The Hunter

Chapter Five

“Humans are not the fastest or the strongest animals on the planet, but when it comes to survival, we have had the unique advantage of being clever." - David Perlmutter

“Thanks for getting here so quickly. Be careful out there. Here’s my card if you need anything.” I take the card from Sheriff Andrews.

“And what if we needed a good place to stay the night?” I smile at her. She smiles back and leans forward.

“There’s a motel up the road. Mountain View Inn.” She says.

“Thank you very much.” We get up and head out of her office and out to our car.

“Were you flirting with the sheriff?” My father asks.

“What? No, just being friendly.” I open up the car door and get inside.

“Maybe try being a little less friendly next time.”

I scoff and roll my eyes. “You could try being a little more friendly.” I whisper under my breath as I walk around to the passenger’s seat.

We drive to the motel and get a room with double beds. It’s cheaper for us to share a room. We get paid a fee for taking on jobs and the less we spend the more we can keep once it’s over. Some hunters even sleep in their cars to save on money. There’s good money in hunting, and the life insurance is really good if you die on the job. Not that many hunters have families to go home to.. It’s usually a pretty solitary life, that of a Hunter. Which is one of the reasons I’m so lucky to do it with my dad.

We’re going to rest tonight and at first light head out to the mountains. The room is basic, two double beds, weird tan carpet and a green chair with a table.

“We should make a game plan for tomorrow morning.” My father says. I grab the map and my gun and place them both on the table. My father unfolds the map as I pull out my gun to clean and oil it.

“So we are here. We’ll come up the side of the mountain here. If the girl was found here, it’s camp can’t be far from this area.” I look up at the map.

“What about around those rocks? Could be a cave of some sort.” I say.

“Yeah, we can check those first. All right, so that’s the plan.”

My dad says proudly. I know he’s happy about how much more prepared I am for this assignment. “You hungry?” My dad asks.

“Mm yeah, I could go for a cheeseburger and some fries.”

“Alrighty, I’ll be right back...Coke?.” He asks standing in the doorway, keys and wallet in hand.

“Yup, thanks.” I reply.

He nods his head and leaves to go pick up dinner. I take apart my gun, and start cleaning and oiling the pieces.

I lift my shirt up over my nose, I hate the way this cleaner smells. It gives me such a bad headache. I get up and open the window, I don’t want to smell this all night. Finally after cleaning every part I can start my favorite part, putting the gun back together again.

I’ve always enjoyed feeling the heavy metal in my hands. It makes me feel safe. By the time I’ve put it back together my father comes back with dinner in hand.

He walks in carrying two bags fro two different places.

“Here, I don’t know how you eat that crap.” My father says dropping the bags on the table.

“Burgers are on the food chart. They are delicious. What did you get? A salad?” I reply.

“Are you really trying to make me feel shame for eating a salad? Who raised you?”

“Someone who had better taste in food.” I wash my hands and pull out my burger as my father cleans his gun. He goes over by the open window when he uses the cleaner. He’s a lot quicker than I am, he can clean a gun from start to finish in less than 4 minutes.

I unwrap the paper and the scent of charbroiled meat fills the air and brings joy to my heart. I’m so excited. Burgers are my favorite food. I take a moment to stare are the beautiful culinary masterpiece I’m about to consume. It’s absolutely glorious, with its soft squishy bun, crispy lettuce, gooey cheese, sharp onion, cool tomato, salty pickles, and creamy sauce. My mouth waters as I take a bite. Ugh it’s so good, I never want it to end. I finish the whole burger before I grab some fries from the bag. Fries are good too, of course. I rip open one of the ketchup packet and squirt it right on top of the fries. I’m no dipper. I finish my meal and clean up the wrappers. I sigh. That was over too soon. I wish I had another burger.

My dad sits down on his bed and eats his salad while flipping through the hotel tv channels. I wash up in the bathroom and lay down on top of my blankets with my coke in hand. I sip it while I watch the tv change channels while my dad looks for something interesting to watch. He picks some old western movie that probably came out when he was just a little kid.

Great. I hate these movies. Black and white I can handle but the sepia tones just irk me. Still I try my best to enjoy it for what it is. An hour rolls by and I’ve given this movie my best shot.

“Well I think I’m gonna hit the hay, we have an early morning.” I tell my father. I get comfortable under the blankets and turn my nightstand light off.

“Yeah, you know what? Me too. Night Cole.” My father says as he turns off the lights and the tv.

“Night.” I shuffle around trying to get settled. The bed is old, I can feel the springs in my back, but I’m use to it, all motels have beds like this. I look up at the ceiling and drift off to sleep.

My alarm goes off the next morning at 5 am. I snooze it to get 10 more minutes of sleep. I close my eyes and it feels like no time has passed before my alarm goes off again. I turn it off and stretch. I lay there a moment contemplating my life, or just willing myself to get out of bed. I hear my dad groan. I need to get him coffee before he eats me alive. I sit up and swing my legs over the edge of the bed. I get up and changed, and brush my teeth. Now, where to get coffee? I pull out my phone and look up the area. There is a coffee place literally down the street. I grab the keys and head out. I drive down the coffee place and ordered two black coffees to go, not many people are up this early. I take the coffees back to the motel. I walk back into the room, my father is sitting up on the bed. He’s awake but that’s about it. I hold the coffee out to him and he takes it from me. After giving my dad a good 10 minutes to come alive, we pack our bags and get ready to head out.

“We should stop at a gas station and grab something to eat. We’re about to climb a mountain.”

“Yeah let’s load up on all the healthy options at a gas station.” My father says sarcastically. I don’t know why he’s on about the healthy food, I’m fit.

“You’re right, let’s go to the 24 hour salad buffet.”

“Fine.”

We stop at a ‘gas n go’ just up the street from the mountain road entrance. I grab 2 breakfast burritos and a banana for my dad. We eat in the car and then head out. We get to the mountain just as the sun reaches above the horizon.

“Their campsite should be right up here.” I point to a place on the map. We hike up the mountain heading towards the campsite. Thankfully it’s only a few miles away. The campsite is still roped off and it looks untouched.

“Look around for tracks or anything that will determine the direction.” My father says. We search the ground around the site. Then I see something, something big.

“Dad, come take a look at this.” My father comes over.

“Look here. And there.” It’s a foot.

“That’s pretty big. It looks like it goes this way.” He points deeper into the mountain.

“But come check this out before we leave.” He walks over to the destroyed tent and lifts it up. The tent is covered in blood with large rips.

“Oh wow. They might not be alive, that’s a lot of blood.” I say.

“Yeah that’s what I’m thinking.” My father puts the tent back down and we continue our way deeper into the mountain.

After an hour we come to the spot where the girl was found.

“Look for the hollow tree the girl was found in.” My father always takes control. I look around at the trees and there are so many.

After ten minutes of looking, I hear my father shout.

“Cole!” I catch up with him and see he’s found the tree.

“That’s a tight fit.” I say. Then we hear a loud animal call.

“What is that?” I ask quickly.

“Troll.”