Date: February-2020_
Place: Puducherry_Border_
The 2020 New Year can be recorded as the most underwhelming New Year since the start of the current generation calendar. No one cared to celebrate New Year in the current circumstances. Many just noted the date just to mark the passing of time.
It has been more than two months since their group decided to head towards Villupuram District. Along the way there they met several similar groups who also decided to travel towards Villupuram. They joined together and traveled, as there is strength in numbers. As the numbers increased, the group knew that searching for a temporary place to settle on would not be a fitting decision.
So the group decided to search for an apt place for farming around the area and occupy it. Since there is no government no one is going to question them if they illegally occupy a place. Only by self-sustaining can they live to face any problems that may arise in the future.
They searched and occupied all the nearby fields no matter whether they have owner or not. Those with owners were convinced to join the settlement and were given considerable status within as not everyone could cultivate just by occupying a land. These people were there to guide and teach others in properly cultivating the field.
People or groups who were traveling in search of food or searching for a place to stay joined the settlement in hopes of returning to their former lives. After two months the population of the settlement rose to nearly ten thousand. As the numbers increased the need for the proper governing body was naturally needed.
Since the council system was in use for some time, it was further elaborated and defined to suit the current situation. For every hundred people a representative is selected, they were mostly leaders of their former groups and were responsible for their group of hundred. For every thousand people they elected representative heads who monitored the ten representatives below them and finally, there was a council head along with two vice-heads who were responsible for the whole settlement.
In total, the council had 113 members as a whole. The council held their meetings in their council hall and each member had their own allocated number of votes. The representatives have a single vote, representative heads have 5 votes, vice heads have 15 votes and council heads have 40 votes. And all the major decisions were decided by the voting method.
This council acts as the main governing body of the settlement. There are also two more administrative bodies that directly come under the council they were the Police administration and the Farming Council.
Police departments were responsible for maintaining the order of the settlement. They patrol the area at night and guard the border of the settlement-occupied area. They were also responsible for procuring anything from outside the settlement. So most of the Hunters also hid in the Police administration.
Then finally the Farming Council, as food is an important resource for all, the council took the responsibility of farming into their hands. Most of the members in the power of the Farming Council were former farm owners. They guided all the people responsible for farming and were responsible for meeting the settlement's food needs.
Mohan also joined the Police department and was one of the hunters hidden in the department. And it is considered taboo among the hunters to speak of their cannibalistic actions in public. Even the hunters themselves don't know whether the other person is a hunter or not. Only if the other person opens up or someone chances upon them in action will it be known to others.
The police department also does its periodic scouting of the surrounding area and expands the area under the control of the settlement. Mohan is among the scouting members responsible for the expansion of the settlement.
Taking advantage of being a scouting member, Mohan's hunt continued. He killed a total of 20 morphs in the two-month period which may seem like a small number. But of the 20, there were two powerful morph leaders who both led a group of morphs on their own. It is by hunting both of these groups he got 20 kill count.
These morph leaders were both 1% morphs. They were those who hunted at least fifteen humans of their own. Their group members also ate a variable number of humans.
His first encounter with one of these groups of morphs was by an accident. In one of his usual scouting around the area, he heard a distant cry for help, he rushed in that direction and saw there was a complete slaughter of a group of five people from his settlement who went in search of medical items and medicines, by a group of eleven morphs lead by a much more powerful morph. Although Mohan was confident in soloing against a leader of the morphs, he was not confident in tackling a group of morphs on his own. He couldn't save them so fled the area before he was noticed by the morphs.
He reported the incident to the council, to which they immediately took action as they can't tolerate any kind of morph activity near the settlement. A team of members from the Police department was immediately arranged to set off. The decision to carry out this operation fell in Mohan's hands as he was in the spot when the incident happened and was also one of the experienced scouts in the department.
Mohan called for Ramesh to be one of the members of the team as he already changed to being a hunter. He was also one of the few council members who were also part of the Police Department hence he knew many people from both circles of people, he also knew some of the hunters in the department. With Ramesh's help team of six was created including Mohan.
Karthik a young man in his late twenties who was formerly an IT employee, Gopal who was actually a former police officer in his 40s was also like Ramesh who was both a Council member and in the Police department, Santhosh former electrician in his early 30s, Nisha formerly an Arts college student in her early 20s and Gouthami in her 40s, was housewife formerly was also like Ramesh and Gopal a dual member.
It is usually hard to find female members in most of the important positions in the newly formed society after the 'DESCENT OF DARK' incident. But there are two female members in this team prepared for the hunt. These people were not normal members of the Police Department but were the Hunters who eat their game, in this case, the game being formerly human now morphs.
This came as a shock to Mohan as he didn't expect the women also resort to cannibalism. And Nisha was also a scout like him. It seems that having the same stereotypical idea about the female gender from before would be a mistake on his part.
After the team of Hunters was prepared they named their team as 'Hunters'. Mohan was assigned as the leader of the team as he was the strongest and only 1% Hunter among them. It was comical from an outsider's viewpoint, as all the members were at least a decade old adults while he is not even 18 years old yet. They set out for their first major hunt as official Hunters.