A Rational Zombie

Chapter 68

What are the prey doing? Arguing? Fighting each other? Why does one prey have a woodcutting tool? There arent any trees nearby. The prey in the middle stopped moving. Its lying down. It looks like its about to be butchered. Maybe prey do eat prey after all? Or the prey are going to cut it to pieces, use it to distract the others while they achieve their goal. What exactly is their goal? Im not sure anymore. All theyve done so far is try to kill me. Its odd. Prey run from others. Why would they come here? Unless, they want to turn into others?

Theres only two prey left. Its not as dangerous to observe them. Ill let them be, see what they do. If they leave, do I follow? Theyre both wounded, their mobility hampered. If I follow them, I can flee if they chase. But the prey with the bow is the issue. Without my cover, Ill die. Im not as strong as the big prey either; I cant carry around a dead prey as a shield. Cant I use other things as a shield? If I carried the fence with me, it might work. But the fence is stuck in the ground, keeping the others back. There arent any large pieces of wood I can move easily. The beds inside the building? No. But do I need wood? I can copy the prey, cant I? They crouched, using their bags to shield themselves. I have a bag too, filled with meat. It should be enough to block arrows.

If I follow the prey, Ill discover where they live, find more prey to hunt. But theyll notice me following them. Will they still retreat to their camp? And they might have black boxes, able to talk with the prey in their camp. Theyll be ready for me ahead of time. Preparation is key; if they fortify their camp, theres no way I can kill them without others with me. And I cant call others to come if Im following the prey; theyll attack on sight, get killed by the prey or kill the prey. Either option isnt good. Its a risk. If I follow the prey, Ill find their camp, maybe discover where prey come from, unearth an infinite supply of food. Or I die. Is food more important than living? Without food, I cant live. But food isnt a problem for me right now. I have lots of meat in my bag. I have lots of meat being smoked. I have lots of meat to process. If the prey leave now, leaving their dead companions behind, thats another three bodies. Three bodies can last me many days.

But before I can decide whether to follow the prey, the prey have to leave. Theyre still in the same place. Arguing. The big one still has its hands on the dead prey, ready to block any arrows I shoot. The other prey is holding the woodcutting tool, pointing the metal end at the big one. They were coordinated when they first came, working together, not fleeing upon the first death. But now, theyve fallen apart. As expected of prey. But what was keeping them from fighting before? Is it because of the death of the third prey? Too many things have happened; I cant know the cause. Maybe the big one was unsatisfied with the smaller one. It failed to kill me many times. Is the big one upset about that? I kill others when they annoy me, get in my way. Whats to stop prey from doing the same? They already abandon each other to live. Thats the same thing as killing one another.

And theyre fighting. The small one attacked the big one with the woodcutting tool. But the big one blocked it with the dead body. It dropped the body, taking the metal stick from between its back and its bag. Two prey came with spears. Two came with bows. The big one came with a stick. The smaller prey is retreating, drawing distance from the big one. But the big one is limping after it. Theyre both limping. And shouting. Theyre too far to hear their words clearly. But I can hear the tones. One is terrified. The other is aggressive.

Im being ignored. Do I shoot my last arrow? No, theres no need. Theyre weakening each other. Getting further away. Is this a trick? Are they pretending to kill each other to escape? Prey are sneaky. But I dont think its a trick. The big one knocked the woodcutting tool out of the smaller ones hand. It seems like the metal stick is superior. No, the big preys superior. It doesnt matter which weapon either has; the big one wins. Why arent I as big as it? Its not fair.

The smaller prey turned around. Its running. Limping and running. But the big one isnt chasing. Its coming back, back to the two dead prey on the ground. Their bags, its going through them. What is it taking? Food? Weapons? Its wary of me, watching while searching. It thinks Im going to shoot it. But can it see behind itself? The smaller prey, it stopped, came back. It drew its bow, loaded its arrow. But its not pointed at me. Its aiming for the big one. Why? Didnt it already escape? It came back to shoot the big one. For what? Im too far to hear the preys bow. But I saw it fire, its arrow hitting the big ones leg. The big one turned around. The smaller one shot another arrow. It hit the big ones torso. The big one grabbed a bag, held it out in front of itself. But its too big. The smaller prey shot another arrow, shooting past the bag, still hitting the big ones body.

The smaller ones walking back. It readied another arrow. The big one cant move, both its legs injured. Theyre shouting again. Did they come to an agreement? The smaller one lowered its bow. The big one threw the two bags over. The smaller one approached, slowly. It stopped in front of the bags, took them, walked backwards while wary, watching the big one. And me. Did it just want the things inside the bag? Im curious now. Whats inside of them? They must be important, important enough for the prey to kill each other over. But now theres just one prey. One injured prey thats fleeing. The big one, it cant stop me. One injured prey. I dont need to hunt it. Theres plenty of food already. But I want to know, whats in the bags?