Natasha gritted her teeth, hid behind the couch in the living room and checked the glass slivers in her arms. The cuts were fairly minor and weren’t deep enough to cause her death but it would affect her combat capability. She breathed out a small sigh for the little things as her father’s teachings filled her mind almost instinctually. Her ears strained to listen for the hunters as she moved low, deeper into the house, looking for the bathrooms for a water source and antiseptics to clean her arms. The blood drops would be a problem, but she would figure out a way to use her trail against the two men.
“Predators will track you by your smell, whether it is body odor or blood. You can use that to create diversions, to lead them away from you, to give yourself time to set ambushes and traps. When you are alone and being hunted, you can’t expect someone to save you. You must rely on yourself, survive by yourself, and learn to turn yourself from prey to predator.”
Her father’s words of wisdom echoed in her head as she pushed open the bathroom door on the first floor and dug through a medicine cabinet above the sink. Switching on the faucet gently, she scanned the cabinet and quickly pulled a box of gauze strips down along with antiseptic cream. She ran her glass shard embedded arms under the water and pulled out the larger shards. The smaller bits would have to wait until she could find proper medical supplies. With experienced movements, she cleaned her arms, rubbed on the cream and tied on the gauze strips with ripped off strips of her shirt’s abdomen area. She knew that doing so would only make her more vulnerable, but she would find more clothes within the house before it became an issue.
Meanwhile the two hunters had cleared the yard and the shorter man was staring through the broken window. Seeing nothing, he motioned for his partner to go ahead and the other man kicked out the larger shards of the window that were still standing so they could climb through easier. The noise pierced the silent house and alerted Natasha, who began to move once more as she wiped bloody handprints on a few doorknobs as she half crawled, half knelt past them on her way to the staircase leading to the second floor. She needed to find new clothes, a hair tie and perhaps a better weapon. She wanted to tie back her hair so it wouldn’t get in the way during a fight, though it would make grabbing her hair easier.
The two hunters left their bows near the window and pulled out their knives instead. The compound bows would be far less useful within a few feet where the power would be greatly mitigated by the distance. The first shot would be powerful, surely, but any further shots would be meaningless as any prey within a few feet would be on them before the second arrow was nocked. Thus, the two men abandoned their ranged advantage and took to close quarters combat, it also made their blood boil in excitement. There was something primal about cutting open and tearing at a prey with a blade while holding it down with the other hand. The beauty of their human prey never entered their eyes, to them, she was merely a deer or a grounded duck.
Natasha snuck up the stairs as she heard the two men’s loud boots pounding the wooden floorboards of the hallway. There were only a few rooms on the ground floor, including the kitchen, bathroom and living room. There was an attached garage and perhaps a laundry room or small office, Natasha wasn’t positive since she only entered two of the rooms and past the kitchen on the way to the stairs. Upstairs, she found three more bedrooms, a bathroom and the hanging cord leading to the attic ladder. The first door on the left was the master bedroom with a queen-sized bed, two dressers, another door to the master bathroom and an ottoman. Natasha carefully closed the door behind her as she stepped into the room and checked the dressers first. After finding a new shirt, she quickly changed into the long-sleeved blouse and tucked her hair under the collar.
Feeling more comfortable, she pulled out more clothes and stuffed them into the crack of the door to muffle her sound. It would also act to slow down anyone pushing into the bedroom, if only by a few seconds. Next, she moved to the ottoman and pulled out the spare blanket, a thick comforter and placed it by the bedroom window. It would be her emergency escape if something went wrong during the upcoming fight. She would escape through the window with the comforter to shield her from the glass and soften the blow of her fall. If she was lucky in the jump, she would only sprain an ankle or dislocate her shoulder; otherwise, she would be looking at broken bones or death.
Downstairs, the two men had found the bathroom and the mess of blood in the sink. Both grinned savagely and turned back to the other doors. Frustrated that all of the bloody door handles could be ruses, they still grit their teeth and checked each room. The first door on the right past the living area was the laundry room with one of those stackable washer and dryer combos. The door on the left, past the bathroom, led into the garage with a small blue coupe. After a quick check inside and under the car, the two men made it to the kitchen where the back door and stairs were located. A bloody handprint was on the stairway rail, making the duo even happier as they clambered upstairs.
Natasha kept searching the master bedroom and found nothing else other than clothes and the blanket so she moved on to the bathroom. Inside, she found a shower stall, toilet and a second door leading to a walk-in closet. She opened up the closet and began searching it for anything, finding more clothes a safe and a brown shoebox with a snub revolver and six bullets. Her eyes glistened when she laid her fingers upon it and checked it visually as best as she could in the shortest time possible. She loaded the revolver after ensuring no problems after a visual inspection and waited in the bathroom doorway for the two men with the revolver trained on the bedroom entrance.
The shorter man found the blocked master bedroom door first and signaled to his buddy before shoulder tackling the door. His partner rushed in behind him and dived forward towards the bed as soon as he heard the gunshots. The shorter man, who didn’t even have time to yell out, had a red hole in his forehead and two more in his chest. Down to a one-on-one fight, the remaining man cursed under his breath as he stared at his friend. They had been hunting buddies for as long as he could remember. They were practically brothers and even though he felt his blood run cold from the gunshots, he still bared his teeth in anger. Taking off his boots in frustration, he threw them both at the doorway where Natasha hid, trying to distract her with the moving objects.
Two more gunshots rang out as Natasha instinctively blasted the pair of boots, before a slew of curses poured from her mouth. She kicked the ground and moved backwards as the last man leapt over the bed and charged in her direction. She fired her last shot after taking aim as best she could before she flung the revolver at her incoming attacker. The man flinched as the bullet caught his blade wielding shoulder and the gun slapped his face. However, he forced his way past both obstacles and managed to catch up with Natasha, slashing out with the knife his bad arm.
Natasha pulled her own knife and blocked in a hurry as she hit the shower stall glass with a thud. She kicked out with her front leg at the man’s frontmost knee and narrowly missed as he stumbled in his attack from the pain. She pushed off the wall and stabbed outward at the man who clumsily blocked her attack, deflecting it by pure luck while sacrificing his balance. He stepped backwards with a slight fluster and punched out instinctively. Natasha ducked low, dodging his incoming fist and sliced upwards in her second attack. Her hunting blade caught in the man’s ribs and she pivoted on her foot, slapping her heel on the back of the man’s head as they crossed paths while releasing her blade. He flew forward in a stagger and through the shower stall glass. He went down and didn’t get back up as Natasha waited with baited breath. A pool of blood began to form around his body, as she stared at him in deep concern. The waves of deep emotions swirled in her eyes as the realization that she took two lives settled in. Her father had trained her to be independent and capable of protecting herself, but not for the aftermath of taking a human life.
