18 Third day

After opening a few of the crates inside the supply truck, Mark felt more assured knowing that not only the crates had all sorts of food but also many miscellaneous things, from clothes to items used to cook and a few other things that they may need during a mission.

"I still don't see any wyverns in the sky," said Mark, while looking up at the sky. By now was already midday and the sun was at its apex.

'Did they leave the region for good? That's weird,' thought Mark, 'If I still don't see them by the end of the day, I will make camp inside one of the trucks in here.'

For Mark it was better to stay close to the food and also sheltered by wind and cold inside one of the trucks than camping inside the jungle where an animal or beast could jump on him at any time, at least inside the trucks he would have a heads-up of any danger.

'But right now, I should focus on setting more traps. Father once told me, the more traps, the better are the odds of catching something.' The difference was that now Mark was not hunting animals, but mutated animals, with abilities that could easily destroy the traps.

...

Time passed and by the end of the day, Mark had set up only two traps, the same model as the previous one, one using a metal string and another one using normal rope he found on the crates, and not seeing any wyvern on the sky he decided to stay on the trucks for the night.

'10 years,' thought Mark, remembering what he read during the day. He had ten years to prepare himself. 'By that time I will be 29. Here I am thinking about something that will happen in 10 years when yesterday I was not even sure if I would be alive today.' thought Mark shaking his head, and continued eating one of the army rations he found, it was disgusting, but he could not take the risk to make a fire to cook something.

After eating and scanning the surroundings for a bit and seeing nothing weird, Mark went sleep inside the supply truck. After all, there was not much he could do at night without been able to make a fire or use the light from his phone.

...

In the next day, as soon as the first ray of sun came, Mark jumped from his improvised bed and after eating an army ration for breakfast went to check his two traps inside the forest.

By now was already the third day that Mark was alone in the forest. Mark had four days before the army arrived. He needed to catch a mutated animal before that.

Coming closer to the trap with a metal string, Mark noticed something shaking behind a small bush.

'Did I catch it?' It was his first thought because it was the same small bush where the trap was.

Mark took his rifle and aimed at the bush. It was better to be prepared, because he didn't know what kind of ability that animal had for sure. He speculated that was related to cutting things but only that was already dangerous for him.

After waiting a few seconds and seeing that the animal didn't leave the bush, he was sure that the animal was caught in the trap, thus, he lowered his rifle and grabbed a stick by the side to poke the bush, he was still a bit afraid that the animal could cut him or something.

Poking through the bush, Mark immediately saw what was hidden in there, caught in his trap.

'A crow?' Mark expected it to be some kind of rodent, a rabbit, or even a small snake or something like that, but a crow? Those animals were intelligent, they rarely fell into traps.

The crow was caught by his paw on the trap. That was the only reason it was still alive, and looking at the bird, Mark immediately noticed a metallic glow coming from the crow's paws.

'So its ability is on the paws, just like that chicken guy that Frank told me about.'

Mark came closer to the bush, and the bird immediately got agitated, trying to escape by flying, but the metal string on its paw was resistant and didn't let it.

~sigh~

Mark grabbed the crow by its head, sighed heavily, and in a quick motion, set the bird free.

~caw~ ~caw~ ~caw~

The bird immediately flew to the skies while cawing happily.

Mark could not kill a crow, because he made the mistake of watching a documentary about crows when he was young. In that documentary, they explained that crows had deep feelings and had the intelligence similar to a kid of seven years old. After that documentary, he even wanted to have a crow as a pet, but his father denied his request because crows were wild animals, and should stay free.

'Why it had to be a crow? Dammit! I need to stop been so sentimental,' thought Mark to himself, as if cursing himself for being weak hearted.

Mark grabbed the remains of the trap and put inside his backpack. He would set the trap in other place so the bird was not caught again. Or at least he hoped the crow would not fall again on it.

After walking a few minutes, Mark found a place suitable for another trap and set it up again, then went to check the other trap that used normal ropes.

Coming closer to the trap, Mark immediately noticed it was not even triggered, even the bait was still there. 'I guess this place is not good,' thought Mark to himself, already dismantling the trap to put it in another place.

After setting the trap again more to the center of the forest, Mark walked a few more minutes to understand better the forest. He was now searching for animal tracks and routes.

Mark pushed a small bush aside to check for animal tracks, but suddenly something came from the sky and abruptly landed in front of him.