names again? Lois and Roy I believe. What are they doing here? They’re never usually at any of our meetings. Their jobs are to man and maintain the radios, not be involved in any sort of decision making. What’s going on? I don't have to wait long to find out.
"Sorry to call you all back on active duty, but we have an issue. As some of you may or may not know, Lois and Roy received a distress call earlier today from St. Joseph's."
Murmuring interrupts Cooper as some of us express our concern. Distress calls—never a good sign of anything. Cooper holds up his hands to silence us. He waits until the ruckus stops.
"Lois, can you tell us all what you heard?"
The pale woman stands up and her eyes dart nervously about the room. He hands flutter fretfully, like she's not sure what to do with them. She finally pushes them into the pockets of her denims and hunches her shoulders, before speaking.
"Yes, well like Cooper said, earlier this morning we received a call from someone claiming to be from the St. Joseph's group. He was...well he wasn't making much sense. He was screaming for help. Screaming that they were being attacked. I asked who he was. I've never spoken to him before. I mean I always deal with Karen or Dwayne..." She trails off and Cooper encourages her on with a wave of his hand. She takes a deep breath. "He was in shock I think...maybe...just yelling for help over and over. Then I heard some sort of crash and then screaming, and..." She trails off again and closes her eyes, like she was still hearing it in her head. Giving her head a little shake, she continues, "After the screaming stopped there was nothing. Just silence. I haven't been able to raise anyone since. No response from St. Joseph's at all."
Cooper nods at her and she sits back down, the relief evident on her face. She was starting to look a little green around the gills.
"Are you positive the call was from St. Joseph's?" Cookie's clipped accent fills the room. "It is not the first time they have tried to trick us, no?"
Typical Cookie and her 'trust no one' attitude.
"We’re positive this is no trick," Cooper responds. "But to be on the safe side, we asked Kelly's group to go check it out. They were only a couple of hours away from St. Joseph's. We relayed to them our need to know what's happened. We asked them to investigate if the call was legit and to find out if St. Joseph’s was compromised in any way. And if they did find a threat would it affect the Grand at all. That message was sent out over six hours ago. Other than our initial response from them confirming the order, we haven’t heard back from Kelly or anyone else since."
Cooper stops talking and stares at us all as the words sink in. Radio silence. A big no-no for hunters. Our very survival depends on our radios at times. We're always supposed to be in contact with home base. No radio contact for over six hours-something is definitely wrong. That's why we’re here.
"When do we leave?" I ask, as Cooper struggles to his feet, leaning heavily on the silver tipped cane he kept by his side at all times now. It still hurts a little to see the strong, healthy man I once knew now reduced to hobbling his way around on a cane. But at least he’s still alive.
The injury had come from a run in with a leech three years ago on a hunting trip. He’d left camp for a brief minute, to take a leak of all damn things. In the dark and only half awake, the leech had taken him by surprise. He’d heard it lunge at him and swerved at the last minute before the leech could rip out his throat. Off balance though, he had fallen and the creature had attacked. Cooper had tried to roll out of the way but the things teeth had gotten a huge chunk of his calf. Seriously injured, he’d managed to hold off the snapping razors with his bare hands and call out for help. Sam had been the one to take out the leech. A blade straight through the heart.
That seemed to be the only thing that killed the bastards’
"Sorry to call you all back on active duty, but we have an issue. As some of you may or may not know, Lois and Roy received a distress call earlier today from St. Joseph's."
Murmuring interrupts Cooper as some of us express our concern. Distress calls—never a good sign of anything. Cooper holds up his hands to silence us. He waits until the ruckus stops.
"Lois, can you tell us all what you heard?"
The pale woman stands up and her eyes dart nervously about the room. He hands flutter fretfully, like she's not sure what to do with them. She finally pushes them into the pockets of her denims and hunches her shoulders, before speaking.
"Yes, well like Cooper said, earlier this morning we received a call from someone claiming to be from the St. Joseph's group. He was...well he wasn't making much sense. He was screaming for help. Screaming that they were being attacked. I asked who he was. I've never spoken to him before. I mean I always deal with Karen or Dwayne..." She trails off and Cooper encourages her on with a wave of his hand. She takes a deep breath. "He was in shock I think...maybe...just yelling for help over and over. Then I heard some sort of crash and then screaming, and..." She trails off again and closes her eyes, like she was still hearing it in her head. Giving her head a little shake, she continues, "After the screaming stopped there was nothing. Just silence. I haven't been able to raise anyone since. No response from St. Joseph's at all."
Cooper nods at her and she sits back down, the relief evident on her face. She was starting to look a little green around the gills.
"Are you positive the call was from St. Joseph's?" Cookie's clipped accent fills the room. "It is not the first time they have tried to trick us, no?"
Typical Cookie and her 'trust no one' attitude.
"We’re positive this is no trick," Cooper responds. "But to be on the safe side, we asked Kelly's group to go check it out. They were only a couple of hours away from St. Joseph's. We relayed to them our need to know what's happened. We asked them to investigate if the call was legit and to find out if St. Joseph’s was compromised in any way. And if they did find a threat would it affect the Grand at all. That message was sent out over six hours ago. Other than our initial response from them confirming the order, we haven’t heard back from Kelly or anyone else since."
Cooper stops talking and stares at us all as the words sink in. Radio silence. A big no-no for hunters. Our very survival depends on our radios at times. We're always supposed to be in contact with home base. No radio contact for over six hours-something is definitely wrong. That's why we’re here.
"When do we leave?" I ask, as Cooper struggles to his feet, leaning heavily on the silver tipped cane he kept by his side at all times now. It still hurts a little to see the strong, healthy man I once knew now reduced to hobbling his way around on a cane. But at least he’s still alive.
The injury had come from a run in with a leech three years ago on a hunting trip. He’d left camp for a brief minute, to take a leak of all damn things. In the dark and only half awake, the leech had taken him by surprise. He’d heard it lunge at him and swerved at the last minute before the leech could rip out his throat. Off balance though, he had fallen and the creature had attacked. Cooper had tried to roll out of the way but the things teeth had gotten a huge chunk of his calf. Seriously injured, he’d managed to hold off the snapping razors with his bare hands and call out for help. Sam had been the one to take out the leech. A blade straight through the heart.
That seemed to be the only thing that killed the bastards’
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