Food Chain: Bitch, I Eat people!
"Good morning viewers, it's time for the second episode of Food Chain season 9, and you know what that means!" Vincent exclaimed to the cameras as the show began to start up. The cameras showed Vincent and Susan primal in their broadcast room giving a quick recap of yesterday's episodes."Episode one kicked off with an astonishing 30 deaths in the first day!" Susan explained, "And now we're going to be releasing the Hunters for an even more spectacular blood bath!" the cameras soon cut to the docks where it showed the 5 Hunters being loaded onto a ferry for transport."The lucky tribes managed to get their hands on some of our spliced fruits and vegetables, and used the energy boost to put in double the work load. Some of them even have decent shelters set up!" Vincent said. "Let's hope their hard work paid off because they're going to need it."The cameras panned to several different players, showing a top-down view of their camp sites. It was amazing to think they had cameras in so many angles. One particular camp was Christopher's tribe to reveal that the 100 foot clearing they had formed was now properly walled off, even having their own gate!
-------------------------------------------"Dawn is breaking." Ruby said looking up into the sky. With the trees gone, we now had a clearer view and could see the night's sky was turning a faint shade of orange. The Hunters would be out soon."We're going to need weapons as fast as possible." I told Hector, "I'm worried about Dracula finding us with an overhead sweep. We cut down the trees, so there's nothing hiding us if he flies over." I warned."The best we can make is stone age weapons." Hector responded, "And we don't even have a Shaman, so we can't coat them in poisons without some trial and error." he added. I leered at him as he said that, though not directly to his face. Some expert, he knew the 3 essential roles, but hadn't bothered to recruit one.That meant we didn't have shit when it came to medical attention. I hoped that at least one of the tribe members had some basic knowledge in first aid, or if not, we could find and recruit someone who did. A half trained medic was better than leaving our wounds open to infection.
"Let's start by building some hunting supplies like spears and knives, then if we're lucky, we can start working on bows and arrows." I suggested. Hector agreed and began calling the tribe to group up."Alright everyone, it's show time and we need to start handing out roles." the zebra declared as everyone got together. The others seemed eager to hear about what they would be doing to help out the tribe, and before Hector could pull another stunt like he did with the makeshift supplies, I spoke up."Do any of you have first aid training or medical knowledge?" I asked, "We just
noticed we're lacking a Shaman." I saw Hector tense up out of my peripheral, but someone did step forward."I took first aid training for 3 years." said Violet cautiously. I turned to Hector and made a gesture towards her as if waiting for him to make the decision. He rubbed his chin pretending to think about it before nodding."Congratulations Violet, you're our Shaman!" he said, patting her shoulder in congratulations as the others clapped for her. He then turned to the others remaining and began to issue their roles.
"Adrian and Maxwell, you two look like in shape men, so you'll be our warriors." he declared, "Also Heather, you seem like a strong, fearless woman, so you get to be a warrior too!" he added. Heather pumped a fist in triumph as he moved onto the other roles.I think I understood the reason behind his decision. Heather was strong, independent, and wasn't prone to following orders. Unlike the rest of the harem who fawned over him, Heather had a mind of her own. She was a threat to his rule and needed to be separated from the others, he was likely trying to get her killed!"James, Hope, and Crystal, you are the foragers. You're job is to get us more food." he continued, "And Haley, you're the crafter, you're job is to fashion our supplies." he finished, pointing over to the left over stacks of wood and rocks we hadn't used last night."With luck we'll be able to recruit more into the Tribe to help with your work load, Haley." I spoke up, "After all, we've lost two spots on our roster." I watched as our so called warriors picked up the hammers while the foragers grabbed the axes.
Haley already went to work on sharpening the rocks. I made a mental note that if we wanted anything besides basic axes, hammers, and knives, we would need some chisle equipment and maybe a grind stone to help speed the work up. The chisel would allow us to carve large rocks into better shapes like swords and arrow heads, instead of grabbing whatever we could find.As the orange light began to fill the sky completely, we heard a series of mighty roars scatter through the jungle. The Hunters had landed, and they were kind enough to give us a warning shot!"Let's move, people, we're on a time limit from here on out!" I declared, clapping my hands loudly as the tribe began to attend to its duties. The foragers quickly headed off into the forest to look for new materials, while the warriors took up a defensive position patrolling the outside of the wall.This was now a race to assemble as many supplies as we could. If the Hunters found us before then, I seriously doubted a few half sharpened rocks were going to put up much resistance.
--------------------------------------Avalanche, as she had been code named had taken to the rivers, along with Swamps and
Leviathan, as they were both amphibious animals, plus an aquatic one. 24 hours had been enough time for the scent to diminish, so they couldn't follow their victim's trail.The water beneath the polar bear started to grow very dark, and as she looked below her, she saw an enormous fish swimming right towards her with its mouth wide open.The camera panned to show the surface of the water as it began to bubble and churn, and shortly afterward the she-bear rose out of the water roaring like a savage and holding the fish over her head with both hands. In one swift motion, she tore it in two and threw the remains onto the shore before stepping out of the water."This should be a good appetizer." She commented, beginning to feed on the mutilated fish.Meanwhile, Swamps was moving stealthily through the water like a frog shaped submarine. He rose to the surface, allowing his eyes to poke just above the water while keeping the rest of his body submerged. The water kept him cool and refreshed, while allowing him to keep watch of the surroundings. Suddenly a loud buzzing caught his attention and as he looked above him, he saw a nest of very large hornets dangling from a tree.
He leaned back in the water to adjust his position and opened his mouth before a long, sticky tongue shot from his mouth with blinding speed and precision. In a flash of movement, his tongue latched onto the back of a hornet and yanked it into his mouth where he crunched it up with disgusting chewing motions. The hornets, surprised by the disappearance of one of their hive members, began to buzz around in an even greater fury as more and more of them were plucked from the sky, the giant bull frog being allowed to feed leisurely from them like a sack of potato chips.Leviathan had dove to the bottom of the river to find there was more than one gigantic living there. Unfortunately for them, she was currently strangling them to death with her tentacles as she fed. She had managed to grab hold of 5 separate fish and none of the others were coming anywhere near her for fear of being grabbed like the rest.Meanwhile, Extinction came upon an amusing sight as he came upon a tar pit. A feathered rump stuck out of the water, mooning all who came across, but the rest of the body was completely submerged in the black goo. When he peered hard enough, he could see the rear was also slowly sinking into the tar, but without any struggling weight, it was moving slower than normal.
"Hah!" the raptor mocked, "Who's a fossil now, dumb ass?" he laughed before running around the side of the pit and continuing on through the jungle. However, he soon caught a new scent, this one was fresh and reeked of blood. He changed course and dashed through the bushes.When the smell grew stronger, he knew he was close and as he jumped through the next wall of bushes, he let
loose a primal shriek not heard for millions of years as he descended upon the sleeping form of a purple jaguar laying next to some eviscerated players!The last of the hunters was Dracula who was flying through the trees like some kind of shadowy phantom, ducking and weaving between their branches. Every few moments, he would release a high pitched shriek, which would relay a detailed image of what was ahead of him, allowing his body to react to it before he even arrived. He tauntingly dove around hungry Steel Flowers eager for a meal to fly into their grasp.In fact there were quite a few death traps that had been camouflaged into the environment that most players would have blindly walked straight into. But with his echolocation, the giant bat was aware of their presence before he even got close to them.
--------------------------------------"As our long time viewers at home are probably aware, each Hunter has been shown a detailed map of the island's layout and given memory boost enhancements to ensure they don't forget it." Susan commented, "Now they have to apply that knowledge to their hunting skills to locate where the players might be hiding.""Well it looks to me like they're having more fun killing off the competition than the actual targets, Susan." Vincent said, "I don't blame them, nobody likes a kill stealer!" he laughed. "Am I right, gamers?"--------------------------------------------------------------------------"You know, despite all the deaths... I'm actually having a good time. I mean when most people die, it's usually alone and humiliating, but at least this way we get to go out in style!" said a male Kangaroo as he sat in the makeshift cottage gripping a spear tightly with both hands."Are you serious? It's only been one day and you've already snapped?" asked his fellow resident, a male squirrel who was sharpening a pair of stone knives. "We lost half our tribe getting materials for this place, and the others were taken out when we tried hunting for food, we're all that's left!"
"I'm not crazy, I'm looking on the bright side of life!" the kangaroo responded, his eyes going wide and taking on a far off look as he gripped his spear tighter."Why couldn't at least one of the girls survived?" the squirrel muttered as his marsupial companion began to sing to himself, apparently lost in his delusional fantasies now. He was going to take another sweep of the area to make sure it was safe.Grabbing his knives, the squirrel headed for the shoddy door of the cottage and stepped out into the morning air, keeping his daggers at the ready just in case."Alright, just stick close to- Ahhaahhhhh!" the squirrel was caught by complete surprise, dropping his knives and screaming as he was carried
off into the air, flailing his legs in confusion. As he looked up, he saw he was caught in the talons of Dracula who was managing to fly and carry a squirming prisoner at the same time."Always look on the bright side of life!" the Kangaroo continued singing as he rocked back and forth on the floor, his voice rising in volume to block out the dying screams of his last tribe member.
Shutting his eyes, he was only faintly aware of a loud thumping sound outside the cottage, followed by the door opening and something slowly making their way across the cottage. He slowly trailed off in mid song and opened his eyes as he looked up to see the enormous bat with a blood caked maw leering down at him. The bat's mouth opened wide, presenting it's knife sized fangs and it's whip-like tongue trailing across the blades tauntingly.For a brief moment, the Kangaroo seemed to once again be fully aware of his situation as the hazy look faded from his eyes, but before he could reach for the spear he had dropped during his madness, the bat pinned him and sank its fangs into his throat."Always look on the bright side of life!" The bat hummed the words as he began to drain his prey of every last drop.To be Continued.