Chapter #9The Hunter's Lessons, Part 2 by: Nostrum   "Let's set some ground rules," Mireya told Marty as she parked the cruiser. They were only twenty minutes out of Olympia, but in the brutal Rocky Mountain wilderness they might have been six hours from the nearest habitation.
"Keep your guard up at all times. Always on the watch, and try to make no sound. You do everything I tell you, without questioning. And if you feel too scared to continue, tell me and were going to finish this trip, alright?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Marty replied.
Mireya gave Marty a piercing look, the one she gave him when he didn't listen.
"Alright, alright! I'm gonna do all you say, keep my mouth shut, and we're leaving if I'm too scared, right?"
"Marty, don't just repeat it like a papagayo!" Mireya often resorted to Spanglish phrases when nervous – remnants of her upbringing, as she had struggled with the language in her earlier years. "We're not hunting a deer. We're lucky if we're only dealing with a bear."
"Only a bear?" Mireya could feel the mix of fear and awe in Marty's words.
"The creature we're looking for isn't your typical beast, kiddo. It's much, much more vicious. That doesn't mean that, if we weren't looking for it, this place wouldn't be any more dangerous. You learn with time to respect Nature. I want you to keep that in mind. The only thing that can guarantee our safety is that we show the same respect. Alright?"
"Mmhmm."
"Good." Mireya opened the door, taking the map she bought and looking at it on the back of the trunk as Marty followed her. The map had marks and circles all around; red spots with dates, lines criss-crossing two spots, three concentric circles on a specific area, and angular lines on one spot where three of the spots seemed to be the closest. She took her phone and checked it briefly before marking one rectangle, a short distance from the road.
"So, whatcha doin?"
"This is where we are," Mireya said as she pointed at the rectangle, "and this is where all the attacks have happened, from what I learned.” She followed by pointing all the lines. "If it's a bear, it'll have its spot close to every spot where it made its attacks."
"You mean Bigfoot."
"I mean a bear, Marty. We go with the most reasonable thing first, alright?"
"But the text said–"
"Marty, did you remember what I told you? No questioning!" Marty hunched his shoulders as Mireya raised her voice; though she was small and sexy, she could also be quite intimidating. "Anyways, what we'll do is take the most direct route to this location," she said as she pointed the zone with crossing lines, "which is where there's the biggest likelihood of the attacks happening. We check up that area, stay if necessary. We should have food for at least three days, and water for about one if we do it carefully; there should be a stream or a ravine somewhere, but we can't be too careful."
"Got it." Marty grinned, almost causing Mireya to regret yelling at him. "Hey, this seems like fun!"
"Marty, this isn't entertainment. This is serious. People have disappeared here, most likely left for dead. We can't take risks."
As the duo took their equipment, with Mireya hanging the hunting rifle from a sling on her neck, angling the muzzle toward the ground, Marty began asking more and more questions. "So, this is what associates do?"
"Yes and no. The text I got sent was from someone else. This is more of a bounty than official Stellae business, but it's still something we learn to do. We get called for all kinds of jobs, but we tend to get pigeonholed into some tasks."
Marty gulped, but Mireya could still see that gleam of excitement in his eye. "Am I gonna be like you?"
"Maybe," Mireya said, and followed it with a smile. "You can be something else. You're smart, Marty."
"Yeah, but... This seems a lot more exciting."
"Good thing that not everyone has to have the same skills, kiddo. In the end, even if you get into the life of a hunter, you'll have different skills than I do. Just focus on learning and keeping sharp, alright?"
"Alright." After a bout of silence, where Mireya kept looking at her surroundings for clues, Marty made a personal question out of the blue. "So... Who taught you to hunt?"
--
The sun was starting to set, and the area they checked didn't seem to produce any significant clue. Mireya was on the lookout for a good hiding spot someplace hard to reach by most animals yet with a good vantage point, but the decreasing light hindered her. Even with her own potent flashlight and a spare one used by Marty – flashlights solid enough to be used as clubs in case of self-defense – finding the right spot was very difficult. It took them the better part of two hours before they could find the spot: a small cavern on a rocky ridge, which would require about a minute and a half of hiking. Mireya, the more experienced one, made the hike first, securing a rope for Marty to use.
The trip was an eye-opening experience for Marty. So far, his conversations with Mireya had been mostly about how he was doing at school, or stories about her time in the police force. This time, however, Mireya had a rare focus on things, being concise in her talking, and always pointing at something for him to see. Not like some of her quirks didn't came through. For one, she still egged him when she said something she wanted him to pay attention to, but it was obvious that Mireya as a hunter was very different from Mireya as a big sister of sorts. Marty felt a strange attraction to this side of Mireya; though he sometimes felt a motherly sense that made him miss his own, her exotic beauty and sharp yet amiable attitude gave her a feel of a sister, or a cousin, that he felt very attached to. And therein lay the conflict, as this side of her made Marty feel attracted to her in a very different way not as a mother, or as a family member, but as a woman. He dismissed the feeling, though: she was too old, and it was obvious that she saw him as a kid, not as a man.
Marty felt like he had learned a lot more on this short trip than he did at school. His mind was like a sponge; absorbing everything he could, from the lessons that John Reilly digested to him in such an easy-to-understand way, to the tackles and jargon of junior varsity football, to the experiments that he was growing too fond of. He was already fancying himself as a smart bruiser: strong, cool, yet also smart and calculating just like Frank, his inspiration.
It was at this moment when Mireya, having set a firestarter for some small branches she found and placed in between the two, interrupted him with a question. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"Just thinking ‘bout what I wanna be."
"Still too early, kiddo. Just go to school, learn all you got, and focus on going to college. You've got a good mind to waste."
Marty puzzled over the expression, then realized what she must have meant to say: You've got too good a mind to waste. "What about you?" he asked her.
The question shook Mireya, as very few people seemed too close to her to make such a personal question. But she laughed.
"I always knew what I wanted to do. But Mami always said I had to go to school and to college." Her tone turned depressed, as the feelings hit too close to home. "She wanted me to study something important. Medicine, for one. I liked how Mami made the effort to acquaint here, how dedicated she was to her studies, but I always liked the action."
"So, you never went to college?"
"Police academy," Mireya said as she munched on some trail mix. "Counts as one." Then, after some moment for thought, she added something else. "I did go to college, though. Some classes, mostly."
"What did you study?"
"Forensics," she said, but as she saw Marty looking at her in awe, she was forced to explain. "It's the closest thing to studying medicine and still working for the police. You can learn a lot from corpses and carcasses, y'know."
"Whoa! Is it like those CSI episodes and stuff?"
"Not exactly, but it's definitely an eye-opening experience." Mireya groaned, finding the rocky ground too uncomfortable for her taste, but safe enough to relax. "Figure that, once I grow too tired from doing hunting, I might move into proper forensics. I do practice my skills from time to time; specifically when hunting." She drew a notebook from her pack, patting at it. "One thing I learned is: you gotta take notes. Lots of notes."
"Oh, cool." Marty chuckled, his eyes distant but still alert. "Jeff also takes a lot of notes."
Seeing the opportunity, Mireya tried to delve deeper into the mystery of Jeff Harrison. "So? How was your relationship with your brother?"
Though Marty spoke little, trying to steer the conversation away, Mireya noticed that, no matter how much she prompted him, Marty didn't seem to know his own brother that well. She'd have to take this opportunity to ask him directly, and yet, she'd be already far behind.
One thing was for certain, though. In Marty's eyes, Mireya was the coolest sister in the whole world. As Marty finally drifted off into sleep, she made a small prayer to God, to provide her with the wisdom and courage to do anything to keep Marty safe. And yet, as she went to sleep, she had that ominous feeling that someone was watching them.  You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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