A Rational Zombie

Chapter 120

The conflicts over. The prey arent fighting anymore. Im not sure who won: the new prey or the old prey. I find a building to hide in, one of the ones I hadnt set on fire. After the fight, the prey would use those buildings again since they were precious enough to save. Id be bad if I got caught. But Im not sure what to do now. This room is nice. Theres no window. Theres one door. Its a chokepoint. And the room is small enough that even if the prey force me back, only two or three more can come in. But they wont have room to maneuver. Theres clothes hanging from two poles, lining the side of the room. It seems to be a storage unit. If prey do come, therell probably only be one. The building was a small one in the first place.

For now, I wait. I have food. Rushing into the prey now, its a bad idea. Theyve just fought. Their tensions are high, expecting more things to come try and kill them. Its better to wait until a prey arrives. When it feels safe, unguarded. At the time it feels the safest, Ill ambush it. Unlike me, prey dont have others to order around. I can make sure a building is safe by sending the others through. Prey cant do that. They have to search buildings by themselves. Would that mean prey are always guarded? Im not sure. But even if a prey is on guard, even if theres more than one, with this chokepoint, I have a fair chance of survival. Until the prey burn the building down to force me out.

But until that happens, Ill wait here. Theres nowhere else to go. Without distractions, the prey will notice me right away if I go outside. Others can tell me apart from prey despite how I look. Prey should be able to do the same. I think. There were times when prey tried to talk to me like I was a prey. Maybe, Ill kill a prey, switch to what its wearing, then sneak out. But once a prey tries to talk to me, Ill be exposed. This is tough. I dont like the situation Im in. Why is surviving so hard? Because prey are trying their hardest to survive too.

But still, waiting like this without being able to set traps. It feels like Im wasting time. But what can I do? The only things inside this room are the clothes hanging from the poles. How are they hanging? With these triangular shaped things with hooks on them. It seems unnatural, not something thatd grow on trees like a rope. Were these specially made to hang clothes? Prey create the strangest things. I wonder how theyre made. If I can create things with weird shapes, I can prepare better for all situations. Couldnt I create a key to start the motorcycle? Odd. How does a motorcycle know if a key works on it or not? The two keys I had both looked the same. But they only worked on one motorcycle.

What if I wore more clothes? This armored cloth is thicker than most. But isnt it thicker by adding more material? If I wear more clothes, weapons should work less well on me. I dont see a disadvantage. Why dont prey wear all the clothes they can? No, its simple. The armored clothes work well enough against others. The others already cant bite through, why would they need to wear more? But its different for me. Im not fighting others. Im hunting prey. They have knives, spears, metal sticks. I havent seen a metal stick in a while. I wonder why. There arent many clothes to protect my head, my only vital part. But the clothes can protect my limbs, prevent them from getting hurt. Im lucky the injury to my shoulder wasnt bad. Moving my arm isnt an issue.

I pulled on a shirt. It slipped off. But the triangular thing holding it swung up, hit the side of the wall, making a sound. Thats no good. I hope a prey didnt hear that. I have to be as quiet as possible to prevent alerting them. Ill leave the clothes alone, sit here. Wait. No. I should stand, be prepared to attack at any moment. Ill ready my bow. Bows arent useful when the prey are right in front of me. But thats only because the preparation takes so long. If Im already prepared, cant I fire an arrow at the prey the instant it opens the door? If it doesnt die, Ill drop the bow, switch to my spear if theres more than one prey, switch to my knife if theres only one. Ill turn off the light too. The cylinder of light was useful to explore the room. But its better for me to be in the dark. The prey wont see me, wont be ready to dodge an arrow coming at it. Ill wait with my arrow ready. Wait for a prey to come.

I dont know how much time passed. Not enough time for me to get hungry. I had eaten after entering the little room. But waiting paid off; prey arrived. The door opened. And I released my arrow. It struck its head. The prey wasnt wearing a dome. It wasnt wearing armored clothes either. And it was alone. The prey mustve been one of those kept in captivity, meant to be eaten at a later time. But since so many prey died during the conflict with the others, the prey mustve been let free to fill in the numbers. Theres safety in numbers; prey understand that. Thanks to that, the prey wasnt armored, died in one hit. But also because of that, there wasnt anything to take from it. I shouldnt have shot its head. Maybe I couldve turned it into an other, had it help me instead. But since its head is damaged, all I can do now is eat it. A shame.