I listened intently to every noise I heard, waiting for anything that seemed out of place. I heard muddy footsteps as the group of colonists ran toward their ticket off this godforsaken planet. I heard the distant gunfire as the hunters defended from the hordes of monsters, giving the colonists a safe escape route.
I didn't hear anything odd but it's hard to hear specific noises when your running as fast as you can with a group of people who have never been trained in stealth. I was at the head of the group, my weapon raised as I scanned for anything that seemed amiss, the colonists trailing behind me. These people had given up a lot to be here, and now they were forced off by the natives of this planet. Vicious pricks they were, they showed no mercy, picking off anything and anyone they seen, no matter who or what they were.
Some of them could be killed with a pistol, others it took rockets to take down, we were more than capable of the task but the local militia wasn't. We carried random assortments of weaponry, almost all of them capable of doing insane damage to monsters. I carried around a semi-automatic sniper rifle, capable of eviscerating most monsters native to this planet.
A few hunters had been dispatched to escort the colonists to the ship, the rest were holding off the horde of monsters. They weren't able to occupy all the monsters however.
"AHHHH!" I turned around just in time to see something fly off into the forest. I noticed one of the colonists was missing. My blood ran cold as I looked into the forest, knowing what creature had taken him. A Wraith, one of the few monsters that caused hunters to feel a sense of fear and dread. Most monsters charged straight into the hunters, giving an adrenaline rush and a shock but not a sense of fear.
The Wraith however, it stalked its prey and hunted from the shadows, then striked when its prey was distracted, attacking with two upper scythes and two lower arms tipped with claws. It was a very effective method.
I turned to the person closest to me. "Here take this." I handed him my rifle. "Keep heading straight and you will get to the ship, everyone else follow him." One of the colonists looked at me with a shocked expression.
"Wait are you going after that thing?"
"The colonist is still alive I've gotta go after him. Get to the ship now." The colonist stared at me with a solemn expression then turned and headed off towards the extraction point. I turned and headed in the way the Wraith had went. I knew how these creatures acted, every hunter knew what they did.
They always took the first hunter to use as bait, their twisted game always began that way, and it usually ended with a lot of dead hunters. I could only hope I could get the colonist to safety in time. I wasn't a tracker like some of the others I just ran in the direction it went and prayed that's where it went.
I didn't have to run very far before I noticed a clearing and beelined for it. Wraiths liked to leave their bait in nice open areas with no cover. Sure enough when I ran over there I seen the colonist lying on the ground. I went over to him and he looked at me and I could see fear in his eyes.
"It told me not to move from this spot."