Begin and End - a zombie short ⚒

Part 2

Twigs snapped nearby, and Brian readied his machete. Gavin seemed poised to flee. When a familiar hooded figure emerged from the underbrush, they both relaxed.

"Just me," Shauna said, lugging the day's kill.

Brian's stomach growled, not because they were set to eat soon, but because the limited food source rocked hunger pains throughout his body. Never enough these days.

"What about those things on the road?" Gavin asked.

Shauna glanced up briefly. "The pikes or the Eaters?"

In spite of himself, Brian's gaze wandered toward the road. The pikes weren't easy to make out anymore, but he could spot a few bits of hair. They were still there. Of course they were still there.

"Just wondering if they're...never mind," Gavin mumbled.

"The pikes aren't going anywhere," Shauna said.

No one mentioned the way Gavin had screamed earlier, but the implication hung in the air.

As Shauna strung the animal from a branch in preparation, Brian noted, "Cat, again."

Not that he minded, but three days in a row was odd.

"There's a lot of 'em," Shauna said, not looking at him. She slowly worked the blade underneath fur and grit. "They're holdin' out better than...other things."

His stomach protested again, and he let his hunger override his patience. He took out his pocket knife and began cutting into the animal in efficient lines.

Shauna stood back and watched. "You've hunted before?"

He grunted, nearly done with a task he knew would've taken her at least ten more minutes.

"Yeah."

He nodded to Gavin, who took the meat to the fire pit they'd built the night before.

They all had a job to do, but Brian usually let everyone else do all the work. He preferred to watch them, and write in his journal. If they ever saw him at night, with a stranger's journal, they just assumed it was his, and didn't ask about it. That's how he liked it.

Random thoughts took him over sometimes, and even the personal secrets of others couldn't calm them. Only writing them down helped, like a purge. The other night, he'd gotten a song stuck in his head, and had to purge it, though felt ridiculous for doing so. The lyrics of the Coal Chambers song had stuck with him, and he found himself singing some of the lines under his breath at off moments.

"I'm not that good at this part of it. I used to go hunting sometimes with my old man, but I mostly hung back after he brought the animals down," Shauna said.

She tilted her head and played with the band holding together a braid of long, brown hair. For a moment, he recognized her. An internet personality? T.V.? He was starting to formulate just who she was, but he needed more. They had only been together for two weeks, and for most of the first week, they had been plodding in a rain storm. Tonight, when Gavin was sleeping, he would get some answers.

Three pillars of smoke rose from the south.

"Well, that's that," Shauna said, packing up her bed pallet.

The fires originated near the pikes, which signaled more trouble. Brian and Gavin followed Shauna's example without a word of protest.

However, Brian did sing to himself:

Now I've gone down the rivers of sadness
Demons too many to mention.

~*~