A Rational Zombie - Chapter 104

This wasn’t supposed to happen. When did the smart infected ready those trees? It’s impossible to cut down trees that quickly even with a chainsaw. They had to have been precut, ready to be toppled over at a moment’s notice. How many more are going to fall over? The fifth one is showing signs of falling. Is it tall enough to crush the fence too?

“Lift the tree; get the people underneath out of there!”

The chief was the one giving orders. Keith was supposed to do that as the leader of the hunters, but he was crushed by the falling tree. We were in the perfect position for the tree to fall on us. It was packed and crowded and impossible to escape with all the people in the way. At least ten people were caught. We tried lifting the tree when it first fell, but then the second tree fell and hit the first one, pushing it forward. The people underneath were unfortunate. Luckily, their camouflage clothes were thick; otherwise, they would’ve turned into meat crayons when they slid against the ground.

At least the tree wasn’t thick. It was only long. If we were in California or something and these trees happened to be the famous redwoods, things might’ve been different. Then again, if they were redwoods, the smart infected might not have been able to cut them down. I’m not sure what these trees are called, but they vaguely smell like pineapples. Lifting it off the people were crushed wasn’t too hard once we had enough hands around. But that was all we could do. We couldn’t push it over the fence to stop the infected from using it like a bridge to cross the moat. If all of us held onto the tree, no one would be left behind to attack the infected. They were almost here.

The fifth tree fell by the time Edward came back. He had run up the tree with Scott to stop the smart infected, but it looks like it didn’t go so well. Scott was lying at the boss of the hill with an arrow inside of him. “Remember what Eric said about it having a bow? It was really fucking good with it. No wonder why those three died when they confronted it. If they were sitting in the trees, there’d have been no way for them to dodge.”

“It doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to kill the smart infected before the herd gets here,” the chief said. “For now, the plan doesn’t change. Even if the trees cover the moat, only so many infected can pass at a time. We’ll be able to kill them as they come. Don’t waste your arrows on the infected up there anymore; aim for the ones coming at us.”

A sixth tree fell with a crash, crushing another portion of the fence. Thankfully, people shouted to get out of the way, and no one was hurt this time. Unfortunately, if the infected really did use the trees as bridges, there’d be no fence to stop them. The trees acted as a bridge directly into the garrison. However, infected weren’t that nimble. I haven’t seen any raise their legs higher than their waists, so whether or not they could climb onto the trees, only time could tell, but I did know that no matter how dumb the infected may be, they wouldn’t walk into the moat unless there was fresh blood at the bottom. And the garrison was all out of fresh blood.

A seventh tree fell. It landed on the six other trees and pushed them down and forward, further into the garrison. It rolled along the tree trunks, using them as a ramp. But since it fell at an angle, it slid off and fell to the side before it could reach the fence. The infected herd had entered firing range, and the archers were using their arrows quite liberally, but they weren’t killing as many as they should’ve been.

“Yo, what the hell? Eric never mentioned anything about this in his report.”

The infected herd had armor protecting their heads. It wasn’t really armor, but it seemed good enough. They had pots and plates and bowls tied against their scalps with ribbons of cloth. Some even had motorcycle helmets. Did the smart infected do this? Though the infected had entered firing range, it was the maximum effective range of the bows. With their rinky-dink, makeshift armor, the arrows were glancing off and not as effective. The infected have to come a little closer to really be in killing range.

“This smart infected may be a lot smarter than we thought,” the chief said, “but if it really had complete control over the herd, I doubt it would’ve allowed us to manipulate them towards us. Hold off on the arrows until you think you can kill them. An arrow should pierce a plate or bowl with ease once they come close enough.”

Another tree fell, but it barely did anything. It didn’t even cover the moat. The infected herd came into closer, and a few confident archers took their shots. A few infected fell over, but their bodies barely hindered the ones behind them. Like water, the herd split and went around the fallen infected before reforming. More and more archers took their shots, and the sound of arrows and infected hitting the ground filled the air. The trees seemed to have stopped falling too. What was the smart infected up to if not cutting down trees? It was standing at the top of the hill, which was more like a small cliff, with a bow in its hands and an arrow pointed directly at us.

“Get down!”

Right when I shouted, the infected fired its arrow. I dropped down and curled up into a ball. A person who was standing next to me screamed. Our arrows weren’t able to do any damage to the smart infected since they lost momentum while traveling up, but since the infected was shooting down at us, its arrows were helped by gravity instead. It can shoot us, but we can’t shoot it. What kind of bullshit is this?