them. All of them consumed by weeds and vines that used the metal frames as structures to grow around. Some still held the skeletons of those who stayed trapped in their cars after escaping the city, most likely too afraid to leave.

Cain had heard the stories of what the first few years where like after the outbreak. The ruins and sights that surrounded the city only hinted at the horrors he had been told of, cities swarming with the undead as monsters waited outside to pick off those who fled for safety. Governments burning cities to the ground and rounding up the infected thinking they could contain the virus. The people who lived after the collapse of society were doomed to become monsters themselves, leaving a ravaged world in their blood-soaked wake.

“Look” Cain said as he pointed towards a large green sign that hung over the patches of pavement they now stood on. “That is a sign people used to use when driving into cities like this, it tells you how far the exits off this road and into the city are”.

Jone looked up at the sign in awe, the first entrance was one-quarter of a mile away with the next three-quarters of a mile away. “We are almost in Haven Lock! Yay!” The boy yelled as he jumped up in excitement, waving his arms up and down.

Cain had to smile as he watched the young boy show his glee. It wasn’t often he saw anyone so excited, the last thing he expected was a child living on the road to ever show so much joy these days. In spite of how crazy Jone seemed and how much irritation he had caused Cain, something about this type of behavior made Cain feel like this kid was worth being around. He didn’t know why he felt like that though.

“We should take the first exit, if possible, the less time on over passes the better” Cain stated as he began walking down the crumbling remnants of the highway.

Something began to feel odd to Cain as they walked down the road, a sharp pressure began to dig in the back of his neck. He rubbed his neck and looked around at his surroundings, nothing odd. Cain felt sure this was just some sort of kink from sleeping wrong or a muscle cramp from being dehydrated. He looked down at Jone, he seemed tense and high-strung. Cain stopped and grabbed Jone by the shoulder.

“Do you feel that too” Cain asked his young companion.

Jone nervously looked up at Cain “I think someone or something is watching us” He replied with a shaky voice.

‘Let’s turn around” Cain said as he steered Jone around. “I don’t know what is going on but if we both feel this way tha-” Cain felt the words ripped from his throat as he looked up to see the other side of the sign had been written on in black Paint.

The test has already begun. The only way out is forward and the only way back is death. Best of luck to you two. The message painted on the back of the sign read. A winking smiley face was painted down beneath the message.

“That can’t be for us, can it?” Cain asked with fear slicing through every word he spoke.

“I think, I think it is” Jone stammer in response.

Both boys looked at each other wondering if they should continue to back track or if it would be safer to push into the town. Jone swallowed the lump in his throat and extended his arm out towards Cain with his fist clenched. His eyes riddled with fear but his poise and face built by resolve.

“We can do this” Jone said with his voice echoing from the bottom of his chest.

Cain reached his fist out and tapped his knuckles against Jone’s. “Yeah, we got this shit”.

The boys walked into the city of Haven Lock, ready to accept the challenge placed before them by the mysterious hunter known as Black. Neither knew what would come next or if they would ever find who they were looking for. Yet a burning determination them past their fear and into the uncertain. Not just the ending to their quest but the beginning of a new journey would meet them as a reward to prevailing over the trials to come.