The Hunt Read Free Page B

about everything that was useful and had carried them to his compound but apparently he had been wrong.
    It was still only mid morning, so after some debate, Marcus decided that he had plenty of time to investigate the house and see if there was anything worth taking and still find the spot he thought would be the best for taking the cat. 
     

Chapter 3
    He still didn’t know how he had missed this house, especially when it was only a few miles from his little compound.  Of course if you came at the house from any other angle than the one that he just did you would probably never notice the house there. He drove up into the front yard which must have been well kept and cared for at one time.  Although mostly overrun with weeds, saplings, and vines, you could still see a broken down birdbath, concrete picnic table, and a couple of those concrete benches in the undergrowth.  The house was a split level log home with a faded red tin roof and solar panels.  For the most part, it looked intact.  The right hand section of the front porch looked like it had sustained some damage from a fallen pine tree that stretched across the ground on one side of the front yard.  He thought of turning the bike completely off but his sensory array was being powered by the ATV so he left it alone and turned up the volume on his audio alarm.
    Leaving the 700 in the boot attached to the four-wheeler, he unholstered his 44 and unsheathed his knife.  It looked like he was going to have to hack his way in through some of the undergrowth to get to the front door.  After about thirty minutes of work he was able to step on to the first step leading up to the front porch. He was impressed at how well the house was made.  It had withstood the elements and total isolation very well.  The front porch swing was somewhat askew, but that could be due to the fact that one of the limbs from the fallen pine tree had crashed through it.  After cutting his way through to the front door, Marcus sheathed his knife and transferred his 44 to his right hand and tried the door handle with his left.  Surprisingly, the knob turned with relative ease and was unlocked.  Although stiff, the front door opened rather easily. 
    “Lights?”  Marcus said in an almost question.
    Although it seemed there was some slight hesitation, the lights flickered and flashed finally illuminating a large living room. Marcus was thrilled that they still worked.  From the looks of things, he was the first person to be in this house in the last five years. It was dusty and there were some cobwebs around but other than that it was in decent shape. He went from room to room looking for anything useful.  After visiting the kitchen, he knew he was going to have to come back with the truck.  The cabinets and food pantry were fully stocked with an enormous supply of food. 
    About fifty years ago, Pristine Packing had invented a container that would not only preserve food in a perfect state but would also keep it sealed for hundreds of years with no refrigeration and with no preservatives added.  The shelves were lined with these and between the cabinets and food pantry; he thought he could fill up a pickup truck.  It still puzzled him as to how he had missed this treasure trove. Whoever had owned this had hid it with the intention of it staying hid.  It wasn’t on any of the maps he had found in the county seat that were located in the valley.  As he was still checking the cabinets and celebrating his find… all of a sudden the perimeter alarm shrieked to life on the ATV. 
    “Warning! Warning!, Warning!” the sensor array blared through his earpiece and speaker on the ATV.
    Marcus rushed to the front door. He only cracked it open.  The alarm array’s volume was set to gradually rise as the object approaches and he could tell by the volume of the alarm that whatever was coming was moving extremely fast. As he opened the door slightly, he muted the alarm with his remote and