The Pursuit Of Genesis

2 : The Hunt

In the early morning, before the sun could spread its bright rays on the widespread lands of Assyria, the big old cart, which a day ago entered a small town, ran through a roughly made gravel road, heading towards the big mountain ahead. The cart bumped on the small pebbles, bouncing the items in the cart. The two people sitting behind grabbed the edges of the cart tighter with one hand, and the items closer to them with another.

"Maya," said William, "you can slow down a bit."

"No can do," she replied, still looking ahead on the rough road. "We need to reach before the sun shows up."

"It's still dark," he said, "we should be having enough time."

"I will explain it later." she shouted, "grab the cart tighter."

William stopped talking and stayed down, holding the edges of the cart tighter. The horses ran faster, tossing the small pebbles and some snow off their feet, obeying Maya's orders. After a while, the road stopped getting narrower and finally came to an end. The horses slowed down their pace and finally stopped at the end of the road.

Maya was the first one to get off the cart. She walked back and extended her arm forward to get the items down from the cart– a long knife, a box full of fresh meat, three fishing rods and a long thin chain, as requested by Maya. After the items were unloaded, William and Rita got off.

"Rita, take the fishing rods," Maya said, "William, get the box of meat. Follow me."

Without uttering a word, William and Rita agreed and followed Maya on the way further. Ahead was the much rougher terrain of the mountain, almost impossible for any car or horse-cart to travel. After the recent missing incidents, fewer people prefer coming here.

"Why do we need the fishing rods?" William asked.

"Did you not hear Pou?" Rita said. "Two of these combined have enough strength to lift the car. These are strong rods, and the string he gave us is durable."

"You mean, we can use them to grab these rumoured beasts?"

"We can't grab them," Maya said, leading the way to the place. "But with enough strength, we can slow them down, until one of us stuns or kills them."

"That might work." Rita nodded and they both followed her to the place.

Their steps moved faster. As they ventured deep into the mountains, the snow cover thickened on the surface. The wind currents were calm, but they were cold. Three of them did not seem to be bothered by that. They did not slow their steps.

"Why are we rushing," William asked. "There's clearly some time till sunrise."

Maya slowed down for a moment and glanced back for some time, "About that, William," she said, "this town and most other areas in Assyria have no pleasure to see the sun every day."

"Why so?" William asked.

"The area is located in the outer parts of the cloud region and its vicinity. The clouds you see are not normal ones. They are the accumulation of toxic air in the sky. So even if the sun is raised, people here rarely notice it."

"How are people comfortable with the environment?"

"Their bodies have accepted the change in nature. Their lives are different," Maya said. "Now let's move."

Maya walked with a constant pace and they both followed her thoroughly. After walking through snowy trees and snow-covered paths, taking various not-so-random turns, Maya's feet stopped in front of a small empty area. It looked like a small ground, surface covered with a very thin layer of snow, trees surrounded from all sides except the two passages, from one of which three of them entered.