Hunter Gatherer

Todd struggled to remain still, silent until the right moment. He knew you only had one shot at taking down a full sized “loper”. Not only did you have just one shot but you had to hit the right “loper” or you still wouldn’t survive.

This world, although it wasn’t originally intended as their first destination, was found to have abundant vegetable matter and animal life. Since the emergency landing the ships population had been busy analyzing and categorizing the edible food stuffs.

The only reason he knew lopers were edible is because it had become necessary to kill off a couple of them early upon their arrival. Lopers were aggressive and territorial. It took the death of two of the crewmen skewered on the lopers multi-pronged horns before they realized that lopers considered them unwelcome intruders in their feeding range.

Lopers were nothing like the animal life from back home. Or rather, they were like a conglomeration of animals from earth. Their bodies were covered in a shaggy fur like the old American bison but their legs kept them low the ground much the same way an alligator travels. Don’t let the short legs fool you though; those guys are fast, faster than any animal that chased a man on earth.

The worst of it was the lopers were carnivores as well. They were smart, smarter than your average canine. They hunt in packs always controlled by what the landing group called the Alpha male. It became known that if you can eliminate the Alpha the pack will disperse and not be seen for a while until a new alpha emerges.

Below the multi-pronged horns these creatures have a trunk like an elephant that had a fist sized hard bullet shaped shell covered sucker at the end, or what you might call a mouth, which they would plunge into their victims and suck them dry from the inside out. Todd could think of nothing worse than coming across human remains that could be describe only as an epidermis bag holding what was left of the skeletal bones. It seems the lopers found that humans make an excellent source of nourishment.

After a few short years planet-side the population had been whittled down significantly. The ship carried 35 families mostly with nuclear family groups of 4 to 5 members. When they had landed there were 150 crew members total.

Most of the grown males were gone now and the family’s that were left behind have been absorbed by other nuclear groups to form small clans. There are now 5 clans of 20. Todd was the head of a clan and despite the reduced numbers the ships stores were becoming depleted. Rationing only took you so far and the medical techs hadn’t identified enough plant life to safely recommend consumption. Todd knew that he had to bag a loper or they were all going to go hungry again.

Todd thought to himself, “I’m not cut out for this, I only signed on to be the ships Chief Engineer. What the hell do I know about hunting?”

About that time Todd heard the trumpeting of a loper pack on the hunt trail. He knew he was the one being hunted. He knew even less about being bait.

The one other crew member that had tried this loper ambush had been the ships Executive Officer, Samuel Hardcoe. That was a man with a hunting pedigree. Todd remembered, they had all kindly known him as “Hardcore” before the lopers got him and now his wife and kids were part of Todd’s clan.

Todd had helped Hardcore dig the last loper pit. It had almost worked too but the Alpha leading this pack was smart and must have recognized the scent of the fresh turned soil despite the lure of human scented clothing placed on top of the pit covering.

That thing had been sneaky and made as if it was going for the bait and then pounced past the pit right into Hardcore’s blind. Todd had been a safe distance away when he had seen three of those things sucking on Hardcore like three teen girlfriends sharing a milkshake through straws. Poor guy never had a chance.

This time around Todd had dug two pits side-by-side in a narrow canyon. With his blind built into the interior canyon wall, his back was literally to the wall. The pits were situated so that there was a walkway between them and dug so that there was no way around them. Todd figured if it was the same Alpha that had gotten Hardcore it would be smart enough to avoid the pits again and come right up the middle to him. It wasn’t ideal but it would give Todd the one shot he needed and to kill a loper it had to be a head shot.

The hunting pack was getting close. Their trumpeting was getting louder by the moment. Just at that moment Todd saw two of them break from the underbrush, as one sniffed the air the other concentrated on the ground following Todd’s spore trail. Todd knew these were the scouts and held his trigger finger as he sighted down the barrel of his plasma rifle. He knew he could take one of them down but he would be dead before the rifle could recharge. There was no doubt that the Alpha was hanging back waiting for the all clear signal from the two scouts. As he patiently watched both the scouts straightened their trunks perpendicular to the ground; the way they were positioned they seemed to be directing their pointed snouts directly at Todd despite the clothing bait he had left on top of both the pit covers, then the both of them blasted out a trumpet note in stereo.

He released his grip on the rifle to squeegee the sweat with his thumb from his eyebrows which threatened to roll into his eyes at just the wrong time. Just as he readjusted his grip on the rifle and sighted down the killing alley he had constructed the Alpha bounded out of the tropical greens and ran right up to the pit on the left. First the creature sniffed the air and then extended his trunk out towards the socks that Todd had left out there for them. Cautiously the creature backed away from the pit edge and at some predetermined point it suddenly swung around and quickly ran back behind the scouts in a semi circle right up to the edge of the pit on the right and proceeded to sniff at the undershirt that was left on top of that pit cover. As the leader was busy with the investigation two smaller lopers came out of the brush. So it was a party of five, thought Todd.

That damn smart loper seemed to be satisfied that it had recognized the trap and slowly stepped towards the center alley. It sniffed the ground as it lined itself up to make its way down the narrow strip of ground between the two pits. Usually these things were moving fast but at the moment this one was just barely creeping as it committed itself it placed it’s first paw on the land bridge that led to Todd.

All the while Todd could feel the sweat that was gathering in his eyebrows again. He needed that thing too come closer, the pits were too wide for the them to jump and the strip he had left intact was too narrow for them to turn around on. It had to be halfway down the aisle before Todd could take his shot. He also knew the moment was upon him where he would either be feeding his clan tonight or feeding these lopers.

As the Alpha came closer the two scouts lined up behind it and the smaller two lined up behind the scouts. When the lead loper was half way down the bridge Todd was ready to take his shot. Just as he was tightening his trigger finger the damn thing started swinging its head from side to side emitting short staccato notes from its snout. The scout behind it started trying to back up as it was fully out on the bridge as well. Todd knew this was not good, the Alpha must have figured out this trap as well. He struggled to line up his shot as the thing kept moving its head back and forth.

He knew he couldn’t let this kill opportunity slip by him, his clan and the other clans desperately needed food, they couldn’t afford to lose anymore people to the lopers or to starvation. Todd decided if he was going to be bait he would have to be live bait and quickly stood up from behind his rock cover exposing his self. The Alpha spotted him and Todd could see that it was gathering it’s self for a pounce as its hind quarter bunched up with knotted muscle. All of a sudden the loper was airborne and Todd still didn’t have a bead on its head. Finally he could see that dangerous extended snout coming right down the sight at him like a giant arrow. Just as Todd was sure of his aim a bead of sweat dripped right into his aiming eye and everything went blurry. With no time left he took his shot and then crumpled under the weight of the animal as it fell upon him.

There was nothing but blackness, deep darkness and a sense of failure. He was immobile with a ton of weight compressing him to the rock hard surface. Then came the stench, trapped he couldn’t seem to move his head far enough away to get a decent breath of air. He couldn’t get his face out of the fur. A panic came over him, not from fear of being devoured from the inside out but of suffocating with nothing but the indescribable stench left in his lungs before he expired. Adrenaline surged through his veins as he fought to free his arms.

Miraculously, he freed an arm and was able to heft the fur from his face as he realized the loper was just dead weight upon him. As he caught his breath he was able to squirm out from under the beast. Gathering his rifle that had been thrown clear, he surveyed the damage that his shot had done to kill the animal, the plasma blast must have struck right at the point of its muzzle and traveled the length up through its cranium.

Just as his panic rush was subsiding he nearly dropped his rifle and tripped over his feet as a loper trumpet blast shook him to his bones. He lay there for a moment waiting for one of the things to pierce him through and suck him dry. A few seconds passed and he knew if there had been one close he would already be dead.

Hearing another loper call Todd then knew that it was coming from the pit on the right and crawled over to the edge to take a peek. Sure enough, one of the scouts must have slipped into the hole during the skirmish. The animal was preparing to make another leap up the steep side of the pit to try to get out but Todd put a plasma blast right through its head before it could leave the ground.

Todd quickly took a look around to see if anymore of the critters had stuck around and he found that it was just him and the two carcasses left. Finally able to relax a bit Todd thought to himself he was never going to be able to get the loper stink off. Then he realized the stink he now smelled was his own as in his fear his own bowels must have let go and he had fouled his pants.

He smiled at himself and thought, “Nothing like having your stuffing scared out of you.”
He then started laughing, the laugh of a condemned man earning a short reprieve. As his thoughts reviewed the events of the hunt he thought, “I damn sure make better bait than I do a hunter.”

As he gathered himself up off the ground Todd thought about the clans and the doubts of what the future would hold for them on this hostile world. Then he grinned again because he knew here and now, the clans would eat well tonight.