Raine stood in the middle of the forest, listening. She heard a snort and a stomp, from a big animal by the sound of it. A lot of animals had escaped from zoos during the insanity. It could be just about anything. She couldn’t picture Tenesee having a large cow population, though she could be wrong. But it didn’t seem like that would be the answer to the question that the sound posed either.
Slowly, she took a few steps forward, careful not to snap too many twigs that lay on the ground. Something large and brown moved between the trees up ahead, brown and fuzzy. She squinted as her brain tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
Buffalo?
Did Tennessee have Buffalo? Raine grinned. “Guess they do now.”
Rained walked slowly, trying not to disturb them since she had no idea what they would do or how they would respond to her. They seemed like they knew about humans. As long as she kept her distance they ignored her. Get too close and they stomped out a warning. Maybe they had been part of a well handled herd before the mess started.
She continued slowly to make her way to the road, carefully stepping over branches so that she made as little noise as possible. A year of this shit and not making noise had become as unthought of a thing as breathing was. She just did it. The less attention you brought to yourself…
As her first foot landed on pavement, she was scanning the surrounding area for signs of people or infestation. Nothing moved, no people at least. Critters were everywhere, almost more of them than there were trees.
One derelict motorcycle lay on its side, a body lay half pinned underneath. The body didn’t move as she approached it. By the time she was standing over it, she saw why. There was no helmet to be seen anywhere, though that probably wouldn’t have helped. The head was half flattened by a semi circular imprint. Most of the clothing had been eaten by weather. There was nothing worth scavenging on this one.
Raine glance at the herd around her suspiciously. Suddenly the looks that the large animals had appeared far more judging than they had a few moments ago. None moved closer, some moved a few steps away.
Maybe they hunted the dead too. The way they were eyeing her though, it might be more of a reactionary thing.
A noise had her drawing her sword as she turned to see what it was. A couple of walkers were coming around a bend in the road. As was so often common, she couldn’t identify what they were too well. Time and decay had erased who and what they were. Now they were just the dead.
The bleat of a young, maybe they were called Bison, rung out and the dead turned to it with interest. The creature may have been fine if it had stayed quiet. Now the dead were shuffling quickly to engage in their just found feast. Raine let her sword droop down, unsure of how the animals would react if she started running towards the dead, sword swinging. Shots would startle the beasts, make them run, but the sound may alert more dead to her position too. She wasn’t sure how to proceed.
Then one of the Buffalo, the mother maybe, put herself between them and her cub, much as they had when Raine had gotten too close. The mother snorted and stomped to bring the point of her threat home to the attackers. The dead ignored the warning and the herd started shifting towards them. It was like a brown avalanche in slow motion.
Raine was glad that she had kept her distance as much as she had, because she was hard pressed to stay out of the way of these critters that were nearly the size of small vehicles. Raine danced her way across the street, making sure not to get between the herd and the dead that were attacking them. When they moved as a herd she could feel the ground around them move, herself included. They sounded like a mountain moving, she stumbled as her balance was disrupted.
