The Hunt Read Online Free PDF Page A

scientists are saying that the virus has an almost 98% kill ratio.  Already in the United States, estimates are that over 150,000,000 people have succumbed to the virus. We at Channel Nine are afraid that this may very well be our last broadcast….”
    Marcus’ mind drifted off as he continued slowly eating the ice cream and watching the broadcast.  Yes, it was their last broadcast.  The people that weren’t dead were staying at home or leaving the city in droves but it didn’t really matter.  They died anyway.  He was only thirteen. He had been there when the calls came to his parents that his brother and sister had died.    They were in the military overseas at the time.  Then he had watched his mother and his father die. All the while, he was unaffected. So basically he had been alone for the last five years. He had travelled everywhere and seen a little bit of everything.  He had met other survivors before but most of them were stark raving mad.  It’s hard to deal with a situation of this magnitude and most didn’t.  For some reason, it always seemed like the cutthroats, thieves, and general thugs seemed to gravitate to each other.  There were these nasty bands of renegades that normally just added to the chaos and all of that doesn’t include the prehistoric creatures that roamed the countryside now.  It’s a wonder he ever survived being as young as he was.  His dad had always said that an apocalyptic event like the virus was imminent, so from the age he could walk his dad had taught him how to survive. If it wasn’t for his parents and what they taught him…  His father was a weapons specialist in the military and ever since he was old enough to hold up a gun, his father had one in his hand teaching him to use it.  He trained in every fighting technique imaginable.  While other boys were playing football, baseball, or basketball, he was learning to kick, punch, and guard.  His mother was a computer expert.  Did that exclude her from his training?  No way. In the middle of what his father was teaching him, she was teaching him advanced programming and circuitry. It wasn’t just him of course; his siblings received the same training and Marcus figured that was why they naturally moved to the military upon graduation. He was probably headed in the same direction but the opportunity never arrived. 
    His attention focused again on the screen.  Laura was explaining that due to deaths and widespread absentees that almost eighty percent of functional systems in the United States were running on automation.  His mind drifted again.  If this had of happened thirty years ago, the planet would have been sent back to the Stone Age.  The old power grids had been replaced.  Most houses ran off solar power and the grids were basically nonexistent except in your inner cities. All data had been transferred to satellites that had a lifespan of a hundred years.  All the technology was still available but there weren’t many that could use it anymore.  Marcus took another bite of ice cream. He decided to go outside and sit on his front porch swing.
    “TV: off.”  The screen immediately went black.  He took his ice cream outside and sat down in the front porch swing.  He was looking at the lake across the way.  It was a picturesque setting.  The sun was just going down, sinking into the horizon just beyond the lake.  There was only the slight rustling of leaves as a gentle wind came through.  Of all the things he had seen, heard, and felt since the outbreak, he thought this was one of the hardest things to get adjusted to.  It was the silence and loneliness that he dealt with day in and day out.  He still tried to listen to his ham radio every chance he got.  He wanted to talk to some of the people he heard but his fear of being discovered in his little fortress usually overrode that.  The news had said that the virus had a 98% percent kill ratio but Marcus felt it was more like 99% or