That Which Devours

[Your experience has been banked.]

[You have learned the category Hunting Skills.]

Panic filled me as I triggered my stat sheet.

Name: Alex

Level: 0

Race: Human

Traits: LOCKED

Class: LOCKED

Stats:

STR: 5

DEX: 6

CON: 6

INT: 5

WIS: 5

CHA: 5

Titles & Achievements: LOCKED

Skills: LOCKED

Skills Categories: LOCKED

Still absolutely nothing.

My hands shook as I closed the screen, stuffing my emotions away. I swallowed and focused on what was happening around me. I told myself I hadn’t really expected this to work, since nothing else had, but it was hard to make myself believe it. Right now wasn’t the time to lose it, either way. Two hunters stood next to the carcass, working on cutting it up into moveable chunks. These were loaded onto the sleds, and as soon as one was full a buddy pair would begin the journey back to the colony.

I had to stick close to the group since Len was my buddy. He wouldn’t be leaving the site until everything was done. He directed a group to patrol the outskirts of the area. “And find out where the other group is…” he muttered after them.

His gaze turned to me. “Any luck?”

I shook my head. “No class, but I learned another category, Hunting Skills.” I kept the disappointment off my face; this wasn’t the first time.

Len didn’t look surprised. “Don’t worry about it. Everyone gets a class, we just need to find the right one.” He turned toward movement in the bushes, but then another hunter, Jenny, stepped out. Jenny had been one of the first hunters, and she was already at level 15. Dressed like the others, she fit right in. She waved at him. Cass darted out after her, her face shining with sweat or joy. It was hard to tell.

“We got another hunter here,” said Jenny. Her hand landed on Cass’s shoulder. “She did well out there, driving the beast right where we wanted it. I’ll gladly have her as my buddy moving forward.”

“That’s great,” said Len, smiling at Cass. “Welcome to the team.”

Cass glanced in my direction but I shook my head no. Her smile dimmed a bit, but then returned to normal. “I even leveled from my banked experience!” she exclaimed.

“We got her up to level 3,” said Jenny. “It won’t be long until she’s over 10.”

Level 10 was the next goal after getting a class. As it had with my dad, everyone who reached that milestone was changed, making it so we could go with less food, water, and sleep. Given that the colony struggled with getting enough fresh food for everyone, the leadership council's biggest goal was to level everyone to 10 as soon as possible. For some people, it even seemed to make them younger, like my Dad and Len.

“Tonight will be a wonderful celebration then,” said Len. “Can you two take the first load of meat back to the colony? You know I don’t feel comfortable having it lying around here.” His eyes traveled to the trees surrounding us.

“Roger, though we didn’t see any tracks of predators in the area when we scouted.” She shook her head. “The rest of the herd moved deeper into the jungle, closer to that pond west of here.”

“It won’t take long for them to move back, that's a higher level area.”

The pond was off-limits. At least two large predators stalked the area, and we all knew that was a no-go.

Cass scooted up next to me as Jenny and Len started talking about the beast's habits, and changes in the jungle.

“You doing okay?” she whispered.

“I’m good,” I lied with a smile. “It's awesome you got the class you wanted. Any new skills?”

Her smile grew larger at the question. “Stealth and Hunting! Stealth has already improved. Probably from all the hiding we did…”

I knew what she was referring to. Everyone who’d survived the crash learned stealth. It was a basic skill, and I was at least pretty sure it would be there when my sheet unlocked.

“Well, my experience is banked, still, but I got a hit in. So…”

Her eyes grew wide. “You are going to level so fast once you unlock your class!”

“I hope so…” I tossed my arm across her shoulder. “Until then, you're going to need to be the strong one in this friendship.”

Cass smirked up at me since she stood a few inches shorter than I did. “Hey, I’ll have you know I–”

“You ready, Cass?” asked Jenny. The older woman eyed us with a grin. “It looks like the first sled is ready.”

I dropped my arm from Cass’s shoulders and searched out the first sled. They’d stacked it with dino pieces, with leather draped over the top. That was going to be heavy.

“Good luck…” I mumbled.

Cass nodded and followed Jenny as she headed to the front of the sled. The heavy sleds were pieces of tech that had survived, since they didn’t require any batteries. Two sleds had been retrofitted to use the crystals. They reduced the weight, and made it easier to slide along the pathways we had in the jungle.

I tried to not think about all the things we had lost in the crash. All the people, and technology. Not many of those my age I’d trained with made it. We couldn’t even recover the bodies, because of all of the things trying to eat us.

“So, boss man, what do you want me to focus on?” I asked Len, needing a distraction.

“For now, keep your eyes peeled. I don’t want anything sneaking up on us. It won’t take long for the smell to drift through the trees.” His eyes narrowed. “We don’t want to lose anyone today.”

His words caused me to pull my knife back out. I turned to face the trees, thinking about how the smell of blood would move on the breeze. It was one of the first things we’d learned. Wash blood off, yours or anything else’s, and stop the bleeding at all costs. The smell would lead something with large teeth toward you. Most predators had a great sense of smell.

I stepped farther away from the meat and toward a tree with a large fern next to it. That would be a suitable location to watch from; I’d have good sight lines into at least some of the jungle. I’d rather climb a tree, but I was only so good at climbing. I knew at least one person had to be above us in the canopy, anyway.

Instead, I hid next to the fern, using it to blend into the undergrowth. My eyes and ears strained toward the distance. We wouldn’t lose anyone on this hunt because of me. Every person mattered to the colony. Not enough of us had survived the crash as it was, despite our trouble feeding everyone. On the bright side, we knew of at least two other sections that had broken off as explosions had rocked the main ship.

The mining sector had made it down, but they had lost more than half their crew, and the science people had also made it. We had the biggest number of survivors, with the least number of resources to go around. At least we had the farmers, who were doing their best given the crash.

More buzzing circled my head, but this time I swatted at the bug. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear it. Nothing moved in the distance, and I settled in, trying to get comfortable in my spot. The buzzing finally vanished and I could let my thoughts wander a little.

Somehow I still hadn’t unlocked a class. This one had been in the bag, or at least everyone but me had thought so. My father had taught all of us kids self-defense, and led the training at the colony, when he wasn’t farming with my eldest brother.

Yet, I had tried to learn from everyone else before trying this. Mostly so my family would relax. When you were the youngest in the colony, everyone wanted to keep you safe. Especially after what had happened before.

This time, I shoved those thoughts away quickly. I didn’t want my mood to sour. I shifted back and forth on my feet, swaying with the fern in the breeze. The breeze that was still blowing toward the group that was working on the carcass. That was good news.

My stomach rumbled again, and after several moments I pulled out some jerky from my pocket. I chomped off a piece and chewed it for several moments to soften it up. I disliked the jerky with a passion, but food was food. Plus, it was better than the ration bars we ate for most meals. Tonight, though, tonight everyone would feast on roasted meat and, hopefully, some root vegetables that the farmers had grown.

I was excited. Maybe I could even eat my fill and not be hungry for once. Ever since we’d gotten here, my stomach had never been satisfied.

And then, though I had no idea why, the hair rose on the back of my neck, and I froze, searching the underbrush.

Nothing moved as I stared forward into the dense forest, not letting my attention wander.

Time passed slowly, and I checked behind me to see how much longer we would be here. Surprisingly, much of the dino was gone, and a stack of bones was in the pit. Anything edible was going with us. The extra bones would be left for the hunters to come back and pick up after a week or so. It wasn’t worth hanging around because of the additional time it would take, and the likelihood of predators being drawn to all the blood. Len glanced around, encouraging people to move a little faster.

The breeze shifted a little, and I snapped back to attention. It wasn’t blowing at my face anymore, but more toward the back of my head. A whistle came from above, and I could hear people moving faster behind us.

“Leave the bones,” confirmed Len. “It's not worth it.”

Someone grumbled a reply, but I couldn’t make out what was said.

My focus was on a fern in the distance. I swore it was moving the wrong way in the wind. The movement kept low to the ground, and I leaned forward to get a better look.

Then I heard it, a soft chirp. Unmistakable.

I whistled over my shoulder and everything went quiet behind me. That was one of the standard signals we’d had to learn before we could go into the jungle. This time, the soft chirp came again from two other locations.

Two sharp coos came from above.

I stayed put while the people behind me launched into action. I glanced over my shoulder to see the last sled being packed higher than the others, and a group of four take off with it down the trail.

Len caught my glance and gave me a nod. I had no clue what it meant. Someone started filling in the pit full of bones, trying to cover up the scent of blood. Mary and Jas were doing something along the trailhead that I couldn’t make out.

Several chirps and the rustling of bushes caused me to snap back to attention. The ferns moved in the distance, and then closer.

They were coming.