Alexis herd Miguel’s whistle and stood up from her crouch and stretched her back, looking at Kira next to her and then the house they had chosen to make their base of operations. Time to get moving to their ambush position.
The past few days had been busy, she remembered. The raid on the mall had been uneventful as they had carefully snuck in at night without a soul in sight. Raiding the hardware store, outdoor centre, sporting goods store and garden centre was productive as they had barely been touched in comparison to the supermarket which showed clear signs of looting. The outdoor centre in particular had proven to be a bonanza for wilderness related gear and they had shamelessly taken advantage. The only disappointment had been the gun shop as they hadn’t managed to find an obvious way to break in.
They left early the next night, heavily loaded after packing and sorting gear for most of the day, the ride to John’s place passing without a hitch although it took a couple of hours. Even Kira had been given a small pack to carry that Lizzy had modified for the dog, the sight simultaneously funny and sobering. Their group composition different than planned, Mike, Carmen and Lucy had accompanied them whereas Roland and Carina had elected to stay as they still hadn’t found their friends. Miguel had however found his sister and girlfriend and had joined them on their trek, Stephen quietly tagging along too.
John’s place had been a surprise, the main house of the complex in the mountains a veritable fortress. He had explained that his dad had served with the Koevoet during the independence war and had carried the resultant paranoia into independence and his retirement, building a house that always prove easily defensible against terrorists, stocking up quite an armoury as well. The exterior buildings had later been converted to a lodge by John, apartments added and furnished luxuriously and rented out to the occasional tourist, the entire operation managed by an older couple. The main house however remained the same imposing building, narrow windows barred with steel and reinforced walls and doors.
They had immediately started replanting the terrace gardens with vegetable beds, obtaining food a longer term priority that they needed to address urgently. Mike had also found a way to restore some power, rewiring the solar panels and battery packs to provide 220 Volts to the system without use of an inverter. The system was now running DC and not AC, so many tools couldn’t be used even if they didn’t have circuit boards, but at least they had lights for the time being. In the longer term Mike planned to rebuild some motors to DC motors, but lacking the possibility to forge, mill or grind metal parts would make this a future project, if at all possible.
Now, by day three, they had settled in, Alexis had just planted the last batches of cabbage and the vegetable beds were nearly complete, John had finalised the gravity fed drip irrigation system earlier that morning. Fortunately their water supply was not reliant on any electric pumps, the old wind-pump having been kept in action by John’s dad, the mechanical pump still working as intended and filling the tanks above the house.
Alexis was thankful for Miguel’s whistle to action. They had decided to go hunting yesterday evening, their prey, a herd of cattle. John had attempted to rope in the farmworkers in their small village in the next valley early yesterday, unsuccessfully, as the village was empty, not a soul in sight. Some houses looked damaged, the gardens smashed and hoof prints covering the grounds all over. Miguel had spotted the culprits later when he was on lookout, shouting to alert the group. What they saw had left them speechless, the usual calm and docile grazers were mowing through the vegetation, eating anything green, gras, bushes, uprooting trees and digging for roots. Their skin glistening in the sun, massive muscles bunching and their wickedly sharp pitch black horns carried proudly, leaving churned ground and devastation in their wake.
For the first time the group had focused on the landscape further up the valley, the crisscrossing scars of bovine destruction now obvious once they knew what to look for. Carmen had gone for a scout immediately, warned to be careful by Mike and John. Given the absence of William and Lizzy, she was probably their most experienced hunter. She had returned just before dusk, her news both good and bad. Carmen had informed them that she managed to identify most of the herd, their levels ranging between 4 and 7 mostly and popping up as Voracious Bovine. The two bulls however, were a different proposition altogether. Bastiaan the Bastion at Level 12 and Bliksem Quickhorn at Level 11.
That last bit of info had had John in tears, laughing uproariously and beating his hands against his thighs, barely managing to gulp down a single breath before again breaking out in laughter. The group had been bewildered to say the least, the average level of the cows exceeded their levels by quite a margin and the bulls’ level was intimidating.
Once John had calmed down sufficiently he had managed to explain that the two had been called the first part of their names as calves and that the second part described their characters to a tee. Bastiaan had been stoic, stubborn and unmovable whereas Bliksem had been a quick, agile and contrary calf. That the system had named them and so specifically was poetic, according to John, and somewhat frightening at the same time.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Eventually they had decided that an ambush would be the best approach, the herd outnumbering them and they weren’t certain of the animals’ capabilities, the high levels slightly intimidating. Miguel had been designated as lookout for the next day to determine if they would approach the sites that John had picked out as suitable locations for an ambush.
Alexis moved to the large dining hall according to the plan of action to gear up according to the plan of action decided on yesterday. Everyone had been allocated a firearm, except for Anna and Leah, Miguel’s sister and girlfriend, who were the only ones that had no proficiency whatsoever with firearms and had been requested to stay at the house. The plan was to move to the steep hill the herd would most likely pass beneath during the next hour or so and just overwhelm them with massed fire from a safe position. Even with their relatively high levels and higher number the advantage the firearms should provide over the bovines should decimate the herd.
She could feel excitement rising within when they moved out, judging from their postures everyone else except for Mike was equally excited. They kept quiet and behind the hill, out of sight of the cattle. Mike led the group and signed to everyone to get low and slow down before they crested the crown, the group now splitting up and settling down into the sparse grass. Their cover could have been better, but the cattle were still a ways off and apparently unaware of the group. Alexis realised that the wind was also in their favour, something to be thankful for while they waited for the herd to move into range.
The animals were moving closer at a steady pace. The noise of the destruction they caused carried down the wind, Bastiaan pushing over even mature trees, muscles bunching and straining, the wood cracking and giving way. The specimen was impressive, the reddish hide near glowing in the sun, horns spanning more than an arm’s length to either side. She identified the beast, now showing at Level 13. Somehow the brute had levelled up overnight and Alexis shifted her aim to a heifer at the back, waiting for Mike’s shot, their signal to commence the slaughter.
Alexis could feel the tension, her breathing quickening and her aim wavering, she tried to calm herself before the thundering report of the .475 Holland Holland next to her made her jerk violently, pulling the trigger. Her shot definitely went wide, Alexis repeated, refocused and pulled the trigger. The cattle, instead of milling or fleeing in confusion, were charging them en masse. A quick glance while repeating showed her that a few bodies were down, but Bastiaan, Mike’s target, was charging at them, the rest of the herd close behind.
Alexis repeated and fired, reloaded, repeated and fired, repeated and fired, and again. She fleetingly thought about their fortunate choice of the ambush position while reloading, as Bastiaan had slowed down, struggling up the steep hill still some distance away. Most of the herd was down, a couple of stragglers still alive, following Bastiaan. From what she could see the bull didn’t show any wounds, inexplicable given the amount of fire directed at him.
Mike’s .475 thundered again, the bull stumbled, still charging on. The entire group now focused on the animal and she could see it was having an effect, blood spurting and the beast going to its knees, breath heaving, refusing to die. The ringing in her ears was deafening as she fired her last shot, never having expected to go through her ammo that quickly. Mike fired again, having reloaded, Bastiaan finally keeling over. John, Miguel and Carmen still fired a couple of desultory shots, putting wounded animals out of their misery.
Alexis was hyperventilating, purging accumulated tension. She glanced at their group, everyone was staring at the corpses, shocked, exhilarated or plain stupefied. Bastiaan had nearly reached the group, the combined fire of eight rifles nearly failing to stop the beast on its 250 metre charge up the steep hill.
John got up, walking toward Bastiaan, rifle carried at the ready. No reaction when he touched the eye with the smoking barrel, Bastiaan was dead. He voiced the question on everyone’s mind, “How, just…just how?” They gathered together, everyone still nervously looking at the line of corpses down the hill. Their voices subdued they started discussing their experiences, nervous and worried. It took a minute before they started moving down the hill, investigating each and every downed animal. Bastiaan’s chest was shredded but no other marks on his massive body. The cows each had between two and four entry wounds, no exit wounds that they could find. Bliksem had a shattered spine and a clean bullet hole between his eyes, again lacking an exit wound.
John explained the shattered spine “When Mike took the shot I immediately followed up on Bliksem, as planned, dead centre on the shoulder. I could see it in my scope, he lunged forward, quicker than anything I have seen before. My bullet must have arrived a split second after Mike’s, barely any time to react between the sound of Mike’s shot reaching him and mine hitting him. He nearly dodged the shot entirely. I think, given the situation, that Level 10 is somewhat of a gamechanger. The cows weren’t too bad but those two bulls, jikes, the names make sense now, Bastiaan the Bastion tanked .475 shots for fucks sake.”
Alexis checked her notifications, she had earned 252 experience for the fight, levelling to 7 and Kira, keeping always close by her side, now at Level 3. The remainder of the group had the same idea, all levelling up too. A quiet minute passed while most everyone assigned their points, Alexis decided to wait until she had discussed the matter with John and started butchering Bliksem before the group spread out and joined her in harvesting the carcasses.
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