"Carmen! Keep up!" John shouted, running over the hard sections of snow.

"I am! Talk to me when I'm out of range of my shot!"

"Then take it!"

Carmen slid forward through the snow and drew his bow.

The arrow arced into the air and thudded into the snow near a moose. Which scampered away leaving them behind.

"Damn it! -Don't fucking rush me!"

"I'd rather be rushed by John than starvation."

Laura said as she jogged over.

"We've been out here too long, over working won't do us any good. We need to go back and get some warmth in our bones. We'll try again." John said, pulling his fur lined hood up.

"I'm so fucking tired of hunting moose! They take like- five arrows to put down! And your traps do fuck'all to stop 'em!"

"My traps aren't designed for moose... And I get it Carmen, I do. It's the deer as you say. They've stopped passing through here, perhaps they've learned."

"Great, so it's no ones fault when we starve to death." Laura said.

"Honestly out of the two of you Laura, Carmen is the better shot." Laura punched Johns shoulder.

They bickered as they went back to their makeshift hunters camp. A small tent barely big enough for the trio to sit cross-legged around a small fire.

A failed hunt wasn't unusual, it was more common than a successful one. But the fact remained- it was a failure. It meant hungry mouths back at the village for another day.

Nothing hurt the heart more than to return to see their hopeful faces and be empty handed.

"What are we going to do, John?" Carmen asked.

"We can't go back with nothing- not again."

John sighed and wiped his face. "Chew with your mouth closed Laura, Jesus Christ."

Laura smiled coyly at him, showing teeth dirtied with smoked meats.

"I have a plan, I say we hunt something that won't run away."

"Agreed."

"You two are insane." Laura sucked her teeth and threw the rib bone outside of the miniature tent.

"No, we're desperate. It's as you've said, Laura. It's either greater risks- or starvation. Who knows if the deer will come back? We need to find another regular source of food."

"Well, I got plenty of arrows. We could do it. Bring down something big." Carmen was thumbing over the many pointy sticks in his quiver.

Carmen was always cocky as far as hunters went- but he was good. So long as you can get him to the beast- he could bring it down.

He was just a sloppy tracker. That's where John came in.

Well, and Laura. Though she was sort of a mix between the two, a decent shot, a decent tracker, but she didn't excel at either.

The team fit together well and got things done. That's why they were together, that's why anyone was together in this world.

A person wouldn't survive other wise.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

That's what family was, whoever survived together- stayed together.

John knew he had a responsibility to them, to make the time so that people could do other things besides simply survive.

it's a weight he's always carried with him.

The worry and dread, it made him plan constantly. To prepare. To foresee.

And he's considered this situation before. A stable food supply.

"We go to the pit."

"Now I KNOW you're crazy."

"The pit? You mean the place the old folks go on their "Great journey?", I gotta agree with Laura John, you're crazy."

John poked a few fingers into the tents entrance and peaked out.

"It's the best bet, think about it- the deer don't come here because we come here. So... Let's go somewhere we don't usually go. And a dire beast won't run from a human it's expecting to eat. Makes for an easy shot, right Carmen?"

"Yeah, they don't hide or run because they have a bunch of geezers walking right up to them to feed 'em." Carmen mimed a person walking with his rib of meat and then took a big bite.

Laura looked on enviously as Carmen munched on his ration.

"Also, they eat people, so if we eat them- isn't that cannibalism?" She said.

"So long as they're not one of us, I don't care if our meat is the same."

The trio eventually came to an agreement.

Throughout the night they took turns resting and keeping watch.

But then midday approached and they had to make the most of the light while they could.

They packed up their miniature hunting tent and set off towards the pits.

The village was surrounded on most sides by a valley of mountains. A giant bowl of snow and half-dead evergreen trees.

They headed to a split between such mountains, a partly concealed pathway.

Which led to a cliffside with an abyss on the other side- which dire beasts climbed out of.

Many elders would leap off it rather than surrender themselves to the beasts that prowled the area.

The elders called it; "The Final Path".

It was there that they would find their regular food source.

The snow crunched under their feet as they made their way to it.

It wasn't so far, the valley wasn't overly large, only a few hundred acres across.

"So you seriously think we can do this John? You ever see one of those things?"

"...I've heard stories. But as monstrous as they are- they fear the village and keep their distance. It's something we can kill. And I got something new I wanted to try."

"Oh, Johns got a new toy. Great."

"Hey! Don't my 'toys' work? Trust me, neither of you would ever see one of my traps if I didn't think it'd work."

"That moose snapped your snare like it was a shoelace." Carmen snickered.

"You got me there... But trust me, this one will work. You're good with a bow, even Laura-" John dodged out of the way of one of her punches.

"-Here! Look!" John quickly pulled a small steel ring from his pack.

"A... Bracelet?" Laura cocked her head to one side.

"It's a bear trap! I made it after something I saw in one of the elders books. Watch, you open it like this-"

He pried the ring open doubling it's width and revealing a few iron teeth. It clicked into place and he sat it on the ground.

"You put a stake through this ring here to anchor it- and..." John pushed the small metal plate in the center and 'SNAP' it closed crushing the stick.

"That's uh... Actually pretty nifty." Carmen stroked a non-existent beard.

Johns traps were the only reason he was a hunter and not a miner or carpenter.

Of course, everyone was a hunter when times got hard enough.

And that's why led to John creating these traps- he couldn't shoot with a bow or throw a spear.

"Do you expect them to just walk right into it?" Laura said.

"Like any trap, it takes a degree of planning and foresight. I'll place a few in a line at a chokepoint- where we'll lead the beast."

"How many do you have?"

"Three."

"Doesn't seem like enough."

"-It's enough, trust me. We'll bag something big and the entire village will be fed. We'll be heroes, like in the old mans stories."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Laura waved a hand at John.

The mountain path wasn't too far from the village, but they had no plans to return until they had some food and kept on hiking by.

Red metallic cans marked the path to the pit, impaled onto tree branches and crumpled into rock crevices.

They were officially on the path, the 'great journey' people in the village did when they got too old to take care of themselves.

"This place is good, we'll set it up between those two cliffs, it's a natural footpath. -That's how animals think- they'll take the path of least resistance. So... Let's make it easier."

John began kicking snow out of the way, dragging branches to form miniature walls.

Gradually making a cone shape that led to his set of traps.

"When animals run away from us they make split second decisions and they'll always choose the most open and clear path they have. And that's where we'll get them."

John set the bear traps.

"Don't step into my traps." John said.

"No shit." Carmen and Laura said together.

"It's getting dark, soon the dire beasts will start coming out." Laura was looking around the tree line, a hand on the hilt of her dagger.

"We need to get some warmth in us before the hunt... We'll need to work quickly. Set up the tent, set up some bait, and be ready to run."

They spent the next hour working quickly.

Their miniature tent was setup a dozen acres away from their traps.

It was far too cold to spend hours at a time outside, so any person who worked away from the village had to carry tents like these.

"What do you think a dire beast taste like?" Carmen asked.

"Like meat." Laura said, lying across his lap.

The tent was just too small to value personal space.

She closed her eyes to rest as Carmen began to work on his arrows, shaving them into points, and adjusting the leafy feathers.

After an hour or so they left their tent behind and resumed their hunt.