Ruthless: Path of Conquest

“Are you ready for this hunt, old man?” Sam asked as they waited for Robard to come back outside.

“I don’t know if any of us are,” Dave replied drily. “Is that thing even loaded?” He gestured at Sam’s rifle.

“You’d better believe it,” Sam said. “I’m taking this completely seriously.”

“Hm.” Dave’s tone was unconvinced.

“Not that I intend on using the gun if I don’t have to,” Sam added. “Limited rounds in this world now, until we learn to make our own. At least in my gun. We can’t all be like you.”

Dave didn’t even respond. Sam thought he was used to the older man’s long silences by now, but today, the quiet unnerved him. They were about to go into danger. He wanted Dave to reassure him, not play mute.

He’s just nervous, Sam thought. What’s taking Paul so long? Robard was the one who wanted time to prepare. If Paul doesn’t get back here before he does, it’ll make us look like we weren’t ready. It probably didn’t matter, but he found himself wanting to make the best impression he could on Robard. This man who seemed to be taking it upon himself to lead the survivors in this area.

“You should relax, Sam,” Dave said. “You don’t want to make a bad impression.” He said the words lightly, but as happened so often, he cut right to the core of what Sam was thinking about.

I guess I’m the nervous one, he thought. Well, Dave did go to war. He has more experience with these types of situations than I do. All three men knew what they meant when they asked Robard to accompany them on a hunt. It was the chance to impress him, assess him in turn, and if he didn’t measure up to the trio’s expectations, deal with him accordingly.

If he’s not fit to lead, we’ll cut him down early so there’s plenty of time to decide on a new leader. Sam naturally had the faint idea of putting himself forward in the back of his mind. Though Dave was older and more experienced in matters of violence, he and the more impressionable Paul had deferred to Sam’s natural leadership throughout Orientation. The three of them had formed a de facto leadership group there.

It was strange to come back and see someone else assert command here, but they would at least give him a chance to show what he could do. If he was at least as good at fighting and leadership as Sam, they wouldn’t kill him. The trio had only had to kill a couple of people back in Orientation, and that had been borderline self-defense.

None of them were truly comfortable with cold-blooded murder yet.

Paul emerged from one of the abandoned ruins. He waved merrily at his two companions, and Sam snorted to himself. Paul held up something in a wrapper as he approached. With his other hand, he was eating something that had come packaged in an identical wrapper. As Paul came closer, it became apparent that he was chewing a Clif Bar.

Of course he is, Sam thought. Somehow, that bastard always manages to find food, but he never seems to gain any weight.

“Hey fellas,” Paul said as he got within comfortable speaking range. “Look what I found!”

“Of course you did,” Sam said, shaking his head. “Did you check your watch, man?”

At least we’re all armed and ready, he thought. We won’t have any other delays. I’ve got my rifle and knives. Dave has his pistol. Paul has that stupid slingshot of his.

“Sure did,” Paul replied. “We have another minute.”

“Ah. I guess it just felt like you were late, then,” Sam said, slightly mollified.

“Thanks for getting some provisions, Paul,” Dave said. “Did you pack up everything you found?”

Paul shook his head. “There were actually a lot of canned goods too. But it’s a small community of people here. We’re too far from the main road for people to wander over this way looking to loot. And it would be just my luck if that stuff belongs to someone still living in the building here.” He gestured at the apartment building that Robard had erected. “I don’t want to get a reputation for stealing things. We might as well wait for our dear leader to decide on the best way to proceed with those.”

Sam nodded approvingly. “Putting our best feet forward, right, Dave?”

Dave gave him a nod back, his expression carefully blank.

I don’t think Dave thinks this is a good idea at all, Sam assessed. Perhaps it wasn’t. Dave’s analyses of situations were usually very sharp.

Then Robard emerged from the front door of his apartment. A moment later, Paul’s watch began beeping shrilly. It continued until he pressed a button on the side and turned it off.

Robard certainly had a knack for dramatic timing. Did he sync timers with Paul when I wasn’t looking or something? Probably not. It was just luck that he appeared just before the timer finished.

“Well, are we all ready to go?” Robard asked.

“Born ready,” Sam said.

“I’m ready too,” Dave added.

“Lead the way,” Paul said.

“I actually don’t know where the game is,” Robard admitted. “You see, when I used my powers on the area of land we’re on now, most of the larger animals fled. The smaller ones mostly stayed put, but the big ones felt my aura as something hostile, and it scared them off. I could sense where they went while they were on my territory, but now I only know which direction they left in.”

Sam nodded, secretly pleased. This would be his chance to show off. “I can track them if you can point me to where they were last,” he said.

Robard nodded. “I’ll take you to the place, and you can lead the way from there.”

He guided the three men away from the cleared area around the buildings and into the line of trees that surrounded the apartment complex on three sides now.

“So, how long have you three known each other?” he asked.

“Just through Orientation,” Sam replied. “We got pretty close there. You know how it is.” Assuming you made any friends in yours.

Robard nodded. “Those bonds can be strong, I would expect. Some of the acquaintances I met in my Orientation are heading our way in the near future. Along with my pack of wolves. They should be here by tomorrow.”

The other three stared at him. Sam felt certain he must have misheard. Either that, or Robard was trying to bluff them. Did he already know they were measuring him? Or, if he was telling the truth somehow…

How do you get control over a pack of wolves?

—

“Here we are,” James said after he’d led them for a half mile. “This is roughly the border of my territory. Small radius so far, but it’s growing every day. This was the last place my powers detected the delicious creatures we’re hunting.”

He smiled to himself. He was pleased with how the men had reacted to his mention of the wolf pack. They didn’t seem intimidated, but they were surprised. Good. He didn’t want people he was hoping he could rely on for hunting to be easily scared. Hopefully this was a preview of how everyone would react when he mentioned the wolf pack in the community meeting in a couple of days.

I guess Sam was the leader of the three of them back in Orientation, he assessed. He’s naturally more assertive and extroverted.

“I guess it’s my turn now,” Sam said. “I’m using a Skill I got with my evolved Class.” He said the words as if he was trying to boast, but James didn’t give him any kind of reaction. Everyone would have a Class Evolution sometime in the next few weeks, if they hadn’t already. If they didn’t, he wouldn’t be doing his job as leader. “The Class is called ‘The Lonely Hunter,’” Sam added.

James nodded at that. “Cool Class name,” he said. “Show me what you’ve got.”

Sam’s eyes glowed slightly, then returned to their normal brown. He picked up a few tufts of hair from the ground. James had noticed them, but hadn’t expected any of the others to be able to pick up on them without his superhuman senses.

Guess I was wrong about that. Apparently, his Class is going to make him a very efficient hunter.

“Feral hogs,” Sam said. “One of them scraped itself against this tree in the rush to get out of here.” He looked at the ground as if he could see something that was invisible to James. Then his eyes moved up to James. His mouth moved in a brief expression of surprise that probably only James caught. “They really were running to get away from here.”

James rubbed his hands together. “Good stuff. Where’d they go?”

I could probably track them myself, but I want to know what you can do.

Sam started walking in the path of broken twigs and shrubbery the hogs had left. The rest of them followed.

“I didn’t think there were feral hogs in Florida,” Paul said. “Thought they were more of a Texas thing.”

“No,” Sam said without looking back. “They’re present in every county in Florida. Any local hunter worth his salt knows that.”

“The way the System transforms animals, I wouldn’t be surprised if these ones used to be some little piggies on a farm somewhere,” James said. “I’ve never seen any this close to the apartments, anyway.”

“What was your Orientation like, exactly, James?” Dave asked. “It seems like it may have been a little different from ours.”

“We were in a forest, fighting monsters that had similar shapes to animals,” James said. “How was it for you guys?”

Dave pursed his lips. “I suppose it wasn’t that different,” he said finally. “Most of our monsters didn’t look much like Earth animals, though. There were goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and wargs. It felt wrong to eat most of the creatures, seeing as they had a humanoid shape.” His eyes took on a dark look. “But we did what we had to do to survive.”

James nodded grimly. “It wasn’t so different from my Orientation. There was a monster in mine that could turn humans into the living dead. He was the final boss.”

Sam turned back, a slightly startled look on his face. “Final boss?” he asked.

James nodded. “My understanding is that they tend to have a territory of their own. Like mine. Was there any place like that in your Orientation?”

Paul spoke up now. “There was. Most of our Orientation landscape was fields and caves, but there was this forest…” He left so much unspoken that James could feel that there was some aversion to that place still imprinted in the man’s mind.

“No one explored that place, then?” he asked.

“We almost did,” Sam said. “Not on purpose at first. The place had an ominous feeling about it, and we instinctively wanted to stay away. The wargs prowled the outskirts of the forest anyway, and they were the worst of the monsters we fought.”

“But you almost explored?” James said. “Did you get any idea what kind of monster was there? It could end up being relevant. The monsters that survived Orientation all end up on Earth. They’re likely to be in this same general geographic area.”

Dave stopped walking and seemed to freeze completely. His eyes had a hollow look to them.

James threw a look at Sam. His intended meaning was: Any idea what’s up with him?

Sam replied with a shrug and a look of helpless concern.

“Are you sure?” Dave asked finally.

“I heard it straight from the mouth of a god,” James said. “And I trusted him when he told me.”

“I don’t even know where to start with the stuff you say,” Sam muttered.

“We had a hard enough time with regular Orientation,” Paul said. “To think we might still end up dealing with this boss monster. We barely got any distance into the Forest when we tried to explore it.”

“What happened to keep you from getting deeper?” James asked.

“Something tried to get Dave,” Sam said gravely. His tone told James that he really wanted to drop the subject if possible.

But Dave spoke up then. “We don’t really know if it was dangerous. I was just seeing things. Like a bad memory. I thought I saw someone I knew in there, but it was impossible.”

“Why impossible?” James asked, ignoring Sam’s pointed look of discomfort. If Dave didn’t want to talk, James wasn’t going to press him at the moment. But it could end up being critical to get this information sooner than later. “Was it someone whose name didn’t start with an ‘M’?”

“No, it wasn’t that,” Dave said. “The person I saw was my father. He died three years ago. I buried him with my own hands.” His eyes took on a haunted look.

James decided not to press any further. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said. “My father died when I was a kid.”

The four men resumed the pursuit in silence.

“We’re getting close, aren’t we?” James asked after a while.

Sam looked surprised and then nodded. “You have a tracking Skill too?” he asked.

“Something like that,” James said. “You guys get behind me. I’ll launch the initial attack.”

Sam opened his mouth, seemingly ready to object, but then Dave put a hand on his shoulder.

“That will be just fine, James,” the older man said. “We look forward to seeing your stuff.”