Revalation

14. Dining With Hunters

I stood there for a good few seconds, trying to process what just happened. My heart beat rapidly, and I had no idea why. Was it because he winked at me? Stupid. Stupid little girl. You're a hunter now. Focus on that.

"Yo Cloudy, you gonna eat anytime soon?" My concentration broke as I looked at Gunther who was now looking at me expectantly. His grey eyes staring at me like I had two heads, or something. I paused before speaking:

"It's Raine, actually," was my best comeback. Gunther simply shrugged and continued munching on his sandwhich. Derek started rummaging through the bag beside him, pulled out a sandwhich wrapped in plastic and tossed it at me. I caught it, though not gracefully. Noah had already sat down beside Joel and unwrapped his. I decided to do the same, but sitting on the other side of Joel, as far as I could from Noah without having to touch Gunther.

My mouth filled with saliva and my stomach growled as I unwrapped the meal from its plastic cover. The smell of fresh bread, lettuce, and meat hit me like a brick wall. I had to stop myself from smashing the entire thing into my mouth and risking choking on it. A lesson my dad had once taught me was that the best way to eat when you were hungry was slowely. Though it would have taken longer to fulfill the hunger, the savouring of the food kept you full for longer.

I ended up eating the sandwhich by pulling off small pieces and slowely chewing them down, letting the saliva do more work than my actual teeth.

"What the hell are you doing to that poor sandwhich, Cloudy?" Noah said, eyeing my now torn-up bread. That bastard just called me Cloudy. Gunther giggled beside me. I looked at him sharply.

"Eating it, can't you see?" I replied sarcastically.

"You're mutilating the bugger out of it." He said, laughing. He was right though. Looking at the pieces of bread now, I kind of felt sorry for them. But I shrugged and pulled off another piece, popping it into my mouth.

"Something my old man taught me." I said, looking back at him. His eyes softened, and he turned away. Joel looked at me, confused. I just shrugged again and popped another piece into my mouth.

My method of eating worked, though it took a long time to do so. The other boys had gone through two sandwhiches by the time I had finished the one. They offered me another one, but I refused. Eating slowely made my stomach feel full even after just a small amount. After another half-hour-or-so of lounging in the sun, we got up started hunting again, this time as a group.

I stood on the farther side of the group, away from Noah, with an arrow already locked into my bow. Sweat dripped down my cheeks and my neck as the sun pelted down on us, showing no mercy of sorts. The men walked quietly over dead leaves and roots with such gracefull strides that it was obvious they had been doing this for a long time. And so had I. Being of a smaller size I was able to walk twice as quiet as them, a trait I had found myself proud of. No one said anything. Every little while someone would spot an animal, and either shoot it dead or miss.

The rest of the day basically consisted of this. I found it peacefull and nice to be hunting again, though I was still getting used to this new environment. It had occured to me many times while walking that no matter how many years Mort and I had gone out each day to hunt we had never seen these people. It angered me inside. We were so close and only now we had found them.

I hadn't noticed the sun about to set, and before I knew it, we were back at the bunker. Derek opened the hatch in the ground and allowed us all to go in before him, starting with Gunther, Noah, Joel, then me. I reached the bottom of the cold ladder and heard the hatch close and lock, then Derek came climbing down. Once we were all safely in, we walked into the dining hall where they ushered me into a small room in the kitchen, making sure to avoid the busy chefs. The room hit me with a chilling blast and the noise of a loud fan.