Sheyla centered the narrow pip on the distant target and carefully squeezed the trigger. She was rewarded with the view of the white of one startled eye as the natural prescience of the massive buck made it aware of its own imminent demise a split-second before oblivion arrived. No thought came from the huge creatures brains as they exited the back part of its cranium and the neck was whip-cracked trying to hold on to the huge drag the tiny bullet made on its supersonic way through meat, gristle and bone. The stag took one un-knowing step before its body realized there was nothing controlling it and the creature staggered as it sank onto its haunches and finally keeled over.
 She waited the requisite five minutes for any unexpected predator or vengeful host to appear and make all her work for naught. As she scanned the area through her scope for one minute longer,just for good measure,and was able to see the tiny movement that surely saved her life at the periphery of her vision. Just as she was about to lift the scope away- an unnatural branch movement caught her eye and she centered on it. She increased magnification and switched to her low-light filter, finally able to make out the humanoid figure partially obscured by the underbrush. These were the real opportunistic hunters, she had likely interrupted this one’s kill and it was now hoping to bring back a prize better than it originally sought. The lack of distinction these creatures made between human and animal meat was the lesser consideration for Sheyla behind the fact that her weapon placed in the wrong hands could have been disastrous for the convoy.
  The Wasters, as she and her companions referred to them, were much more dangerous than mere animals given the fact that they understood hunting tactics and weaponry on a human level but were often as strong at hunting, tracking and killing as their animal counterparts. This was evidenced by the fact that this one had been lying in wait so close to its intended victim that it was likely splattered by gore and close enough to touch the cooling carcass recently deposited where it lay. As she watched, the Waster withdrew further into the bush, he moved so slowly and with so little disturbance to his immediate environment that she would not have beleived anyone was there if she had not seen it with her own eyes. Since this was not a standard hunting party she could not just go over there in force and roll over the opposition, taking their kill with them as she normally would. It was only herself and Malsh about 100 miles from the nearest camp. She looked inward and concentrated on his bead, she soon received an answering pulse and a tenuous connection. He seemed like he sounded far away, so he must have been concentrating on something else since he was literally only about 10 miles away on her backtrail.
~ There are wasters here at the kill, I almost walked right into an ambush!!~
His response came faintly:
~ Shit! There are Wasters filling in our backtrail too….could they have been waiting for us?~
~ I don’t know, but this one waited longer than normal to make any movement and it was only by luck and providence that I noticed him. I think we need to give up dinner and make ourselves scarce. It is obvious that they want something from us and I do not want to stand and talk it out with them…do you have any more “surprises” left?~
~Yup, I have 2 more, do you want one?~
~Yes, leave one for your visitors and come forward to meet about 5 miles on the trail (she sent an image of the windworn oak she intended to set up in).~
  It was better to leave 2 mines in separate places so that if any survivors existed to tell the ambush party forward it would be too late. It was disturbing, though, that these Wasters were not following standard operating procedure. This was something she would have to tell Premo about, “And our tactics will then have to change to compensate.” she thought ruefully. The bastards were finally learning!
  A few minutes later she was hidden behind behind the bole of the oak, obscured by branches when Malsh came moving gingerly down the trail, weapon at the ready. She gave him a mental heads up and he brought his eyes up directly to hers. They continued communication through mindspeak to save their breath and minimize the noise of movement. Sheyla took the inert explosive and proximity detonator and set it up to cover the trail as well as 50 feet of surrounding foliage. These were expensive toys and had still been in the testing phase when the Cataclysm came, but they were very effective and served the purpose of throwing any persistent hunter off their trail. The last thing they wanted to do was to bring a band of savage Wasters directly into camp.