A Rational Zombie

Chapter 41

The deaths slowed a lot. The others are dying. But barely. A pointy stick stabs through a hole in the wall, killing an other. The corpse remains, not pushed away. Then the stick reappears from another hole, stabbing a different target. When the first corpse slides down, revealing the hole again, the pointy stick comes out. Its not like before when the corpses would be pushed aside. And the others are more concentrated towards the doors, not as close to the walls as they were before. The others were supposed to die faster the less there were. What happened?

The closed door is thumping. Opening, closing, opening, closing. The others push; the prey push back. Did the others get stronger? No. They didnt even eat. They couldnt have gotten stronger. Then the prey became weaker. How? Why? Maybe their hunger is consuming them. I dont think they had time to eat. Prey are sluggish at night. The sun just came out. The others have been pressuring them this whole time. The chances of them appeasing their hunger is slim. But thats assuming preys hungers operate similarly to mine. I dont see dumb prey wandering about, their brains consumed by hunger. Maybe its because the others eat those that do. That would explain why I dont see them.

They were loud before, talking a lot. I couldnt make out the words because the others groan too much. But the talkings stopped completely. What exactly is going on? I wish I could see through the walls, inside the building. But I cant. No prey have shown up at the door either, not giving me a chance to use my bow. And getting closer is dangerous. Even if its slower, others are dying. Then Ill wait some more.

And it didnt take too long for waiting to pay off. The door opened, pressed back by the others. The prey let out shouts and screams. The door pushed back. But it was too late, the others slipped inside. The prey at the door couldnt shut it while fending off an other. Once the first other broke through, the rest flowed in with little resistance. But Im too far back to get in now. I waited too far away, afraid of something happening thatd kill me unexpectedly. Because of that, the others will get to the prey first, maybe destroying something I could learn from in the process of eating. At least the others still havent figured out how to eat preys brains.

As expected, I was the last one in. The others took up a lot of space; I could barely walk around. They were crowding around four spots, four dead prey. Was that all there was? It seems like it. A few of the others didnt try to compete for the prey. Maybe the mass of others blocked their view of the food. Their sense of smell was still blocked off; it makes sense if they didnt see. Those others were in the back. It didnt seem like there was any prey there since there werent any sounds of chewing. The back of the building had empty rooms. They smelled like prey. But it was only a lingering scent. The prey must spend a lot of time in these rooms, especially in these rectangular pieces of cloth. Is this where they spend the night during their sluggishness? Like the tents I saw back at the first camp with a fence. They had cloth rectangles inside of them too. The cloth rectangles are on top of a wooden frame above this springy box. A bed. Yes, thats what it is. Prey rest in beds at night when theyre sluggish. I remember doing this before I lost my memory.

What else can I remember? Theres a box at the foot of the bed. Inside, there are clothes, the armored kind, black with green splotches. Not all of the prey were wearing these. Why? Im not sure. But theres no sign of the domes used to protect their heads. I already have armored clothes; its the domes I need. At the head of the bed, leaning against the wall, theres a metal stick. And a pointy wooden stick. I already have a metal stick similar to this one. The pointy stick; these are what the prey used to stab through the holes in the walls. Its a stick. With a sharp point. Theres nothing special about it. I can make something like this by myself. But since its here, Ill take it. But where do I put it? Should I tie it to an other? Then Id have to untie it. What if I stick it inside an other by stabbing it? As long as I dont stab the others legs, it should still move. It works. But if the other wanders away from me, itll be out of hand. Its fine. I think the metal stick is more useful anyway.

The other rooms inside of the building were similar to the one I was just in. A bed, a box, a stick. In some rooms, there were two beds. In the third room I went to, there was another openable brick. The letters were hard to decipher. I put the brick into my bag, saving it for later. In the room furthest to the back, I found something interesting: A shelf with jars on it. There was stink sauce inside some of the jars, a clear liquid inside of others. Underneath the shelf, there were bags filled with long grains of white sand. Rice was written on the side of the bags.

And then I smelled it. Blood. A wounded prey. The scent came from the window, untainted by the smell of others. From where I stood, I could only see trees outside. But the smell was definitely coming from outside. I went closer, sticking my head out. I heard a gasp from below. There was a pit, a trap with spikes. And inside of the pit, with a spike running through its foot, there was a prey.