The Hunt

Chapter 1

     I wake up to a shrill scream that echoes through the loft, bouncing off the wooden walls like Richi bounces up and down for food. I sit up straight in bed, sharp pieces of hay scratching my legs. I look around, searching for the source of the scream, my eyes trying to focus in the pre-dawn darkness that envelopes the loft and the outside world, leaving everything in a layer of darkness. The darkness settles in my heart, too, as I realize what the scream must mean. I can finally make out my mother, her warm, soft shape so warm and sweet, but unfit for farmwork. I can barely make out the tears rushing down her face as she is held back by soldiers. She sees me, and her eyes grow wide.

     "My baby! You can't take my baby!" She screams again, her tears coming so fast and hard that when she finishes she might dry up and wilt like the cornstalks after they've been neglected too long.

     A cold hand with long, prodding fingers pulls me down, and I can no longer see over the loft to the ground below.

     My breathes become fast as I start to panic. Is a soldier in the loft? Will I have time to say goodbye? I don't want my life to end like this! These things flash through my mind in a split second, and without thinking about the consequences, I bite down hard on the fingers until I hear a voice.

     "That hurt, Kota," it hisses, breathing in my ear, words hitting my heart deep like a knife. Only my father was allowed to call me that.

     He named me. "Dakota," He would always say, "Like the tribe that used to live in the beautiful plains." Those plains are now over run with ruined cities. My history pod says that they were once magnificent cities, with buildings that touched the sky and cars that flew through the air. They were overrun with a corrupt government, so now they sit, wasted, while the Hunters rule them all.

     That's not what bothers me, though, as I feel my brother Micah's bloody hand lock around my wrist. I'm to busy worrying about my fate, because I know that the soldiers are here for me.