EPILOGUE—THE HUNT

After finding the Dregs troglodyte base burnt out and bodies everywhere, the only evidence of survivors lay in those strange tracks and the sneaker prints following them.

Jon had asked Koto if he recognized those sneaker tracks.

He did.

They belonged to no other than Kawa, who was clearly on the trail of whatever creature has run off from the Dregs encampment. How it goes there, was a mystery, but something deep inside Jon’s gut told him the answer would be one he wouldn’t want to know—much less believe unless he saw with his own eyes.

The evil of the corporate elite and their government partners within the green zone was frightening.

Jon had always heard stories, rumors and “conspiracy theories.” This one was true—al but conformed by his own partner Ushiara Kenn who had tried to murder him.

At least now she thinks I’m dead…

Koto came up behind Jon as he glanced up over the hills and the rocks. The tracks just didn’t stop, and neither did those sneaker prints.

“Are you all right?” Koto asked.

Jon looked at the teenager and wondered what was going through his head right now—how he felt. His family had been killed. Not is blood relations, but still, the Dregs were his family.

He nodded.

And it had not been the first time he had lost people.

“I’m fine,” he said. “These tracks…”

“We can’t lose them,” said Koto as he glanced up as the rising sun began to beat down upon them.

Between the two, they had the one pistol given to Jon by Maple. The others—Nova, Mairu and Maple herself, had gone back to her place to fetch weapons and water. The oni engineer was very helpful, and Jon could see the hurt in her features.

She would do everything she could to help them, and so would Jon.

If Kawa was still alive, they had to find her.

“What I don’t understand is why Kawa is after this thing—this creature.”

Koto said nothing for a moment.

Finally he looked Jon in the eyes, and he saw a deadness there in the boy’s gaze. If some monster—some freak experiment by the government had killed most of the people I knew, I’d chase it until I caught it and killed it.

Jon nodded.

That was understandable.

Koto narrowed his eyes. He was worried for Kawa, but once they caught up with her, they would help her kill that thing—whatever it was. And then they were going to get some godsdamned payback for whoever was behind this thing—starting with the corp dumping that stuff into the river.

“Hey,” Jon said, “I think I hear Maple.”

The growl of the buggy’s engine got closer and eventually came over the hills. In a cloud of dust she stopped, the tired skidding in the sandy dirt beside them.

Jon swiped at the air in front of his face.

“Hey.”

Maple got out of the buggy. “Hey—you still on the trail?”

“We are,” Koto said.

“What do you have for us?” Jon asked as he peered into the back.

Maple turned and patted the jugs. “Water,” she said, then touched a bag, “some good, and I left two guns in there with spare ammo.”

“That’s perfect,” Jon said as Koto reached in and took the bag.

Maple got out and handed them the water.

Koto glanced about. “Where’s Nova?”

“Back at my place,” said Maple as she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “Didn’t want to leave Mairu all on her own.”

“And she listened to you?” Jon asked. “That girl is headstrong. I’m surprised.”

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Maple nodded. “Yeah, well… after what happened…” she let that trail off.

Jon nodded. “All right,” he said. “Thanks for the supplies. We’re going to keep pursuing the trail. You can head on back.”

“Yeah,” Maple said. She glanced over at Koto. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Are you sure? Maybe you should come back with—“

“I’m fine,” he said again. “Maple—really, I’m okay. I need to find Kawa.”

Maple nodded. “All right.” She thought Koto was barely holding it together. The poor kid.

Jon regarded Maple and Koto as something unsaid passed between them, then she looked at him, and he could see the look in her eyes, like a silent pleading.

He gave her a slight nod of assurance.

“All right,” she finally said, dusting off her hands. “All right. Well… I’m going to head back. I’ll return here at night fall and wait for word for a few hours like we planned, then keep coming periodically if you don’t show up.”

“That’s the plan,” Jon said.

Koto turned around. “We will see you soon.” Then he started striding away from the buggy.

Maple looked at Jon and she leaned over to the passenger seat. “Jon?”

He stepped closer and leaned over the chassis bar next to the seat.

“You keep an eye on him. I’m worried.”

He nodded. “I will.”

“And hey—you take care of yourself, yeah?” she patted his arm.

With a subtle smile he nodded. “Will do.”

“Jon,” Koto called.

He turned to the teenager. “On my way,” he said, rising his hand. He glanced back at Maple as she started the buggy’s engine, then in a swirl of dirt and dust and the growling of the buggy’s engine, she wheeled around and took off.

Jon joined Koto as he slung the water jugs over his back. “Let’s find Kawa.”

“Mm,” Koto noised with a nod, and then he pulled back the slide on his pistol, handed it to Jon with the holster. “take this.”

*

Her eyes were open wide, as if she had seen a ghost—they had been like that for the past six hours and because of the dryness of the terrain and her lack of sleep, Kawa’s eyes were also bloodshot.

Dark circles had formed around them and her skin was pale—paler than normal as she crouched low with her sub-machine gun. She had two spare clips.

She could have shot him during the struggle—before everyone had been killed.

Before its thrashing and saliva dripping rampage had set fire to the Dregs’ home.

But how could she have done that?

Not possible…

Was not…

Possible…

Gritting her teeth, Kawa moved between two large boulders and down the steepening terrain to the river gorge where long grass was.

A terrible snarl filled the air, loud and vicious and hungry for meat—for blood.

Swallowing, Kawa looked like a ghost—or perhaps a corpse.

The shock had set in, watching everything that had happened and unable to do anything.

No.

It was not that she had been unable to do anything.

She had been unwilling.

And now everyone was dead.

She crouched, moving into the grass where she might hid from the terrible mutation, that monster that had killed them all.

Karu…

The grass shuffled up ahead and Kawa gasped, her gaze rising in a beeline for that spot as she raised her weapon.

Nearing that spot, her feet touched the wet and murky water where they sunk a little in the mud below.

Something jumped out of the tall grass and her heart nearly stopped.

The bird flew away, squawking indignantly that she had interrupted its bath time.

“You fucker,” she muttered quietly.

They were not the words the girl usually used.

A snarl and a scratching of the ground echoed across the waters and through the tall grasses from down river.

Narrowing her eyes, Kawa moved forward.

She was going to kill it.

Kill it now.

She may not have been able to do it now.

But that thing…

Karu…

If he was inside there somewhere, he would thank her—he would be at peace—after she killed him.

That form, its claws and it’s bubbling sacks.

It was an—

Her stomach suddenly heaved and she bent over and retched into the water, but nothing came up. The noises she made were nothing like she had ever heard from herself before.

But then, she had never dry retched before either.

The creature called out in a vicious snarl, its high pitches cries like that of a wailing creature suffering and all at once hungry and hateful with an insatiable need to devour flesh.

“I will free you, Karu.”

She moved deeper into the grass where the creature—where Karu—was.

“I will free you,” she breathed, her weapon raised, her heart hammering inside her chest as her breathing came in and out in shallow, barely audible breaths.

Kawa swallowed.

“I will free you, Karu.”

The grass stirred, and she moved forward, her finger lightly caressing the trigger of her sub-machine gun.

Twitching, the grass suddenly stopped and the splashing water became still.

Gritting her teeth, Kawa almost screamed, but instead her face only reddened and the vanes in her neck protruded—her eyes filled and she squeezed the trigger.

Her sub-machine gun bucked, screaming hot rounds though the grass.

A terrible snarl erupted, and then the beast lunged out of the grass at her. Kawa jumped to the side and howled in fear as she landed in the water with her elbow outstretched.

Her face was momentarily submerged from the momentum of her fall, but she pushed up on her elbow and swiped across the air with a deadly hot fusillade of sub-machine gun fire.

Her breath came out in ragged gasps, in and out, in and out, her vision narrowing like tunnels and she searched for the beast, hardly able to move for fear that making any sound at all would draw it atop her where it would tear her to pieces.

“Karu,” she called, her voice small.

She didn’t understand why her brother’s name came out of her mouth.

She got back to her feet and let the empty magazine splash into the water. She then pulled out another and slammed it into her weapon, lowering the lock on the end of the barrel with a smack of her palm before pulling back the slide.

With every exhale a whining wheeze came out of her throat.

Her vision blurred.

“Come out!” she screamed.

Then she pulled the trigger and swiped the crosshair across the grasses which shook and parted and chopped into pieces amidst the splashing of water.

The weapon clicked empty and she breathed, her chest heaving like a pump. Everything whirled and she fell back on her butt.

She tried glancing about, but she didn’t have the strength.

She couldn’t breathe.

Kawa held her chest until she calmed.

Sitting in the water, she glanced about finally, leaning back on her outstretched hand supporting her in the water.

The creature was gone.

“KARU!”