The Hunt

The Hunt

“So Bill, what’s this all about really?”, Calvin said as he tried to find a comfortable spot in the tree they both were too big for.

“You mean why are a couple of highly trained combat operators like you and me sitting in a tree in northern Michigan on a Sunday night?”, he answered stuffing a pinch of Kodiak into his mouth. “That dear boy I can’t say. We got a call from corporate, they say jump, we jump. That’s why they pay us the big bucks.”

Bill reached across offering the can to Cal, holding on to the limb above him to maintain his balance. Fifteen feet wasn’t very high, but loaded down with all the gear they were carrying a fall from that height could hurt.

“Yea, I guess. Seems like a waste of our time to me. Al-Qaida is not coming to Hicksville Michigan to start crap.”, he said taking a pinch for himself.

“Orion base to LP 3, status check.” The disembodied voice called through both of their comms.

Cal looked annoyed. “LP3 to Orion base, still all clear.”

“Look, consider it a free paycheck.” Bill replied tucking the can away. “We sit here for a couple of days and some brass higher up the food chain feels like this research facility is extra safe. All we gotta do is Eckt, geckt.”

“What the hell man” Cal chuckled, “You swallow your chew?”

Bill turned towards him with a confused look in his eyes, as the steel tip of the arrowhead protruding from his throat glistened red in the moonlight.

Cal thought about raising the fully loaded MK46 machine gun in his hands, but he found himself unable to move his body. He vaguely remembered a thud against the side of his head and a piercing pain, but that memory to was fading as darkness began to encircle him. Equally confused he fell.

Neither men felt the impact of falling from the tree.

In the silence and darkness that remained Striga crouched motionless in a tree a few yards away, the thrumming of her bow the only sound. Her night vision goggles turning night to day, she rechecked the area to ensure that no one else was nearby. She was alone.

“You’re never really alone, you know that right?” a soft voice said from a nearby branch.

“I know. You’re always watching” She replied looking directly into the two large eyes staring back at her. Eyes that seemed to stare into her soul met her gaze. The feathered head they inhabited turned nearly 180 degrees on the massive feathered body of a giant barn owl.

She wondered why it always appeared to her as an owl. Why not a person, since it spoke and seemed to understand as a human would.

“Because I’m not an owl…or a human for that matter Astrid Tillerton of Gainsville Arkansas”

“I get it, you know everything about me.” She said climbing down and resuming her slow and deliberate path towards the compound ahead. “That just confirms that I am probably just insane and you are a figment of my imagination.”

“That would be logical, but no. You simply aren’t that creative my dear.” The owl replied silently taking flight to follow her.

Striga moved deftly through the woods, her heart racing as she closed the distance to the electrified fence that surrounded the bio research facility owned by the Orion corporation.

“Ok so if I’m not crazy, then who or better yet, what are you?” she asked as she linked the wires to the fence and then to the metal rod she stuck into the ground.

“We’ll get to the answer to that question shortly, believe me. The more pressing question is Why.”

“Ok then Why are you here?” she asked as she slid through the break she cut in the fencing.

“Oh no, not me. Why are You here?” The mysterious owl replied landing on a nearby roof.

The memories of the incident seven months ago came flooding back suddenly.

She could smell the iron in the air from all the blood and the sulphur smell of spent rounds. She could hear the screams of the people around her and the noise from all the cars in the intersection in Baghdad. The fear was tangible and death was everywhere.

Striga stopped next to the building under the owl, the face of the small boy clear in her mind. He was eight years old. He was innocent.

“Yes…Him.” The owl said in a seething angry voice. “He’s why you’re here.”

“Nick Blackstone”, Striga whispered, anger welling up in her as well. “He thinks he can hide here from what he did. Him…his men. They think they are safe here.”

“Exactly. You are here to show them there is no safe place for those that take the lives of innocents. There is no place where they will not be hunted and punished for the evil they create. You will show them that taking innocent life brings them into my sight, my vision and there they will find judgement.”

Striga tensed her grip on the bow in her hands. “Ours. It brings them into Our vision.” She looked again into the infinite depth of the owl’s gaze.

“Yes, my dear…Ours.” It replied.

Nick Blackstone looked at the monitors nervously. The intel had checked out, there was a credible threat against his life. The agency had shared it with Orion HQ, and they had stuck him here under guard. But in two weeks nothing. Not a thing out of place. Just endless trees and techs going about their daily tasks.

The other three guys in his unit that were convicted with him were already dead. One was killed at home in his garage, another in a crowded restaurant and the last at his farm in Ohio. All killed by multiple arrows. All dead within a day of the one before him. Nick was the last of them.

The brass had figured this was retribution for the pardon they had all received last year for their part in the Baghdad incident. A pardon Nick knew they didn’t deserve.

He checked his weapons again. They were still loaded, still on his body or nearby where he could get to them quickly if he needed. Still, he felt nervous…no not nervous he was scared. It was as if something hung in the air, something without mercy. Something inevitable.

He took a drink from the now warm beer he had been nursing for the better part of a hour.

“You’re acting like a rookie Nick”, he said out loud to himself. “You’ll get through this, just like everything else.”

He poured the rest of the piss water into the sink trying to shake the feeling of dread.

As if on cue the room suddenly went dark as the power was cut. The red lights powered by the backup generator kicked on bathing the room in a blood red glow. The techs in the next room yelled curses as their work was put in jeopardy.

Nick unholstered his 9mm Barretta and gently pulled the hammer back.

“Give it a second and your eyes will adjust to the dark”, he thought as he tried to hold the panic building up in him at bay.

“It was “Please”, in case you were wondering” a woman’s voice said from somewhere in the darkness.

Nick waved his weapon back and forth trying to locate the source. “Wh…wh…what?!” he managed to say.

“The boy…his last word. It was Please.” came the voice from somewhere else in the room. She was moving around but he couldn’t hear her.

“Look, that was an accident. A mistake. I got pardoned, I’m innocent!” he pleaded, sweat starting to run down his temples.

“No Nick. We know it wasn’t. We know what you felt. We know what you are…Murderer” the voice replied.

Two large glowing eyes appeared in the darkness and Nick fired five rounds into them. The muzzle flashes showing snapshots of the room. Each one showing a giant owl flying towards him. It’s talons eagerly reaching for him.

“NO!!! Please!” he screamed as they sunk into his chest. Pain and fear filled him as the owl’s talons disappeared and were replaced by six steel arrows embedded deep in his flesh. He tried to breathe as the darkness of the room poured into him and the world faded away.

The complex was on high alert and alarms rang through the air as Striga stood on a hill about a mile away.

“So it’s done. They’re all dead. No more mysteries, who are you!” she said to her winged companion.

“There will always be mysteries daughter, but who I am will no longer be one.” The owl replied moving towards her. “I am she who hunts, the virgin goddess, protector of the innocent and destroyer of evil. I am Artemis the Huntress and you my daughter, are my chosen.”

Striga stood in awe of the magnificence of the goddess before her as giant wings enveloped her wholly.

“I am yours mother” she whispered into the embrace.

The End.