Persona - Chapter 6
Chapter 6 – The
Hunt Begins
This was the
message that I had been waiting for. It
was time to go. I quickly got dressed
and got what I needed to head over there.
I knew that I would have to conceal my identity, so I brought a skull
face mask that would be able to wrap around my head and conceal my
identity. The last thing that I wanted
to do was to reveal my face, especially at a place where weapons were readily
available. I made my way out to what
appeared to be a farm north of Houston and readied myself for combat. I had boots that had been dampened with
fabric to keep myself from making too much noise and was wearing jeans and a
long sleeve shirt to cover up my body. I
wanted to make sure that I gave no hints as to who I was or what I was
doing. I was taking a big risk by doing
this, but it was for a big reward. I
exited out of my car and went to meet up with two people who appeared to be out
at the edge of the farm. One of them had
half a mask on with the bottom half of a skull.
The other had a full white mask on.
Both people seemed ready for my arrival.
I made sure to park just close enough to them, in case I needed to get
out of there quick and far enough that they wouldn’t be able to shoot the tires
off so easily. I didn’t trust either of
these people at all and wanted to make sure that that was clear.
They acted cordial
enough and gave a fair greeting.
The one with a
white mask spoke up. “Greetings! You must be the “admirer” that we heard about
over the line.”
I nodded “Yeah,
that’s me.”
He extended his
hand, but I wasn’t quick to oblige. His
hand red suspended in the air for a moment before he set it back down. “You don’t trust us, it seems. Good.
That’s exactly what I expected from someone who would be interested in
joining a group like ours.” He opened
his jacket to reveal the same kind of patch that was attached to the letter
that was left on my brother’s desk. “You
can call me 27. We try our best to keep
our identities hidden, even among each other.
I recommend you choose a number for yourself before you say anything
else.”
The person with a
half mask on nodded their head and spoke.
“He’s right. You better choose a
number that means something to you, because once you’re in, consider that your
new name.”
It was almost
nothing to me to give them a number. It
was the one that immediately came to mind and spelled out my intention to those
who were to face off against me. “13. That’s the number I choose.”
Both of them
looked towards each other and chuckled.
The one with the half mask spoke up.
“That’s a number that nobody has chosen in a while. Seems fitting for someone as ambitious as
yourself. Most people freak out at the
sight of us and run off, leading to us having to shoot their asses. You must be after something that’s got some
bad mojo if you’re going with that number.”
I nodded my
head. “Damn right. I’m after something big and I won’t stop
until I get what I’m after.”
The man with a
full mask spoke up. “She has a
point. The last person who bore that
number was killed off by us. They wanted
to leave, but once you join, you never leave.
We’re more than a group. We’re a
pack. Once someone joins our
organization, we hunt as one. We are
Invictus Persona. Together, we are
unconquerable, and no one will stand in our way of achieving our goal.”
I perked up at
the mention of a goal. “And what goal
might that be?”
The woman with a
half-mask chuckled. “You’ll find out
soon, assuming you last long enough.”
They walked over
to a table that was holding some weapons.
“Here, grab yourself a rifle.
We’re going hunting.”
“Hunting for
what?” I asked.
“Wild boar. There’s a lot of them around these parts and
they’re invasive to the area. They’ll
overrun the farms eventually and expand into the suburbs. It’s a little favor from Invictus Persona to
the public and good practice for when you need to take on bigger prey. Plus, it helps to get your first-kill jitters
out of the way.”
I walked over to
the table and grabbed the rifle. It was
an M16 and looked capable of burst fire.
27 handed me a pistol. “Here,
take this as well. You’ll need
both.” The pistol was a Glock. This appeared to be serious business. I’m glad that I came prepared for some
action. “Here are some holsters. Strap in.
We’re going to make this as quick as we can. We can’t be out during daylight, so move
quickly.”
Both 27 and his
partner began moving towards the forest in a run. I quickly followed behind them and made sure
to try and keep pace. I may not have
been the fastest runner in school, but I kept up with my health at the
gym. Thankfully, it was enough for me to
keep pace. We made our way past the
trees and got moving into the forest. I
could tell that there was something just beyond the trees as soon as I started
running in. It seemed like we were
heading over to an outpost. There were
things running by our sides. It was
almost as if we were being hunted ourselves.
We made our way up to a clearing and made our way up to the top of a
hill. At the top of the clearing was a
hunting outpost that was covered with camouflage. 27 made his way in first, followed by the
other Invictus Persona member. She
gestured for me to join them. She
whispered. “Hurry! We don’t have all night!”
I made my way
inside and was immediately surprised to see that the inside of the tent was see-through,
almost as if it was invisible from the inside.
You could see the expanse of the grass and the trees from inside. It was still as the night itself. You could hear the crickets in the distance
and frogs chirping, almost as if they were all right underneath us. Speaking of what was underneath us, I could
tell that the pigs were right below, just beyond the trees. They could smell us, but they couldn’t see
us. The woman with a half-mask decided
to speak up. “I’m 3, by the way. Just thought that it might be useful for you
to know my name in case something arises, which I suspect will happen as soon
as 27 blows his hog call.”
I was
confused. “His hog wha—”
Right as I was
about to say something, 27 opened up a patch in the tent and threw out what
looked like a large piece of roast into the grass and started blowing on a
tube. He started to make loud sounds
through it that sounded like a hog that was eating and grunting. He then immediately closed up the patch and
kneeled down. At first, there was
nothing. We waited for what felt like
ten minutes before I decided to ask 3 what was going on. “Isn’t there supposed to be something
coming?”
Almost as if I
was a prophet, out came five pigs, each of varying sizes. The largest one seemed to be bearing all
kinds of scars. 3 pointed over to the
largest pig. “That’s the alpha. If you look at his body, you can see the
large tusks and scars. We need to keep our
distance and make every shot count. Set
your rifle to semi-auto. Remember, we’re
not here for trophies, we’re here for a kill.”
This pig was huge. It had to
weigh hundreds of pounds and was larger than most dogs that I had seen. If I was going to kill this thing, I was
going to have to make every shot count.
I knew that by the size of this thing that it wouldn’t go down easy with
a shot straight to the top or side of the skull, so I aimed for something different. I slowly opened up a patch to the tent and
aimed straight for the pig’s eye. I took
in a deep breath and took my shot. A
loud piercing squeal emanated from the pig as the others ran off. The pig immediately fell over in what I
assumed to be a result of shock. 27
started to move. “Get up. You got in a great shot. You need to finish it off.”
I set the gun’s
safety feature back on and got up. I
picked up the pistol so that I could shoot at it from close range.
3 stopped me
before I got too close. “Are you
stupid?! Put that pistol away and pull
out your rifle. Keep your distance. Always keep your distance until it’s safe to
get close.” She had a point. Right as I had pulled the rifle up and set it
back to semi-auto, the pig was up on its feet and looked ready to charge. I quickly lined up the sights and shot it
through the other eye. The pig now blind
and in pain started to charge towards us.
I quickly ran out of the way as it tripped and fell over in front of the
tent. The pig was in a lot of pain. 3 spoke up again. “Now you can pull out that
pistol and finish him off.” I finally
made my way up to the pig. With the
Glock in hand, I shot it in the head.
That seemed to be enough to put it to rest. I felt a little shaken up at first after
pulling the trigger. It seemed so quick
for me to do. I didn’t even have to
think about it. I just did it. I acted and now this huge beast was
dead.
3 spoke up
first. “All right. 27 and I are going to help you drag this over
to one of the nearby trees. We’re going
to hang this hog up and drain the blood.
We need to hurry, so the sooner that you move, the sooner that we can
get it up onto the tree. 27 went back
into the tent and pulled out a long series of ropes and began to tie it around
the hind legs of the pig. He arranged it
so that he would be able to lift both back legs. “I’ll lead the way. You two follow and help by picking up the
front legs. I don’t want to be dragging
this thing.” We both got behind him and
began to lift the pig. It was massive
and the dead weight was starting to weigh on me. I knew that this was going to be hard to walk
to the tree, but I knew that I was going to have to help if I wanted to pass
this first trial. I knew damn well that
this wasn’t going to be the only thing that I needed to do to prove
myself. I made my way down the hill with
a shuffling pace to keep up with 3 and 27.
They moved fast and made it a bit difficult to keep up. It was making me break out in a sweat. 3 chuckled under her breath. “Don’t quit on us now, 13. We still need to skin this damn thing.”
We got it down
the hill and made our way over to a large tree.
27 threw up some of the rope over one of the forks in the tree and
handed me part of the rope. “Here, you
need to help me get this beast off of the ground.”
I grabbed the
rope and began to pull as hard as I could, pulling with both of my arms,
alternating between each one as I tugged the pig high enough to where the hind
leg was nearly above eye level. 27
handed me a knife. “Here, start cutting
the legs. We need to drain the blood out
of this thing. It’s going to get
messy.” I noticed that there was a
slight incline down into the forest, which seemed to be nature’s drainage
system for this occasion. As I made my
initial cuts, blood spurted out and began to flow down the hill. It got all over my gloves and my shirt. I knew that I was going to have to clean that
later, but that didn’t matter now. What
mattered now was that I got this thing skinned and helped 3 and 27 however I
could. 27 reached over and gestured for
me to hand the knife back to him. I
reversed the blade towards me and faced the handle towards him, both as a
safety measure for him and a subtle way to build trust. “Good, now I’ll do the rest of the
carving. I want this skin in one piece
as proof that you accomplished your first trial.”
My curiosity got
ahead of me yet again. “First
trial? What’s the second?”
3 started to
gesture me away. “We’ll notify you when
the next trial is about to begin. For
now, we need to get this back to base of operations. Just leave the guns and holsters on the table
back over the edge of the clearing. If
you don’t leave them there, we will come and collect.” Just before 3 started to walk towards 27, she
turned around to tell me one last thing.
“And above all else, speak of this to no one.”
I nodded my head
and started to make my way back out of the clearing and back towards my
car. I left the guns and holsters on the
table and started to head back to my car.
I grabbed a water bottle that I had in the car and began to rinse off
the major spots of blood from my shirt.
It was going to be impossible to get everything out, but at least it
would be enough to get the major spots off.
Thankfully, I was wearing an undershirt and had a backpack that would
fit my clothes and boots in. Carrying
around an extra set of clothes was smart for this mission. Trial one was over. My mind was set on heading back to Uncle
Freddy’s and getting rest, all the while the image of the pig and its dying
squeals were imprinted on my mind. There
wouldn’t be enough time to dwell on it.
Soon would come trial number two and I would have to be as rested up and
prepared for it as possible. And knowing
Invictus Persona, it would come sooner than I would prefer.
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