Lions and Tigers and Bears (2)
Jason had to enact a new plan if he wanted to survive. The odds of encountering more than one of these creatures at a time were too much for him to bear.
He looked around from the top of his hilltop, standing on the mutilated corpse for an extra boost of height, and took in the vast view of… trees… and fog. He gained absolutely no useful knowledge and wasted a lot of time and effort, but at least he got to fight something!
Sighing in frustration, he stepped down from the corpse and walked toward the loan tree. It was a tall monster, and would have taken three of him to hug it properly. He wasn't sure he liked where his head was, but he pulled his [Whacking Bat] off his shoulder and swung it as hard as he could!
The bat bounced off the tree and vibrated in his hands, causing them to go numb.
The sound of the attack reverberated through the noise and let out a peculiar echo that sounded more like he was hacking away at a metal street pole. But, there was hope. In the spot where he struck the tree, a deep dent appeared.
'That'll do,' he thought.
At first he was reluctant to abandon the hill that took him forever to climb. He could see in every direction, so if an enemy were approaching, he would know it. This seemed like a tremendous advantage to him.
But who cares if you can see who is going to kill you if you have no way to stop them?
He ran down the hill toward the nearest group of tightly gathered trees. He wanted to find smaller, younger trees that he could massacre and actually use. Approaching a clump of promising young hardwoods, he got to work.
He hacked away at the thing trees, felling a half a dozen. Using his bat in this manner was exhausting, but working hard now meant resting later.
After murdering the trees, he started whacking them into smaller bits. Shards of tinted blue tree splattered everywhere with each swing of his bat, but he was undeterred. He intended on producing a makeshift fence and would need an abundant supply of poles.
As soon as he gathered enough lumber to start his makeshift construction, a deep growling returned to his ears.
"God damnit, Why now?" He turned toward his back and noticed two of the same creatures shambling near him.
Fighting them would be simple, but he really would prefer a nap.
Running up to the nearest opponent, he struck right at the knee joint, toppling him easily. His intentions were to deal with one quickly so that he could safely dodge the other.
Pivoting in place, he swung his bat backward and struck the other zombie on the chest. Apparently, this didn't count as a whack, and nothing happened—frightening Jason.
The giant undead monstrosity struck him on the shoulder with a flailing arm, causing him to be sent rolling in the grass. Thankfully, the first beast had simply rolled over and began crawling toward him. This allowed him to have time to roll on the ground and gain some space.
Realizing he would have to test his bat's limitations at some point, the young man recomposed himself and jumped to his feet. Dying after working so hard would seem like such a waste.
Not taking any more chances, he chose to repeat his actions with the first zombie he had encountered. He disabled the arms of the opponent, shambling toward him, before finally buckling his knee.
Walking toward the crawling zombie, he was able to gently smash his shoulders into paste so that his mobility was halted as well.
All that remained was the difficult chore of penetrating their helmet—that he couldn't seem to remove…
After the grueling task of dispatching his moaning interrupters, Jason continued with the construction of his fence. It wasn't anything fancy, simply wooden stakes at an angle to keep the zombies at bay, but they didn't seem bright enough to move past it.
This way, he could leisurely swing at their heads while they reached toward him.
Eventually, night had fallen, and the sun had risen. Jason, on the other hand hadn't changed. He sat in his fence, huddled into a ball, afraid to fall asleep. The fence would hold the zombies off long enough for him to hack away at their skull, but it wouldn't do anything if he were to let them rush against it for the whole night.
Hopefully, he only had to survive a few more encounters.
***
"Jack! See, I told you! If we follow them, they'll bring us toward the noise!" a feminine voice excitedly whispered to her partner. "There must be someone in there!"
She could see the makeshift fence, but the corpses strewn about outside of it obstructed her view of the interior. The poor woman had no idea what the situation might be like on the inside and was in a hurry to help.
Unfortunately, she was hesitant. She hadn't fought one of these creatures since she saw one of them rip apart the first partner she found with their bare hands.
"You were right. Those idiots were making a ton of noise!" The man accompanying her said suspiciously. "They probably drew all the creatures from the area to them."
"I hope they didn't lose their supplies before they made the fence," another masculine voice chimed in before the woman slapped him on the back of the head.
"We're here to help, not rob," she said.
Seeing that their group had the enemy outnumbered and the creatures weren't unstoppable, the group jumped out of the bushes. They didn't have much experience with fighting, but it would make a good show if they could be the saviors.
Jack, the leader, sent Bill and Ryan, two athletic guys with military haircuts, to the front of the charge. They were carrying rifles and were shooting wildly, pelting trees and sending bullets through the forest—seemingly uncaring for their ammunition.
"Don't worry. We are here to help!" The duo shouted.
"No, Don't shoot!" Jason panicked the second he heard the gunfire.
He struck down one of the two remaining zombies, hoping that he could make it in time.
Things had gone so well.
Time seemed to slow down as a deep red flower bloomed from the remaining zombie's silver and white helmet. It was wearing a blue and silver jersey as it tipped over and shined in a radiant, bright light.