A Rational Zombie - Chapter 70

The wounded prey with the bow didn’t run very far. I killed the big one. It couldn’t move. I collected the arrows in the grass. They were from the dead prey that the big one used as a shield. There was some scattered on the ground. The bag on the dead prey’s waist had some. The big prey didn’t do anything to stop me when I took them. It watched me. But didn’t do anything else. I stayed out of its swinging range. Then I shot it until it stopped reacting. After, I poured stink sauce on it. I didn’t want to get close to bite it; it wasn’t guaranteed to be dead.

I hope it doesn’t turn before I get to kill the wounded prey. It might eat all the food outside the fence. Three bodies. But I don’t think it can. The dome is in the way. Even if it turns, it can’t eat. Unless it’s smart, lifts the visor. But I haven’t seen any others become smart like me. It won’t be able to. As for the prey with the bow, it’s bleeding. I can track it down by smell. It’s just past these trees. I walked as silently as I could to avoid alerting it with noise. But I still stepped on a branch. I thought it was a root. The crunch was loud.

The prey can hear me. I can hear the prey too. But it’s not reacting. There’s no sound. No shuffling, no arrow readying, no string pulling. Maybe it didn’t hear me? I passed the trees. And there it was, the prey, sitting with its back up against a tree. It was pressing a red bundle against its hip. But when it saw me, it jumped up, dropping the bundle. It stood up, wobbling. Instead of readying its bow, it took two arrows out of its bag, holding one in each hand. Arrows … could be used that way? They’re smaller spears. I don’t want to get injured. Wounds take too long to heal. I’ll take a step back, ready my bow. But if I do that, it’ll ready its bow as well. Then, if arrows are smaller spears, I’ll attack it with a spear. My range is greater. I can attack it without letting it reach me.

But I don’t want to kill the prey. It was hit by an arrow covered in the other’s blood. I want to see if it’ll turn into an other without dying. After death, it takes around a quarter of a day to turn. A little bit of time has passed, not enough for any change. If I attack it, it might die if I hit an improper place. The stomach for one. One prey died to an arrow shooting through its stomach. A safe place to stab is the prey’s legs. It doesn’t kill. But it injures enough to hamper mobility. Another safe place to hit is its arm. It can’t shoot its bow if its arm is injured.

It’s difficult for the prey to dodge my attacks. Its hip is injured. The hip is part of the leg. It affects movement too. With my longer reach, the prey can’t fight back. If it steps close, I stab at its leg. If it tries to use its bow, I advance. I’ve already stabbed its left leg four times. I didn’t realize how important mobility is. It affects how fast the prey escapes. It affects how well the prey dodges. Without mobility, the prey can’t attack either. I was too dumb in my thinking. My head is important. If my brain is destroyed, I’ll die. I thought that meant other parts of my body didn’t need as much care. But they do. Without my legs, I can’t evade having my head destroyed. Without my arms, I can’t fight back. I’m still not sure how important my torso is. The prey die if their stomach is destroyed. But not others. Not me. But there’s flesh in the torso. The flesh on my arms move my arms. The flesh on my legs moves my legs. My torso is more rigid. It doesn’t move all that much compared to everything else. Leaning side to side can be helpful on occasion. Maybe. As I thought, it’s simply better to never get injured.

Like this prey. The injuries stack up. One arrow wound turned into four spear wounds. Now that its leg is completely useless, it can’t escape when I stab its other leg. But it’s screaming a lot. I wish it would stop. What if others come upon hearing it? They’ll try to eat my prey. And I’ll have to kill them if they do. So inconvenient. I’d rather not waste time on pointless tasks. Is there a way to prevent it from shouting? Stabbing its neck will kill it. I already know that. I’ll worry about silencing it after I destroy its arms. Its throwing arrows at me. But they don’t do much, bouncing off of my clothes. The prey isn’t even trying to hit my head, not with the dome protecting it.

Stabbing with a spear is much easier than shooting with an arrow. Arrows miss easily. But it’s impossible to miss a stab on a stationary target. The spear doesn’t go in very deep. Like me, the prey is wearing the armored clothes. But that problem is easily solved by stabbing more than once.

I stabbed its arm again. But this time, the prey used its other hand to grab the spear. It won’t let go. I’m pulling. But it’s pulling against me. Slowly, the spear’s coming closer to me. I’m stronger than it. But that’s only since it’s wounded. I’m using two hands; it’s using one. But pulling is like pushing. Just in the opposite direction. What if the prey pulls at the same time that I push? The spear travels faster than normal, piercing deeper too. The prey screamed again, letting go of the spear. I took that chance to pull it out, out of the prey’s range. With only one arm, it can’t use its bow anymore. I can step back now, shoot at its last arm with arrows. But I might miss, hit something vital instead.