The Hunters Pray

Stranger

^Loras point of view^

I've fished my water supplies today, so sadly I have to travel to a nearby village and get some from the pump I am so familiar with. She thought while eating berries that she collected this morning. After finishing eating she picked up her water containers and left her camp. For her, it was a usual trip since she has done it so many times she couldn't even count all of them. She followed the same path and soon she reached the point where she would easily see the village. After looking around for a bit she went downhill and towards where the water pump was. What she didn't expect was the fact that this trip will be so much different from what she was expecting.

While she was crossing one of the fences she managed to drop a couple of old cooking pots that were hanging on that fence. Lora cared little amount about it at first since she knew that there were no creatures that used to be humans around. What followed after was completely unexpected for her.

Out of the corner where the pots fell down a bloody figure that once was human appeared and it had his eyes fix on Lora. The world stopped that very moment for Lora, out of fear she dropped her containers and that was a mistake she shouldn't have done. Creature dashed towards her and pushed her down easily. Even though Lora knew she would die one day, she was crying and screaming trying to push the creature away from her but all of that gave no results. Then when the creature was closing in to bite her she heard a loud gunshot and then once human fell next to her with a hole in his head.

With adrenaline rushing through her body Lora only could think that she needs to run as fast as she can and so she did. With tears in her eyes, she got back to her camp in twice less time than she normally used to. She was shaking and crying, afraid for her life she ran into the small shelter that her father helped her build and just lay down in the furthest corner hoping that her end will be fast.

From the beginning of the pandemic Lora saw that surviving humans carried little about other humans, and a lot of times they would kill weaker ones for their goods. Or in woman's cases use them for pleasure. That though scared Lora most, she would gladly accept a bullet instead of being used.

Time passed and no one came. Lora almost started to believe that her speed saved her life and at the same time she heard a knock on the wooden door that was blocking the entrance. What followed after shocked her even more. ''Are you okay?''

Lora heard a man's voice asking about how she was. And tears returned to her eyes, she couldn't stop shaking and crying and then she heard the voice again.

''I am pretty sure that you are scared, but I would be glad to know that that ugly thing didn't hurt you.''

Lora couldn't believe herself, the person that was outside was asking how she was. It was so long since anyone asked her that. And the words came out from her mouth without even feeling them coming out.

"I am okay"

There was a long pause and then the person that was outside said

"Well I will start a fire for you then, if you will feel like you are welcome to join me next to it"

Lora was completely lost with hearing this, she was thinking that she should do and she agreed in her mind that if this person wanted to hurt her or kill her she would have had found out about it already. So after taking a couple of deep breaths, she pushed the door and exited her shelter. She looked around and the first thing that attracted her attention was that her water containers were back in her camp and full of water. Then she looked at where her fire pit was and what she saw was completely different from what she was expecting.

There was a young man from what it looked like in his mid 20's, he looked quite well built, his skin was a bit darker than hers and he had a bit longer dark hair that she would have liked in a guy if this still would be the normal world. He was focused on starting the fire so Lora slowly approached him and he only noticed her when the small fire was already visible in the pit.

"I think you dropped those," he said pointing towards containers

"I assume you were heading to get water with them so I filled them up for you"

His voice was calm and Lora found out that hearing someone else rather than animals and herself was a real pleasure.

"T-t-thank you" was all she could come up with at that moment. And that moment she noticed a big hunting rifle that was placed close behind the stranger.

"You don't need to worry about that. I use it only for self-protection, or if I am really hungry, I don't even have that many bullets left" he said with an awkward smile.

"What do you mean 'when you are hungry, do you kill other people and steal their food?" Lora asked with visible fear on her face.

"No I hunt down animals when I am hungry," he said looking a bit taken away from Lora's question.

"I probably should introduce myself," he said,

"My name is Rin and I am really happy to see that I've managed to save you"

....