The Hunt and the Trap
The snow crunched beneath our boots. Ice raised a hand silent signal to stop.
I held my breath, cold air burning my lungs. Ice took aim.
Thwip.
The arrow flew, clean and fast. A distant grunt. He turned to me.
"Let's go."
We approached the fallen boar. A clean kill. Enough meat to feed us for a week.
I exhaled, grateful. It had been a year since Belial. A year since Paradise City and Sodom fell. We'd been living underground ever since only surfacing to hunt, then vanishing back into the tunnels.
The streets belonged to demons now. They roamed freely, unchecked. Millions dead. Patrols circled the woods, ensuring no one escaped.
The Prince of Sloth ruled Sodom. Lazy in body, but sharp in mind. A strategist. A watcher.
I hope Thomas is still alive, I thought. Wherever you are.
Ice and I hoisted the boar and began the trek back. Then we heard it.
Crying.
We froze.
Curiosity won. I crept forward, bow ready.
A woman sprinted through the trees panicked, wild-eyed.
Then I saw them.
Demon wolves.
Six feet tall on all fours. Fanged, blood-soaked, fast.
I fired three arrows two kills, one hit. The pack turned toward me.
I ran.
They circled, snarling. I shot another down, missed the next. Climbed a tree. They leapt almost reached me.
I dodged, fired again. Two arrows left. Six wolves still alive.
Then thwip thwip.
Two wolves dropped. Ice.
The rest charged him.
He unsheathed his katana, stood firm.
The first wolf lunged dead in a flash. The second wounded. The last two attacked together, throwing Ice off balance.
I saw one circling behind him.
Fired.
Kill.
Ice finished the last with a flurry of steel.
I dropped from the tree.
"That's why I always carry my katana," Ice said.
"It was a hunting mission," I replied. "Didn't think I'd need it."
"Let's get the boar and go."
Then the woman emerged from the trees.
"Thank you. I'm grateful."
"Don't worry about it," Ice said, turning to leave.
"What's your name?" the woman asked.
I stepped forward. "What are you doing out here?"
She takes steps back and looked at me.
"Looking For you."
Pfft.
A tranquilizer dart hit Ice.
I froze.
The woman moved fast precise. I lunged, but she shot me twice.
My vision blurred.
"Night night, gifted one," she said.