When I woke, I wasn't as alert as I'd been after eating and having our little musical session, but I still felt better than before. I lay there on the narrow cot with Lilly curled up against my side, and Les snoring away from the cushion he was sprawled out on. There were things I had to do today, but I needed to take a little time to reflect on what had happened.
First of all, I'd decided that I was going to call the kidnapper GW for Garret-Wannabe. I hated not having a name for him and I knew it wasn't Garret. The man was dead. I'd watched him die. There was absolutely no way he'd survived. Which meant this wasn't Garret.
Last night, after Matthew's return and the passing around of the Bible and note from GW, people had freaked out a little. Probably because we were all feeling more alert. But if freaking out meant I was also thinking more clearly, I'd take it. We had a better chance of surviving if our brains were working, even if we were scared.
My stomach growled at the thought of brains, which brought me to my next thought . . . we needed more food, and I wasn't in the mood for fish. Maybe my snare had caught something.
I eased my arm out from under Lilly and waited to see if she'd wake. She slumbered on, so I climbed off of the bed and headed for the bathroom. I grimaced as I caught a whiff of myself. A drawback of improved cognition is that I was definitely aware of not having bathed in a while. In my defense, though, Zombies usually didn't think about personal hygiene. It just wasn't a priority.
When I'd used the restroom, I headed out. Everyone else was still sleeping so I was careful not to make any noise. As I stepped outside, I could smell the lingering scent of the fish we'd had the night before. My stomach grumbled. While the meat had helped with brain function, it hadn't been enough to make up for the little I'd eaten since being taken. Even if I hadn't been a flesh-craving Zombie, I'd still be hungry right now.
I'd left my spear leaning up against the house, and to my pleasant surprise, it was still there. I picked it up, let out a breath that was visible in the chilly dawn air, and headed toward the path Kieran and I had taken before. As I started up the trail, it occurred to me that maybe I should've brought Kieran with me in case I ran into trouble. But it would be worse if something happened to both of us. If I got lost or, you know, skewered with an arrow, at least Kieran would be able to help Mom and Lilly. If we were both gone, I had a feeling Matthew would take charge. I'd gotten the impression that's how it'd been before the rest of us had arrived. And I didn't trust his decision-making when it came to the safety of my family.
I forced myself to focus as I neared the place where Kieran and I had set up the snare. I didn't hear any struggling, so that was a little discouraging, but I tried to tell myself that whatever we'd caught may have already died or became exhausted from fighting the snare all night. I didn't want to think about the predicament we'd be in if we hadn't snared anything. A few fish was better than nothing, but we couldn't survive on that for long. We needed more substantial meat if we were going to make it.
Funny, I thought, that people called fish brain food when it wasn't anywhere near as good for our brains as actual brains.
Brains.
Brains.
Brains.
The screech of a bird snapped me out of it and I realized I'd walked right past the place where I needed to go. As I backtracked, I began to think about music. At first, I couldn't hear the notes in my head, but then they started to come. It wasn't as good as hearing it out loud or playing it myself, but it was enough to keep me from stumbling around and making too much noise.
