It had only been a day, but the anticipation Jack felt about the hunt only grew. Yes, someone could find his tent and gear, but the idea of hunting creatures and growing stronger overpowered his hesitation.

Jack had just finished his morning training when Cade approached him. He’d been relaxing on the ground after running laps around the village.

“You ready for the hunt today?”

Nodding, Jack’s spirits lifted.

“When are we leaving?”

Cade grinned and threw a bag to Jack.

“Now.”

Taking the bag and standing to his feet, Jack followed behind the already departing man. Jack noticed the direction they were moving was toward the center of the village.

Guess we’re all meeting up at Kane’s place.

Standing at the entrance of Kane’s tent were two men and a woman. Nathan, Kane, and a woman Jack hadn’t met before.

Jack approached what he assumed was the hunting team.

“Is this everyone? I expected there’d be more people.”

Kane turned to look at Jack. “We have enough. Each of us is good at what we do and that’s good enough.”

Turning to his right and gesturing to the only woman in the group, Kane introduced her.

“This is Rachel. She used to be a paramedic before ending up here. I thought it would be a good idea to have a medical expert with us just in case.”

The woman looked bored as she stood next to Kane.

“Yeah, I’m Rachel. I’ll be patching anyone up if they need it but try not to get hurt on purpose just so you can talk to me.”

Seeing nobody laugh, the woman sighed.

“Thought so. This is going to be boring as hell…”

“Anyway” Kane began.

“Today we’re making a straight line towards the giant rock in that direction. We’ll hunt anything worth hunting along the way, but our main objective is to check out a cave our new friend Jack found.” Kane gestured to jack as he said this.

Following these words, the group looked at Jack in consideration.

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“Can he even fight? Doesn’t look like he’ll be that useful.”

Rachel voiced her doubts about bringing him along.

“Can he fight? HA! He’s not the strongest, but he’s definitely not weak either. I reckon the only ones that can beat him with certainty are Kane and I. Not much fightin’ experience, but he’s got the power to back it up.”

Jack was caught off guard to hear so much support from Cade and it appeared the others didn’t expect it either, especially Nathan. He was clearly irked by Cade’s words as the look on his face wasn’t exactly friendly while he glared at Jack.

Kane cleared his throat to get the others’ attention.

“Jack won’t be joining us as a combat unit. He’ll be playing a supporting role in this team due to a unique ability he picked up before coming to the village. Actually, that’s the reason we’re heading to this cave, we’ll be hunting the same creatures that gave him his ability, giant bats.”

“What?” Turning her head to look at Jack, Rachel was confused.

“What ability is it? It can’t be THAT useful right? Enough for a special trip on its own?”

Sighing Kane elaborated.

“Surprisingly its much stronger than it sounds. Supposedly he has a form of echolocation. He can see without the use of his eyes, and it seems he received a few more perks along with that.”

Kane met Jack’s gaze as he said this. He knew his ability was much stronger than anything from back on earth.

Rachel’s brow rose in surprise.

“So, you can see things without looking at them? Close your eyes and tell me how many fingers I’m holding up.”

“Rachel I don’t think it works like tha-“ Cade was cut off before he could finish his sentence.

“Two. Pinkie and thumb.”

Rachel looked at Jack in shock. If what he’d said was true, then this ability of his was overpowered. Sure, he couldn’t create electricity in his hands, but if it worked how she thought it did then Jack would never have a blind spot. Surprise attacks could only be done from range.

“Ok, enough stroking the newbies ego. We should get going.”

Kane hefted a bag on his shoulders and took the lead.

The moment they exited the village everyone went silent. They were all on edge and needed every advantage they could.

Whispering in low voice, Kane warned the group.

“If anyone sees anything let me know. That goes for you especially Jack. You’ll see anything coming before we do. Keep your eyes and ears open.”

Jack didn’t know what constituted as “anything”. With a little focus he could even see small critters moving about without making a sound. He assumed it meant anything large enough to be an issue.

Moving thought the forest as silently as possible, the hunting squad moved further and further in the direction of micro mountain. After maybe a quarter of an hour, Kane turned back in annoyance at Jack.

“Anything yet? I can’t believe there’s nothing after coming this far.” He asked in a whisper.

“Well yeah… It’s just that everything I’ve picked up so far wasn’t worth hunting. Biggest thing I’ve seen was a huge bird, but it took off pretty quick.”

Kane frowned at this. Nathan’s report from before included his predator theory and if Kane was being honest, he hoped he ran into the giant bear he’d heard about. He couldn’t help imagining what kind of ability he’d get from such a monster.

The journey continued in silence as the group slowly but surely made their way to micro mountain.

Suddenly the foliage opened and revealed their destination. Micro mountain stood before the hunting squad in all its rocky glory.

“Damn that’s a big rock. A little weird with it bein’ in the middle of nowhere though.” Cade observed.

Kane scanned the surface of micro mountain trying to find the cave Jack had told him about before without any luck.

“Where is it?”

Pointing up about a third of the way up micro mountain, Jack began walking.

“It’s just right up there. It’s hard to see so just follow me.”

The others looked to Kane as he nodded and followed along. They were going to see these monster bats for themselves.