The Hunting Facility

TW: Unfinished

My head throbbed as I got into my knees. Pushing myself up, I grabbed hold of the nearest solid object as my vision blurred.

“Oof.”

I waited for my vision to return to normal, squeezing my eyes shut against the feeling of movement from my light headedness. When the feelings subsided I took a look around. I was standing on a grated walkway in some kind of walk in freezer. The path wound around the room, connected to the wall where doors were blocked with various debris. Glancing over the railing, I swooned and had to grab the rail to prevent me from falling. The walkway was suspended in the air, the floor at least five meters below. Still woozy, I stumbled my way to a ladder leading down and descended, clinging to the rungs like my life depended on it. On the base floor I found a pipe. One end was jagged and bent like it was pulled off another piece. Picking it up, I weighed it. It was thick, but still thin enough to fit in the palm of my hand comfortably. Taking it with me, I left through a metal door ahead and climbed up into a carpeted room with brown walls. The floor had random puddles of oddly colored liquid and the ceiling dripped from multiple points. A guy running past spotted me and slowed.

“You new?” he asked.

“I suppose.” I said. My voice was gravely and the “I” was whispered. Rubbing my throat I repeated it. “I suppose.”

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good indicator.” He glanced backwards and said, “Follow me.”

Walking alongside him, I listened as he explained everything I wanted to ask before I asked it.

“This place is lovingly called the hunting facility. We all come here the same way you did: waking up very confused and very cold. I see you already have a pipe, that’s good, you’re a fighter. There are creatures, we just call them monsters, no particular name for them; they want to eat you.” Nodding at the pipe in his hand, he continued. “That will save you. A good whack in the head will disable them. Another two or three will kill them. The stuff on the floor is bad, don’t eat, touch, or step in it because extended exposure will turn you into one of them. Did I tell you that you can turn into one of them? You can and that’s what they want. Don’t let them scratch or bite you. Don’t let them get close. Don’t try to save anyone who’s been bitten; just kill them before they turn. It’s a mercy, I promise you. My name is Ayden, don’t try to tell me your name, you won’t be able to remember it or where you came from. This here is the cafeteria, that thing dispenses food, sink for water. This area is guarded, but the safest place is the freezer, monsters can’t go in there or they get weak, and that’s all the simple information. Got it?”

I did not, but nodded anyway.

“Great, Tom can you take this dude? He’s new.”

Tom paused in the middle of splashing his face with water. “Huh?”

Ayden slapped his back and shouted “Thanks!” before walking away.

“No, wait-” Tom tried to yell after Ayden but he was already gone. “Stupid kid,” he muttered. “You!” he barked at me. “You’re with me until we find him again. Don’t get in my way and always stay two steps behind me.” He grumbled and scrubbed his face with his wet hands. The only warning he gave was “Keep up,” and sprinted away. I tried to follow, but not only did he have more stamina, he was much faster than me.

I was barely keeping up, turning corners to see him already down the hall and turning another. By the time I ran out of breath Tom was already long gone. I sat down, my back against the wall and my head looking up at the ceiling.

Ayden was right in that I couldn’t remember anything. Every time I tried to imagine my life before I woke up, the memories ran away from me. They felt so close, like I could just reach out and find them, but each time they would flee from my presence. Stuck in my thoughts, my mind didn’t register the odd chittering coming from my right until it was right upon me.

Lavender fur tried to trap me in a tight grip, holding my arms tight against my body and preventing me from moving. Panicking, I squirmed and tried to grab something with my trapped hands. Finally I stomped on its paws and it jumped back, loosening its grip. I ducked under its arms and lunged for my pipe, whipping it around with the intention of hitting something, anything. The jagged end scratched the monster’s face, catching its eye. It screamed, both front paws jumping to its face. Remembering what Ayden said, I used both my hands to swing the pole at its head. It crumpled and I hit it again and again until it stopped screaming. Standing there heaving, covered in purple blood, I felt a peculiar sensation. Victory? Satisfaction? I didn’t know, and I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad.

“I swear I left him somewhere around here…” Tom’s voice came from around the corner and a moment later he turned it, spotting me almost instantly. “See? I told you.” His eyes fell to the monster at my feet. “And look at that, his first kill.”

“Already?” Kai turned the corner, his eyebrows raising at the scene. “I guess he did. Interesting.”

“Well, he’s yours now. If you try to heap any more kids on me I will hunt you down and you a through beating.”

Kai grinned, his eyes hinting at more mischief. “Sure, Tom. I won’t bother you with new recruits any more,” he said in a voice positively dripping with sarcasm.

Tom narrowed his eyes and scowled. “I mean it. You think you can get away with anything, well not any more.” He turned on his heel and stomped away.

Kai turned to me and said in a deeper, silly voice, “I bite my thumb at you, sir. It appears you have made me a fool and I shan’t tolerate it any longer!”

If there was a way to verbalize a question mark, I would.

“I don’t know what it means. He probably does. All I know is that it’s offensive. Come along, I guess I’m stuck with you.”

I followed Kai as he continued down the endless hallways, turning occasionally. I was completely lost. Every hallway looked the same except for the puddles, which were in different places.

“Have you thought of a name you’d like to be called by? Given you already have your first kill you could go with Aer. They were this really big hunter a while back. They killed probably the most, them and their band of hunters. Now there’s always somebody named Aer. You could be the new Aer. Unless you die horribly. Anyways, I wanted to be Malichai but the Name Master said I was more of a Kai because Kai is more of a kid’s name or something? I think it had to do with my squirreliness. Maybe I should tell people to call me Squirrel…”

“How old are you?”

“Hm? Oh, old enough to know more than you about this place.”

I studied Kai as he continued vomiting unnecessary information about himself. He looked younger than me, but not nearly young enough to be the kid he acted like. There was an ageless quality to his face and the longer I stared, the younger he looked. His clothes were practical, a black jacket thrown over a white t-shirt and jeans. His hair flopped over his forehead, bits sticking up like he’d just woken up. His personality seemed too cheery for this place where, I’d gathered, was all about fighting and hunting the other group.

“And here we are! You know what to do, or maybe not. You looked like you spaced out there. I hope you were listening because the process can be very hard, okay, good luck, find me later I’ll wait in the cafeteria!”

He left me standing, again, confused. The hall had a doorway punched out that led to a dark room, the only illumination being odd crystalline structures that jutted out of the walls and floor. When I stepped forward the floor was spongy. Upon closer inspection it seemed to be mossy dirt. It was warmer in this area, muggy like a swamp. Halfway though my careful stepping I spotted what I assumed to be my objective. A makeshift wall of tables was leaning against a large metal bookshelf that blocked the warm yellow light within. It wasn’t visible from the doorway, but my skewed path had brought me to an angle where I could see it. I headed toward the light.

The area was a little cove set up using the bookshelves as walls. The warm light inside came from a single lamp hung from the ceiling. An old man gestured to a beanbag on the floor, sagging in a way that suggested it had been sat in hundreds of times. The woman who had let me in lifted the door up and put it back, leaning against the two wallshelfs.

“Who are you?” the man asked, staring into my eyes.

I shifted uncomfortably, maintaining eye contact with the man, which made me feel like a mouse under the steady gaze of a hawk. “I’m not sure. I don’t remember.” The man looked so old I wondered if I should add “sir” at the end.

“Mariella, what do you see?”

My eyes flickered to the woman, who was also scrutinizing me.

“A…will. Fixation. On anything he deems worthy.”

“And?”

“Determination?”

“Yes, but also a fear. Who is he scared of? What is he afraid of?”

“The eyes of others, seeing his true self. A little snail.”

Something in my chest seemed to restrict at this.

“Yes. You, Aurelius, are afraid of other’s perception. Take this knowledge with you and do with it what you wish.”

Before I could leave the old man scribbled something on a scrap of paper and handed it to me. I stuffed it into my pants pocket and left, thanking them for their time. Leaving the dirt room felt like a relief, the cool air hitting my face and leaving the two and their weird staring behind. I pulled the paper out, reading the words written in neat handwriting.

Aurelius - the golden boy. Good fortune lies in your future. -Hunt well.

“Huh.” I tucked it back into my back pocket and proceeded to get lost.

This is based on a game on a silly game website and is titled "untitled furry game." The developer goes by the name sun_thedeadlylazer.