Chapter 11

Jack finally made it to work, after the morning he’d just had he honestly couldn’t think of any place he would rather not be, but the roads were trashed and if he walked home he would have to go through those reporters. So he came to work, at least here he could sit down and think about what just happened. Or just stare off into space for a bit.

He got into work and walked through the building to the locker room, he took off his ruined coat and hung it up. He looked in the mirror at his chest and felt the stitched up wounds, he sighed, a wyvern leather vest would’ve really come in handy today. He thought about that monster, it had just torn through everything like a hot knife through butter, Lucas and Nate from the neighbourhood watch team couldn’t even scratch it, and then Lucas was literally torn to pieces. Even considering that though, Jack realised he wasn’t considering quitting. The world was changing, even though governments were adapting and corporations were cashing in, the world was becoming more and more dangerous and unpredictable. Maybe that weird excitable doomsday preacher was onto something, or not, who knows?

“JESUS CHRIST! What happened to you!?” Robert entered the locker room and exclaimed in shock at the sight of Jack.

“Oh hey Rob, what? Don’t like my new haircut? I thought I’d just try something new is all.” Jack replied casually.

“What happened to your chest?! Did you accidently do that with that sword you got?”

“Erm nooo, for your information a homicidal moose did that to me with its antlers and I’m pretty sure it was no accident.”

“What? A moose? What are you-”

“There was a monster attack just down the street.” Jack interrupted.

“Whoa really?”

“Lots of people got hurt actually, it was pretty bad. Anyway I need to see the manager since I’m late, see ya.” Jack didn’t really feel like going over it again so he walked out of the locker room.

“Er yeah, see ya.”

Jack walked down the corridor to the manager's office. In the end Jack got the rest of the week off after he showed a somewhat nauseous manager his freshly stitched and still slightly bloody wounds, with pay. In fact it seemed he couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

“You know it doesn’t really hurt that much, I can stay the rest of the day if you want.” Jack made sure to wipe his bloody fingers on his shirt.

“Urgh, erm no that's fine Jack, urgh, you go home and rest.” The manager Tim seemed to be having trouble holding on to his breakfast, beginning to look rather pale. He made a shooing motion towards the door while turning his head the other way.

“K bye!” He quickly exited the office before Tim could change his mind.

Jack considered heading home but knew the roads would be closed so there was no bus, he could use his licence to get past the police cordons and cut through to walk it but there would still be reporters there. A thought then occurred to him, the abandoned construction site wasn’t too far from where he was, that slime was just there, waiting for him.

With that decided he turned around and started walking. Within half an hour he’d reached the fence and hopped over once again. He drew his machete and walked through the entrance. He searched around the ground floor thinking the slime could have moved but it wasn’t there. He thought he heard some sounds of fighting outside but it sounded far off and died down soon after. He looked around more but in the end it was in exactly the same place as before, it hadn’t moved a muscle or whatever it had in place of muscles.

He readied his machete and began drawing on his core, funnelling lighting energy into the blade, he still felt a slight resistance but it was easier than before. The blade let out a slight hum and he knew it was ready, he approached the waiting slime and got close. Predictably it lunged and he dodged to the side slashing as he moved, when the blade connected there was a loud hiss and the slime seemed to be repelled and spasmed violently. It lay still and Jack approached again, it lunged again but was far slower and seemed lethargic, Jack charged his blade again and slashed. That seemed to finish it off, the slime stopped moving entirely, not even a ripple. It began to give off faint wisps of multi hued vapour, the edges of the slime puddle began to visibly shrink as Jack watched.

He leaned down to see if he could cultivate from it but just before he touched the slime he suddenly remembered being told this stuff was highly corrosive. He pulled back and instead touched his machete to the slime and tried to channel lighting energy into it, he felt the energy pass into the slime but when he tried to pull it out all he got was what he put into it, nothing extra. It seemed he couldn’t use this slime for cultivation, maybe because it didn’t have a nervous system or any kind of charged ions Jack wondered. The edge of the slime puddle had stopped shrinking and there was no more vapour emanating from it, it was a shame he didn’t have anything he could collect the goop in.

With that done he decided to head home, as he approached the fence to climb over he overheard voices. Some of the voices seemed distressed and others were laughing. He hesitated then crept closer and knelt down behind a pile of bricks to listen in.

“Thank you so much, honestly we’re really grateful” A familiar male voice sounding extremely smug.

“We’re not giving it to you, we got the kill and harvested it! This is our patrol route today! What are you even doing here?!” A female voice sounded distressed and frustrated.

“Now now, we’re all on the same side here aren't we? This was our patrol route yesterday and we saw this Blood Bear but decided to leave it for today, that's all, now if you-” The smug voice continued but was interrupted.

“So you thought you’d follow the next assigned watch team and get them to do all the work!? What the fuck!? You really think we’ll give you this pelt? Hah! Fuck you!” Sneered the woman.

Jack peeked his head out and saw three hunters, two women and one man backed up against the fence surrounded by what couldn’t be anything other than a gang of goons, ten hunters, all men. Between them was a large skeleton of a bear giving off multicoloured steam. At the forefront of the gang was a familiar face, Barry, the fucker who first called Jack ‘Sparky’ then blew smoke in his face. A small knot of anger flared to life in his stomach, he wanted to stand up and do something but he knew he wouldn’t be able to help, not while he was still weak.

“I think that's exactly what you're gonna do,” Barry smiled.

“Or what? You gonna kill us? Thought we were on the same side.” The lead woman was still determined to stand her ground but sounding less and less sure of herself.

“I don’t need to kill anyone, you know who my father is, but just in case you need some convincing.” Barry looked to the left and jerked his head. One of his goons stepped forward and grabbed the man from the trio of hunters. He pinned him up against the fence and seemed to be searching for something before he found a fresh wound on the man's arm, likely from the battle with the bear. The goon pressed his hand against the wound and the man jerked violently as if in pain, the skin around the wound seemed to ripple and he let out a cry of pain before gasping for breath and shuddering.

“STOP! What are you doing!? Leave him alone!” The woman stepped forward in alarm but her way was blocked by Barry who shoved her roughly against the fence.

“We’ll stop, just give us the pelt”. He calmly told her.

She turned to her fellow hunter who slumped against the fence while his arm was still being grasped by the goon, the blood vessels running along the arm were extremely pronounced and looked like they were about to burst.

“OK! Just stop!” She took a large rucksack off her back and took out black refuse sack, she pulled out a large blood red pelt, she threw it at Barry and he caught it after being forced back a couple of steps. He smirked then patted his goon on the shoulder who released his victim. The man slumped down to the ground cradling his arm, both women crouched next to him.

“Thanks, like I said before we’re really grateful.” He smirked down at the trio but all he got was a glare in return. He turned around and motioned for his gang to follow before he strode nonchalantly down the trail towards the city. Jack shook his head, so cliche.

Jack turned and watched the trio of hunters stagger upright, the two women had the man leaning on them for support as they slowly guided him to a nearby car. He still seemed to be wheezing and breathing shallowly, he allowed himself to be guided into the back of the car before the other two got in and they drove off.