Feral Hunting

“Romeo 3 this is Base Camp, how copy, over.”

“Copy, Base Camp, we read you.”

“ISR has registered no signatures within a twelve mile radius. You’re clear to advance to the cave entrance, over.”

“Roger, Base Camp, we’re moving now. What’s the status of the other teams?”

“They’re flanking your positions and clearing any potential ambush points.”

“Copy Base Camp, Romeo 3-0 Actual out.”

Our Captain, Kirk turned to the rest of us. “All right, so far our path to the cave is clear. Let’s move while it stays that way.”

“What about the other teams?” asked Mike, our Team Sergeant.

“They’re covering us. Let’s go.”

There were a total of twelve of us, an entire Special Forces ODA. We rode in on Light Tactical All Terrain Vehicles, ten klicks away from other teams. Our Captain was Kirk, a Korean American officer, who’d had previous experience in the Rangers. Our ODA had gone through two Captains before, but Kirk was the only one we really respected and got along with. Mike was the Team Sergeant, a former street kid from the Bronx and had been on two different ODAs and deployed a total of six times. The rest of my team was our Warrant Officer Uriah; The 18B weapons sergeants, KJ and myself; 18C engineer sergeants Marco and Remi; 18D medical sergeants Vic and Robbie; 18E communications sergeants Jay and Lane; and our 18F intelligence sergeant Grady. It was rare that our entire team operated together. Usually when deployed, we split off into two or sometimes more teams. But for this op, every man was needed. Our mission was to hunt and eliminate the feral tribes in the area.

If you don’t know what they are, they are a population of humanoid monsters that live in National parks and many of our forests. Some think that they are Neanderthals, a remnant of a prehistoric race, others think that they are just people who went savage, which I highly doubt. But that’s not our job to find out. Our job is to kill them when they begin posing a real threat to humans. These feral tribes are mostly contained by our government and military, though even our superiors have admitted that they’re not sure exactly how many of them are.

This particular tribe was responsible for abducting and presumably killing a family of five that had unknowingly camped just outside their territory. This marked the third time in the past two months that they have gone outside their known territory and have actively attacked civilians. Whenever the government decides that these tribes have crossed the line, SOF units like ours are called in for search and destroy operations. We go in, and take out as many of them as possible, find their lairs, and clear ‘em out.

Jay was acting as our sniper, having done additional training and worked with me and KJ. We would be acting as support gunners. We moved along in formation, checking all around us. I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of movement. The ferals were excellent at blending in with the surrounding environment, and if not careful, they’d have us surrounded in a perfect ambush. It’s happened to other teams. On one operation, a SEAL team took heavy casualties after falling into one of these traps.

“Relax. If they ambush us, it’ll be when we’re much closer,” said Uriah, who looked much more relaxed. “Why are they wasting our time with this?” complained KJ, who was lazily holding his M249 SAW, “These things are animals. What can they actually do, like really?” “That’s not our job,” said Mike, who kept walking without looking back at KJ, “What our job is, is to find and kill the ferals, and then go home.” “They also fucking eat people,” added Vic, “Including kids. That’s enough reason for me.”

Suddenly Kirk held his fist up, signaling for us to stop. We all took a knee and looked at Kirk. He was looking at something on the ground closely. He then turned to Uriah, who crept over to look at it, and the two then turned to Marco and Remi, gesturing for them to come over. I watched as the two also marched over and looked down. Kirk then turned to the rest of us. “Everyone stay where you are, we got possible booby traps.” The rest of us kept our eyes on our surroundings, and as my eyes scanned the brush, through my NODS I came across some movement. I froze and raised my suppressed rifle, looking through the scope. At first I saw nothing, then I came across what looked like a pair of small lights. Like…eyes. Was it an animal? Or a feral? The pair of eyes just stared back at me, not moving. I clicked the safety off my weapon and rested my finger close to the trigger. I glanced to my left and right, and saw that Vic was closest to me. “Psst. Hey, Vic,” I hissed. Vic looked at me, and I gestured to the direction I was looking. Vic shuffled a few steps closer to me and looked through his scope. “You see it?” I whispered. He says and does nothing at first, then nods. “Yeah, I got multiple contacts.” I turned back and sure enough, I saw multiple pairs of eyes moving slowly through the brush.

“Ferals?” I asked. Vic shrugged. “Hard to tell, it could be animals, could be ferals, could be nothing.” I looked in the direction of where Kirk was overseeing our two 18 Charlies tampering with the traps. “Should we tell Kirk?” I asked. Vic paused, then nodded. “Yeah. Call it in.” “Romeo 3 Actual, we have possible movement on our three o’ clock, over,” I whispered into my comms, my eyes still trained on whatever was hiding in the brush. “Copy that. Move back a little, but keep your eyes on ‘em. Don’t engage unless engaged. We cannot give away our position yet.” I backed away a little slowly, and this time I saw the eyes move a little. I heard a crack, followed by Marco saying “Traps disabled.”

“All right, we’re clear, move up.”

We got up and began moving, but not before I saw the eyes vanish, as if whatever it was had turned away. “Anything?” Kirk asked me. “Whatever it was, it vanished not long after Marco disabled the traps. If it’s ferals, we might have just narrowly avoided an ambush,” I answered. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath as we kept moving.

“Romeo 3 this is Base Camp. Be advised Echo 21 has troops in contact with the ferals. Our cover is blown, they know of our presence, over.”

“This is Romeo 3 Actual, copy that. We are eight klicks away from the cave, and disabled a trap laid out for us. Over.”

“Understood. Base Camp out.”

As we continued moving, we heard loud screeching and other sounds that I could not describe. Base Camp was right. The ferals knew that their territory had been invaded. Finally, we reached the cave, which was a large opening in the side of a cliff. To get to it we would need to use climbing equipment, and scale the cliffside. It was because we were a mountain ODA that we were chosen to assault the cave.

“This is Romeo 3, we are at the cave, preparing to make entry.”

“Understood, Romeo 3.”

Kirk turned to us. “All right, grab your gear we’re moving-!” He was cut off by a loud, inhuman scream, and a large figure jumped out from the bushes and threw a large tomahawk. It struck Remi in the face, the impact making a sickening crunch. Remi’s head flew back, and he crumpled to the ground.

“Shit! Contact!”

The figure wore nothing but a loincloth, was muscular, and an animal skull that covered its head. Its exposed mouth had large, crooked teeth. I raised my weapon and fired a five round burst into its chest, taking it to the ground. Despite their numbers and animalistic aggression, the feral were not bulletproof. Robbie went to drag Remi to safety as more of the ferals emerged. Another feral with a similar appearance pulled out a bow that was made out of bones and fired a shot at us, which narrowly missed Kirk’s head. KJ readied his SAW and began laying down suppressive fire. The ferals that weren’t gunned down scattered back into the brush. Grady was taken to the ground by a smaller feral that had been camouflaged in the brush. It viciously tore into him, attempting to tear him apart limb from limb. Grady screamed and pulled his pistol putting three rounds into its head. The feral fell down dead, but the damage was done, leaving Grady with extensive wounds and blood loss. Vic rushed over and began tending to him, leaving him exposed. I covered him, opening fire at any feral that got close. Kirk ran up behind us and tapped me on the shoulder. “On me! I need a team to go inside that cave!” Kirk yelled, before turning to Vic. “You good here?” he asked, to which Vic nodded. “Yeah, I got ‘em! Go!” I followed Kirk, as well as Mike, Marco, and Lane.

We got out our climbing gear and anchored our lines to the mouth of the cave. We attached ourselves and began climbing up. I could hear the other half of our team covering us, KJ laying down fire with his SAW. I heard Lane fire a 40mm grenade. We reached the cave entrance and unhooked ourselves. I reloaded my weapon and we entered the cave. “This is Romeo 3, I have a five man team with me, we’re entering the cave. The other half are pulling security. Over.”

“Roger that, Romeo 3.”

I took point and proceeded further into the cave first, followed by Kirk, Lane, Marco, and Mike. Through our night vision I navigated the cave tunnels. I could hear rustling and animal-like noises echoing all around us. I braced for contact, and sure enough, as we rounded the corner into the next tunnel, a large feral came running at us. This one looked like it was just under six feet, but it was lean and nimble, running at me on all fours like a wild animal. Its face looked vaguely human, with what looked like animal teeth protruding from its mouth. I shot it in the face and chest multiple times, sending it crumpling to the ground. The next tunnel led us into a large space with a firepit. We fanned out, and we raised our NODs, adjusting our eyes to the light. There we saw four more ferals staring at us, hunched over the corpses of several people. The ferals snarled and charged, but we gunned them all down, with five round bursts. We heard whimpering and crying, and we quickly realized we were surrounded by makeshift cages that had men, women, and children in them. We had found the ferals’ food storage. They had shown signs of physical abuse, though they were not malnourished, which indicated that the ferals were to an extent keeping them fed. “Shit man,” muttered Lane.

“Base Camp this is Romeo 3 Actual, we’ve located a little over a dozen civilians.”

“Copy Actual. Be advised, medical units are spread out thin assisting the other teams.”

“Roger that.”

Kirk switched to talk to Vic. “Vic, We got over a dozen civilians here. I’m sending them to you now.”

There was static, then Vic’s voice barely came through.”

“Copy. We’re holding position. Be advised we’re down to four men out here! Uriah took an arrow to the face.”

Kirk cursed under his breath, then continued. “Understood.” We worked on opening all the cages and told the civilians that we were leaving. They were more than eager to leave. “I can lead them out to the cave entrance,” offered Mike. “All right. Go. The rest of us, we’ll cover you and continue clearing the cave.” As Mike led the way out, the rest of us continued moving. We passed through another open space, where the skinned, mutilated bodies of both people and animals were hanging from the ceiling. “Aw, son of a bitch,” I coughed. “Savages,” muttered Lane. “Stay sharp,” Kirk hissed. The opening at the end of the room was slightly more narrow. Lane went through first followed by myself, then Kirk, then Marco. As Lane made entry, a large tomahawk swung down and caught him on his collarbone. “Shit!” I yelled, backing up. A large feral lifted up Lane, who was still attached to the tomahawk. Lane let out gurgled screams as the feral ripped the tomahawk out and struck him over and over, making sickening crunching sounds. I raised my weapon and blasted the creature. The feral let out a strange, squealing sound, almost like a pig, and turned to face me. This feral looked different.

It was taller, muscular, with a large human skull attached to its face, as well as deer antlers on its head. Attached to its right hand was a long blade that looked like it had been carved out of bone. Draped around its back were animal skins, and a strange symbol that looked to have been carved into its chest. It roared and charged. We backed up and I fired my weapon desperately trying to take it down. As I tried to reload, it kicked me hard in the chest sending me flying backwards. Marco helped me to my feet as it charged at us. It swung its bladed arm at Marco and I. Marco ducked and fired his weapon at its legs, hitting its knees and shins. The feral screamed and fell to its knees, blood pooling. But this one was strong. It grabbed the barrel of Marco’s weapon and swung him into a wall. Kirk and I emptied our mags into the feral, finally bringing it down. “Marco you good?” Kirk asks. Marco coughs and get to his feet. “Yup. Just great.” We moved through the narrow passage and entered the next room where we saw Lane’s corpse. “Damn it,” Kirk said, going to grab his dog tags. With our NODs back on, I looked around the room which I noticed looked to be some kind of throne room. There was a large seat made out of bones with symbols and what looked like trophies decorating the walls.

“This is Romeo 3 Actual, the cave is clear, over.”

“Roger that, Actual, extraction is on its way.”

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

The three of us moved, taking Lane’s body with us. “Mike we are heading your way, ETA ten minutes!” Kirk alerted Mike over comms.

“Copy that, holding position.”

When we reached the cave entrance, Mike was on one knee. “Shit, is that Lane?” he asked. “Yeah. The big one cut him down.”

Mike paused before speaking again. “Civilians are secure. Vic and the others put the ferals on their heels. Uriah and Remi didn’t make it, Grady’s hanging on by a thread. Vic’s wounded too, but he’ll live.”

Kirk sighed before speaking again, “Roger that. What’s the status on our extraction?”

“ETA ten minutes.”

“Copy that.”

We lowered ourselves out of the cave with our climbing gear, and joined the rest of the team. Robbie had gotten Grady’s wounds secured, but he still needed an immediate medevac. Remi and Uriah were already on stretchers, their bodies covered. A few minutes later two UH-60 Black Hawks landed. We loaded all the civilians onboard, including our dead and wounded. The rest of us were going to hike back to our vehicles and head back to base camp. The Ferals did not even attempt to attack us. It seemed like we gave them an effective show of force. We reached our vehicles and made our way back to Base Camp, which was a complex of tents filled with federal agents, armed security and other government personnel. We saw the other two teams arrive too, and neither were in one piece. Like us they had wounded and KIAs. We walked into one of the tents, where our commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ramsey, was sitting, talking to a female federal agent. “Colonel,” Kirk said. He turned around and nodded to us.

“Gentlemen. You boys did a helluva job. The feds declare the op successful. The ones who killed little Jamie and his parents did not make it through the night. Get some rest, then we’re packing up and leaving.”

“What about the other ferals?” Kirk asked. “We didn’t get all of them.”

Ramsey shook his head. “Don’t need to worry about that. We got enough of them, the rest will just find a new place to stay.”

Mike gave a scoff. “Sir, with all due respect, why the fuck don’t we just kill them all? Why only get them when they kill American citizens?”

Ramsey looked at us, then shook his head. “That’s above your boys’ pay grade. Sorry.”

With that, we left the tent to go back to our quarters. As we did, we saw agents moving stretchers with the bodies of Ferals that had been killed. “Where do you think they’re going?” asked Jay.

Kirk shook his head. “Above our fucking pay grades.”

Credit: GhostShogun28

Please note the author of this Creepypasta does NOT give permissions for any recordings to be made of this story