This Would Be Paradise (Book 1)-A Zombie Novel

Chapter 13

"Ok how about two Reece's Pieces for some deer Jerky?" Zoe pleaded again.

"No way, the Jerky's mine!" I stood strong in the face of the chocolaty temptation.

We were running extremely low on supplies so we have been resorting to bartering amongst ourselves. We never made that trip a couple of months ago; was it just a couple? Man, it felt like a lifetime ago. All radio stations had quit broadcasting, even the emergency ones. We could no longer see the lights from the city so the nights were beyond dark.

We opted for the safer route, which was to wait here and see if help came instead of running head long into the city we just tried to escape. Well obviously since we were still sitting here arguing over junk food, it was a wise choice- yes that was sarcasm. So now we really did have a choice to make, starve or chance a run into town to grab some much needed supplies. On the plus side, with nothing but time on our hands, we had gotten lots of target practice and I've even been on a few hunting trips. Not that I was much use on them.

Basically it was to show me how to use my rifle. Damn Taylor showed me up every time. But at least he got his comeuppance.

"This is unholy early," I yawned, pulling the rifle strap back up my shoulder.

The damn thing kept slipping off as I trekked behind Taylor in the rough terrained forest. Well it was rough to me anyways.

"Six in the mornin' is the best time to catch game," Taylor once again pointed out, "Hey it was you who wanted to learn anyways."

"Yeah but I didn't know it entailed getting up at 5am!" I shot back.

I was not a morning person. I saw him clench his jaw and then he picked up his pace leaving me to scramble behind him just to keep up in the face of all these tree roots. This kept up for another hour and I really was regretting my decision to attend this Taylor hosted event. I heard the crunch of leaves off to our right and Taylor held up his closed fist which I assumed meant "sit still and shut up" so I did. Slowly Taylor slid his rifle off of his shoulder and moved quietly towards the noise.

I opted to stay standing since I would most likely trip and fall thus ruining any chances of catching something. Or worse, alert something to our presence. I turned my head and squinted to try and see what made the noise. I couldn't see much but I spotted a mass of brown fur with white spots. I may have been a "city girl" as Taylor called me but I knew that was deer. The grin on Taylor's face reinforced my guess and he crept silently closer while bringing the rifle up to eye level. Then what happened next was quite strange.

One minute Taylor was approaching the deer and the next he was gone, almost like the ground had swallowed him up. I heard him let out a yelp of surprise and the deer bolted off in the opposite direction. I ran to where Taylor had disappeared and heard a "Stop!" I came to a halt just in front of what looked like a pitfall and Taylor was standing at the bottom. This was not a natural formation, which lead me to believe this was a man made hunting trap. I peered down into the trap at Taylor and I couldn't help myself.

"It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." I burst out laughing.

Needless to say, Taylor didn't look amused.

"That's real hilarious," He drawled and I clutched my sides from laughing so hard.

Roots were sticking out in every direction and dirt was constantly sliding down the sides and landing on Taylor's cowboy hat and shoulders. The hole must have been seven or eight feet deep but wasn't very wide; maybe enough for two people who knew each other pretty well to fit.