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Rated: E · Campfire Creative · Novel · Young Adult · #2020854
A series based in the future around the last remaining people with affinities.
[Introduction]
         A bead of sweat made its way down her temple, creating a channel as it reached her jaw. Her skin was slick and glistening in the beating sun as she crouched, unmoving, silent. The still air was filled with the buzzing of insects and the snuffling of the beast before them, almost hidden in the heavy bush. She took a long and silent breath as she momentarily closed her eyes, willing her arm to steady. It ached from the weight of her spear she had been holding still these past few minutes.

         “Steady. Aim for the chest. Remember to judge the distance. You need to exert your power right at the last second of the throw.”

         “I know that Luca. Shut up and let me concentrate” she hissed, her attention quickly flicking to her friend. In her peripheral she could see Luca’s shoulders shake as he suppressed his laughter. Stupid oaf, she thought to herself, a smile playing across her lips.

         As she leaned forward, her muscles tight and quivering, the boar’s ears twitched. It has heard her. Cursing silently under her breath, she leapt forward, tensed and threw her spear with all her strength. Overbalancing from the force, her hand whipped out and gripped a nearby branch, littering her shoulders with fallen leaves and what felt like an entire bug community. Please let me have hit my target.

         “Good job!” shouted Luca, lightly slapping her on the back as he stood, “let’s see what we scored.” She grinned in response and looked over at her best friend. Now standing, he was a head taller than she was and after their hard day of hunting, he hardly broke a sweat. Wiggling his eyebrows in excitement, he pushed her shoulder to steer her around and they began to make their way through the bush towards their kill. The afternoon sun was shooting rays of light down through the canopy of the jungle above, creating tunnels of light and dark.

         Luca’s large frame pushed through the forest, creating a temporary path. Like a gate in the wind, the surrounding grasses and low lying branches swung back and whipped painfully against her bare legs. “We got a pink tag!” he shouted excitedly, crouching down over the fallen boar. Pink represented an animal released from the early months of previous year. She knelt down next to her friend, her fingers running over the rough plastic embedded in the boars left ear. Release date: 3 February 42A, she read.

         “Come on, we need to head back. It’ll be dusk soon” said Luca with a grunt as he roughly tied the boar’s hooved feet. She looked down at its lifeless eyes and felt the familiar tightening in her chest she experienced every time they made a kill. Surely their resources were not endless, she questioned silently, as the fear of something unnameable loomed closer. She pushed the thought down into the pit of her stomach and swatted the sweaty hair off her face. It had loosened in its rope and had begun to fall limp down her back, blanketing her in the tight grip of heat exhaustion.

         Luca passed her a splintered end of a large stick that the boar was now roped to and she rested it on her already aching shoulder. The urge to grimace bubbled to the surface, not quite reaching her well-controlled expression. She wondered if they’d pass any onlookers with their flashing cameras, examining them through the impenetrable wiry fence along the perimeter. On days like this, hidden amongst the depths of the jungle, it was easy to pretend that they were the only ones left in the world. She shook her head and looked once more at the boar. With a crooked grin, Luca stretched one of his long arms across to her and pulled her chin up so she looked at him in the eye, as if reading her mind.

         “Come on Leia girl. Let’s go home.”

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