A Rational Zombie

The first prey escaped. The second prey died. The third prey died too. The two screamed a lot. They drew the attention of everything outside. There wasn’t anyone to block my view. The corpses of the dead prey only piled halfway up the doorframe. Outside, it wasn’t a good situation for the others. Somehow, the others managed to get inside the group of prey; it looked like there was a gap in their line of shields. But it didn’t matter. There were so few left, not even double the prey’s numbers. Though, there were significantly less prey compared to the start. Not all of them were wearing armor. There were some wearing thin cloths. They must be the ones that came from the burning building; the contained prey that I suspect are kept around to be eaten at a later time.

I don’t think I have to fight sixty prey. Maybe forty now. Or even thirty. It’s hard to get a count. But it’s still a lot. Fighting four prey, I received two injuries. They don’t hamper me. But if I continue at this rate, I might be disabled by the end of this. Not to mention the strong prey is still inside the building. What is it doing? Whatever it is, I hope it takes up a lot of time. For now, I’ll use my bow. Aim to hit as many armored prey as I can. The arrows are more effective on unarmored prey. But so are my knives. It’s better to weaken the strongest prey.

“Watch your backs! The smart infected is shooting arrows again!”

“Even if you say that, what are we supposed to do!?”

I released my arrow, hitting a prey that was distracted by an other. The two were pushing against each other, maintaining a delicate balance. I completely destroyed it. But even though the prey fell down, the other climbing on top, the prey with the spear behind them stabbed the other, killing it. It’s a shame the prey didn’t die. But at least it’s injured.

The others are dying too quickly. The leader of the prey didn’t give any orders to stop me. It must’ve realized I couldn’t shoot many arrows before they finished killing all the others. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. By the time the last other died, I shot my ninth arrow. Eight of them hit. Two of them missed. My accuracy improved. It’s hard to miss when the targets are clumped together. But now, there aren’t anymore others to distract the prey. They’re grouping up, all of them facing the building I’m in.

A few split off of the group. Like the prey said before, the windows are another entrance. I should’ve placed spikes underneath them. But I hadn’t considered prey coming in through the windows. I was in too much of a hurry to attack the prey while the others were still around. Now, it’s too late. I should move, find a different room, one without windows, with a door. I don’t believe the prey will use fire to force me out. They don’t want their buildings to burn. But I don’t know if such a room exists. I could’ve explored the building. But I was afraid the prey would follow me in. Staying at the chokepoint was the smart thing to do. If only there were two of me, one to explore, one to guard. But that’s not possible.

“What’s the plan, Chief?”

The chief said something. But I couldn’t hear. Then, the prey that asked mumbled as well. They know I can understand them. They’re not going to let me listen anymore. A shame. What do I do? This chokepoint is very good; there’s already three bodies piled up, making it even harder for prey to approach. As long as I use my spear to keep the prey from taking the bodies away, they should buy enough time for me to fight the ones coming through the window. But five of them peeled off from the group. If they all come at once, there’s nothing I can do. They’ll corner me. And the only way out will be through the door. Then…, should I find the window the prey is coming from? While they’re climbing into the building, they’ll be easy to attack. But then the prey will come from behind if I leave this position. I’m in bad spot. I’ll have to explore the building, see if I can find a room with only a door.

“Shields! Raise your shields!”

What? Why? The prey outside were screaming. Were those arrows? They weren’t facing me. The shield were raised the other way.

“Shit! Who the fuck are you!? Why are you shooting us!?”

I couldn’t see beyond the group of prey. Who was shooting them?

“Shut up! You fucking bastards killed my daughter! Keep firing!”

Internal conflict between prey? I’ve killed others to prevent them from eating. It’s no surprise prey can do the same. It seems like these prey killed someone they shouldn’t have. And the other group wants revenge. How convenient.

“Your daughter? Who the hell are you!?” The prey were hiding behind their shields. The prey with the spears were hiding behind the prey with the shields. The few prey that ran away from the group were shot by arrows.

“Don’t play dumb, fucking evil bastards!”

“Wait! Aren’t you the leader of the Treehouse? I’m the chief of the garrison! Haven’t we always had a good relationship?”

“Motherfucker, it was you! Everyone, focus fire on their chief!”

These new prey seem a lot more intimidating than the prey I was just fighting against. Even if all the old prey die, I’ll have to fight the new prey to survive.

“Who killed your daughter!? I’ve been researching the cure for the past few months! I’ve never left the garrison in that time!”

“Still playing dumb!? Want to act like you have the cure!? You gave us hope, told us to come to the garrison, enter through the southern road! What the hell did we find there? Fucking caltrops! Caltrops scattered everywhere! My poor Amy didn’t notice and drove right over them and crashed into a tree! You’re luring people to the garrison with the promise of the cure just to kill them all!”

The southern road. Oh. Are these the prey on the motorcycles that I heard? I scattered the metal spikes to stop them. It seems like I managed to kill one of them. But they still arrived. There seems to be a misunderstanding though?

“Wait! Caltrops? We didn’t scatter any caltrops. And I really did discover the cure.”

“Shut up! Men, what’s our motto!?”

“Blood for blood!”

The prey are loud. But not too loud. If all of them shouted, maybe there’s a little over ten of them? That’s not too many. Arrows flew through the air. Yes, there was at least ten of them, no more than twenty. Unless some of them didn’t have bows.

“Stop! I swear to you, we really didn’t trap the road!”

“Chief, you can’t reason with junkies!”

“But fighting them is retarded! This is a misunderstanding; we can still talk it out!”

“Blood for blood!”

“I don’t think they want to talk, Chief.”