A Rational Zombie

That was dangerous. I could’ve died. Instead of running, a prey attacked me while I was on the motorcycle. It knocked me off. If Big Other hadn’t been distracting them, I would’ve died. But since it was, I managed to escape into a building. Luckily, there was a latch on the door. If the prey try to push it down, it’ll take a while. Maybe. I’m not counting on it. The building was the only place to go. I can’t outrun prey, not with the bag on my back. And I’ve learned from prey how to fight large numbers alone. Take advantage of a chokepoint. This doorway, only one prey can enter at a time. There’s over sixty prey. To survive, I have to kill one prey sixty times. Unless they burn down the building. But I don’t think they’ll do that to their own place. They wouldn’t have split up their group to put out fires if that were the case.

But unlike other buildings in camps I’ve seen, there aren’t any holes in this one. I can’t poke through the walls with a spear. I wonder why the prey didn’t make any. Were they not expecting to be attacked inside of this building? How arrogant. If only they were more prepared, I could’ve helped the others outside. Big Other saved me; it’s a waste to let it die. But what can I do by myself? Even my motorcycle, my riskiest method, didn’t work. The only thing I can do is wait for the others to die, wait for the prey to come for me. I can find a window to escape through. But then what? On foot, I’m supposed to escape alone? To an area without any food to eat? Impossible. At least, if I stay here to fight, there’s a chance of living.

Setting traps will be difficult. I don’t know the layout of the building. But that doesn’t really matter. This door is the most important position. If I don’t defend it, I’ll have to deal with more than one prey at a time. Once that happens, I’ll lose. I’ve defeated multiple prey by myself on one occasion. But there were only two. And they weren’t expecting me. The prey know I’m inside. They’re armed, smart, dangerous. I might actually die here. No. I can’t. I still haven’t found God. Killing sixty prey by myself, it seems impossible. But I have to do it. What traps can I set? They have to be close to the door, not too far away that multiple prey come in before the first falls into one. But not too close to prevent the door from ruining it when it opens.

There aren’t many options. Spikes on the ground will get swept away. Ropes will have to be placed too far. I can’t place anything outside. The metal spikes were all used on the road. Do I really have nothing? If the others carrying my bags were with me, I’d have more options. But I’m alone. The prey aren’t trying to open the door yet. The others outside must be distracting them still. If there’s nothing I can do to prepare, there’s only one choice. Attack while the others are still outside. Force them to branch off to engage me, then fight them one at a time at the chokepoint. Attacking now, waiting to attack, if there’s no traps I can put, there’s no difference between the two.

I’ll start with my bow. If there’s a prey waiting right outside, I can stab it with an arrow. If the prey are further away, I can shoot them. It’s the best choice. I have to hurry before the prey finish dealing with the others. There’s a few prey I can shoot to do the most damage. They’re the loud ones; the ones that tell all the other prey what to do. Leaders. Like me. If I can’t kill the leaders, I’ll shoot the ones trying to kill Big Other. Now that I have a plan, it’s time to implement it. I lifted the latch, opened the door.

“Keith! Take your squad and deal with the large infected!”

There it is. The loud prey. And there’s no prey near the door. I readied my arrow.

“Chief, watch out!”

The prey that I was aiming for turned around. It stared at me. I fired. And missed. The arrow struck the prey beside my target. How disappointing. Now that it was alert, killing it was going to be difficult. It just needed to pick up a shield to stop my arrows. And there’s shields all over the ground from the fallen prey. There’s actually a lot of fallen prey; the others didn’t disappoint me when I risked my life on the motorcycle. But there’s that one prey, the one that knocked me off. I think it’s paying attention to me. It’s the same one that shouted to warn my target, the chief. Maybe I should’ve aimed for it instead. No, the arrow missed. It doesn’t matter.

“Toby, Harrison! Take your partners and kill that smart infected! Don’t let it get away from you this time.”

Four prey broke off of the group to approach me. They were the ones that chased me earlier, when I set fire to the buildings. I could tell from their body shapes. Slightly big. Perfect to take advantage of with my chokepoint. Last time, I had to run since I couldn’t fight four at once. Now, it’s different. I readied my bow. Before they arrive, I have time to shoot another arrow. Shooting it at them won’t work. They’re full attention is on me. And two of them have shields, both walking in the front. It’ll be a waste to shoot at them. Big Other is in trouble, surrounded with only a few others by its side. It’ll die soon. But even if it lives one second longer, that’s one more second of time the prey won’t focus on me. There was one prey rushing towards Big Other. I took aim. And fired. I was aiming for its shoulder, to make it drop its spear. But I missed. Instead, I hit its neck. The prey lurched forward, stumbled, then fell.

“Keith!”

And that was all I could do. The four prey were almost here. Big Other was on its own now.