A Rational Zombie

With so many targets, it’s impossible to miss. The prey are clumped up, standing in front of the opening in the fence. The trees aren’t enough to block them from view. My arrows are unimpeded. They can’t shoot me. It’s harder to shoot up than down. And I’m the one shooting down. How convenient. What will the prey do? If they stand by the chokepoint to kill the others, they’ll be shot by arrows. If they retreat out of range, the others will pour in. If I were the prey, what would I do? I would run to the buildings, use those as the new chokepoints. Arrows can’t go through buildings. If that’s what the prey will do, how do I stop them? I can’t. If they want to run, they’ll run.

As I thought, the prey retreated. The others, they were crossing the trench, slowly, using the plank that the prey set out. Only a few others tried to cross through the trees. Agile Other was probably one of them. The prey did something weird. Half of them ran inside a building. Instead of staying there, they ran back out carrying slabs of wood and slabs of metal. Shields. The prey bunched up, the ones with the shields standing in the front. Behind them, prey held onto spears. They stood in a semicircle. The prey in the front would hold back the others; the prey in the back would stab them through the gaps. Interesting. I’ve never seen something like this before. Instead of using the walls of the building as shelter, the prey were using themselves as the wall. Why? Isn’t that dumb?

I shot an arrow. But it fell short. The prey retreated too far back. If I come closer, I’ll lose my advantage. When we’re at the same height, the prey can shoot me if I can shoot them. But if I don’t go down, the prey will kill all the others. The prey can organize themselves, the others can’t. The way the prey are standing, I don’t like it. It might not be as effective as hiding inside a building. But like that, they don’t have to worry about me setting the building on fire to kill them all at once. Did they know I could do that? Most likely. If I can come up with it, the prey can too.

The prey freely shot their arrows, killing the others before they could even approach the wall of shields. They made it over the trench, not all of them. There were a few others that fell in. And the ones that I tied the motorcycle to were stuck on the plank. Two of them had fallen into the trench. Another two had crossed. But they couldn’t move the motorcycle thanks to the two down below. What if I drove the motorcycle into the wall of prey? Can I do that? For now, I’ll climb down the hill. Being up here won’t help, not when the prey are like that.

Though the others were being shot, they steadily pressed their way towards the prey. The armor I tied to their heads helped. Maybe. If they didn’t, that means I wasted a lot of time. Luckily, others weren’t like prey. Unless their heads were shot, they wouldn’t stop moving. By the time I made it to the motorcycle on the plank, the others had reached the prey. It wasn’t going well for the others. They couldn’t attack the prey, not with the shields in the way. The spikes I tied to their arms didn’t do anything. The shields held back their bodies. And once their heads were exposed, a prey in the back would stab with its spear, killing them. Spears were easier to aim than arrows. The armor I tied to the others’ heads didn’t help.

Driving the motorcycle into the prey, I don’t think it’ll work. There’s a few dead others in the way, killed by arrows. Then, there’s the live others in the way. I can’t circle around either. The others already did that, the prey bunching up, creating a full circle with their shields instead of half of one. Then what do I do? If there were any stray prey wandering around, I could pick them off. But there aren’t. Maybe, while the prey are distracted, I’ll enter their buildings. See if I can find anything useful. But that’s similar to giving up. If left alone, all the others will die. Half of them are already dead. Then the prey will find me. I have to kill the prey here while I still have the others helping. The prey aren’t using arrows anymore. I can approach. But what can I do? There’s no easy way to get past the shields.

Do I retreat? Come back with more others? No. I won’t get another chance like this. There aren’t anymore trees on the hill to cut down. Once the prey repair the fence, I can’t come in again. Retreat isn’t an option unless I give up on the garrison completely. Maybe finding a gap with the motorcycle is the only way. But driving into the prey, I’ll die. There’s so many; there’s no way the motorcycle will go all the way through. I’ll be stopped, pulled off, killed.

The prey aren’t weakening either. Aside from the start, when I shot two with my arrows, none of the prey have died. Yet over half of the others are gone. Some were lost to the trench. Some died to the arrows. But it’s this wall of shields and spears that’s killing them. If only the others knew how to use weapons, things would be different. But they don’t. They’re dumb. If I could find a way to break apart the wall of shields, the others might have a chance. But how? I’m too weak. Maybe Big Other can do it, pull apart that line of prey. But I don’t see Big Other. Maybe it fell into the trench. If it did, there’s really no chance. Unless…, the prey break apart the wall of shields on their own. This garrison, it’s their home. If I burn all the buildings down, how will they prey react? Maybe they’ll ignore the others, break apart to try and stop me. I hope so.