"They were definitely here." Daryl whispered. "Went this way." He led the way, followed by Rick, Danielle, and Michonne. They also took Gabriel. He knew the area and could only be an asset.
They hadn't trekked far, maybe two or three miles into the woods when they came upon a clearing and heard voices. They got closer and could see the owners to the voices. Five men and one woman, all gathered around a picnic table.
"Man, I'm starving. I say we go get one of them tonight. I could wait them out. Someone's gotta use the john sooner or later."
"They'll run out of food sooner or later. We just have to keep them scared. They'll get sloppy sooner or later. They always do." One man said.
"They're all probably shitting themselves right now." Laughed another.
Suddenly, Rick came out of the cover of the trees. "Not exactly." He exclaimed.
Daryl motioned for everyone to stay back, hidden and on guard.
"What the hell?" One yelled.
"He's one of them! I've seen him before!"
"Any of them missing parts? I'm sick of eating leftovers."
"I gathered that." This man seemed to be the leader. "Not so fast, Greg. I think this man came to talk." He directed his attention back to Rick. "I can appreciate your position. Pursued by an unknown threat – You're feeling at a disadvantage. You just want to ensure the safety and well-being of your people. People you've grown to care about. Like a second family to replace the one you lost. I'm sure you lost family, we all have. Believe me. I know where you're coming from."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, it is. You came here alone to try and negotiate with us. That's very brave of you, by the way. That's admirable."
"Just came to ask you this: any amount of talking gonna get you to back off? Will you stop coming after my people?"
"In all honesty, probably not."
"Tell me then – what happened to you? What brought you to this? Cannibalism – How did it come to that?"
"The simple answer? We got hungry."
Suddenly, one of the men raised his gun to Rick's head. Daryl's hand tensed on the trigger of his assault rifle. The leader spoke up before anything happened. "Greg, that wont be necessary. For the sake of this conversation, just put the gun down." 'Greg' lowered his rifle. "That's better. Shooting you isn't really our style. We're low on refrigeration. We like to keep our game alive as long as possible. We're terrible hunters. Have you ever hunted before? Animals are quick. It's hard. You spend so much time finding a good hiding place and waiting. It's pointless. So we decided to hunt easier game. People don't run from us. Hell, half the time they don't know what's happening until they wake up to see something's cut off. It's easy. We usually leave bigger groups alone. Ordinarily, we wouldn't have touched you. Lucky for you, it's been days since our last loner. We are desperate." He smirked.
The whole conversation made Danielle cringe. The Father looked sickened.
"You know what? Back up. I want to tell you something first. Did you know… a bear in the woods, if it runs out of food, will actually eat it's own cub in order to survive? It's true. That's a fact. The logic is this… if the bear dies, the cub dies anyway, but if the bear lives, it could always have another cub. When we started out, we had a few kids with us… So as you can imagine, most everything got a lot easier after dealing with that. The thought of eating strangers was very easy after coming to grips with that." It looked as though he was crying. "The thing is, I want to make this abundantly clear, we don't do this because we want to. We do this because we have no other choice. There aren't many living people left. We are running out of options. I hate to say it, but it's me or you. Considering those two options, it's very easy to make a decision. No offense."
"No, I completely understand. I have to make the same decision. The problem for you is that I have the advantage."
The man snickered, "How so?"
"You didn't really think I came here alone, did you?" Suddenly, everyone in the clearing lifted their weapons, aimed at Rick and at the woods behind him. "You can't see them."
"Well, then I'm going to call your bluff. Bold move. Stupid, but bold."
"Watch this." Rick said, holding his hand up in a mock gun. "Danielle, the big guy, left ear."
It took Danielle a second to aim and pull the trigger, but moments later the man had fallen to the ground. "Fuck, FUCK!" The man screamed, gripping the left side of his face, blood trickling down.
"You move, it gets shot off. That's my promise to you." He turned back towards the woods. "Daryl, come get their guns."
Daryl rose, walking out to the clearing by Rick. "Gladly."
"I still only see two of you." He other groups leader interjected. "How do I know it wasn't you in the woods?" he pointed, threateningly towards Daryl. Danielle gladly took the challenge, and shot the man's finger clean off.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" he screamed, staring at his hand in disbelief.
"I don't have all Goddamn night." Daryl smirked as he collected the groups weapons.
"Everybody out!" Rick commanded.
"What are you going to do with us?" The man asked, still in tears.
"I don't know yet. It won't be good, I can promise you that."
Fun Fact: The issues in the graphic novels with The Hunters are actually my favorites. These were also the most fun to write. I really hope they include this in the show, 'cause I feel in the light of the apocalypse, of course some people are going to resort to cannibalism.
I decided I would go ahead and post everything about The Hunters today because I love it so much.
I'm gonna go ahead and warn you, there aren't many chapters in this story left and I wanted to kind of speed things along, so to speak.