The Mighty Hunter and G.I. Joe

It was early afternoon. The Mighty Hunter and his two boys were just arriving at the Happy Hunting Grounds. The day had be overcast and a touch frigid but now the sun was coming out and the bright rays warmed the pastures.
The hunting party walked the trail back into the woods. Seth was the first one to nestle into his spot. He had a small blind made of hay bales Poppy had carefully stacked for him. As Seth began to prepare his gear and get set up for the wait, the Mighty Hunter and G.I. Joe walked on down the trail.
Next they came to the Old Faithful tree stand. Many a deer have passed by this tree stand. A few have traveled no further. In fact, just that very morning a doe had made the fatal mistake of gazing upward toward Old Faithful to glimpse the final scene she would see in this life.
G.I. Joe decided this would be his post for the afternoon. He scurried up the ladder, rifle slung over his shoulder, and seated himself on the little pad. He busied himself loading his rifle, checking his sights, and doing all those things hunters do as they wait with excited anticipation.
The Mighty Hunter walked on down the trail a bit then passed over to the other side. Crossing a small stream and a thin line of trees, he soon came to an open pasture and the tree stand he had selected as his afternoon abode. The Mighty Hunter did not hurry: the afternoon was still early, the deer would not be out for at least another hour--more than enough time to get set up and have a little chance to think and ponder on life's great mysteries. Up into his tree stand climbed the Mighty Hunter. Up he hoisted his trusty rifle. He settled in his seat and had a look around the area. Still plenty of time, no need to set to work right away. Nothing wrong with taking a few minutes to enjoy the quiet day.
And then there was movement.
Three does walked into the clearing. The Mighty Hunter froze. The does walked along, looking this way and that, snowy white tails flitting back and forth. As the Mighty Hunter watched, the does walked right under his tree stand. While they moseyed around there was another movement in the corner of the pasture. A buck, a b-u-c-k, hot on the trail of the three lovely ladies.
The Mighty Hunter felt his breath quicken, his heart beat a little faster, buck fever was setting in. He raised his rifle, looked down the long scope, found the sweet spot right behind the shoulder of the buck and squeezed his trigger.
The shot went slightly askew, missing the heart and hitting the shoulder instead. The buck jumped and began to run. The Mighty Hunter sighted in with his scope again and shot to put the poor buck out of his misery. But now the buck was in a dead run and it was very difficult to track him with the scope. The next shot missed, barely grazing the running buck on his hip.
The Mighty Hunter was out of ammo. He had not had time to reload his gun and ready it for the hunt. The sudden break in the clouds had brought the deer out early. In desperation he radioed to G.I. Joe, instructing him to quickly bring his gun so that the Mighty Hunter could get another shot into the wounded deer.
G.I. Joe scrambled out of his tree stand and began to run to the Mighty Hunter. As G.I. Joe was on his way, the Mighty Hunter realized that the buck would be out of range. The Mighty Hunter radioed to G.I. Joe, giving him the news that he would have to change course and try to head off the mighty buck: G.I. Joe was on his own.
G.I. Joe quickly swerved around and ran back the way he had come. He passed Old Faithful tree stand and put all the speed he had into every step. He ran almost 100 yards when he saw the bolting buck. G.I. Joe planted his feet, took aim down the sights and pulled the trigger.
The Mighty Hunter, who was coming down the trail behind G.I. Joe heard the shot. He stopped and waited for another shot but none came. The Mighty Hunter picked up his radio and called to G.I. Joe.
There was silence.
Then the reply, G.I. Joe answering the call.
The Mighty Hunter slowed his pace. As he walked, he looked down at the trail beneath his feet and saw a glove laying on the ground. He stooped to pick it up. Inspecting it, the Mighty Hunter realized it was one of G.I. Joe's gloves. He shoved it into his coat pocket and continued on down the trail. After several more steps the Mighty Hunter came upon another glove thrown carelessly on the ground, mate to the first glove, shed in a moment's haste. He picked this glove up from the ground and put it in the same pocket with the first.
Several yards later the Mighty Hunter came to where G.I. Joe was standing over the deer. Everything that had transpired became apparent to him as he neared the boy and his buck: G.I. Joe had raced over a hundred yards in a dead run trying to head off the deer. Finding a good place ahead of the deer as it turned, in an instant G.I. Joe had braced himself in a shooting stance (there was no time to drop to one knee and the grass was too tall for him to see from a crouched position anyway), shouldered his rifle, taken aim at the running buck and made a kill shot to the neck. The buck had dropped as soon as the bullet hit. The Mighty Hunter stood, gazing on the scene in amazement.
All this, and earlier what was G.I. Joe's reply to the Mighty Hunter's radioed question inquiring if he had killed the buck? A casual, "....yeah."
So the three hunters took the deer up to Poppy and Baaboo's house where Joe helped Baaboo clean his buck and made constant "deer zombie" comments and jokes and chased his mom around with his yucky hands.
I guess all that time in front of his Call of Duty game has finally paid off for G.I. Joe!