Hunted: Day 3

Ezra stretched and yawned. The day was just beginning and already he felt tired. ‘Some vacation,’ the Southerner thought with a sarcastic smile. Looking around him, he noticed that Josiah was missing. He shrugged, probably out scouting or hunting. It seemed to Ezra that certain members of his fraternity were actually enjoying this little outdoor adventure. He snorted, “Next time, I shall be the one deciding on our holiday’s locale, and it sure as hell will not be a little backwoods cabin in the middle of some Godforsaken….”

Ezra jumped as a familiar scream broke the peaceful morning air.

“Josiah.” Ezra took off at a dead run, quickly followed by the others, who had been jerked awake by the scream. He was the first one to reach their missing friend.

“Dear Lord,” Ezra breathed out when he reached Josiah’s side. Josiah’s face was a twisted mask of pain. He was grinding his teeth together, holding in his screams. Then Ezra saw the reason why. The profiler’s leg had been caught in the metal jaws of a bear trap. Only a thick branch had saved it from being amputated.

“Shit.”

‘Chris really does have a way with words.’ Ezra thought irrelevantly as he stared in horror at the tortuous contraption. Nathan had moved to Josiah’s foot, examining it through the metal teeth.

“We gotta get him out.”

Chris nodded and began searching the ground. “Buck.” Wilmington nodded, starting his own search.

Vin glanced over at JD and Ezra. They both had confused looks on their faces. “They’re looking for sturdy branches…to pry open the trap,” Vin whispered the explanation and they both nodded mutely.

Chris and Buck moved into position, one on either side of the trap. Vin and Ezra placed themselves behind Josiah, ready to bodily move him. Nathan had JD on the opposite side of Josiah’s leg. Their job was to move it out of the trap.

Chris made eye contact with each of his men. His green eyes connecting with Josiah’s blue ones last. At the preacher son’s nod, Chris said, “On three.”

“One-two-three!” Chris and Buck bore down on the steel jaws as the others quickly pulled their injured friend from the snare.

Josiah’s low pain-filled moan had Nathan shouting out orders and the others scrambling to obey.

“JD, Vin, gather as much as that red-black moss as you can. Chris, Ezra, I need a lot of reindeer moss to clean out this wound. Buck, help me get Josiah back to camp.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“You’re damn lucky that branch was there.”

“Luck, Brother Nate? Luck had nothing to do with it,” Josiah hissed as Nathan applied the antiseptic reindeer moss to the wounds around his ankle. “For those who remain loyal in their faith in God, he is ‘merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’.”

Nathan and Ezra exchanged confused looks over Josiah’s head. Ezra shrugged and Nathan shook his head. Leaning over to Buck, JD whispered, “Huh?” Buck could only shrug. He didn’t have damn clue what Josiah was talking about either.

Josiah replayed what he had just said in his head then muttered, “Didn’t make a lick of sense, did I?”

Nathan grinned, “Nope.” Josiah grinned through the dull pain as everyone else chuckled.

“Nathan?” They all turned to see Chris and Vin walking back into camp. The two of them had been scouting the area for any more possible traps.

“He’s gonna be okay. I used the reindeer moss to clean the wounds and this sphagnum moss is perfect for a dressing. I still need some cloth to cover the whole wound…” Nathan paused as JD handed him a T-shirt from his pack. “Thanks, JD.”

“Did you find more traps?” Buck turned his attention away from Nathan and Josiah to look at Chris and Vin.

Vin nodded. “Yup. We set off all the traps we could find, layin’ in a path outta here.”

“Whoever laid those them knew what they were doing and had some of the most vicious traps I’ve ever seen,” Chris said as he bent over their healer and his patient.

“So what happens now?” Ezra looked at Josiah’s ankle and shook his head. “We simply cannot keep going, not with Josiah’s ankle.”

“We’re not,” Chris said, straightening. “We’re through running.”

“We found a cave. It’ll give us shelter and the surrounding rock formation is easy to defend,” Vin said with a feral smile. He was damn tired of running. The others nodded, agreeing with the plan. They were easy pickings out here in the open. There, they would have a better chance.

Chris looked at both Nathan and Josiah. “Ready?”

Nathan nodded. Both he and Chris helped Josiah to his feet and Vin handed him a large stick to use as a crutch.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“JD, do you hear that?” Buck’s head was cocked to one side. They had been hiking towards the cave for less than 20 minutes when Buck pulled to a sudden stop.

JD strained to hear the elusive sound that his friend was hearing but the young man shook his head, “I don’t…”

“Shhh, wait….there it is!” Before JD could stop him, Buck was already running into the woods. Dunne cast a worried look to the rest of the group, already yards ahead of him. JD had no choice but to follow his chivalrous roommate.

“Buck! We shouldn’t….” JD stopped dead in his tracks when he slammed into his larger friend’s back. “Buck, what…?”

JD’s eyes widened at the sight before him. In the middle of a campsite that looked like a bear had attacked it, was a battered and bloody young woman. Her short blonde hair was matted to her head and she cried as she rocked herself back and forth.

Buck could never stand to see a woman cry and slowly approached her. “Ah, hush now darlin', there’s no reason for a pretty little thing like you to cry.”

At his first words, the young woman’s head shot up and she scrambled backwards in fear. “Who…who are you?”

“My name’s Buck. This here’s JD. What happened here, darlin’?” As he spoke, Buck continued to cautiously approach the scared young woman.

“Men…some men…came…” she sobbed as she told them how the men had come into their camp, destroyed everything and had taken her younger sister. She told them how she managed to escape only because someone called the “Warden” had called them off.

At the mention of the Warden’s name, both men stiffened and went on alert.

As they listened to her story, Buck had come to sit by her side and had his arm wrapped around her slim shoulders. “Ah, now darlin’ come with ol’ Buck. He’ll take care of you. And we’ll see what we can do about getting that sweet little sister of yours back.”

As the blonde young woman sniffed into a red bandana, she turned huge blue eyes up to Buck. “Really?”

Buck smiled and hugged her tightly, “Hey, there’s no problem too big for Buck and his friends to handle!”

“That, Mr. Wilmington, I would beg to differ!”

Buck and JD’s eyes went wide and shot to their feet as they recognized the voice. From the north side of the clearing, several men emerged from the growth. One of them was quite distinctive because among dark cloth masks, his immaculate white mask stood out like a lighthouse beacon on a foggy night.

Buck easily placed his body between the girl and the man whose voice belonged to the ‘Warden’. “Stay behind me darlin’.”

“Now, that’s real chivalrous of you, but I’m not the one that needs the protection.”

Both ATF agents’ eyes got even wider as the ‘damsel in distress’ grinned maniacally and pulled out a silver pistol, training it on them as she joined her pack.

“Good job, Coyote. I knew Wilmington couldn’t resist your charms.”

“Stupid bastard. Thinks with the brain below his belt.” The young woman was transformed from a sobbing young woman in need of help to a gun-toting psychopath. Her unnaturally wide eyes shone with an unholy light and her smile was completely demented.

As JD took stock of their predicament, he couldn’t resist commenting. “Ah, shit. Next time, Buck, remind me not to follow you.”

Ignoring his roommate, Buck asked, “This was all a trap?” The ladies’ man could not believe that such a delicate looking young woman could be part of the hunting pack.

From under his mask, the Warden smiled smugly. “Yes, well, Coyote is very good with traps.”

Buck watched Coyote…something about her smug grin… “You? You set up those bear traps?”

Her smile sent chills down both ATF agents’ backs as she cooed, “My favorite.. I just love sharp objects.”

With difficulty, Buck dismissed the crazed woman and focused his attention on the white-masked man. “You the Warden?”

“Correct, Mr. Wilmington.”

“Why the trap? I thought you wanted us to run so you could ‘hunt’?” Buck and JD watched as the Warden chuckled, pacing towards the two roommates.

“That was before your little stunt with our water supply. With our water gone, we simply cannot hunt as long as we would like, thus, you must be eliminated as quickly as possible.”

Wilmington’s blue eyes tracked the Warden’s movements until a slight movement behind the man’s body caught his attention. Buck’s poker face would have done Ezra proud…seeing how it was the Southerner’s green eyes that watched his friends from the dense foliage. By the sudden tensing of his friend’s body, JD knew something was about to happen. He could feel his heart rate increasing, adrenaline coursed through his body, readying it for the fight-or-flight response.

Buck knew he had to stall…give the others time to do whatever it was they were going to do to get him and JD out of this mess. So he put his loquacious nature to work. Buck sneered. “So after all this, you’re not gonna get to have your little hunt. Aaaawww, too bad.”

“Ah, yes, well, a shame, really. So much promise.”

“Lord, you sound….”

Out of nowhere, Ezra burst through the clearing. Buck and JD were ready. Spinning on their heels, they followed him, trusting their backs to the others.

“GET THEM!”

Before the hunters could obey the Game Warden’s orders, gunfire rang out, covering the three men’s escape. Hunters dropped like flies under the expert marksmanship of the ATF agents.

Standish led his friends right past Larabee and Tanner’s sniper nests. The two men continued firing a while longer before dropping from their treetop perches.

“They’re still coming!” Vin yelled as he continued covering their backs.

Chris nodded grimly, he didn’t want to destroy such natural beauty. But trees could grow back. He couldn’t replace his friends. When they had first discovered Buck and JD had gone missing, he had sent Vin to find them while they got Josiah to safety. Vin came back with his report. Buck and JD were helping a young woman, but hiding close by were hunters. They had quickly formulated their plan and Nathan and Ezra were sent to gather both dry and wet wood. They would use it as a distraction and a barrier if need be.

Using a lighter, Chris set the torch ablaze, sent a silent apology to Mother Nature and set fire to the wood. The flames jumped from the dry wood while smoke came from the larger pile of wet wood surrounding it. Together the two woods effectively blocked the hunters and gave his team the time needed for retreat.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It would stand to reason that if the Warden and his trackers knew that Josiah had been hurt and that the ATF team were now holed up in a cave, this would be the best time to attack. And they had used most of their limited ammunition saving Buck and JD from the Warden. So with Chris directing, all seven men readied the surrounding woods for the upcoming attack.

JD had been sent to find nettles and milkweeds. He and Josiah were to use the plants to create rope for the many traps that were being laid outside the cave.

Buck and Nathan set about digging pits and covering them with foliage. Meanwhile, Ezra had begun gathering and preparing the materials needed for the other traps that the military-trained members of their group had devised. Vin had disappeared into the woods. And when Chris had asked for what reason, the sharpshooter only smiled.

Chris, himself, was taking first watch, whittling spears as he waited for signs of trouble.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Night had fallen and it found the seven men eating dinner. The cave was filled with tension, each man anticipating what the next day would bring.

JD dug through his pack and pulled out the MRE’s. The young man didn’t think he would find anything good in the ready-made meals but he hit pay dirt. “Cool!”

“Kid?”

JD grinned and triumphantly held up his newly found treasure. “Look what I found in my MREs.”

“Oooh.” Vin’s wide eyes focused in on the large Snickers bar. Frantically, he dug through his own pack, scattering its contents to the four winds. Finding nothing, Vin turned hopeful eyes to his friend.

“Hey, JD, I’ll trade ya.”

“For what?”

Vin’s hair swished about as he searched for something JD might want. “My knife?”

JD looked through his own pack but shook his head. “Got one.”

“My blanket?”
“Have one.”
“My rifle?”
“Nope.”
“The rest of my MREs?”
“Nah.”

Vin glared at someone he thought was his friend. Well, desperate times called for desperate measures. “I’ll clean the CDC for a month.”

“Whoa! Junior must be desperate!”

Ezra grinned and nodded, agreeing with Buck’s observation. The Southerner shuddered at the thought of what could be infesting the loft that Buck and JD shared.

JD paused at Vin’s offer. His dark eyes went from the chocolate bar to his desperate friend. JD grinned, “Nah, that’s okay.” JD smirked and slowly unwrapped the candy bar, making appreciative noises as he did so. His first clue of the impending danger was the low growl emanating from deep in Vin’s throat.

“Oh shit.” JD barely moved in time as Vin pounced. “Givme!”

“Shit!”
“Bloody hell!”

Buck and Ezra both had a hard time scrambling out of the way and laughing at the same time. Nathan and Josiah calmly moved their food to safer positions as Vin chased JD around and over the two men, both carefully avoiding Josiah’s injured leg.

Chris sighed. ‘Kids,’ he thought as he watched the two youngsters chase each other some more. The ATF leader simply waited until JD ran passed him, stuck out his arm and grabbed Vin around the waist.

But Vin would not be deterred from his obsession. “Lemme go!”

“Vincent Michael Tanner!” At the sound of his full given name, the struggling wildcat in his arms instantly stilled long enough for Chris to dangle another Snickers bar in front of wild blue eyes.

“Ooooh! Thanks, Chris!” The others laughed as Vin settled down next to Chris’s legs and happily munched on the sugar-laden candy bar.

Chris looked at the amused expressions of his men, sighed, shook his head and then smiled. Thanks to Vin and JD’s antics, the tension in the cave had dissipated.

As night descended on the cave, its occupants fell into a light sleep, ready for what ever the morning brought.