Clark and I look at each other.
He has a worried look on his face, probably more for his little brother than himself. He points to the open hatch before speaking to me.
“I’ll lower you down. Let’s check out whatever is happening.”
After Clark lets go of my hand and I move out of the way, he drops down to the floor of the bus.
I start to walk outside, noticing that everyone has left the bus at this point. They are all gathered in a group around the woman who screamed earlier, with Daniel asking her questions.
“What happened? What did you see?”
“It attacked my boyfriend!” She cried, barely able to keep herself together.
“We thought we saw some guy in the forest and went to talk to him, and it attacked my boyfriend!”
The whole crowd reacts to that in several ways, but everyone is shocked.
Someone died? How? It hasn’t even been twenty minutes yet?
I take the folding knife from my backpack and put it in my front right jean pocket.
Most people turn around, looking in the direction the panicked woman came from, hoping that if it is real, it doesn’t come for them. Several others head into the bus, talking about how much safer it is inside.
I walk up closer to hear better as Daniel asks more questions, the two brothers following close behind me.
“What attacked you? Was it a person?” He asks while rubbing her back and trying to calm her down.
“I don’t know! It looked like a person, but then it just started attacking him! You have to go help him!”
Daniel stood up with a concerned face, looking at the people around him. His gaze finds me, and he walks up, drawing the gun from his waist.
“I’m going to check it out. If something is killing us here, we should stop it sooner rather than later. I would appreciate some company, but I understand if you don’t want to.”
Is this worth it? Now that I know this probably isn’t Earth anymore, I should be more careful. But if that guy really does need help, shouldn’t I at least try to help him? Daniel has a gun, so we should be safe, even if we get attacked. I’ll just let Daniel go first. Good plan, Ray.
“I’ll go, but we should hurry if he really does need help.”
“Agreed, are you two coming?” The military man asks the pair of brothers, eyeing the baseball bat Clark was handing to his younger brother.
“Yes. Sticking with you seems like the safest option for now.”
“Let’s move out then. I’ll stay in front.”
I followed behind Daniel, who was following the path through the tall grass that the couple had made earlier. He had a confident posture as he walked forward. Most likely used to being in charge and was no stranger to combat, from his earlier stories.
At least I know he’s reliable. Well, as long as he didn’t lie to me when telling his life story.
The forest approached faster than I would have liked, but that’s because I'm so scared my heart is beating out of my chest.
You can do this, Ray. You would want someone to do this for you. Just man up and follow Daniel. He should know what to do, whatever happens.
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I take the folding knife from my pocket and deploy it, hoping the three-inch blade will be enough to stop any potential attackers.
Daniel leads us into the forest, stopping just a few feet in to listen.
The forest is too dense to see far. Small bushes and trees popping up between the larger ones made visibility poor. After a few moments of listening, Duncan alerts us to something.
“I can hear some noises coming from behind that tree, I think. It sounds like wet slapping.” He has a shaky voice and doesn’t sound very confident.
My heartbeat speeds up even more as we approach. I can hear it pound in my ears as we walk to get a better view of the other side of the tree. I continue trying the breathing exercise to get it to come down, and I think it might be working.
Daniel is the first one to see what is making the sounds. And when he does, his hand shoots up to his mouth as he brings his gun up to aim. A crack echoes through the forest as he pulls the trigger of his pistol, firing a shot.
“What was it?” I ask as soon as I realize what happened. “Why are you shooting?”
The gunman turns around and falls to his knees, vomiting on the forest floor.
What the hell? What could make him react like this? Some of the stuff he told me earlier was pretty horrible.
Don’t be a wuss, Ray. Walk over and check it out. It can’t be that bad.
I slowly creep around the tree as the vomiting man keeps emptying his stomach.
The noises have stopped, so Daniel must have shot whatever was making them. Just a few more feet and I’ll see for myself.
I wish I had never seen it for myself.
The other side of the tree is straight from a nightmare. A man, probably the boyfriend from earlier, is definitely dead. He’s lying on his back with his stomach ripped open. His blood is spread all over the forest floor around him, along with many of his internal organs.
Lying next to him is another body, much older by the looks. It was pale white, like it had been drained of blood, and had a huge gaping hole in the middle of its chest. It’s dressed in old-timey farmer clothes, the simple and rough kind that you see in history books and museums.
It is also still moving. The head and right arm of the body are still trying to pull as much of the dead man's flesh into their mouth as possible.
I turn around and join Daniel on the floor, puking up whatever I ate for breakfast.
He wipes his mouth as he stands up.
“What the fuck! What the fuck is happening? Don’t look behind that tree.” He told the two brothers.
“What do we do? It’s still alive?” I ask before my body makes me vomit more, remembering how the arm was bringing a handful of bloody intestines to its mouth.
We spend the next few minutes in silence, with both brothers refusing to look behind the tree.
I spend the time trying to calm down, and it works after a while.
Was that a fucking zombie? Is that better than the bear or worse? It looked like Daniel disabled it, so killing it should be simple. Is this the norm on this planet? Am I going to have to get used to this?
“We should kill it.” Daniel says to me, a look of disgust on his face.
“We should, but not with the gun. That’s a classic move to attract more attention.”
I stand up and search the forest, looking for a good stick to use. I find and pull out a five-foot-tall sapling from the ground nearby, removing all the small branches from it with my knife. After that I use the knife to sharpen the point, creating a makeshift spear. It takes me probably around ten minutes to make, with everyone watching me while I work.
“We can kill it with this, then we don't have to get close.” I say as I walk over to Daniel. “Ready?”
“Are you going to do it? I can if you don’t want to.”
“Yes, I feel like this is something I should face, not shy away from.”
I don’t want to hesitate if it ever comes to killing something trying to kill me. So I make the decision to see this through, for the possibility of a future attack.
Daniel follows behind me as I round the tree again. The scene is just as gruesome as before, and it takes both of us several more minutes to be able to face it without dry heaving.
I walk up to the ‘zombie,’ standing over its head as its hand is deep in the belly of the dead man.
“Straight down with as much force as possible.” The man next to me says.
I grip the spear hard as I do as told, and stab down with all the strength I can put into the maneuver.
The spear easily slides into the brain from the eye socket and out of the back of the
skull.
As soon as it’s done I feel an alien thought worm its way into my mind. It wasn’t a voice, but a piece of information that I instinctively knew was about me.
[You have slain a creature.]
[Level 3 undead farmer]
[You have leveled up to level 1.]