The Hunt Read Online Free PDF Page B

his shoulders.  Picking up his tranquilizer gun at the same time, he headed back to the ATV.  He tied her on the back rack, sat down on the seat, turned, and headed for home.  It didn’t take long to get back to the SUV.  He laid her in the back of the dump trailer, parked the ATV in the building, plugged it into the solar fed charger, and loaded back up in the SUV.
    “Command three, two, one: Awake”
    Instantly, everything came back to life on the SUV.  Marcus was ahead of schedule.  He expected it to be at least ten or ten thirty before he was on his way to the log house but it was actually only nine o’clock.  Now that he knew the way, even driving slowly, Marcus was able to make it out to the log house in thirty minutes.  He drove to a spot in the middle of the field that was about 150 yards from the house.  A shot at this distance would be a pretty routine shot for the ZF7.  He took a metal rod about three feet in length with a piece of chain welded to the top and with a small sledgehammer drove it into the ground.  He then got the old she goat out of the back of the trailer and laid her on the ground beside the pole.  Taking a section of rope twenty feet long, he tied the goat to the end of the chain.  Taking out his knife, he cut the tape holding her.  She was still out of it.  He hoped she woke up soon. 
    Getting back in the SUV, he drove it over to the cabin.  He unloaded his gun, a small tent popup blind, and his lunch.  He didn’t know why he packed a lunch, especially with all the food in the house but he guessed he was afraid that the food would be gone.  As he entered the house and surveyed the room, everything was just as he had left it.  He quickly made his way up to the second floor and out on the balcony.  After glancing to make sure the goat hadn’t awakened, Marcus set up the blind and loaded the ZF7.  The blind was a small camouflaged tent with windows that could be unzipped on every side for viewing.  It was only large enough for one adult sitting in the center.  With him sitting, the railing was the exact height it needed to be for him to rest the gun on to shoot.  The fold down duo rests weren’t going to be needed.  He propped the gun on the railing and sat down to wait.
    After about fifteen minutes, the goat began to stir.  In another five, she was on her feet testing the limits of the rope.  Hopefully this wouldn’t take long because he had known goats to eventually eat the rope.  She began bleating over and over for several minutes.  After about thirty minutes she finally started eating some of the surrounding grass. Bringing out a small display device, Marcus touched the screen and remotely started the sensor array from the SUV.  As it completed its initial scan, Marcus was shocked to discover that it had picked up the cat.  The problem with that was where it was located.  It was located approximately twenty feet to his right in small cache of trees.  Normally being on the second floor wouldn’t have been a concern in most hunting situations but with the size and strength of the cat, Marcus knew with the layout of the house the saber tooth could be on the balcony in a single leap.  He slowly turned his head to the right and spotted the large cat.  Lucky for him, the cat was focused intently on the goat staked in the middle of the field.  Not wanting to give away his hiding place, Marcus very slowly moved the rifle into position but just as he brought it around, the big cat crouched and began a slow stalking movement toward the field and the goat.  He was going in for the kill.  Marcus swung the rifle around and brought the scope to his eye.  At that point the saber tooth cat took off at a dead run.  The goat spooked and tried to run away but the rope held fast.  The cat was on the goat in an instant. It slammed the goat into the ground and opened its mouth unbelievably wide and drove the two large canines into and through the neck of the goat. The