HUNTER 18'S (SHORT STORY)

By: Gus Calvo

The virus ravaged the Earth in matter of weeks; much of the humanity was destroyed and turned into mindless creatures. A small group of hunters known as the Shinobi located in the Bay Area of the South, made a settlement in the small area known as the King's Way. There they found an old supermarket who was perfect for a fortress because it only had one entry, two emergency exits and the unloading area was located above the ground level so it was perfectly save.

Wooten was the de-facto leader of the group, she was only 22 at the time they settled in the King's Way but she suffered through the six years interval of the plague and she organized the group to find different survivors but their luck and odds were minimal as they only found a few people through the Bay Area of the South. Them were walking as usual, and the Shinobi were trying to keep their whereabouts hidden from them because when they organized by a mere force of causality into a horde they could turn into a problem.

The little supermarket had a bunch of canned food, as well water and soda; electricity and gas were there because at the moment of the outbreak everyone just died and no one from the facilities had the time to shut the power to prevent any emergencies. Roosen was another of the survivors and he was found by the Shinobi during a search for supplies near the main public school of the city, where Roosen was hiding in the student center with other survivors that didn't make it out because the group got overwhelmed by them.

While doing his security rounds on the rooftop, Roosen realized that one of the hordes was walking alongside the main avenue. He hold still his binoculars to see if the changed their direction but suddenly he realized what they were chasing, a small group of people who didn't had any weapons, they were moving slow as usual but the survivors were going to get mauled, he went to the main floor and woke up the runners to see if they could gather and save the three people who were trying to escape the horde.

He only could woke up Price and Costas, they were the only men who felt comfortable driving the Humvee as well shooting with precision. Wooten was asleep and didn't noticed anything. The three men drove carefully to the RT 60, the main avenue of the town; on the south border of the King's Way the noticed that horde was bigger than the description of Roosen, about 2,500 people composing the horde and chasing three individuals. Price stopped the car and said he wasn't going to risk the life of a larger group if they failed. Roosen was hesitant after watching the horde, but Costas grabbed the wheel and drove ballistic against the horde in order to save the three people. They almost fail, because they only rescued a young girl who went by the name Brianna but they guys had to took a long detour to confuse the horde and to go back to their fortress.

Brianna, told the guys that her group was totally killed by the horde and that they were hiding not far away but that she regretted that Einsmann and Nichols couldn't be saved as they promised to each other to escape beyond the Bay where they heard that the infection was under control. After driving for more than an a hour and directing the horde to the south side of the town into a small swamp they were returning to their hide out.

Wooten was extremely piss that they could put in jeopardy all the group and let themselves be absorbed into the horde but also she was happy as the 18th survivor was found. She quickly explained to Brianna that they were a group of hunters and so far from the 18th individuals, only 7 were located in the remains of the store and the other eleven were located in a 5 miles radius around the area doing surveillance to the horde and independent groups of walkers.

Brianna was confused as nobody from her group knew what caused the plague that devastated humanity but the only clue that Wooten gave to her was that it was a virus spread in the water that turned humans into mindless beings after they die; but there was a catch, if at the moment of their death their head was destroyed or eaten by the others they wouldn't regenerate into one of them.

Everyone in the Shinobi group had some knowledge regarding them but no one knew exactly where they came from as they roamed endlessly around Earth, without breathing or dying, because they were already dead, dead as they could be, but yet they walked and yet theywere there. They were human once but yet they were bodies walking without a soul or a life force, just walking endlessly.