BEGINNING - 8

Meanwhile, Michael and the others were still quite far behind due to the lack of updated information about John's current position on their tracking devices, it forced him to do the old-fashioned tracking by checking the area around him for clues as to where John had gone.

Michael crouched down and touched the ground with his finger, he saw that there were shoe marks on the ground. "This way," he said while leading the way.

Since the terrain they were on was a valley with humid air, finding the footprints from two of them was very easy.

However, with leaves scattered on the ground making things difficult, they had to stop several times to find any trace from two of them.

Not only because of that, they moved slowly because they were aware of the traps set by John.

They walked long enough that they didn't notice the sun was starting to change its position in the west.

Michael sat on a tree trunk. "Take a rest for a while," he ordered the others.

One of the hunters with red armbands like himself came over to talk about the best solution, because if they had to do continuous tracking it would take longer, while they only had until midnight for Jane to be captured.

After the chat was over, Michael switched his radio channel to public. "Charlie one, this is Hotel two thirty, massage, over," he said to the main base.

"This is Charlie one, roger, over."

"There's no update for target location, over."

"We will update it now, over."

"This is Hotel two thirty, roger, out."

After talking to the main base, Michael looked to his fellow hunters to tell them. "They'll do it now."

Michael grabbed a bottle that was on his hip while removing his lower mask to drink, and offered it to another hunter. "Want some?" he asked the hunter next to him.

"No thanks."

"I wonder how can you agree with all my decisions?"

"Cause of last night battle, youre giving us orders when all of us panicking, that's gimme a clear answer if you're experienced on this field more than us." he answered honestly.

"Indeed," Michael confirmed his words. "But you need to know something, he's someone who're capable of taking down seventy hunter by himself."

"Is he that strong?"

"There's almost five hundred hunters in this event, and only sixty percent of them who can survive."

The team leader was amazed by John's ability to handle so many hunters alone.

"Let's move," Michael ordered them.

They stood as they walked back down the valley, Michael looked at the tracking device in his hand and saw that there was quite a distance between them and John.

John stopped his steps and crouched while opening the paper map he was carrying, he put a compass on the map to make sure that a path he took was correct. "There's a swamp ahead," he said while looking up at Jane who was standing beside him.

"Swamps?" asked Jane.

"Rawa. (Swamp.)"

"Ah okay, I get it."

Not long after they arrived at the swamp that John mentioned earlier, he asked Jane to go up and sit on his shoulder because he didn't want Jane to get leeches or get her clothes wet. "Get on," said John while squatting.

Jane hugged a nearby tree and started climbing.

"What are you doing?"

"You told me to get on top of the tree right?" Jane replied while hugging a tree.

"Get on my shoulder's, so we can cross it."

"Hehehe."

Jane jumped down with laughing wincing because she looked like an ape by her own stupidity, she climbed onto John's shoulder and sat on top of him.

John picked her up and walked into the swamp.

Syur, syur, shuuur. The sound of water washing away every time John took a step.

The swamp was not too deep, cause the water only soaked up to his thighs.

Jane looked around and found a snake swimming in the distance. "Look John, there's a snake swimming," said Jane enthusiastically while pointing at the snake.

"Shut up you damn monkey!"

"Fuck you John! Fuck you!"

As John walking, he felt an moving object touching his feet.

His hand that had been holding Jane's leg, now turned to the sheath of the sword that was on his back.

He took out a short sword and prepared to attack if the moving object that hit his leg was a wild animal, because the animal not only threatened his life but also threatened the safety of Jane.

The object touched his feet again, causing him to plunge his sword into the water, but John felt that the sword he drew did not hit anything.

John hastened his steps to get out of the swamp, because he was sure that what had touched his feet was not an inanimate object but a living creature such as a snake or a crocodile.

"Hold tightly," John told her to hold on tightly.

John started to run in the middle of swamp, and the ripples that had been a little bit now increased.

Byur. Water sound.

When he was running, suddenly an animal appeared in front of him and startled him.

John drew his sword at the animal, but the movement of his hand stopped when he realized that the animal was a beaver.

"What's wrong John? Doesn't he look cute?" Jane asked while bowing.

"..."

John ignored the beaver because it was not a threat to their lives.

Not long after, they arrived on the other side of the swamp.

John lowered Jane from his shoulders, he sat on the ground as he took off his shoes and pants that he was wearing.

"Jo-John, what's that black thing on your leg?"

"Leech."

"Leech?"

"A worm that can suck your blood."

"Aa-are you okay? Is that the reason why you carried me on your shoulder?"

"Yeah."

John released the leeches attached to his legs one by one using a sword.

"I'll do men's things, stay here," said John walking away.

John untied the bandage on his leg and saw a gunshot wound on his leg starting to bleed from carrying Jane, he took two pills from the pouch in his stomach.

He poured ethanol with an aim of sterilizing the wound from dirty swamp water, he did not moan in pain or struggle, but his hands were seen shaking slightly in pain.

But Jane, who didn't want to wait, peeked at him. "Ca-aan I help you with something?" asked Jane.

"No."

John re-wrapped the wound with bandages and put his pants and shoes back on, he took two packs of dried meat from his backpack and gave one of them to Jane.