Hunter’s Claim

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Jesse moved quietly through the deserted streets. The black backpack on her back contained the prize from her outing this night. She had been able to steal enough to keep her and two younger sisters fed for several days as long as they kept the portions small. She needed to get back to the collapsed rubble that hid the underground parking garage which was their temporary home.

She had found that shelter almost two months ago by accident when she had needed a place to hide from the group of men roaming the street. She had crawled under a fallen slab of concrete for protection only to find it was slanted at an angle. Unable to stop her descent, she had slid to the bottom where she discovered herself in the remains of a parking garage. After exploring the area, she thought it would be the perfect place for her and her two younger sisters to hide from the roaming gangs who looked for unsuspecting victims to rob or rape.

She and her sisters’ lives had changed a lot over the last four years since the death of their father. Hell, Earth had changed a lot over the past four years. Gone was living in a nice house in the suburbs. Gone was making sure her sisters did their homework and got to school on time. She had taken over the job of being ‘mom’ to her two younger sisters when their mother died shortly after Taylor’s third birthday. Everything she knew was gone since that November day four years ago when the skies had filled with spaceships from another world.

The President had issued a state of emergency, but it hadn’t done any good. People had poured out of their homes in fear. The war, if you could call it that, lasted only a few days.

The aliens had weapons that neutralized the nuclear weapons some countries tried to use. Communications systems around the world had been taken over as well. Messages for calm had been transmitted over and over, but it was useless. Even messages from world leaders that the aliens were not there to harm the population did nothing to calm the riots.

Zealots and anti-government groups rose up and overpowered the local law enforcement. Jesse, Jordan, and Taylor’s dad had been one of the Seattle police officers killed on the first day of rioting. Soon, bombs exploded and neighborhoods were overrun.

Jesse was just arriving home from picking her sisters up at school when the news broke of the alien ‘invasion’ as it was being called. They had watched the news in terror. Their father had called to tell them to barricade the house and to gather as many supplies as they could in case they had to leave in a hurry.

They were supposed to go to the cabin up near Wenatchee if it got too bad. That was the last time any of them heard from him. By that night, roaming groups had overturned cars and set fire to homes and businesses throughout the area. Jesse, Jordan, and Taylor had gathered as much as they could and hidden in the old cellar behind the woodpile when rocks and bricks had been thrown through the windows of their home. They had barely made it to safety, climbing from the second story balcony into the tree that was next to it, as their house was overrun. They had been running and hiding ever since.

Jesse stopped to adjust the black scarf she had tied around her nose and mouth. She didn’t want there to be any sign of her, including the slight fog of her breath in the freezing air. There was too much riding on her not getting caught, namely Jordan and Taylor, her seventeen and fifteen-year-old sisters. At twenty-two, she was their mom, dad, and protector.

Tonight, she had been fortunate to come across a small convoy of Trivators. They had set up a ration station almost ten blocks away. She had grabbed a box that had been dropped as they unloaded supplies into one of the distribution centers they had set up for the humans like her who refused to trust them. She had found other packages before and while the food was bland, it was edible. She had disappeared into the dark alley before anyone saw her.

Hiding behind an overturned trash bin, she had emptied the small box into her backpack and disappeared. She had been terrified at first she was about to be caught. She had never been so happy about the stench of decaying garbage as she had a short while ago.

She knew the Trivators had an excellent sense of smell. Well, some of them did. She had watched from a distance as a small group of the massive males discovered several human men hiding in ambush a little over a year ago. One of the Trivators had held up his hand and sniffed the air like the dog they used to own.

Shortly after, the men were taken out with a clean shot to the chest. She hadn’t stayed after that. She just knew she needed to avoid all contact with both species of male, Trivator and human, if she and her sisters were to remain safe.

Jesse froze when she heard the sound of trucks moving slowly down the street with no headlights on. A worried frown pulled at her brow as she glanced frantically around for a place to hide. The only ones out this late at night were those who were like her, searching the shadows for food or those who she didn’t want to find her.

Other humans and the Trivators, the alien species that had come to Earth four years before supposedly in the name of peace, were to be avoided at all cost, she thought bitterly as she thought about her younger sister, Jordan.

The Trivators may have wanted peace with the humans of Earth, but what they had found was war and hatred. They would have their work cut out for them if they thought the humans would welcome them with open arms, she thought as she squeezed between two pieces of ripped corrugated steel panels. She hissed when a jagged piece cut her forearm, leaving a long but shallow line. She scooted between several large sections where the ceiling had collapsed and slid the backpack off her shoulder.

The sound of the truck’s engine echoed loudly as they drew to a stop outside the building. Jesse leaned her head back and groaned when the large loading door was unlocked and pushed open. She slid further into the shadows, drawing her knees up to her chest to make herself as small as possible. A moment later, a moving van backed through the doors followed by a pickup truck. The area grew dark again when they pulled the door closed and she heard the sound of the chains being run through the bars again. This time from the inside of the doors.

“Make sure those damn doors are secured well,” a raspy voice muttered. “Those f*****g aliens are all over the place. I hate this s**t. We should have been out of here yesterday.”

“It took longer than we expected to capture one of the bastards alive,” a woman’s voice said coldly.

“Why do you need one alive? Aren’t you just going to kill him anyway?” Another voice asked, puzzled.

“I told you, I need to study one of them closely to see just how powerful they are,” the woman bit out. “If we are going to take control of this area and eventually the western half of the United States we need to know how to kill the bastards. If we can kill them, we can rule the world ourselves,” she laughed.

“They are mean bastards. Did you see how protective he was of you?” The first man chuckled. “If you hadn’t acted all girly on his ass we never would have caught him.”

“Yeah,” another man said as he walked over. “But that isn’t going to save his ass. Mitch is dead. That son-of-a-b***h ripped his stomach wide open when he thought he was trying to rape you. I want his balls hanging from the back of my truck.”

“s**t! That is the fourth man we’ve lost in the past month,” the first man said. “It’s getting harder to find anyone anymore. Since those bastards started providing food, shelter, and medication to the people in this area, more and more people are turning to them.”

“It won’t matter if I can find a way to kill them all,” the woman said. “Keep him inside the van for now. We can’t take a chance of any of his friends hearing or smelling him. We can move out tomorrow morning after curfew is lifted. I want to begin dissecting that bastard by tomorrow night at the lab we’ve set up.”

Jesse wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her face in them. Dread washed through her as she waited for the small group to walk away. Their laughter was filled with cold hatred. These were the types of people who gave humans a bad name. If she was an alien, she would have washed her hands of humanity within hours after meeting them.

She sat back and rested her head against the metal that made up the wall of the old warehouse. She would need to make sure they were gone before she could safely move. She closed her eyes and felt fatigue pull at her, encouraging her to give into the darkness. She brushed the cut on her arm, letting the salt from her fingers get into the wound so it would throb. She needed the pain to help keep her awake.

Her thoughts drifted to her two sisters. She was worried about Jordan. Three nights before, she and Jordan had gone out together. Jordan had startled two men in one of the back alleys they were cutting through on their way back to the parking garage. She had gone ahead of Jesse in her excitement to share what they had found with Jordan.

Jesse had stopped briefly to rearrange their stash for the night when she felt it shift. Seconds later, Jordan’s screams had chilled Jesse to the bone. She had to force herself not to rush to her sister’s aid which had been her first instinct. She would not do either of them or Taylor any good if she was captured. Instead, she had pulled the large hunting knife that had belonged to her father out of her boot and quietly snuck up behind the men who were attacking Jordan.

Jesse fought back the nausea as she thought of what she’d had to do to save her sister from being raped and murdered. She had killed the man who was on top of Jordan. Her father had always told them that a wounded man was like a wounded bear or mountain lion, extremely dangerous and unpredictable.

The other man had run as soon as he saw his bigger friend was dead. Jesse had pushed the man off her younger sister and gathered her in her arms. She wish she could have spent more time comforting her, but it was too dangerous. They had left without the food they had stolen. It had been three days since any of them had eaten and now Jordan was sick. She had to make it back with the food she had taken tonight or none of them would make it much longer.

She pulled the scarf up over her nose and mouth to help keep in the warmth as she waited. The coldness of the floor and the metal were sending shivers through her body. In some ways it was a blessing as she knew she wouldn’t fall asleep if she was cold and uncomfortable.

No, now it is just a waiting game until I can escape from the mad humans, she thought as she listened to the woman and three men talk about how they were going to slice up the alien they had captured.