Hunter Short Story

 Based on a real game of Hunter the Reckoning with good friends on Discord!

If you are down for this, we’re meeting at this address tonight. 6:00 PM. If you don’t show, I’ll assume you are out.

That was the text Otto received while he was on his lunch break, working on a home remodeling project for some rich jerk that had more money than brains. Otto tensed up when he saw. This was it…a real invite to join a hunt with other people of the same mindset. People that wanted revenge as much as he did. At least, that’s what he assumed.

After he got off from work, Otto  immediately drove to the address his contact had told him about. It was a rundown townhome. The grass was overgrown and moss and rust were creeping up along the aluminum siding. For a moment Otto hesitated. He thought about turning back but then he pushed the thought aside and knocked on the door.

Adam, the guy who had invited him to this place opened the door. Adam was a tall guy, with a rough half shaven face, glasses, slicked back hair, and wearing a leather jacket. Half of a cigarette cigar was also hanging out of his mouth. “Come on, we’re meeting in the kitchen.”

Adam led Otto to a filthy kitchen, inside it a long white bearded older man, sporting a  red flannel jacket was sitting down at the table. Bullets and brass were scattered all over the table and the man seemed busy cleaning a pistol with an oily rag. The other person in the room was a burley looking priest wearing a black Roman Collar shirt and holding a stack of paper.

Adam gestured to the two of them. “Otto that’s Father Marcus the Priest, and the other guy is Ballston the redneck. Guys this is the new recruit, goes by Outo.”

Ballston nodded his head slightly but kept cleaning. Marcus on the other hand went straight into his briefing. Marcus passed out pictures of a young lady, professionally dressed in a grey pant suit and donning glasses.

“The target is a woman named Anna. A former professor at the University. This woman was using a supernaturally tainted narcotic to enslave people. We shut that down however she was able to hide in some kind of magic fueled vault. She also hired the group of vamps that killed off half of Adam’s old cell. She is now on the run.”

“I have two leads on her whereabouts. One…an apartment on the other side of town. The other, a warehouse. Both are tied to a former maintenance worker at the University.”

Adam nodded his head slowly. “So, split up two and two for some quick recon?”

Marcus nods. “I agree…recon only though.” He looked to Otto. “Since you’re new to this, you’re going to come with me to the apartment.”

“So I guess that leaves me and Ballston to take the warehouse. Easy enough eh Ballston?” Adam pipped in.

Ballston nodded. “Should be.”

Marcus nodded. “Do the recon by day though. Night would be too risky.”

Otto hesitated a moment. “So…is this woman Anna a Vampire?”

Marcus nodded. “That’s out working theory at the moment. Vampire with access to some kind of extraordinary magic power.”

Adam nodded. “Kind of like Harry Potter shit only way worse.”

Otto nodded. “I’ve been craving to get some revenge on those damn leaches. So a vampire would be good.” He cracked his knuckles.

The next day Otto rode in Marcus’s car to the apartment.

So umm Marcus, how did you get into this stuff man? Otto ventured.

“I joined the Society of Leopold some 15 years ago. I’ve been at this a while now. A few weeks ago, I was sent to re-organize the remains of this cell after a group of vampires massacred two of its members. The two Hunters that died had survived around 3 hunts…that’s longer than most make it.”

Otto nodded and gulped.  

When they got out of the car they started to quietly case the area, first by casually walking around the apartment building, and then by going up the stairs to view the apartment. Marcus observed that Anna’s car was parked there but nothing out of the ordinary was observed. Once he reached the apartment entrance, Marcus tried to open the door, but it was locked. He hesitated.

“Can you pick a lock Otto?” The priest asked.

Otto shook his head. “Sorry man.”

Marcus nodded then beckoned him to follow him back down the stairs. “Come on then.”

The two drove back to the townhouse in silence and when they got back Adam and Ballston had already returned.

Once Otto reached the kitchen, he saw Adam and Ballston slumped down in chairs. Adam smoking his cigarette cigar and Ballston nursing a nadie light beer.

Marcus looked to Adam. “Well what did you find?”

Adam nodded. “A few guard dogs, strong doors and the goon you mentioned, sitting in a chair and holding a pistol.”

Marcus grinned. “It sounds to me like you found Anna’s hideout. I propose we go back and attack it immediately. We moved too slow the last time we launched and op. We can’t afford to lose the initiative.”

Ballston raises a hand. “Yeah but we’re nearly out of incendiary rounds. I don’t want to go into this light handed.”

Adam nodded. “He’s right Marcus. Let’s take our time and do it right.”

Marcus hesitated a long moment but then finally agreed. “Fine then, we’ll meet up here at noon tomorrow. But not a minute later.”

Otto went back to his little hovel of a trailer home apartment completely exhausted. He made plans to call out sick for work the next morning, then downed a few caffeinated beverages and got to work on making a small bomb. It had been something he had been working on for a while in secret for a while now, but the thrill of the hunt lit something in him. He worked diligently the entire night, and by the morning morning it was finished. “My…vengeance.” Otto finally passed out in a nearby cot as the sun came up.

Otto immediately started dreaming…he saw the corpse of his wife in his home as he stepped into the kitchen. Then he saw the woman…she was crouched over the body of his deceased wife. He saw the fangs, the smear of blood on her mouth, and those piercing black eyes and the voice that told him to go tell the police that he had killed his wife.

Otto stumbled out of bed ready to fight. He checked his watch. One hour until the meet up. He texted his boss that he was calling out sick, grabbed the bomb and headed out. Otto knew that the woman they were hunting wasn’t the same woman that framed him for the murder of his wife…but it was still one of them. A vampire. And for that reason alone he knew what he had to do.

After quickly meeting up with the rest of the cell at Adam’s safehouse, the group made their way via Father Marcus’s car to the warehouse…

  Marcus unslung an AR 15 rifle and motioned for Otto to follow him to the front entrance while Adam and Ballston circled around to the back.

At Marcus’s signal, the cell made entry. Marcus shot the lock off of the heavy bolted door and kicked the door in. He immediately opened fire on a target in the distance, while the target opened fire in return. A bullet pinged off a nearby section of the warehouse as Otto ducked into cover and got the bomb in place. In the event the cell had to retreat, Otto’s job was to detonate the device and destroy the warehouse.

One the bomb was in place, Otto drew his pistol and leaned out of cover only to witness a hail of gunfire from the cell cut down two german shepherd guard dogs that had rushed at them. The one remaining dog had taken a deep bite out of Marcus’s arm and he heard the priest cry out in anguish.

Otto shouted something incomprehensible and emptied the pistol’s magazine into the dog until it stopped moving.

When his ears stopped  ringing, he heard Adam shout out from the other end. “Hey, hold your fire everyone, I think we got em all.”

Otto entered the warehouse. He immediately noticed the corpse of a bald middle age man wearing a maintenance worker’s uniform. Otto stared blankly at the body. “Was that a monster?” He asked.

Ballston snickered. “Nah man, that’s just another traitor that sold out the human race for…Lord knows what.”

“Let’s go gentlemen, local police response time is 7 minutes,”  Marcus called out. He had tied a spare tee shirt to the wound on his arm and it appeared to have stemmed the bleeding, but he was still in a lot of pain.

Despite the injuries though, the Priest didn’t slow down one bit in searching through the warehouse along with the rest of the cells, and together they turned over every single crate they could find. But other than a few books, there was nothing to be found.

After the last crate had been turned over Marcus called out. “Alright, grab the brass off the ground and let’s go.”

Otto looked confused. “Go? What about the quary.”

Adam shook his head. “Quary ain’t here man. Come on.”

Otto felt like he was in a daze as he snatched up his bomb and climbed into the car. Since Marcus was injured, Adam climbed into the driver’s seat and together the cell departed. “So…we’re going to the apartment right? I mean she’s got to be there if she wasn’t here.

Marcus shook his head. “You’re right about the apartment. But she won’t be there. She left last night when she had the chance. I can feel it. Get back to the safehouse brothers.”

Adam smirked as he looked over to Otto. “Feeling good man?”

Otto: “Yeah I guess…I just, thought we were gonna nail the quary.”

Adam snickered a little bit. “You want to stay in this business, get used to disappointment.”

Ballston grinned slightly. “Hey every day above brother.”

Adam nodded. “Everyday above ground.”