Amon sat among the dark foliage watching the windows in the hotel for any sign of life. His stomach tugged at him again and he plucked one of the velvety leaves from the branch where he perched, stuffing it into his mouth to chew. He had watched the man coming and going for days, silently wishing he could approach him. He knew better than to try, several large scars, evidence of lessons learned previously. Still it didn't stop the longing for companionship which ached deep inside him, not unlike his hunger.
It felt like forever since he had been considered a human being and Amon felt it the greatest injustice that he had been cast from that family so quickly. He still remembered being that human, playing in the sun with people he felt close to. Except now he had changed, he was no longer that same being and those fast fading people from his recollections were all gone, probably dead. Now the warm sun only served to heighten his loneliness, radiating his blue and black mottled skin, while he pondered his new desolate existence in limbo. Not human, at least not human in appearance, but still not what the others referred to as undead.
A rustling in the undergrowth drew Amon from his thoughts and he peeled his eyes for the source. It wasn't hard to find, as the zombie like creature stumbled along with no other concerns, except the need to eat. This one was only young and looking at it Amon felt a little sad, the boy couldn't have been more than twelve years young. He looked in rough shape, thin with superficial cuts, as he struggled to make his way through the forest, black blood oozed from open wounds and his clothes in tatters, barely clinging to his small frame.
He wouldn't last much longer, Amon mused, as it wandered closer to his perch. It didn't stand a chance of making it to a higher form and if it kept going would only serve to feed the already growing mass that had descended on the hotel. Like a self perpetuating cycle, the dead snowballed around an area and proceeded to kill and feed, attracting more undead until a saturation point was reached. Who knew how long that would take. Better to die here in the forest quickly and be forgotten than to keep walking this god forsaken earth in this state.
Amon dropped agilely to the forest floor with a heavy thud and the crack of twigs breaking beneath his feet. His dampened pain receptors barely registering the shock and his new body had an inner strength that he was only just learning to utilize. The boy turned to look at him with bright blue eyes, still full of fire, despite his withered form and weakly it made an attempt to engage him. Quickly Amon closed the distance, ducking under the outstretched arms as they made a feeble attempt to grab him. Using his strength, Amon forced the pitiful creature to the ground, kneeling on its shoulder blades, he pulled the head back and ignoring the guttural groans escaping its throat as he snapped the spinal cord.
Using a knife, the flesh came away from the bone easily and Amon ate his fill quickly. The meat was dark and stringy, sticking between his teeth but it would stop the hunger for awhile and build his strength reserves. His new body was as fascinating as it was scary and he found himself constantly pushing its limits. At first he had woken to a numb body, as though he had slept badly and instead of a sleeping limb his whole body was affected. When it hadn't worn off, he felt a dismay at feeling like a heavy walking flesh pile, but slowly he had begun to appreciate the new form, and the dead flesh began to feel more like his own flesh. The lack of feeling was not a complete absence, more a dumbing down and Amon learned to listen to the tiny signals that his body fed him until it was second nature.
Climbing the tree once more he scanned the environment for other threats and when he found none he focused on the hotel. After a few minutes of nothing happening, he decided it would be a better use of time to dispose of the body before it attracted even more unwanted attention. Dragging it across the golf course, Amon tried his hardest to feel empathy for the dead boy, as his head bounced along and rolled from side to side. The world was lacking empathy at the moment, but try as he might he couldn't manage to feel any. It was a dog eat dog world and as much as Amon wanted to be human, he was still glad to be a top dog. He wondered what had happened to the man from the hotel and if the new arrivals had done something to him. He knew one thing, for whoever was inside, the zombies outside the hotel were going to be a problem.
