midnight
Whole families of mutants were streaming out of the city , seeking the protection of the mountains until the frenzy of the Hunt was over . Barrent attached himself to one of these groups , and soon he found himself a mile past Tetrahyde , in the low foothills that curled in a semicircle around the city . The mutants stopped here and made their camp . Barrent went on , and by midnight he was starting up the rocky , windswept slope of one of the higher mountains . He was hungry , but the cool , clear air was exhilarating . He began to believe that he really would live through the Hunt . He heard a noisy group of Hunters making a sweep around the mountain .