SQUAAACK!
THUD!
The sound of a body echoed across the room.
"Fuck I'm awake." A young voice sounding annoyed, The squaking noise vanished and a dull shriek replaced it.
CLANG!
Muttered cursing and the sound of things falling over muffled the shriek.
A window was suddenly opened revealing an organised room that was almost empty save for a few clothes and a few small sacks, cooking tools, a rather large knife with a thin handle and an especially curious oddity in form a bird with black feathers and a streak of green on its head locked in a cage. It was the source of the shrieking noise earlier. At the centre of it all was a young man with slightly long completely white hair and silver eyes with a well built physique and lean build and was of average height, he had a handsome face and a seemingly permanent frown was etched on it.
His name was Castor, no surname. An orphan with no current ambition other than living a peaceful life in this chaotic world.
He lazily rubbed his neck before grabbing a small sack and poured out a few seeds into the birdcage, the odd bird opened its beak revealing a long bumpy tongue that secreted slimy liquid that smelled horrendous.
Castor paid no mind to the smell and instead walked out of his house revealing the usual dilapidated state of his town, at the edge of the town there was a large metal gate that separated the town from the Fortress that was numbered 65.
What drew Castor's attention as well as most of the other residents was the small party of offloading vehicles that drove out of the gate, the people on it looked carefree and young except for the few soldiers guarding them. Castor watched them drive up to the general store and went back into his house. It was not his business what the Fortress citizens were up to.
He had better things to do than to speculate like most of the town's residents.
Half an hour later he walked out of his house with a large knife strapped to his waist and a large black sack on his back.
His neighbours avoided him as did the rest of the town not only out of fear but also respect, he was the only hunter who came back with prey each time he left town and it was not a secret that he had killed the former owners of the house he was living in.
Castor paid no mind to them and quickly walked out of town, he found himself in a quiet forest which looked dead, all the trees were withered and the grass was turning gray. This was a level one mutated area.
Mutated areas were classified according to the level of radiation that affected them, level one areas were almost the same as normal places except for a few things. Level two mutated areas contained both mutant plants and animals and if one stayed too long in one without a mask then they would certainly die or mutate. Castor's white hair and eyes were a result of staying in a level two mutated area for too long. For levels beyond that, Castor was not clear about them.
After a few minutes of walking, Castor squatted over an animal trap that was smashed into pieces, he deduced that it was broken due to outside forces and whatever animal it caught was stolen. Castor's face remained indifferent until he discovered that of all seven of his traps had been broken into tiny metal fragments, he immediately ruled out human interference because all the hunters in town were terrified of him and would definitely not touch his traps and they would be unable to shatter them into small pieces like that.
The sound of a twig snapping brought him out of his thoughts and he immediately rolled to the side.
At the spot where he was standing a moment before, a large boar was bearing its fangs at him. Castor calmly put his hand on his long knife waiting for the furious boar to make its move.
Sure enough the boar grunted and charged at him with enough force to break a tree in half, Castor swerved out of the way as soon as the boar was a few steps away from him. With a flick of his wrist his knife slashed the side of the boar as it passed by him straight into a tree.
The tree bent in half immediately and the bleeding boar shook it's head once before turning towards Castor with burning hatred in it's eyes, but the man was nowhere to be found!
A moment later the boar felt a sharp thing pierce it's hide and bury itself in it's body. The boar trembled a little before falling on it's side never to see the world again.
Castor pulled his knife out of the boar's body and began skinning the boar.
After a few minutes, the boar was completely skinned and the meat and bones had been packed into a leather bag.
'This wasn't the thing that broke my trap?' Castor frowned, the boar could have broken his trap but it wouldn't be able to smash it into pieces like that.
There was a more dangerous creature responsible.
'A mutant maybe?' Castor tapped his chin. 'That would mean I wouldn't be able to come here for a while.'
Mutated beasts were animals that had been poisoned by radiation or nuclear waste but were able to survive and mutate into something more grotesque and powerful. The boar that Castor had killed was just a mere beast and could not be compared to a utated beast despite it's ability to easily snap a tree in half.
It would take nothing short of six grenades in it's stomach to kill a mutant beast, countless people would have to die to take one down.
As Castor was indulging himself in his thoughts, a sudden howl took him by surprise. On a cliff a bit far from him stood a wo– no it was too grotesque to be called a wolf.
He saw a monster that vaguely resembled a wolf but only had the body structure.
"Shit!"