Hunters & Gatherers

Episode 8: Absquatulate

We open on the campus of JOREN SECONDARY SCHOOL. The mood is heavy, but the campus is buzzing with excitement, morose excitement, but it's the kind of excitement that the BLUE STARS like. They're in their element. They've set up a perimeter keeping the staff and faculty out. The LOST RINGS and their investigative counterparts are also kept out by the perimeter and are steaming mad, no, pissed. They argue and try to use their tech to see the evidence, but

KARI
[extends shield from her tool belt that encircles the perimeter set by the hunters]
You want us to come down?

MAVERICK
[touches the shield]
What's this?

ISSA
Temporary workroom. Keeps us in and them out. They can see in, but can't hear.

MAVERICK
Kind of pointless if they can still see in, huh?

ISSA
They see us and the hole, nothing more.

At that time, KREED teleports into the shield. He lands just barely on the grass side of the hole. BODHI grabs his arm and pulls him up, keeping him from falling.

KREED
[notices the crowd and drones first
What the hell-

LUXE
Hey!

KREED
[snaps his head toward LUXE]
What?!

LUXE
The crowd is not why I called for the kit. This is.
[points to the well-preserved body of CENO EL in the hole]

KREED
[groans]
It was- [blanches] It was in the hole?

LUXE
Yeah.

TALON
Preserved just like that?

JAMESON
[kneels down next to the body]
Like it was just buried. Or left here.

ISSA
[pulls up report from her device]
He hasn't been seen or heard from in fifteen years. Last known location-

KARI
JOREN SECODARY SCHOOL.

CALLYX
[scoffs]
He never left.

BODHI
[looks out at the crowd]
So, we got a dead target and
[peers into hole]
Six new pieces of evidence.

KREED
What new pieces?

LUXE
[nods toward the hole]

KREED
[hops into hole]

JAMESON and KREED look at the evidence and take care not to disturb the body.

KREED finally calls the ship and asks CREDENCE to send the biological evidence collection kit down, large enough got a large male.
CREDENCE verbalizes confirmation and then seconds later a large coffin-esque container appears on the ground beside ISSA and KARI.

ISSA and KARI immediately start to configure the container for the body of CENO EL.

The HUNTERS watch and then LUXE decides that they need to do something other than watch because they are still being watched. He decides to exit the shield so they can see what else the disturbance may have enearthed. KARI creates an opening for them and they walk out and into a flurry of questions from the staff, drone whirring and arguments from the LOST RINGS and their investigative team.

INT HIDDEN ROOM.

JAMES and ISYS have HEADMASTER MILTON. He resembles the Friar from the count of monte cristo, but he doesn't inspire sympathy nor reverence. He is gaunt. His skin hangs off of his bones; he is still intimidatingly tall, and though it takes immense effort, he manages to stand to his full height. His eyes are sunken into his skin and soulless. His clothes hang off of him and the stench of his misdeeds and years of BO stick to him, but JAMES and ISYS show no reaction.