Ch. 23 Hunted (part 3)

With his mind whirling from all that was happening, Nick immediately came up with a plan.

Kneeling down and pretending to struggle opening the bear trap, Nick lowered his voice. "They are coming for us, we need to make them lower their guard."

Bob's hand paused slightly, a resolute expression appeared on his pain stricken face before giving a nod.

"Leave me behind! Even if you get me out of this trap, It would take nearly an hour for you to carry me back to my family! They don't have that kind of time!" Bob's years as a detective allowed him immediately understood the situation and acted accordingly.

Nick was taken aback by Bob's acting, but he also had his part to play.

"No Bob, I wont abandon you! I will definitely bring you to your family!" Nick said emotionally as he tried to pick Bob up, Bear trap still in his leg.

Bob pushed Nick away and shouted angrily, "I'm just a burden! Go save my family agent, otherwise they'll die!"

With his sunglasses on, Nick activated his thermal vision and saw five humanoid shaped beings just on the outside of their lights radius. They used the cover of darkness to hide and patiently waited for an opportunity, an opportunity Nick would give them.

"I understand Bob...I'll go save your family before coming back for you! You must hold on entire I get back, I promise I'll come back for you!"

Bob watch Nick run forward onto the dark road, stepping into the pitch blackness without his flashlight on and leaving Bob behind.

*Shish Shish Shish*

Moments after Nick left, the sound of multiple people walking on sand was heard and Bob looked around in fear as he saw shadows faintly entering his circle of light before disappearing!

Bob tried to pull his gun out before he realized something, he suddenly felt extremely fatigued!

What Bob and Nick didn't realize, was that the bear trap had been laced with a poison to pacify their prey. This poison wasn't very strong, as strong poison would contaminate the meat and make it inedible, but it was strong enough to help lessen any resistance!

Looking at the pitiful Bob failing to draw his weapon, they finally stepped forth and revealed themselves.

They were heavily deformed and disgusting looking, some had misshapened heads while other had legs too short and arms too long for normal humans.

The one who stepped forward from the other freaks was over seven feet tall with a large and oddly shaped skull, his arms reached his knees and his skin looked looked rough and almost rock like in appearance.

Bob felt terror coursing through his entire beings as he looked at these mutant humans, all of which were armed with metal pipes or large pieces of wood!

"Rargarth gre argggg!"

"Uger! Marrggh!

"Arrghh!!"

The mutants talked to each other in animalistic grunts, sounding more monster than man.

"Please Nick, don't actually have left me..." As all five of the mutants gathered close to Bob, the largest and most muscular mutant hefted it's large wooden club over it's head and was about to bring it down when.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

Like a strike of lighting, Nick accurately unloaded his Hk416 into the mutants, the flash of gunpowder illuminating his figure in the darkness.

Nick's body had already been trained to it's natural limits for a normal person but after absorbing the dying human on the plane he slightly surpassed that natural limit, his accuracy with the gun was insane and the recoil was barely a problem for his body!

As the mutants he shot fell to the floor dead, Nick was surprised to see the large mutant with the wooden club didn't die but instead grabbed his head in pain. Looking at mutant large bulbous head, Nick realized it's skull had to have been so thick that even a gun couldn't pierce it!

"Hey big guy!" Stepping into the light, Nick's gun was trained onto the mutant and waited.

Hearing Nick taunt, the mutant turned around and spotted Nick with his gun. While the large mutant was mentally disabled and had never been taught, it understood that Nick was the one who killed all of his family.

As it stepped up with it's bleeding forehead and an all consuming rage in it's eye, It began to charging when...

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

With his first two bullets hitting his jaw and cheekbone, the last one hit his target and pierced through the mutants eye and into his brain, collapsing the giant mutant.

After waiting a few seconds to be sure it was actually dead, Nick surveilled the surroundings before running over to Bob and pried the bear trap open, spotting the heavily bleeding wound. Without a second of hesitation, Nick took Bob's AR15 and unloaded it's bullets

Cracking the bullets open, he poured the gunpowder into Bob's wound, covering every inch of the wound in gun powder before lighting it.

"Aaaahhh! Son of a bit..." Bob fainted mid speech from the pain of having gunpowder cauterizing the wound.

Without any medic equipment, this was the only thing Nick could do to help stop the bleeding until help arrives.

Picking Bob up, Nick tried carrying him for a few feet before stopping and setting the man back down. If Bob weighed the average than Nick couldve carried him no problem, but Bob was a retired 67 year old man with a slow metabolism and judging by the picture in Bob's wallet, Nick wasn't too sure Bob cared all that much about his weight even when he was working.

It would take Nick over 30 minutes to haul Bob and all of the weapons he had. As Nick looked down at the unconscious Bob, he slowly turned around and looked over at the giant mutant man.

Nick still had 3 empty slot on his absorption ability, the only reason he hadn't filled them with random animals was because it would take him a week to replace one creature with another, and the chances of running into multiple powerful creatures wasn't impossible with his luck.

Walking over to the seven foot tall mutant man, Nick dipped his thumb into it's forehead wound and printed it into the third absorption slot!

--------------

At the RV, Bob's wife Ethel was screaming anxiously for her youngest son Bobby to come back. Ethel was a retired 63 year old tennis player who had a hard time standing for too long, let alone hiking up a rocky mountain so this was all she could do.

It was completely dark and dinner was ready, but her husband and son-in-law had went out looking for help meanwhile her youngest son was missing.

As she sat in the RV screaming and honking it's horn, she saw a flashlight walking over to them and felt her heart jump in happinesses only to see who it was.

It wasn't her son Bobby but instead her son-in-law Doug, coming back with a bag full of item that might be useful.

Seeing Ethel standing at the entrance of the RV, Doug lifted his bag up with a bright smile.

"Ethel you won't believe this! A couple miles from here is a junk yard filled with cars and other useful items, Bob might be able to use something here to fix up the RV! I mean some of these cars look relatively new, if push comes to shove we might be able t hotwire one if we have to!" Doug said, estatic at possibly finding an escape from the desert.

Doug was a substitute teacher who had very little worldly experience and wasn't fully aware of dangers to look out for. He didn't find the graveyard of missing cars the mutants gathered over the years strange, or question why a junk yard was in the middle of nowhere.

"Did you see Bobby on your way back?! He's been missing for over an hour!" Ethel's voice shaking with anxiety.

"Bobby's missing!? I didn't see him in my way back, but it was very dark. Do you know when he left?" Throwing the stuff he found to the floor, Doug asked the anxious Ethel

"No. About an hour ago I made dinner, when I called his name he didn't show up and the dogs are missing!"

"Calm down Ethel, you know as well as I how protective Beauty and Beast are with Bobby, they go with him everywhere. He'll be safe with them around, I'll go out lookin-" "Mom....Help me.....I'm hurt..."

Doug stopped talk as he heard a voice faintly call out into the far distance, barely loud enough for them to hear it.

"It's Bobby, Doug, please go save him." Ethel's eyes began tearing in happiness and relief at her son being nearby.

Dougs eyes were firm as he looked out into the inky blackness of the night. ".....That didn't sound like Bobby..."

"What are you talking about! If not Bobby, what other child would be out in the middle of nowhere calling for their mother!" Ethel said with anger and anxiety in her tone.

"...Fine, but be careful. Something doesn't seem right." With his right hand on his flashlight, Doug's left was clenching onto the pocket knife as he walked forward towards the voice.

Watching Doug walk cautiously to the opposite hillside and finally disappear into the darkness, Ethel breathed out a long sigh that her boy will soon be back.

Holding both hands tightly, she closed her eyes and prayed for her son safety and returning, hoping he wasn't injured.

As she opened her eyes from prayer, a terrifying human face filled with a huge tumor suddenly appeared in front of her.