Thrill of the Hunt
Act Two
HUNT FOR THE TRUTH
Act Two
HUNT FOR THE TRUTH
I was sitting in my office, going over the financial records when Rank I Spensky walked into the room.
“Sir- this is the journal we recovered from the wreckage. It seems like they were clever enough to figure it out.” Rank I Spensky said. His robotic voice was grating against my ears. He was a bulky man- mostly metallic, with glowing green eyes that pierced the dim light of the office. He handed me a blood-stained, torn black leather journal over my desk. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be as I wrapped my fingers around it’s all but destroyed spine, then flipped it open to the most recently written page. I leaned back in my desk chair, then propped my feet up on my table. A warm breeze blew through my open window, ruffling my hair as I inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent of my wife’s honeysuckle she planted outside my office. I pulled my reading specs off of my jacket, then peered down at the page, a smirk on my face as I read what Commander Davis had written before his untimely, albeit fortunate demise. At least for my sake, it was fortunate- I chuckled at the thought as I read.
September 5th?, 2031
Operation Archangel – St. Louis, Missouri
The onslaught hasn’t let up.
We’ve all stopped counting the waves. They keep coming. The monsters won’t stop. All classes, A, B, C, every single type from Insect to Avian are here. We were sent to rescue the remaining civilians, but none of them are left- Everything we’ve found is either half-eaten, gnawed bones or maggot-infested stray limbs. We’re holed up in a Cabella's near the western edge of the city. My squad and I are fighting with what little we have left, but ammunition is running short, as well as hope.
Our biggest weapon is Kane, he’s the real reason we’re still alive. I myself have a mechanical leg, but Kane is a fully-fledged, cyborg, Prowler killing weapon. The man must have a heart of steel as well as a cybernetic body, because he hasn’t stopped fighting since we parachuted in here. He won’t let us give up. I think he enjoys fighting the Prowlers, the way he rips and tears into them… Even as I’m writing in my journal, I can hear the monster laughing outside and the screams of the Prowlers who had the poor judgment of picking a fight with him.
I’m writing this to whoever finds my journal after my death, which will probably be soon. This is our last stand- Kane may make it out though, being a machine. Prowlers typically don’t like eating metal, although at this mass gathering of them I’ve seen a couple of more evolved ones munching on cars to keep their jaws busy. There are different kinds of Prowlers here- some I’ve never even imagined could exist. They aren’t confined to normal bodies anymore. Some of them are seemingly defying the laws of physics. Kane actually likes it, how difficult the ******** are to kill, while the rest of us are struggling to keep up. I’ll say it again- that man is a monster. It’s a good thing he’s on our side, Possessed or not.
The real reason for me writing this though is to warn whoever finds this of the coming storm. Prowlers are the least of our worries, at this point. My team and I have discovered something we shouldn’t have. It’s my personal belief that’s why were still stuck here and haven’t been saved yet, although if no one finds this journal or figures out the secret for themselves, personal beliefs won’t matter anymore. It’s about the very Agency that bound us to them, the very Agency the world says is nothing more but a technological company that makes cyborg parts and trains people to use them. The Hunter Agency really kills Prowlers and captures Possessed- I think they are doing the second to make weapons like Kane, but again, its just my suspicion. Again, that’s not the real secret behind them.
Prowlers- they aren’t a mystery to us anymore. We know where they’ve come from. To whoever finds this journal, you cannot trust the Agency anymore. At this point, the Possessed are the only monsters you can show this to. They may be inclined to help. The Hunter Agency-
I smacked the book shut with a satisfying thud. The scent of blood tickled my nostrils as I dropped it onto my ebony wood office table, rustling the paperwork I had been plagued with only the day before. The massacre in St. Louis had been a necessary evil- testing was always required before we offered our products to the government. A few civilians had lost their lives, sure, but death made way to progress, in a company like ours. No- I shook my head, letting out a satisfied sigh as I corrected my thinking.
What I meant to think was in an Agency like ours.
“What do you want done with the Journal, sir?” Rank I asked, cocking his head at me curiously with a mechanical whir. I chuckled at him, intertwining my fingers together and setting my hands in my lap.
“Bring me my lighter, would you, Spensky?” I mused, pulling my feet off my table. Spensky clearly didn’t know where I kept it, so instead he popped off one of his metallic fingers and handed it to me. The thing shifted into a lighter as his eyes glowed brightly, almost giving me a headache as he walked up to my desk with the purr of machinery and the whirring of his cybernetic joints.
I grabbed it over my desk, marveling at the ingenuity before lifting the book off my table and holding it underneath the lighter’s flame. It caught flame quickly, and I tossed it into my metal trashcan beside my desk. It was a good thing my window was open, or else my fire alarm would have gone off and woken my wife from her nap.
I watched the thing burnt with evident glee-
-Because as it burned up in my metal office trashcan, as Spensky popped his finger back into place, and as a warm draft pulled the smoke out of my office window, everything our Agency had worked up to was only branded into the hide of history in the making.
“Rank I, good work out there. Now go fix me a sandwich.” I smiled to him, then stood up out of my chair, running my fingers through my salt-and-pepper hair as I looked out my window. I was ecstatic, but despite that, only one thought ran through my head.
The honeysuckle is awfully beautiful today.
The Hunter Agency has always been shrouded in mystery to the outside world. Prowlers even more so- some people don’t even acknowledge they exist, even though they very clearly do and hunt people out of a desire for a twisted thrill. In the recent 20 years, they have evolved to Possess humans, and recent studies have shown once a human becomes Possessed, they live a max of 20 years before they all mysteriously die, no matter what support they may be on. The Hunter Agency has recently weaponized Possessed to fight for them- both against the Prowler Menace and in wars the Agency has an interest in.
This story takes place one month after the St. Louis Attack, or Operation Archangel. Four other massacres have occurred, all in Midwestern cities in North America, and all from Prowler hordes. A few Hunter Agency facilities remain in these regions, keeping tabs on the Prowlers and fighting what they can before retreated back into their heavily defended fortresses of destruction.
The first group to report to oncoming waves and fight them off- The characters from Act One- Thrill of the Hunt- also dubbed Epicenter, are locked in the facility 30 miles to the north of St. Louis. Escaping would be an impossible task, but while they are trapped, the Hunter Staff abuses their information and the group members themselves, mostly the Possessed that are among them. Testing is done on the human individuals who remain. The facility has also been taking samples and capturing newer Possessed and Prowlers within the city of St. Louis. The new types of Prowlers and the newly overtaken Humans are more powerful than the last, and the Hunter Agency is dying to wrap their claws around them.
The main characters in this story are the individuals from the group Epicenter, or new types of Possessed that the HA has captured and put in the facility. Epicenter has no idea the things that they’ve caused, or the state of the country as it tries to fight of the Prowler Menace, or just how large and complicated of a situation they have been thrown in. Follow them as they try to untangle the secrets and escape the tragedy that races towards America as the Hunter Agency grows stronger, and as the Prowler menace rampages unchecked… Only one thing is certain of their story-
-It’s definitely what you’d call a tragedy.
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