RECOVERY

7 - The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

THUD. THUD. THUD. Thunderous bellowing echoed the jungle followed by the foot step's owner busting into view. The patrolling man tried to aim with unsteady hands and fire at the approaching beast. He missed. How can someone miss a target that big? The more he shot at it, the more enraged it became. The Rex stretched its toothed jaws in another roar and closed them down on the man. In a mighty chomp, the man's screams were drowned out. Virgil's remaining men ran to the towering form and began firing at it, being mindful to keep their distance from it.

Muldoon growled to the last of his men, "Don't move! Stay...still!" Derek was laying close by and semi-conscious. Uncle looked to nephew. "I advise you listen for once in your life if you plan to live."

Gunfire further agitated the animal, and it roared out, lunging towards its attackers. Another Rex charged into the scene from the side of the camp and caused the men to scatter in panic as the two carnivores pursued them. Virgil reached for an assault rifle propped up against a tent and went to join the fight. He hadn't gotten far when he found abandoned night vision goggles on the ground. Not far from it was Leon's lifeless head crudely severed from his body. Virgil put the goggles on and resumed his firing at the wild beasts.

Seeing how one of the Rexes was chasing the terrified men and the other busy finishing off one of the stragglers, Muldoon saw now was as good a time to get away. All he needed was something sharp enough to cut the ropes tightly binding his feet together and hands behind his back. He visually scanned his nephew for a knife. Hopefully he had at least one on his person.

Muldoon tried to get the other man's attention. "Derek." No answer. "Derek, you little shit, snap out of it!"

A barely audible voiced answered back. "What?"

"Where's your knife?"

"Someone took it. Probably your-" seeing something approach his uncle from the shadows of the jungle floor halted Derek's next words. His eyes enlarged, and he gulped as he watched the shadow near closer to their helpless forms. Familiar golden yellow eyes stared back at him, the silver of his boot knife reflecting the camp's fire in the hybrid's hand. "Ah fuck."

Muldoon tried to glance over his shoulder, but couldn't. "What? Is it a Tyrannosaur?" The ex-game warden could hear their prominent stomping around near the camp as they continued to wreak havoc.

Paul was able to see the person of concern from where he sat and fell speechless. A humanoid form covered in dried mud and splotches of blood appeared like something straight from a horror movie. "No, not exactly."

Derek rolled over onto his back and tried to scoot away. The throbbing pain tearing through the bites on his arm and shoulder were a reminder of the hybrid's potential threat. "It's her."

"And she has a knife," Paul concluded.

His blue eyes took in every detail of the unique individual. His careful observation fell on the prominent sickle shaped claws on her disfigured feet and became further horrified at the sight. The toes the claws belonged to flexed, making the intimidating claws scratch into the dirt. So, this was the hybrid he had heard so much about. Her unblinking animalistic eyes visually studied each person she concluded was associated with Muldoon's search team. The moment Pet met the Britain's curious watch, Paul couldn't help but feel saddened for the young woman's predicament. There was so much pain, hate, and anger in those eyes. If there was one thing he would not forget about this entire fiasco of a trip, aside from getting shot, it was the look in her eyes.

"Pet?" Muldoon struggled to turn around until the firm grip of a clawed hand upon his shoulder stopped him. He recognized her heavy breathing behind him and continued to strain to at least gaze upon her. She came around his person just enough to be seen. Tears of relief and happiness flooded the man's weary grey eyes. "I thought I'd never see you again."

Pet gently cupped the man's dirt, and blood splotched face with her hand and leaned in to kiss his forehead lightly. Muldoon shattered emotionally beneath the hybrid's touch, his body wracked with sobs. She didn't seem to care about the chaos around her as she cradled the man against her and caressed his scarred head. Derek watched on in speechlessness at the reunion. He couldn't believe this was the same person who, just hours before, viciously attacked him.

A pleasant smile upturned Paul's features. "It's for this moment that it was all worth it."

Derek scoffed. "That's debatable."

Pet gave each surviving team member a final look over before she slipped away from Muldoon. The hybrid cut the ropes around his reddened wrists and crawled over to Derek's grounded, bloodied form. She gave him a snort and a smirked. "Just remember why you're still alive." Pet glanced back at Muldoon rubbing his rope burned wrists. She grabbed Derek by the face hissed. "It's too bad, too. I was hoping to finish what I started."

Derek wheezed. "Don't feel bad. You're not the first chick to blue ball me."

Pet snorted and stepped over the man to approach Paul, next. The British man recoiled a bit when she neared his person and knelt down. She breathed in the fear radiating off of him and hissed a snort. Paul braced himself for whatever injuries the hybrid was about to inflict on him only to find the ropes around his wrists cut, as well. Next, she moved on to Amadi's still form. With a gentle touch, she checked for a pulse at his neck and sighed in relief. She then cut his rope bound wrists before freeing the last two members of Muldoon's team.

Pet returned to where Derek was and jabbed the knife's blade into the soft dirt next to his leg. As quietly as she came, she was gone back into the shadows of the night.

Virgil saw that Muldoon had been somehow gotten free. He raised his gun to shoot the man with his 30-06 but was knocked to the ground by someone. Any action he was going to do next was halted when a sickle claw dug into the meat of his thigh. Pet shrilled out loud and dug her claw deeper, tearing through the soft flesh of his leg.

Derek quickly helped his uncle to his feet. Paul was assisted to his feet by one of the remaining team members as Derek and Muldoon carefully hoisted Amadi to his. Paul and the others did their best to shoulder the weakened Amadi in their escape as Muldoon stepped back.

Muldoon grumbled, "Get out of here! Get to the coast!"

Pet continued to fight Virgil and became momentarily dazed when he landed a punch across her face. Virgil reached for his knife and went to slash at her throat, but her quickly moving away had him slashing across her upper arm instead. The hybrid shrieked and rolled off the man. She almost fell victim to another knife wound, but narrowly dodged it and kicked the man in the face. The hybrid got to her feet and ran off, snorting and taunting her adversary to follow her. Pet watched him grab his rifle and get to his feet to aim. The hybrid running and weaving between trees made taking a shot difficult.

Virgil cursed under his breath and grabbed at the bloodied gash on his thigh. Despite his injury, he wasn't about to end the chase here and went after the hybrid. The hunter had to have his prize and in that exact moment, didn't care if she were alive or dead; he just wanted to get the job done he was hired to do.

It was now nearing sunrise. He continued to limp through the jungle underbrush, following the traces of blood he saw smeared on ferns from the injured hybrid. How careless of her to leave breadcrumbs for him to follow down her path of retreat. A flash of movement through the trees got his attention, and he looked over to see a brief glimpse of the hybrid. He raised his rifle and fired a shot, but missed as she dove behind a tree and disappeared yet again.

The weakening hunter leaned against a tree and yelled out, "I will find you, and I will kill you!"

Pet made sure she didn't lose the man pursuing her, while also making sure she didn't get shot either. She paused and looked behind her to see the man limp back into view. She barked a screech to get his attention and took off running again. A bullet ricocheted off a tree immediately to Pet's left, and she lowered herself more to take partial concealment within the undergrowth. But Virgil wasn't the only one watching her.

The hybrid ran up ahead a little bit and paused, waiting on Virgil to catch back up. Upon seeing her, a malicious smile stretched across his face, and he limped closer to her. "Time to stop running, bitch, and accept the inevitable!" He shouldered his rifle when movement near a tree where he stood got his attention. He didn't have to directly look at the movement's source to know who it was and that a gun's muzzle was pointed at him. Virgil huffed a scoff and dropped his aim. "Robert Muldoon..." He laughed to himself in disbelief.

"One thing to know when hunting Pet...you don't hunt her. She...hunts...you. And by the time you find her, you've fallen into her trap and are already dead." Muldoon set his sights at Virgil's head. "I tried warning you, but you didn't listen. You thought you knew your prey when you followed the blood trail. Amateur mistake. Here I thought you finally had your shit together."

Virgil kept his attention locked onto Pet; her raptor eyed stare empty of all emotion. "So what? Now you're going to shoot me in the back? Pity. I figured you a better man than that."

Muldoon cocked an arrogant smile. "That was before you shot me in the leg...before you killed some of my men, took me captive, beat the shit my nephew, and tried to kill my Pet!" Grey eyes further narrowed down on the other man's form. "As another hunter once told me, evolve your tactic or get the fuck out."

Virgil snidely stated, "Fuck you." With the squeeze of the trigger, Muldoon fired his rifle, and Virgil fell limply to the jungle floor.

Muldoon's grey eyes drifted up to see Pet and slyly smiled. "Well, Pet... I evolved my tactic by taking a lesson from you."

The hybrid went rigid when she realized what the man meant by that and glanced over her shoulder to see Derek come into view alongside a tree. Raised and aimed at her was a tranquilizer gun. She turned on the ball of a foot to run away, but Derek anticipated this. A gentle squeeze of the trigger fired a tranquilizer dart into the hybrid's shoulder. Pet barked a shrill and grabbed at the dart to yank it out. She gave a final look to Muldoon and hissed a snort. Traces of sadness and regret filled in her eyes as she succumbed to unconsciousness and fell limply to the jungle floor.