Clark stared down the shaft of the arrow. The bow string slipped from his fingers with practiced ease. The creature he’d been aiming at stopped cold and fell to the ground. Clark lowered his bow and smiled. He’d be eating well tonight.

He slipped from the bushes onto the gravel road. He’d made sure the creature was alone but being out in the open still made him uneasy. The things were everywhere and he couldn’t fight off a whole pack of them. He sat down his bow pulling a large knife from its sheath on his belt. Kneeling over the creature he began to inspect it. Just as he’d thought, it hadn’t been too long.

Clark’s head shot up. There was a noise drawing nearer from the valley. It fought to awaken memories deeply buried in his tortured and lonely mind. He grabbed up his bow and notched an arrow just as the light hit him leaving him nearly blind, his night vision gone. A terrible screeching threw gravel into the air as the noise came to a halt in front of him.

“Damn! I nearly ran you over!” Someone shouted at him from behind the light. “I thought you were one of those things.”

Car. The word leapt into Clark’s mind. The thing making the noise was a car. It didn’t make sense. There were no cars anymore not since the creatures had came those long months ago.

The man from behind the light approached him. “Are you alright? My name’s Mike. I’m from the prison in the valley. We’ve been staying there since the plague hit.”

Clark’s breath came in ragged pants. He said nothing.

“Look, we’ve got the place pretty safe now. I was sent out to see if I could find anyone else still alive out here. We could use every person we can get ya know?”

In a blur, Clark raised his bow and put an arrow into Mike’s heart. Mike stood stunned for a moment looking down at the arrow protruding from his chest. He opened his mouth as if to say something but only blood came out. Clark watched as he toppled over. Clark stepped over the dead man at his feet and headed for Mike’s body. His mouth was watering. Tonight his dinner would be fresh meat that wasn’t rotting. It would be a wonderful change.

__________________________________________________

Eric S. Brown is a 32 year old author living in NC.  Some of his books include Cobble, The Wave, Zombies: The War Stories, The Queen, Blood Rain, Dying Days, Madmen's Dreams, As We All Breakdown, and the upcoming Zombies II: Inhuman to name only a few.  His short fiction and non-fic have been published well over 300 times in markets like Dark Wisdom, Story House, Razar, Alien Skin, The Undead anthology, and hundreds of other places.  He also writes ongoing columns for The Horror Writer magazine and The Guide. Most of his work may be found on www.amazon.com or www.nakedsnakepress.com.