Starter for @andybrookes
Setting: The woods outside of Redwood
It didn’t sit well with Jake that this hunting trip was forcing him to go further from the safety of Redwood than he was used to but he had a job to complete. He had only been staying there for about four months and he didn’t realise it until now but that place was like home, for him and his kids, his Mighty Hawks.
Straying further away from Redwood caused a pit to form in his stomach. The advice from both David and Orion played on repeat in his head (don’t make noise, find a good vantage point, pay attention to your surroundings, and let the prey come to you), with the hope that if he followed it to the letter, he’d be able to get back to Redwood and his Mighty Hawks sooner. Of course, the sooner he got back to Redwood, the sooner he’d see Renee again. No, he shouldn’t let himself get distracted but a faint smile did appear on his features as he continued to walk through the woods.
Up ahead, the woods thinned and opened up into a clearing. Jake figured that’d be a good place to wait and watch to see if the deer he had been tracking might walk through. He was about to seek out a good hiding spot when he heard voices. He narrowed his eyes at the clearing, struggling to see if anyone was already in the clearing. He angled his head to one side and listened. Again, he heard voices. He wasn’t alone.
He quickly put himself behind a large tree, obscuring himself from the view of anyone hanging out in the clearing. He closed his eyes and forced himself to listen out for more clues about what was waiting for him up ahead, rather than to the heavy thumping of his heart. He only caught snatches of sounds but he managed to determine there were bandits up ahead, since zombies don’t curse like bandits do. Jake carefully peeked around the tree and spotted another he could use as cover that was closer to the clearing. He took a deep breath and dashed over to it.
“Fix his leg or, I swear to fucking God, I will fucking shoot you!”
That didn’t sound very friendly. Jake frowned. Before he could even stop himself, he was reaching back to take an arrow from the quiver strapped to his back. He notched the arrow in his bow but didn’t pull the bowstring back. He had played the hero so many times in movies, this was like muscle memory for him. However, in the movies, if he got hurt, someone would yell ‘cut’ and he could go back to his trailer like nothing had happened. It wasn’t going to be like that here.
He was going to do something incredibly stupid, he knew it. But there was no one here to stop him. He stepped out from the cover of the tree as he pulled back the bowstring of his bow. He aimed it at the first person he saw as he entered the clearing. “No one’s shooting anyone unless it’s me shooting you!” Not his best work but he was an actor, not a writer!