Survival Hunt - Part One
“What’s that, dear?”
Casey wiped her hands on the thick drying cloth hanging from the oven and spun around to face her father. She smiled and shook her head, “Never mind!”
Her father stared at Casey for a moment until she smiled again and skipped down the hallway to her bedroom. He shrugged, adjusted the glasses on his nose and returned to reading the November newspapers.
In the bedroom, Casey flopped onto the bed on her front and buried her face into the big pillow. She looked up and reached out to touch the pale pink bedroom wall. Her fingers glided across the paint and down to the headboard. She sat up and brushed the dust off the ledge and looked at the clock: 11:00PM.
Ugh… Tomorrow is coming so soon already. What do I do? How am I supposed to be feeling right now? How are the others feeling right now?
She rolled over onto her back and shut her eyes out of the bright light shining from the ceiling. Her heart started beating faster and faster as images started racing through her mind. Suddenly her eyes popped open and she struggled to sit up.
She leaned her back on the side wall and grabbed the large white teddy bear sitting next to her bed and hugged it tight to her chest. She pressed her head to the bear’s head and bit her lower lip and fell over on her side.
Her mind had been spinning ever since the first day of November. The truth was, her mind had been spinning and her heart had been racing like crazy since she turned thirteen. But because there was a delay, her body relaxed and she did not feel as tensed. Unfortunately since it had returned, she started getting all worked up again.
I am Cassandra Lee but people call me Casey. I am fifteen years old and I am a participant in the autumn-winter survival hunt. I am one of them; those who participate in the Dinosaur Survival Hunt.
I have never gone to school. I have never stepped a foot off my family’s property. Even though I looked out the window, far across the grassy fields to watch the adult world work hard, I have never even once thought of leaving my house. I am no different from any other child; any child under the age of twenty.
Casey lay on her side for five minutes and felt warm liquid run down the side of her face. Immediately she jumped up and smacked her face a couple of times, disgusted with how wet her hands turned out. Quickly she wiped them on the tissue sitting in the box on the night table next to her bed.
“I think I should go to sleep now…” Casey mumbled and slipped her bare feet into the soft slippers.
She shuffled to the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. She was short for her age. Casey was not pleased with the reflection that stared back at her without blinking. The long straight dark brown hair bugged her. Her hair was so brown that it looked black. Often times she would secretly grab the pair of salon scissors and snip at her bangs and the strands of hair that fell over her shoulders. She was not a hair styler, but she was not bad at styling hair either.
Casey leaned over the marble counter and looked closely at her face. She had light, perfectly smooth skin. Occasionally a pimple or two would appear but with the help of natural facial care, it left.
She blinked her dark brown eyes and studied her short, thick eyelashes. It bugged her how short they were but her parents were strongly against her wearing make up.
Casey distinctly remembered her mother bragging about how her wedding day was the only day she wore make up, and even then, her face was powdered lightly. Rolling her eyes, Casey replied with her usual yeahs and the conversation was over.
So, now at 11:25PM, Casey brushed clean her straight teeth and combed her twenty-four seven tangled hair and squealed at how painful it was. Once she had screamed so loudly, her father came rushing in thinking Casey had seen another face at the bathroom window.
Bathroom window faces seemed to be quite regular now. It was not like the neighbours were perverts. It was more like… Casey’s screams had brought attention to them and they just happened to look over. The houses were not that close together. Adult neighbours were just so close with each other that they would jolly well over to each other’s property.
The adult world was something worth waiting for. That is, if you ever made it to adulthood. This was where the survival hunt reappeared. No one knew why there was such activity, and my friend, neither do I. Something told the citizens of this unknown land that death was inevitable. Indeed it was, but forcing one to fall into the hands of a gruesome outsider type of monster was avoidable.
Casey drilled the sentence into her mind: Murder was not acceptable.
But no matter how much she thought that, reality was reality, and that was definitely not something everyone, or anyone, could avoid.
“The Survival Hunt…” Casey whispered as she left the bathroom. Her fingers rested on the light switch for a full minute. She stood in the dimly lit hallway for a minute before shaking her head and tumbling onto her bed once again.
Casey kicked off her slippers and clicked off the bedroom light. She turned to her night table and pressed the lamp switch on. She stared up at the ceiling until her neck felt tired. Many thoughts came rushing into her head. More beats entered her heart.
Finally she stared at the teddy bear sitting sadly at the side of her twin sized bed. She poked its black nose and ran her fingers through its soft snow white fur until she reached its black silk ribbon around the neck.
“…Survival Hunt… What is that?”
There was a two year delay of the survival hunt. There was not a concrete answer to why that was so and no one cared to know. This meant any teenager that was acceptable to this hunt had two years of life gained. Two years was a lot. The eighteen year olds ended their tragic lives as a participant. The thirteen year olds did not have to deal with the beginning of a new nightmare.
But tragic fell upon the melancholic eleven year olds. The delay meant nothing to them. They only had the strength to wish for another delay and that was that.
This year, very soon, catastrophe would cover teens aged thirteen to nineteen like a dark blanket, suffocating us until the sand of the three day hourglass fell to the bottom. The survival hunt did last for three days full. Those three days were the longest days in anyone’s life. The three days were the longest of the sick, the well, the poor, the wealthy, and the normal.
It did not matter who was who. As long as you were in that age range, you were to participate in the hunt.
The survival hunt would not have been so hard on the hearts if the props were props. The thing was… The thing that crushed the hearts of all adults, of all parents, and swept the souls of children was… was unspeakable.
* * * * *
The next day came like the snap of a finger. The next day sprouted out from darkness like the blink of an eye.
“Oh freak,” Casey groaned as her eyes slowly peeled open. She shut her eyes again when seven o’clock sunlight hit her eyeballs. She rolled over and pushed her face against the wall and curled up again.
“Casey, wake up!”
“Huh?” her voice sounded like the croak of a frog.
Her bedroom door suddenly swung open and Casey literally jumped to a sitting position. Her hair was poking out in all different directions and her face was smeared with white lines. Her eyes stared widely at her father who was waving a spatula.
“Dad, what’s the spatula for?”
Her father smiled, showing his pearly white teeth. “I’m preparing a surprise breakfast for you! It’s to fill you up with energy, courage, and whatever else in the world you might need and want!”
Casey raised an eyebrow, not amused, and sniffed for a moment. “Dad, it is pancakes, isn’t it.”
Her father’s smile vanished and he sighed. “O-Okay then...!”
“No! Dad! It’s a surprise. I’ll be surprised! I really will… I mean, currently I’m quite surprised you barged into my room and started waving the spatula saying you had a surprise breakfast for me!” Casey sputtered quickly. “I’m really glad.”
“You honestly aren’t impressed,” her father concluded and waved the spatula again as he left the room.
“How can I be…?” muttered Casey under her breath.
Now that she was awake, she decided to get up and prepare for the biggest, the most horrible day of her life. Today was a nightmare come true. Today was November 30.
Autumn in this land ended on the last day of November. Sometimes during strange years, the time shifted and autumn would end on either November 29 or December 1. But normally it would end on November 30. That was how seasons worked. They were simple. And being so simple, it would mean the first day of December would be the first day of winter. Winter ended exactly on March 31. But just like autumn, the days shifted.
The weather was cool outside. Cool weather was perfect for the survival hunt. For some reason, the props did no hibernate like assumed, much to many’s disappointment.
Casey finished dressing and stared out her bedroom window. She brushed the curtains aside and leaned her forearms on the white window sill. Her eyes focused on the green grass blowing uncontrollably in the breeze. She watched as the last shriveled leaves lost strength and tumbled to the ground, then being swept away by rakes.
The sky was surprising blue with many heavy clouds. The weather report stated there might be rain. Rain: wet and cold, never pleasing.
“Casey!”
Her eyes jerked up and she quickly rushed out of the bedroom, slipping for the hundredth time on the smooth wooden floor.
After speedily brushing her teeth, Casey bundled her thin hair into a ponytail and scurried into the kitchen where her father awaited. He was once again reading the morning paper. Certain newspapers were free of charge. Most families preferred not to pay unless they were incredibly into what goes on in daily life or they were rich.
Rich people always paid for things that sometimes even they did not want. It was something about showing off wealth. That was popular on this land. Rich people seemed to find money almost everywhere they went. It was as if money fell from the skies, fell off their ceilings, sprouted out from the carpet. Rich people grew money and they never shared. But that was the unfortunate thing about life. People did not tend to share the goodness they were granted.
Casey folded her legs and beamed at the hot cakes sitting on the plate. She smiled at her father and nodded with her mouth open.
“Dad, this is a surprise! I was afraid you didn’t make enough for me!” Casey exclaimed and picked up her fork and knife.
“I thought you’d have a huge appetite today,” her father said with a smile as well. He looked down at his own plate and compared his few pancakes with his daughter’s mountain.
Casey covered her pancakes with butter and maple syrup and put her hands together. “Thanks for the food!” She forked a full pancake and squeezed it into her mouth, still smiling, and munching happily.
Her father never failed to impress her. It was something more like secret thanks. There was never a real time where Casey said to her father that she loved him, or wished him well. She never spoke out loud praising her father. She only did that alone, after dark, alone, in her room, under her blankets. Countless times she had cried until she slept with damp sheets and ended up sick the next morning.
After gulping down the last drops of milk, Casey hammered down her chick mug and wiped her mouth with her hands. Wiping her mouth with her hands was something her father did not like seeing. Unfortunately that moment went by so fast that many times he did not have a chance to say anything.
“Wow, I’m really full now.”
“That’s great.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Casey laughed and climbed back onto the chair.
She picked up a glue stick off the table and started pushing it down, picking it up, and knocking it over again. She sighed and gave up. She buried her face into her arms.
Her father looked at her with worrying eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“It can’t be nothing,” her father said. “Is it about a little while later?”
Casey peeked over her green sleeved arms at her father and looked away. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to be feeling right now. Should I be excited? That I’ve grown this much and to this age? Should I be afraid? That I am entering a stage where I can’t depend on anyone anymore? Should I be worried? Should I be worried that… I might not come home? Dad, do you think I should be scared?”
“It’s natural to be afraid. I remember the time I had to enter the survival hunt. It was definitely a scary experience. It was more than awful and it was horrendous. But that’s a natural thought. Just hearing the name of this activity should scare someone… and to be such a young person too…” Her father looked out the window and back at his daughter. “In times like these, you have to be strong and just feel the way you do. You can’t control how you feel, now isn’t that right?”
“No…”
“That’s right. Just be you before, during, and after the hunt.”
“Dad…?”
There was silence. Silence except for the occasional starts and stops of the heater and the loud ticks of various clocks in the house. There was a buzz of wind outside.
“Dad… what if I don’t come back?”
Her father looked her straight in the eyes with a speck of hidden tears. He swallowed hard and shook his head. “There shouldn’t be a need of asking questions like that. In many years of the survival hunt, there have been no deaths. Quite a few injuries but no deaths. If you were to not come back… If that were to happen, chances would…”
Casey forced a smile and lowered her head, bangs curtaining her face from her father’s eyes. She sniffed quietly and tucked her knees into her chest.
“You know… if I don’t come back…” she paused. “You know… If I don’t come back, I just want to say… say that…”
“Casey, you’re going to come home.”
“Dad,” Casey said and looked up. “Just hear me. I’m going to leave in an hour or so… I want you to listen…”
Her father hesitated then sighed. “Go on.”
The clock’s minute hand spun a full circle around. It was already eight in the morning. The sun was mildly warm and the rays coming from the source of light was a faded glow behind the clouds.
The wind was strong. The autumn wind was strong on this November 30th morning. The wind blew into Casey’s face. For the first time in her life she was going into the public vehicle. For the first time in her entire life she stepped a foot out of her house, outside and beyond the metal fence surrounding her family’s yard.
There were many firsts for a thirteen year old, for a fourteen year old, and for a fifteen year old. There were many, many firsts.
They carefully stepped over the crack in the concrete path from their yard to the outside street. They held onto their mother or father like they were the only source of life, and if they let go, they’d be lost forever. It was their first time able to bask in the natural light of the world. It was their first time shyly holding out a hand to wave to a fellow neighbour. It was their first time allowing their voice to travel into the ears of someone other than a parent. It was their first time ever to feel out of house arrest.
But then again, it was also the first time they would ever experience something so marvelous. It was the first time feeling alive, for those who may lose a life in the survival hunt.
Casey had one hand clutched tightly to the puffy sleeve of her father’s old jacket. Her fingers were cold even under a layer of wool. She pressed her face against her father’s upper arm and stared cautiously at the outside world. She glanced around at various adult faces.
Her father reminded her to act like she normally did at home: to put on a cheerful smile and walk with a straight back, to show confidence.
Casey slowly removed her red cheek from her father’s jacket and stood up. She still clung tightly to the jacket, for she believed if she let go, she’d be lost forever. Suddenly, she felt like she was an adult. She had joined the world of adults.
She smiled to herself as she and her father stepped into the public bus. The bus was practically empty and was heading to the exact location where the survival hunt would be hosted. Casey was nervous but she thought deeply.
Today, today was an amazing yet fateful day of many.
“Dad, if I don’t come back, I want to say ‘I love you’ and I will wait for you to come see me again one day in the heavens above.”
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