Z Notes | Book 1 | Z Notes

by Lilly,Shawn L.

  Setting up Matt rested on his elbow and looked around. The place he was at was too dark to see the wall even with the light from the fire. But he could hear the sound of running water coming from his right. Setting up even further he caught a waft of something foul and placed a hand over his nose. It smelled like old people and the guts of an open deer or something just as big as that. Keeping his hand over his nose, Matt got to his feet and walked slowly to the sound of the water.

  The sound of water was louder now, and after Matt adjusted his eyes to the darkness, he could see the exit to what appeared to be a cave he was in. Keeping close to the wall of the cave, Matt reached out his left hand and braced the side of it so not to fall back down. It seemed his legs felt like jelly, and his head hurt a little bit. Once outside he could see the water rushing by no more than a few feet in front of him. There was something else as well by the water. There was a guy leaning over the river washing something, and next to him lay something he couldn’t make out. Walking from the safety of the wall, Matt took a couple of steps away and tripped and fell down. The man by the river turned and saw him fall and stopped what he was doing and ran over to help.

  “What are you doing up and moving around?” asked Frank.

  “I was alone and heard water and saw you I guess. So I came out to see what was going on,” said Matt back to his friend. Just then his stomach growled louder than the running of the river.

  “Well, thank God I’m not a zombie, because the sound of your belly wouldn’t hide you from me too long,” said Frank with a smile. He was also glad and relieved to see Matt up and mobile finally.

  It was almost sunset, and they were not out of the woods yet.

  “I’m sorry. I just haven’t eaten in a couple days, and I’m starving,” said Matt trying to get back up.

  Frank helped him to his feet and to a large rock near the water’s edge.

  “No worries on the food there, bud. I have something you will enjoy.”

  Matt didn’t feel like replying or asking what it was he had. He just liked hearing the water rush by him and smelling the night air that came off the water itself. Reaching down Matt took a handful of the water and brought it to his lips to have a sip. The water was extremely cold to the touch and felt like heaven going down his throat. After a couple of handfuls, he turned and saw Frank back at the water’s edge washing something. It was hard to tell what it was, but the smell coming from him told him it wasn’t very clean no matter how many times he washed it.

  “Frank, man, that shit stinks. Might as well toss it in the river. You’re not getting it clean,” called Matt to Frank.

  Frank looked up and smiled even though he knew Matt couldn’t see him smiling. It was just nice to hear his voice once more. Wiping his hands on his pants, he bent backward to let Matt have a view of what was beside him. Matt leaned over and looked rather closely to what it was, but the sun was fading fast and he couldn’t see still.

  “Dude, I can’t see crap in this light. Can’t you just tell me what it is you have and why it smells like ass?”

  “It’s not ass so to speak. It’s a lion, mountain lion,” said Frank proudly.

  Matt was taken back at his words. A mountain lion was freshly killed before he came by it. There were so many questions going on in his mind. He needed them all answered, but the more he thought, the more his head hurt.

  “Where the hell did you find a mountain lion, or was it dead when you found it?” asked Matt.

  Frank stopped his cleaning and set back and told him about his need of air and then getting lost. Then he told him about finding the bags and him missing but locating drag marks. He told him he was no tracker but told him how he followed the drags till he heard the river and saw what made the marks.

  “So you’re telling me I was dragged off by a damn lion to be eaten and you came and killed it?” said Matt, astonished.

  Frank resumed cleaning the meat he had cut off from the dead mountain lion, which he found was hard to do as it was mostly skin and bones. Once he cleaned enough of it, he picked all the pieces he had cleaned and carried them into the cave. After that he came back out to help Matt, even though he refused and argued about needing help. Frank half carried him back into the cave and set him by the fire. Matt watched as he placed the strips of meat onto the fire and set them up to cook. Once each was set up right, he went into his bag and Matt’s and pulled out a long string and two empty cans.

  Matt knew what he was up to when he left with the string and cans. Frank was building an alarm in case something came up on them at night.

  Frank was using two sticks, one on each end of the cave’s walls. He tied the string, so it stretched from one stick to the other. The cans were placed on the string through a hole on top of them so the string could slide through it. Once he had that done, he found a good rock or two and placed it around the cans. With his index finger he gave the string a pluck, and the can snapped into the rock and rang out loud. With the cave being so narrow, the sound of the can echoed off the walls and made it sound louder than it was meant too. But Frank didn’t mind and just made it more noisy to wake them in case they’re in deep sleep.

  With the can alarm set, Frank made his way back to the fire and turned the meat over. Reaching for his bag, Frank pulled it over and used it as a back rest.

  “So are you going to tell me how you really killed the lion?” asked Matt, watching him get comfortable.

  Frank exhaled and turned the meat some more before telling him the story he just needed to hear.

  “If you must know, I manhandled it and fought it the whole way to the death,” said Frank seriously.

  Matt wasn’t going for it. He just continued to stare at him, as if telling him “Nice story. Now what really happened?”

  “Oh, alright. As I approached the mountain lion, it stood waiting. It looked as if it hadn’t eaten in months and it was skin and bones. With all the dragging you about and me ready to fight, it just collapsed and took a deep breath and looked up at me as I stabbed and killed it.” Frank felt demoralized. He wanted to feel like he had done something cool for once in his life. “To tell the truth, I wouldn’t have killed it if I wasn’t so hungry. But seeing it lay there looking at me, I couldn’t help it. It was food, and we needed it badly. So once I killed it, I went to you and carried you to the river. I placed you in the water for a little bit to help lower your temperature and saw the cave here. I figured she was dragging you in here to have a meal of you.” Frank went on, and with a brake to catch his breath, he turned the meat some more.

  “I pulled you inside here and built the fire. As soon as I lit the flame, I could hear the sounds of whining. I followed the sounds and came to find a couple of cubs. It seems she was dragging you in here to have a meal with the family.”

  “What happened to the cubs?” asked Matt, looking around to find them.

  Frank set up and looked toward the fire. Matt could see the sadness in his eyes and knew what had happened to them. Frank loved all animals, except dogs for a good reason. But Frank must have killed the cubs here and put them somewhere. Without a mother, they would end up dying anyway.

  “What did you do with them, Frank?”

  “I knew the mother would feed us for days, so I did what anyone would do for food,” said Frank, not looking up at Matt. “I slit their throats and skinned them. They had good meat on them still, as they were still feeding on their mother. Their meat is tied to a string in the water to wash off and stay fresh. The rest I buried outside the cave.”

  Matt didn’t ask anything else about the cubs or the mountain lion. Instead he waited for his meat on a stick to finish cooking and took it happily. Each bite was like a piece of bliss compared to eating nothing for days on end. They tried to chew slow and savor the food they had not knowing when their next meal would be. But at the end of the night, they both had burned their mouths on the hot cooked mountain lion and then with a full belly tossed water on the fire and went to sleep.

  Slee
p came fast to them both, but it was an uneasy sleep. It was sort of half sleep. With every slight sound made, their eyes sprung open, and they made a look. With the forest dead and nothing around, it still talked at night. The trees creaked in the wind, and the river roared loud over the rocks. The winds whistled past trees and through grass and over every inch of the lands it passed. As it passed the cave where they slept, it brought the smell of the river and trees and also the smell of a new day approaching. Would this mean a new day of walking all day and night in the woods again? Or would they make it out only to find another herd and get eaten?

  As they lay there sleeping as best they could, the air rushed in all morning smells. It smelled of honey and flowers. It was followed by the smell of cold river water and the sounds of movement.

  Frank awoke first and sat straight up and looked around. The morning had snuck up on them both, but the cave was still as dark as it could be. It was a rough night for him listening to the trees moving and the wind blowing inside the cave. Each time the wind blew a tad bit too hard, the cans would ring out. They didn’t sound off too loud, but it was enough for Frank to wake up and have a look around and listen. But each time he just lay back down and went to sleep.

  Looking over Matt was still asleep; he wasn’t looking entirely well still. But he had to get this show started, so he got up and packed up as much as he could. The string trap he left still in case someone found them while cleaning up. Bending over he gave Matt a shake to awake him.

  “Huh?” asked Matt sleepily.

  “It’s time to go. We need to start now if we want to make it out of these woods today.”

  Matt didn’t need to be told anything else. He got up and put his own pack together, which wasn’t much since he was sleeping when he showed up there.

  Frank went to the cans and took the string down and was careful not to make too much noise. After stuffing it in his bag, he went to stand up when he heard something. The water was loud enough to block out everything, even Matt’s snoring. But this was a sound of something one wouldn’t hear very much nowadays. It was the sound of eating greedily.

  Frank lay down his pack and walked to the entrance of the cave and lay flat to have a look. Next to the riverbed was an undead zombie. It was leaning over the mountain lion eating the remains they didn’t eat last night. Now the thing was: What kind of zombie was it and was it alone? The cave came out rather close to the monster, so there was no way of slipping by without being seen. Turning around Frank found Matt crouched down next to him watching.

  “Careful, Matt. You almost gave me a heart attack,” said Frank so low it sounded like a mutter.

  “Sorry, but it seems to be alone. Let’s go out and kill it, and we can move on.”

  Frank got to his feet and was about to go out to greet it when he remembered he was weaponless. But Matt was there, and he brought his machete and passed it over to him. Frank took it and moved closer and closer. The sounds of it eating nearly made Frank toss up his meal from last night. But it seemed not to hear them and kept on eating.

  When Frank was in killing range, he stopped because the sounds of it eating stopped. It had risen up high and stared in the water. It was till the second splash that Frank saw what it saw. There looked to be fish in the river, and they were jumping all around warming themselves in the morning sunlight he assumed. With it distracted Frank took one step and swung with all he had. The one step was enough to get the zombie to spin its head back and look up just as its head was ripped from its body. The last thing the zombie saw was the splash of water going into its eyes, and then the water slowly went up and over it eyes and head. Then the fish came from nowhere and started eating on it.

  Matt got up and walked over to where Frank stood and gave him a pat on the back. Frank didn’t say anything and just stood there and looked down at the mountain lion. When he looked back up, he saw Matt walking in the water toward the middle and set down. From his expression it was ice-cold, and he knew it took Matt all he had to stay sitting down.

  “What are you doing?” asked Frank from the bank.

  “Holy crap! It’s cold!” yelled Matt, louder than he intended.

  Frank couldn’t withhold his grin hearing Matt scream like a girl each time he tried to submerge himself deeper into the icy water. Each time he lowered himself an inch or two, he popped back up just as fast yipping about it freezing his genitalia.

  “I figured if getting in this water helped once before, then maybe resting here a minute or two would help again,” said Matt, taking deep breaths and trying to sink his bottom into the rocky riverbed.

  Frank stopped, smiled a little, and could understand that Matt must feel himself getting worse and didn’t want to slow them down any more than he must have so far. So cooling himself off was his only way of helping them move faster out of this awful woods. But Frank couldn’t help himself from giving a smirk or two while watching Matt trying to set down.

  Walking over to the water, Frank placed his hand in the water, and his fingers instantly went numb. The water was way colder than it looked, but the feel of it was strong. The current was stronger now than it was last night when he was washing the meat. Reaching down further he felt the rocks at the bottom. Each one felt slimy to the touch and could make a person slip and break an ankle or something.

  Frank got up and saw Matt not only had finally set down but had begun to lie down slowly. Happy to see his friend feeling a little better, Frank reached down and cupped his hands in the water and tossed it at Matt. The droplets landed here and there on the water surface making small rings on the water all over. But not all found the water. Most found their home on Matt’s bare chest.

  Matt took in a breath and exhaled and set up straight and gave Frank pure loathing. Frank only smiled and splashed again and again. With each splash Matt would inhale and hold his breath. Now it was Matt’s turn to retaliate with his own water.

  The water splashing went on for a while with each friend hitting the other with a handful of water. Nearing the end of all their fun, Matt held up his hands and surrendered to Frank and wished for no more. Frank stopped and smiled and flung the water off his hands and arms and onto the ground. Matt stood up and used his hands to run down his chest to rid himself of most of the water he could on him as well. The air hit him on the back, and it ran shivers all over his body. The water was cold at first, but now his body seemed used to it and wanted to go back in its cold embraces.

  Frank on the other hand was now packing up the meat he had let in the river to wash clean and kept it from others who could smell it and want it. Frank was smarter than he looked. He knew the fish would eat the meat or at least try in some way, so he had placed huge rocks all around it so the fish couldn’t swim to it and nibble on it. That was unless they learned to jump of and get to them, which was something he only wished luck was to save him from. But he did have luck on his side, and the meat was still intact on the string.

  Grabbing the meat he pulled them up and showed them to Matt who was still standing in the middle of the river. But Matt was not looking at him but at the cave behind him. Frank turned and saw nothing but the darkness of the cave’s mouth. Was Matt starting to hallucinate, or was he so far out he could see more than he could? His question was answered not much longer than he thought.

  Just above the caves on the rocks appeared an undead. It walked to the edge and looked down at them. Its red bloodshot eyes burned holes into the mind of Frank. Frank could only stand there and watch as it looked around, and then instead of walking around, it just walked forward and fell. It landed on the rocks about forty feet from him and lay there. Frank grabbed their bags and slowly crept up on it. A couple of feet away, it began to move again. It rolled its decaying head toward them and tried to get up, but the fall seemed to have snapped its legs. With no legs to walk, it flipped over and began to crawl toward him. Each hand reached out and grabbed for something to hold onto, and it pulled itself closer to him. Once it closed the gap some, it reached u
p and tried to grab a hold of him, somehow to pull him toward it to eat. Frank took a step, looked around, and found what he needed.

  Going back to the circle of rocks that protected the meat from the fish, Frank grabbed the largest rock he could and walked back over to the undead. It had seen Frank walk away and began crawling toward him once again to reclaim its meal. Frank stood over it and slammed the rock down on its head. It felt like slamming a basketball in the basketball net made by a three-year-old.

  The rock broke the skull with a loud crack, and the goo from inside shot out all over. Frank wanted to move the rock and have a look to make sure the deed was done, but he knew if he saw the brains, he would more than likely lose his lunch or last night’s dinner.

  Looking back Matt had not moved and was still looking up. Frank looked up, but being as close as he was, he couldn’t see what it was he saw. But now listening he could hear it. It sounded like a hundred footsteps marching toward him. Not daring to look up again, he grabbed all he needed and took off into the water where Matt waited.

  Each step was a treacherous and could also mean his downfall to whatever Matt saw behind him. But after taking a couple of good steps, he made it to Matt. Turning around he finally saw what it was he saw.

  Above the cave was the herd he guessed from the diner. It stood there watching them both in the water. Some were on the ground now, which meant they had walked off like the others had and fallen to the bottom. But others were now making their way around the safe way to the bottom. Matt and Frank turned and walked to the other side quickly as they could.

  It didn’t take long to reach the other side of the river. But once on the other side, they were both winded from using their energy to keep their footing as best they could on the slippery rocks. Looking back they could see there were quite a lot of them already at the water’s edge. Some were even trying to walk across it to them.

  Matt grabbed Frank’s arm and pulled it to motion him to hurry and move on. Frank on the other hand wanted to stay and watch a little longer.