5

Usiko was not happy. Not at all. He was sitting in a cold, hard, spotless, clinic-clean metal chair, strapped to it hand and foot. Ze'ev was being held by a couple of humans across the room, though the meek cub was not causing any trouble. Usiko had not spent a comfortable night. After only a couple of hours of uneasy sleep, he'd been hauled out of the cage, not HIS cage, he refused to think of it as such, and brought here. A strange headpiece device was secured to his head, and the woman who'd bathed him the night before was adjusting come controls on a switchboard. Usiko had an idea what it was he was sitting in, but he kept his cool. He gave a baleful glance to the bald human standing in the corner with his arms crossed. "I really do not like you," he said.

Safari Joe only laughed.

From where she stood at the switchboard, Kamata said, "Now this is necessary. Behave and it will go better for you. I want you to tell me your name."

The young man's blood boiled at being talked to like a child. "Well I am not going to. You don't have to treat me like a child, you know."

Kamata shook her head. "You are not behaving," she said, and flipped a switch.

Usiko screamed as a massive amount of pain seared through his body, and panted heavily when it passed. He had not expected it to hurt quite so much.

Again the question was repeated with the admonition that if he behaved it would go better. He told her where to stick it. The switch was flipped.

Each refusal was met with the shock and the repeat that he was not behaving.

Three shocks later he had told them his name.

"That's better," said Kamata in a no-nonsense voice. She liked animals, but she would not have them disobeying. "Your age?"

He hesitated, and got shocked for it. With a low growl, he said, "Twenty-four." He was shaking.

"Race?"

He gave her a hateful look. "Thunderian, obviously."

She let that go, as it was his first day. "Clan."

"I have no clan, I am of many." His eyes were narrowed as he stared intently at the far wall, an he spoke in a low, carefully controlled voice.

Kamata smiled. "Very good. That's all for your first time." She released the restraints and took off the headpiece, something he never thought he'd be so happy to get rid of. Two of the strong humans took him by the arms and held him against the wall.

Kamata had the others bring the cub forward. "Wait a minute, don't tell me that you're going to put him through that, he's just a cub!"

"Quiet," she replied, "Or you will be back in it."

Ignoring Usiko's frustrated growl, she fastened the device to the cub's head and lowered the strength of the shock. She asked him his name. He of course did not answer, but he did scream when she zapped him.

As Ze'ev whimpered and began to cry a little, Usiko tired to jerk away form his captors. "You stupid wench, he's deaf, he can't hear you! You have to be facing him!" Seeing the child hurt enraged him to no end.

She looked up, apparently decided that he was lying, and repeated the question.

Usiko growled, then looked at the boy, who gave him a frightened look. Tell her your name, he mouthed. In a tearful voice, the cub complied.

Thus went the questioning. Ze'ev only got shocked the once, and then they were returned to their cages as the sun slowly rose over the horizon of the little planet.

Ze'ev was crying softly as he sat in a corner with his knees drawn to his chest. His back was to the cat.

Usiko sighed and shakily sat on the bed. He noticed the blanket had been taken, which angered him. He wished he could comfort the cub, but no words could do it. He wondered not for the first time if he had been born deaf or if something had happened. He didn't act like a normal child.

The Mutant did not move from his spot all day, as the droves of people passed through, dishonorable people to be enjoying seeing captive sentient people, and giggled or just gazed at the exhibits. Usiko saw with disgust many children taken to see the "animals" and wondered what morals those kids learned.

"Can I pet you?" one little girl asked him as he tried to keep himself covered, sitting on his bed much as the young Mutant was.

Usiko gave her a dirty look. "No, you can't. Now bug off."

The little girl looked hurt, and her mother glared at the captive Thunderian. "You wait until I voice my complaint about you!"

As she led her daughter away from the cage, Usiko rolled his eyes. He'd probably get it later for that. Man, he had to escape.

Ze'ev and Usiko were fed breakfast right away, for the both of them is was pancakes, decent tasting, but he suspected some kind of vitamin or something had been blended in with the batter; it had a slightly herbal/plant type taste to it. Juice was given with it. He didn't complain at the moment since he was hungry; at least it was on a plate, and there was a small sink next to the privies, so water was always available. Lunch was a sandwich and milk, dinner was larger: a plate of meat and potatoes, some vegetables, a large glass of milk, and some bread. A perfect balanced meal, he thought with a sigh. He noticed Ze'ev had eaten none of it. He wished he could at least comfort the kid, but he couldn't.

Hours passed and he thought he would go crazy. He could not imagine living here for any length of time. At least they could let him read or something! "Listen to me," he muttered. "I'm already thinking as if I plan to be here for any length of time. I am out of here." The problem was the place looked inescapable, and there were many sentients that had been there a long time, a long, long time.

As he strolled around the ground, checking things out as he did everyday as the park started to close, and the last stragglers were ushered out the gate, Safari Joe smiled. Attendance had been good that day, better than normal; word had been spread that the hunter had captured another sentient; a Thunderian no less. They were usually not easy finds.

"So, you enjoying your first day here?" his voice blared at them in its normal, obnoxious, arrogant accent.

Usiko growled at him. "What gives you the right to cage a sentient being?" he demanded. "We're not animals!"

He laughed, used to this argument. "You look like it to me, cat!"

"We may have evolved from cats, but we're no longer animals!" He would not get through on this point, he could see. He had already known he wouldn't, but still, he wasn't just going to take it silently.

Safari Joe chuckled. "But you're still a cat."

Angrily: "Humans evolved from monkeys! So I wouldn't talk, baldy!"

At that, the hunter threw his head back and laughed. "I like you, cat. Smarter than most my former associates. The ones that tried to cross me." He glanced across the large compound to a group of five cages, each with an unhappy human in it. "And you gave me a hell of a better fight. But that doesn't change the fact that you're in a cage, and I'm not." He laughed again, shook his head, and started to walk away.

Usiko growled in frustration. "Maybe now!" he called. "But that's gonna change!" He made a rude gesture at the hunter's retreating back and covered up with the blanket that had just been put back in the cage.

As Joe walked past the cages containing the humans for his daily gloat, he looked up at the raised cage when he felt a splat of moisture land on his head with a thick flicking sound. He curled his lip in disgust as he took his kerchief and wiped his head off.

There was an obnoxious laugh. "Nice shot, Cantel!" one of the captives hooted. They all wore tight shorts, nothing else.

Cantel grinned at their captor, crossing his arms over his broad, hairy chest. His long, red hair fell across his shoulders as he shook his head.

Safari Joe only gave him a cold smile. "Still doing your camel impersonation I see. Well you got the looks down. Still think you're so smart? Look who caged whom!" Cantel had been there three weeks, the newest of the human captives. The oldest had been there for seven long years. He had made the mistake of first trying to cheat Safari Joe, and then trying to have him killed. He sat silent.

"Get off it, you puke. You took down an unarmed man. You're nothing but a coward, Gregor. Great hunter? Right. Big man, taking down animals from behind with you all powerful rifle. Biiig man." He laughed contemptuously. "Just like your father. Yeah, I heard about him." He spoke the word as if it were a bug in him mouth to be gotten rid of quickly. "Maybe he had the guts to take on someone face to face, but even he was a weak, limp-wristed wimp, wasn't he?"

Safari Joe stopped short, his face flushing a deep crimson in the fading twilight. The automatic lights went on. He didn't notice. "What was that you said?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"You heard me, you miserable, simpering bastard."

Safari Joe smiled again. His mouth twisted in a dangerous grin that in no way reached his eyes. They nearly burned with rage. A couple of the humans, which consisted of five men and one woman, backed away, and Cantel himself took a couple of steps back. But he didn't back down. "What are you going to do? Shoot me in the back again? Have your goons drag me in the back in your "training" room? Just like you. Juuust like you."

"You want a fair fight?" Joe asked him. "You want to have a try at me?" The hunter's voice was quiet, but with such an intensity that Usiko could hear him clear across the large compound. He tossed his gun aside, the nearly indestructible rifle landing on the grass with a soft thunk. Then he stripped himself of his belt and his safari coat. Then he took his keys and opened the cage door. "Get out here." The words were hissed.

Cantel looked a little apprehensive at first and looked around.

"Oh don't worry, Cantel. You know the place is shut down. No one gets out of here but me after dark. Now get out here. You've run your everlasting mouth, now let's see if there's any man behind it."

Cantel took one look at the cold, confident expression and jumped from the cage with a grin. "Let's have a little wager. I win, you let all us humans go. You win, well then you'll have had the pleasure of beating the hell out of me."

Safari Joe narrowed his eyes. "If I win, you won't see the dawn." With that, the hunter struck.

Usiko watched from his cage, more interested that he would have admitted. Seemed the hunter had some issues. Joe had nailed his opponent with the first blow, rocking him backwards, but Cantel recovered quickly and retaliated.

For a long time, they exchanged blows. Both tired quickly, and the fight went to the ground more than once, but each time, both men staggered back up to continue. And then, finally, Safari Joe got the upper hand. Both were strong, but the hunter had been conditioned nicely with his years as a hunter in rough, rugged terrain and territories, and he was the victor. He kicked his opponent in the side as he was half collapsed on the ground, panting for breath.

Joe brought his radio to his lips and called a couple workers to the area. "We have one more for the hunt next week. Get Jandron, he'd love a chance to hunt his own kind down." He grinned at Cantel as he talked. "He can even have the head." Safari Joe had taken some bad hits, and his face was bruised, and bleeding in a couple of places, but he was still standing.

"You...bastard..." Cantel growled. Without warning, he lunged for the hunter's discarded gun and leveled it at him with some difficulty. "Now who's dead, huh? HUH?!" He pulled the trigger.

Safari Joe chuckled, not having moved a muscle. Nothing happened, nothing whatsoever. "You really think I'd leave that where you could get it without locking it out?" he said. "I'm not the greatest hunter in the galaxy because I was stupid." Three workers grabbed Cantel from behind, and the gun dropped once more.

"You'll regret this!" the bested human screamed, as he fought his captors. "I'll kill you!"

Safari Joe shook his head and sighed as he picked up his garments. Cantel wouldn't be killing anyone, not where he was going. Without a glance at his other captives, who stared at him with a mixture of shock and disgust, he left. He could make his rounds another night.

Part 4

Part 6

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