Chapter 7: Rage

Ellie looked at Allie, not sure what to do. Had a defenseless animal just been shot? Could it be wounded, fleeing its pursuers or writhing on the ground? There were a few more shots...

“Yeah, we have to go see,” Allie was thinking the same fearful horrors.

They were going into an area they realized they hadn’t been to before. As they walked they heard some more shots, some shouting, some squealing, then more shots. A lot of shots, all together, almost like machine guns.

“Shit,” Ellie started to run, with Allie right behind her. The shooting stopped. What had happened?

In maybe four or five hundred yards they heard voices. Cheerful, loud voices. The girls slowed down and crept forwards. Gradually they started to see a clearing, with some vehicles at the far end, and at the near end some men standing in a group.

The girls circled round a bit to get a better look. There were six men clustered round some animal bodies on the ground. Between them they were holding two animals, that were also dead, and a lot of guns.

Arranging themselves now, posing, into two rows, with the front row kneeling. A seventh man was taking their photo. They were looking triumphant, grinning proudly.

Ellie looked through her sight, from about fifty yards away. The animals were boars - wild pigs - and there were heaps of them ... about fifteen or even twenty! It was a whole family. Big ones and small ones. Now instead of rootling around in their forest they were all dead; lying on their sides with their mouths a bit open. It was the worst thing Ellie had ever seen.

“They rounded them up,” whispered Allie, who could see the general scene with her naked eye.

Ellie realized the men had driven the boar family into the clearing with shots and shouting, and then massacred them there. The guns had been machine guns, some of them, or army type guns. Then the men had gathered the bodies together for the photo, as though they’d been clever.

She knew she was going to shoot them. Some of them anyway. As many as possible. But Allie mustn’t get shot. Also she could only have four bullets in her rifle, though the whole box was still in the backpack. She opened the pack and put an extra bullet in ready to fire, and a handful in her pocket. Nice big bullets. Her mind was working super fast; in a rage; planning with unreal clarity.

She would shoot them from the end of the clearing where she’d first seen them, to have two rows three deep. If she missed one she might hit one of the ones behind. She signalled Allie and they crept back round, while the men were all looking at the camera and grinning.

She’d start with the back row, who were nearest to trees and rocks and bushes for cover.

Shoot all three so she’d hardly have to change her aim, then start on the others, depending where they were by then. Fire four shots then move a bit and load some of her spare bullets. Get to that rock over there, down the side of the clearing, for if they ran to their cars which they might.

“I’ll pass you the bullets” Allie whispered, “and if they leave a gun I’ll see if I can get it, if it’s like ours.”

Ellie nodded. Quick, before they finished the gloating photos and split up. Luckily they were spending time swapping so the first photo-taker could be in one.

She was quite close to them really, but they were side-on and only looking forwards at the camera. She knelt up next to a tree and sighted on the first hunter. She’d always had steady hands. She aimed between the first one’s eye and his ear and squeezed the trigger. Time slowed down.