The Hunt part 8

Stefi, or more formally, Senior Tech, Enriched Food Imports, I-377-B-940-P-101, was involved in an accident on her way to work …. A stranger came to her assistance and helped to get her cleaned up. Stefi had questions, many questions about the people who live Outside, and some of them got answered. However, people arrived from the Buildings to clean up the mess. Stefi was rescued and returned to the Building. After two weeks in the Health and Recovery Unit (HRU), she was interrogated about her time Outside before being returned to her dormitory. Where she has linked up with others who have experienced the Outside.

The days before Stefi’s second rodeo with Marc and Daf, she spent a lot of time watching her co-workers and the others in the dormitory, looking for whatever it was Daf saw in ‘Outsiders’. She had sex with a couple of what she saw as potential ‘Outsiders’, but neither said anything that suggested they had felt the air move. She would have to ask Daf what exactly she had seen in her and Marc.

She didn’t get a chance to ask many questions; she had the first turn with Marc, then the other two wanted to know all about her time on the ‘Outside’.

Marc almost lived up to his billing as a great probe, and Daf proved to be very adept with her own form of probing.

Stefi recounted the story of her rescue from the great shuttle smash, revealing the fact that she had encountered others, long-term Outsiders. People who lived and appeared to thrive away from the confines and restrictions of The Buildings. And these were not the human skeletons she had described to Security. She went on to reveal what she had learnt about Rejuvenation, or the lie that people like them were rejuvenated and reassigned.

Marc signed that he believed,

“I watched the new people we have had assigned to the dormitory very carefully. I don’t think any of them has lived any longer than I have. Certainly, there are no signs of a significant number of old souls,” Daf accepted the truth of Stefi’s assertions too.

“When will we go?” Marc asked. “I am thirty-nine years old, and I am due to be Rejuvenated in a few months!”

“Soon!” Stefi assured him. “We need a day when we are all rostered for a rest day.”

*****

Thirty days later, their rest day rotas had not aligned. Calculating ahead, they were unlikely to coincide for several more weeks.

“I have been assigned to an Outside work crew for tomorrow,” Marc informed the two women. “I am going to run.”

Stefi looked at the very unhappy Daf and smiled.

“Our big chance!”

“I suppose the two of us get more rest days in common …”

“Yes, Daf. Days like tomorrow. We are both on rest days, and Marc is already on The Outside. Plus, he can tell us where there is an open portal!”

“By the Common Good! I see it now.” Daf almost spoke out loud in her excitement. “How are we going to do this?”

They lay in bed, planning and occasionally relieving their building excitement with bursts of frantic sexual activity. Marc had finally lived up to his boastful claim.

“So, we are all clear on our plan.” Stefi panted. “Daf and I will be at the portal, ready to go, one hour after Marc’s shift begins.”

*****

Just before the appointed hour, the two women arrived near the open portal. The natural light of the sun poured through the opening, creating dark shadows. Loitering in one of the pools of darkness, Stefi hissed to Daf, “Time to remove our suits.” Looking around, she noticed a truck laden with dead vegetation. It must have been a cleanup detail that Mark had been selected for. “Stash your suit in among that rubbish. When The Crust are told we have run, they will demand that the Directors try to find us by using the trackers in our suits. It might win us more time if they think we have been recycled!”

A series of shouts and cheers went up from the work party outside.

“Our signal!” Stefi shouted, and the two women stepped into the Outside. To their left, most of the members of the work party were shouting and pointing in every direction bar one, the Security Officers looked hither and thither, their Neural Stun Whips useless in the milling crowd without a clear target.

Stefi pointed right, and they ran. Running as fast as they could. Aware they needed to get as far from The Building as they could, before, inevitably, they dropped, panting and exhausted, to the ground. As she started to recover, Stefi heard movement in the long vegetation that surrounded them. It tempered her exhilaration at being on the Outside. She frantically tried to catch the attention of Daf, who was lying next to her. Daf had her eyes wide with excitement. It took precious seconds before Stefi could get her to pay attention.

“Keep quiet!” Stefi signalled, keeping her gestures as small as possible. “We are not al—”

A hand reached through the vegetation and grabbed hers, silencing her. Another hand clasped over Daf’s mouth. Brown-skinned, dirty hands, attached to brown arms, naked brown arms.

“Keep still a voice whispered. You are safe, we will take you to where the other two are waiting.”

Her Rescuer had been telling the truth! There was help waiting around the outside of The Building. A few seconds later, she felt a sharp pain before a hand clasped something to her side. Her new sensor pack had been removed. A muffled squeal told her that Daf had also been removed from the Network. If the Directors had been focused on them, instead of the escapee from the Maintenance Team, they would have seen two Techs suddenly blinking out.

“Follow, we are going to take you to safety. If you can’t keep up, too bad!” The dark-skinned figure got to his feet, crouching low and moved off into the tall vegetation. Stefi followed, keeping her head low. After a few paces, she realised that Daf was not with them.

“My companion, Where—”

“No questions, our safety is silence, as it is for your companion.” The tanned figure kept moving, almost silently, through the wall of green. Stefi stopped talking and pressed forward to keep her guide in sight.

They hurried forwards, sometimes following small tracks, other times pushing through virgin fields of the crops Stefi was all too familiar with. Every hour, they rested for a few minutes.

Stefi was lost; even if she wanted to return to The Building, she couldn’t point to the general direction. If she lost contact with her guide, she would be dead within days. Starvation, thirst, poisoning or an accident would quickly end her. So, every time he got to his feet, Stefi followed, despite her growing weariness.

The sun was starting to sink towards the horizon when the terrain changed. They were climbing. Tracing a pathway between outcrops of rock. The tall, soft vegetation and fields of crops were behind them. There were what Stefi had previously identified as trees all around them. Then suddenly there wasn’t. They had stepped out into a space about fifty paces wide. Around the edge, there were small shelters, each maybe big enough for ten or maybe twenty people.

The guide signalled her to stop in the centre of the clearing. She stood still, naked and alone, surrounded by hundreds of people, mostly men, who stared at her. A figure stepped toward her. As he came closer, Stefi recognised her Rescuer as he stopped, running an appraising eye over her.

“You came, Girl. I knew you would.”

“Yes, I came as I said I would.”

“You didn’t come alone either.”

“No, another woman, Daf, ran with me. As did a man, Marc. I could not find anyone else who had experienced the Outside. Sorry.” Stefi had dreamt of arriving at the head of a dozen or more women.

“No matter, Girl. You have come and brought Daf, is it?” Stefi nodded, “and two others to join us.”

“Two others? I hoped Marc had got away, but who is the other?”

“That mystery will be answered soon, Girl.”

“Please call me Stefi. And how should I refer to you, my Rescuer? After all, our futures are now linked.”

“Stefi, I am Hervay. You are most welcome to call me by name. Now, your companions are approaching.” Marc emerged from the tree line with another member of the work party. An exhausted woman was supported by one of the guides.

Stefi had kept her part of the bargain by arriving with two additional women to boost the Outsiders.

*****

It had been two years since Stefi had run. Two years since she had started having sex with Hervay, along with other men in need of relief. Two years since her last contraceptive jab. Now she was pregnant for the second time, with what she hoped was Hervay’s child. Daf’s two children both had different fathers, and the third, now growing inside her, would have another; maybe it was Marc’s child.

*****

“The latest survey suggests that the population of Vermin is rising again, My Lord.” The Senior Director of Leisure addressed The Supreme Jeffery with the due level of sycophancy of one of the lower mortals owed the highest of the Crust. “The projections made by the computers suggest a limited resumption of The Hunt.”

“Thank you, Director.” The Supreme Jeffery waved the flunky away. “On your way out, message the Supremes, Andrew and Donald to attend me within the hour.”

The Hunt! One of the things that gave life purpose now that The Supreme Jeffery had tired of choking partners during sexual encounters. He was looking forward to the first foray since overhunting had almost wiped out the Vermin. This time, they would be more selective in the trophies they collected. Quality over quantity, that had to be the new goal. He would instruct Andrew and Donald on the new rules before they set out.

“… and remember,” Jeffery addressed his acolytes. “We need to maintain the breeding population. The Vermin are an important part of the ecosystem. Be careful, make sure that you only take the males!”

*****

In the distance, Stefi could hear the noise of machines, and they were getting closer. She hurried to gather her and Daf’s children into the shadow of the trees as the noise reached a crescendo.

Daf was still in the open as one of the flying machines appeared over the tops of the trees. Marc dashed out from the cover of the forest to help her reach safety. He was only a few paces from Daf when a loud bang echoed around the clearing, and Marc’s head exploded into a bloody pulp.

The Hunt had started, and this story ends.

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