Hunting

There was no one beside him when he woke up that morning, though he could hear people talking about. His wife was busy taking care of the kids in the next room. As she had always at this time, she discussed literature and encouraged them to read. Their little boy William was resting his cheek upon his fist once again, not maintaining a proper posture. His sister however sat up nicely, but was more up front about their thoughts on these books.
“They’re too boring,” Susie complained.
“You’re not giving them a chance,” Martha argued.
“I don’t know, maybe they’re just too smart for us and… stuff,” Billy noted.
“I read these when I was younger than you, I know you can get through it,”
“Okay,”
From this noise, the man knew he couldn’t sleep any longer. Looking out from over his sheets, he saw the sun glaring through his window. He always wanted to fix that, but Martha insisted against him. George got up from his rest, heading to the kitchen for a meal. He checked about, seeing his bread lined up. “No meat?”
“I told you to go hunting last week,” Upset, George took his small meal and took a seat in the dining room as his kids continued onward, now more timid about speaking against their mother. “Here’s a great book for you two to read: A Swarm of 2000,”
Being given the book, Susie went to the first page, quickly, Will soon followed. “Susie, will you read?”
With her small voice, she spoke out the first paragraph, lacking emotion or understanding within the story. “Through my life I have made many of mistakes. Quite possibly the most abundant of my stories are about my uh, mistakes. This one day, I took a walk through this old abandoned house on my corner and decided to check in. I had never once seen a wasp in my life before that evening. It was the worst mistake of my life.” Taking a moment to reflect, Susie widened her eyes at what was foreshadowed.
“Why is that telling us so quickly things will be bad? It loses the surprise.”
“The author wanted to introduce readers to the story and get them hyped right away, William. Besides, it isn’t telling you how things went down or specifically what happened.”
“He’s getting attacked by a swarm of wasps at that house!” Susie shouted out.
“Quiet! I’m having my breakfast!”
The children calmed down. “Let’s move on,” Marth continued reading through the page for them. Now softer than before as to not to disturb her husband. “My curiosity was getting the best of me, as I collected my things and carried on my way… ” At this point, Martin stopped paying attention to the book, getting his breakfast eaten.
Martin took a seat at the dining table thinking over his own life and mistakes, recalling rather recently what he had forgotten. He was filled with shame over this, knowing his wife was to talk with him once he was done with his eggs.
“We lack the proper amount of meat for the winter,” His wife, walking up behind him spoke. “Make sure to get it all. Tonight. You’ve waited long enough,” It is true that soon it would be too cold to be appropriate for a hunt, but it wasn’t necessary.
“We could go without meat this Christmas,” He said.
“I’m not having another holiday without it. Get out there, now,” She had insisted, pushing him out the door. He stared back, looking through the window at his kids who weren’t certain of what to make of this talk. When their mother returned to the room, their heads lowered to their books once more.
He walked over to his shed, where he laid his guns. Many times in the past, Susie had gotten inside, and grabbed a gun. She would reach it to hit her shoulder as she aimed at the door, blasting holes through it. Frightening Marth quite much. Another time, the window had shattered, other times just the noise was enough to get her into trouble. Neither of the parents felt for certain how many times Susie had gotten into the shed, but didn’t want her getting back in.
Martin explained to her how it’s awoken her baby brother a few times, disturbing everyone in the house. He further went on, discussing the danger of the equipment, promising to teach her once she was a bit older, and hadn’t tried wasting any more bullets. After five years that hasn’t been full filled.
Susie had gotten into the shed so many times, finally Martin went out of his way to find a lock. It had been in his way today, as it had become covered in frost. As he put the key in, he found it would get stuck. He wasn’t even able to push the key all of the way in. After a few attempts, he could get it into the hole, but the lock wouldn’t turn. He struggled through it, unable to get it to click. Finally, he had gotten the lock unlatched. Into the cabin he went… finding it to be messed with.
There was a hole in the floor, with his weapon laid out. An animal had broken in through a corner and knocked over his rifle. He found that it was damaged a bit, but simple enough to fix. The hole on the other hand would take a week or so to get the proper wood and supplies. With his gun, he threw it over to the table, patching up what needed fixing.
He took his coat and headed into the woods. South he went, knowing his prey would be off in the meadow. As he went down the hill, he looked at the forest. The trees around him were dark and dry. They lifted above his head, and held holes where the animals had burrowed. Many times he looked up there, seeing animals scurry by. Always small rodents like squirrels or small birds. It was nothing worth killing for food.
Now, it was empty. Too cold to go about constantly, only few birds left around. “Cah!” A crow denied. he continued forward, ignoring it’s plee, analyzing everywhere for the hope of a deer or some pheasants. “Cah!” Was heard once again. The bird flew around behind him as he could hear. He didn’t bother with it, still searching for meat. “Hisssarch!” He had heard it say once more. The noise had confused him, compelling him to turn. HE however couldn’t see any creature that would’ve made such a noise. Nor was the crow in sight. All that lay were the trees, some seeming deformed, now that he look.
He continued hisself down the hill, searching around for his prey. His vision was mainly empty aside from the trees. Shortly after, he saw his catch. It was a large doe, just bending over, eating. He stuck his gun up, aiming. Click The noise startled the deer, lifting it’s head and dodging the bullet he shot out. He couldn’t predict where it was to go. As it had left, he got hisself going, heading closer to the animal.
He couldn’t keep up as the doe kept running. He had gotten exhausted over his travel. Looking around, finding himself more desperate for any creature. Grrr. Was the growl from a wolf about. He could hear it go by. Looking around, he spot it. It rushed behind a bush. He had no time to deal with a wolf, so he left it alone. He continued through the forest, in search of his deer. He heard another shuffling in a bush, turning to see feathers escaping from it. He shot into the air, missing everything. He was just getting frustrated. To the ground he went, beating himself into the forest.
It was getting late, just the time when light was disappearing. He wasted his entire day, finding no creatures to hunt. Now, as he looked around, he realized he was lost. No longer was a hill around. He looked around through the forest for any sign of his home. Nowhere was it. The creatures were gone, his house was gone. It was beginning to scare him. There was a harsh beat where he was. He dropped to the ground just after getting a hit onto his face.
Martin lifted his head up from the cold ground. Above, the sky was black. There was barely any light about the forest. Martin looked around, seeing if there was any sign he could use for where he was. It didn’t seem he could find anything. Each tree around him just appeared to be unfamiliar. Picking himself up, he headed back up the hill, digging his feet into the ground. His face was drooping. His head was sore. He even had an intense headache, hearing an annoying noise in his ears. He had failed his hunt.
Rubbing his head, he could tell he had gotten beaten. There was now blood on his hands. Someone had forced him to the ground. Martin recalled seeing no one around who may have done so. The forest had been empty. Yet, what else may have hit his head? To himself, Martin assumes someone threw a rock at his head. It certainly wasn’t a branch that fell from a tree, as he knew it headed up to his head. However it was, he needed to get home.
As he walked, he noticed his leg now had a limp. Pain shot through his entire leg each step he took. It was too late by now to even see what the problem was, but it felt like much of his leg was torn. Martin took another method to analyze it. Rubbing his hand down the side of his pants, he could feel many holes and bumps lined about. One bump he seemed to have removed by one touch. An aroma spread from that. It grossed him out.
Martin continued his way up the hill, ignoring the pain for now. He rushed as fast as he could up the hill with his limp. Tears forming from the pain and the rotting smell. In his left arm, he carried his weapon. It bounced up and down in his loose hand, as he was too light headed to consider it. Oh, that fuzzy feeling in his head. Such a headache. Each step he took caused the sound to grow louder.
Footsteps were heard around Martin. He could tell it was the trot of a deer. He lifted his gun once more, searching for the doe. He continued his hunt for the deer. Just aside him Martin saw it run. He followed as it hurried by. Beyond more trees he went. The deer went far. With his limp, Martin struggled to follow, especially with his limp, but he managed to reach. It had gone behind a bush.
Yelp! A squeak went from the deer. Something had pounced it to the ground. Martin looked around push, aiming, preparing to kill the creature. He aimed at the wolf that was present over the fallen deer. It was already eating away at the flesh. It was alone. It didn’t matter. Martin fired his gun at the creature. Shooting right at it. He somehow missed. He fired again. Still, no hit. He knew he was aiming his gun properly. Why wasn’t the wolf reacting?
The wolf then stopped eating the deer. It turned its head, looking at Martin. It stood there, looking at this man failing to shoot it. Now, it was evident that Martin wasn’t failing to aim. Each hit had made it onto this creature. The flesh was flying off. The wolf widened its mouth and showed its jaws. Its head rose from its body.
The deer that laid upon the ground rose with the head of the wolf. They stretched out above Martin’s head. The skin was stretching to the point of tear as it elevated. The other appendages followed along with this, stretching out in odd fashions, The skin couldn’t contain the flesh underneath and exposed the muscle, tissue, and bones. It could all be seen. Even the creature’s jaws had grew. The flesh kept tearing.
Martin shot at them once more, seeing as their flesh sprayed across, but it still pulled apart. He noticed this after just two more. He needed to get home. He ran from this creature. Up the hill he lifted himself. Even with his perpetual limp, he couldn’t risk whatever that thing was. His breath was soon leaving him as his adrenaline rushed.
He tripped over a log he couldn’t see. As he tried to return his posture, he found his injured leg was numb. He shook it with his hand, feeling his flesh slush about. Just a bit away, it seemed a melted bit of flesh with the faces of the deer and the goat were on their chase, slithering around the forest floor like snakes. Hhhrach! The flesh enveloped Martin’s leg. It ate through his pants. He crawled away after that, escaping from the monster.
Martin got himself far from the creature, seeing its flesh tear from itself to crawl itself forward across his leg. He got himself to up the hill. Pass many trees. He felt horrible. Sick, headache, a loud noise in his ear, nauseous, light headed, sweating, and fatigue. He needed to get out of this forest. His hands and a leg pulled him along the ground. His other leg didn’t even bleed out.
“Cahhhhekkkkhh!” A bird flew above. Looking at it, Martin could see its melting eye. It drifted down its face as it continued to claw at Martin’s back. It scratched through his coat, increasing its claws. It morphed about above him, trying to destroy him. It finally landed onto his back and began eating into his flesh. Martin moaned in pain. He hit it away. It seemed to have disappeared.
He crawled for an hour, getting to his house. He crawled himself to the door. He pulled himself up to open the door. He entered his home. He got to the wall. “Ahh!” Susie had screamed.
Marth got out of her room, heading over to Susie’s room. Calming the girl. “Go back to bed,” Marth had told her daughter. She headed out to the room Martin was now lying in. She saw the body on the floor. It looked up at her, smiling. Its eyes were wild, and face was melting. It was lifting itself above the woman in the room, stretching its skin out. The flesh was tearing down.
“Thhhhuh…. ” The creature moaned out. It noticed its speech wasn’t what it expected, reacting in dismay. “Wwwwhhuht?” It spoke. The creature pulled itself together, focusing on what it needed to say. “Mmmmm…. Mmmar… Marth,” He spoke.
She took a moment to think about what happened. Marth was just at a loss of words. She couldn’t decide if what she was looking at was real or…