The Huntress

I didn’t often work with others. I operated best alone, without the burden of having to watch others’ backs. But David’s command was law in my world and he had asked this of me. And how could I refuse the man to whom I owed everything? This mission was not under ideal circumstances but I would make the most of what I was given. That was what I did, what I was good at. Focus on the objective. The objective. The objective.

“Don’t fail me.” he had told me. I didn’t plan to.

The objective in this case was to take down a group of werewolves spotted roaming outside of their known territory. It was odd to see them so far from home, but who could understand the way of beasts. They had occupied abandoned cabins deep in the woods and our hunters had meticulously planned an ambush. However, the wolves somehow caught onto the plan and began to evacuate early, prompting a panicked call from the squad leader to David himself. He was not pleased about that.

He didn’t often send me directly into such missions, but this must have been important to him. No matter. All objectives were important to me.

“Targets moving north-east.” a voice crackled over my ear piece. I sped past the exit for the campsite and continued on the freeway. If they were headed north-east, I could follow the curve of the freeway and enter the forest from the north to intercept them.

“I’ll block them off from the north. Get ready to back me up.” I replied.

Within a few minutes, I approached where the freeway would start to veer off from the forest and pulled over. Without any interruptions in movement, I discarded my motorcycle in some bushes and ran at full speed towards the reported direction.

My objective, I reminded myself. Delay the beasts until the rest of the squad arrives. Kill on sight.

I pulled a small plastic vial from my belt and downed its contents. Even as the viscous fluid descended my throat I could immediately begin to feel the effects. The world sharpened around me and I could feel the newfound strength in my body push my run to double the speed. I didn’t like to have to take the serum so early, but I would need it to be able to catch up to them.

Soon, I could pick up the sounds of paws on a forest floor far in the distance. From the pattern of footsteps, I guessed two wolves. I pushed myself to run even faster and pulled out the crux of the hunters’ offense: a gun with silver bullets.

Within seconds, I was in range to shoot and I fired off multiple shots, letting my heightened senses guide my aim. Even without the serum I could hit my targets blindfolded. With the serum, I was unstoppable.

The sharp yelps and grunts confirmed my accuracy and I ran towards them with the intent to finish the job. In my focus, I was barely able to notice a massive wolf leap towards me and moved only in time to avoid a full-on collision. Instead, jaws clamped down on my right arm, knocking my gun into the distance.

Without hesitation, I pulled a silver dagger from my belt and slashed at the wolf’s chest, forcing him to release my arm and leap back. I could feel warmth trickle down my arm but felt no pain. The serum would do that to you.

Keeping my dagger in my left hand, I pulled out my machete with my right and crouched to face him in a fighting stance. The wolf was large for its kind but I had taken down bigger wolves.

It lunged towards me with a supernatural speed but I was able to sidestep and land a slash across his rump. Without pausing for a moment, I followed up with my machete which the wolf managed to evade.

Just then, a voice erupted from my ear piece, “Abort mission. They set a trap. Abort mission!” In the background, I could hear the cries of my fellow hunters accompanied by the vicious snarls of the beasts.

The wolf took that moment to lunge again, likely in hopes that it would catch me off guard, but I was prepared and its massive body leapt towards its death onto my blade, the weight of the wolf driving the machete deep into its chest. Foolish wolf. It was likely young to fall for such a maneuver.

As I retrieved my weapon from between the ribs of the dead beast, three more wolves burst on scene. Like clockwork, felling one creature always seemed to immediately call more. It was almost as if they could feel their pack member’s death. They attacked without pause and we joined in a brutal dance of blades and fangs. In this game, there was no blocking. You either dodged or you took a hit and with four of us in the mix, no one left unmarked.

I felt jaws tear into my calf, coming away with bits of my flesh in between its teeth. This time I could feel the sharp sting of pain. The serum was wearing off. My machete caught one of the wolves across the face, giving me an opportunity to roll to the side and quickly down another vial. I hated to double up, but I would deal with the consequences later.

Just then, I heard a gunshot and felt a force knock my left shoulder back, immediately followed by a searing pain rip through my body. I looked up to meet the fearful eyes of a boy no older than 16, underlined by the outline of a gun, my gun, pointed at me with trembling hands. My vision began to swim with black and the last thought that flitted through my mind before I collapsed was not something I was used to. Poor boy.