Charlie was astonished.
"Jim, Vox, why?"
He couldn't understand. No matter how he saw it, this just felt like Wilson's two friends abandoning Wilson. Okay, maybe just one. Wilson and Vox were very easily not friends. They just remained friendly towards each other. But as for Jim... Charlie turned to Bar.
"Bar, why didn't you say anything?" He asked the famous bar owner.
"Come on Charlie. We both know that I have very little say in the matter. And frankly speaking, this is even less of my business than it is Vox's. Even then, I still did what I could to help, didn't I?"
Charlie could not help but admit that the man had a point. He faced Jim once more.
"But Jim. You could have done better, couldn't you?"
"Nope!" Jim said. "That one is completely his cross to carry and we are not all that close anyway."
That earned Jim a nasty glare.
"Is that really what you think?" Charlie asked.
Jim hesitated a little before responding, "Yes."
"That's what you really think?"
"That's what I know."
Charlie opened his mouth but no words came out. He closed it back and looked down at his huge cup of frothy beer. He stared quietly at it for a minute or so, then he turned back and said:
"Perhaps, it is good that he is not around ungrateful people like you."
He stood up and took his leave, exiting the shop.
"Where are you going?" Jim asked.
"I would rather live in the forest, hunted for the rest of my life than stay friends with you, Jim."
Jim and Vox and Bar looked at one another.
"Why is he so edgy?" Jim asked unable to understand.
"Because he is true to himself and you are being hypocritical." Bar said and Vox supported.
"Wilson was your friend. You should not have said something like that simply because he isn't here. I mean, he did save your life a couple times, didn't he?"
"And at the expense of his at that." Bar chipped in.
"It was enough to just say something like; 'we did what we could for him', but you went ahead to say such things simply because he was nowhere in sight. Now, not only have we lost a loyal friend like Wilson but we also won't be seeing Charlie again. That I am sure of."
"Why?" Jim asked. Vox and Bar looked each other in the eye and Vox answered.
"Because I would do the same if I were him."
Jim looked at Vox and shrugged his shoulders. He relaxed his back on a chair and said something that shocked them.
"He do him, I do me! I still don't think I did anything wrong." Jim said, crossing his legs.
Jim didn't think he did nothing wrong?
Bar was really vexed by it, "That does it! Jim, from now henceforth, you are banned from Barnes Bar."
"What?"
"Leave and never come back. I don't want an ungrateful, hypocritical asshole like you loitering around my premises anymore. Move it!"
**********
Wilson ran and hid all around the forest for hours. He could barely find any respite because just when he thought he could have a short rest, one or two or sometimes even three of the bounty hunters would find him and so, without having rested, he would have no choice but to run away again. Oh, how he tried to hide; on trees, hidden between the leaves, on the ground behind the fell logs of wood and dry leaves and even once dug a small ditch to try hide himself but only ended up burying himself and almost got stomped and stabbed to death.
The only two things that gave him the slightest of respites was; one, the fact that most of the bounty hunters were hostile to one another and were competing within themselves to get the kill and get the pay. The highest number of people in a group was three and it was only one group. The others were solo hunters and duos. And the second reason was the mere vastness of the forest itself. Since everyone had their own thoughts, they all went separate ways in search of the person and even though Wilson frequently met with some or the other, they were not likely to make a noise to attract the other hunters. Instead, they would confidently go after Wilson and Wilson, depending on who the hunters were and how many they were either fought or fled.
By noon, he had already reduced the hunters to twenty-four minus seven. He was surprised at how easy some of them actually were to kill. Many times, he wondered to himself where these people's confidence came from if they were so weak, inexperienced or simply oddly unskilled and overconfident and reliant on tech (which by the way, was not even that Hi-Tech. Just on the okay level). What he did not know was that the high bounty price on Dash and Sofia's heads were still a little too low to the real pros and hence, thought it was still not worth their time. In a few months time, if the targets were still alive and well, they knew the price would have, at the very least, tripled in price.Now that will be worth their time. Until then, the novices could try their luck. The more bounty hunters that died, the less the potential competition they had and the better for them.
Wilson grabbed the bleeding head of a teenager who looked like she was just reaching puberty and squashed it.
'What was she even thinking, coming to hunt people?' Wilson was puzzled. It didn't make sense to him why anyone would send little kids to do such terrible jobs. He looked at the girl. She was more skilled than he was; with the guns and knives attached to ropes. Sincerely speaking, even though Wilson had ambushed her, he had almost died. Only teeth and grit and his trusty instincts kept him alive and safe from fatal injuries but he also owed a lot to the girl's lack of experience in a life and death scenario. Even then, even at the brink of death, she still had that angry glare in her eyes. If she had looked scared, Wilson would not have been able squash her head, but with the girl's glare that told Wilson 'I will kill you if you don't kill me', the latter had no problem with his conscience. After all, even when he grabbed her, she still snuck in a few stabs and cuts.
As soon as Wilson confirmed her dead, he looked around for a spatial anything and found none. So, with him bleeding out, he took some mid-level potions out of a ring he had pillaged from one of the hunters he had killed prior to this time. That one didn't even look like a killer but he shot Wilson as soon as he saw him and the vexed Wilson broke his neck in one punch.
Wilson's wounds healed instantly and using the stamina potion had helped him regain his strength. Quickly, after a ten minutes rest, he stood up again and began moving. At this point, his only thought was to survive and hunt. In his head, he was back in that forest that Old man Jenkins had left him in.
The only difference was what or rather who he was hunting. Other than that, the rule remained the same; Hunt and Survive!