Day 68

A fresh layer of snow was just revealed as the sunlight peeked up over the hill top. A small cloud of breath could be seen leaving Jeff's lips as he raised his rifle, "Breath out when you're ready to fire" The words of his now dead Drill Sergeant entered his mind as he laid his finger on the trigger. As Jeff placed the cross hairs on the kill spot of an old mule deer, Hunter looked over at Jeff, "Are you going to shoot it or just make love to it with your eyes?"

Jeff turned and looked at hunter, Hunter just shrugged his shoulders with a grin on his face. Jeff smiled at Hunter and pulled the trigger, never removing his eyes from Hunter's. Hunter quickly turned only to see the deer's carcass hitting the ground. Hunter turned back to Jeff, "You learn that in the military?" Breaking down his rifle, Jeff responded, "Something like that". "You shot it, I get to clean in" said Hunter, "I have no problem with that, but I get the skin" Jeff answered back. Hunter nodded his head in agreement and the two finished packing up their stuff and starting climbing down the stand.

"We had better hurry before any zombies decide to follow the sound." Hunter explained. 'You don't have to tell me twice, I hate having to deal with those things." Jeff answered back. "Alright, cover me" Hunter whispered as he bent down to start field dressing the deer. Hunter was just about done when Jeff said in an alarmed voice, "Hunter, get ready, I heard a noise" Hunter quickly finished cutting the last bit of food free and placed it in a plastic bag, stuffed it in his pack, picked up his rifle and turned around ready to fire. "Where are they?" Hunter whispered frost coming out his mouth. It was extremely cold out. Jeff pointed in the direction he heard movement, then slowly started to head that way. Hunter adjusted his pack onto his shoulders better, then followed Jeff.

Jeff and Hunter slowly made their way through the woods, "Jeff!" Hunter whispered. Jeff looked over at Hunter pointing at a small footprint and what looked like something was being dragged. On the side of the drag, was a drops of blood."Looks like a Z to me" Jeff mentioned. Hunter agreed and the two followed it with guns raised.

After a few minutes the two of them came across an open field and the noticed someone bent over like they were in pain. "Stay here and cover me since you got the hunting rifle" Jeff said. Hunter agreed and started to climb the tree next to him. When Hunter signaled to Jeff, Jeff started to slowly make his way to the open of the field.

As Jeff approached the figure, he noticed that there were actually two figures there and not just one. Jeff kept inching closer and closer slowly and with caution. Soon, the smell of fresh blood filled the air and Jeff knew that the zombie was chomping down on another poor soul. Jeff holstered his pistol and unsheathed his machete, as Jeff raised the machete above his head, he casted a shadow down upon the victim of the zombie. The zombie slowly turned to reveal that it too had only recently died.

Jeff plunged his machete into the forehead of the zombie and tried to pull it out, but it was stuck. Jeff pulled at the machete. but try as he might, the blade would not dislodge from the skull. Jeff let the zombie hit the ground with hopes that a more stable body would make it easier to come out. Jeff continued to struggle for a few moments to get his machete out of the dead zombie, finally after several minutes of wrestling with his machete, Jeff was finally able to break it free. Jeff turned around to stab the body lying behind him, only to be attacked by the corpse.

Jeff grabbed the zombie by the neck and started pushing, but the zombie overpowered him and made Jeff trip over the corpse of the one he killed. As Jeff was laying there, trying to fight off this zombie that wanted to turn Jeff into a mansanwich, a single thought kept racing through his mind, "Where the hell is Hunter!?" "That bastard was to be covering me!" The zombie was inches from tearing into Jeff's flesh, a hand appeared and pulled the zombie from Jeff. It was Hunter, he awoken his sleeping blade and thrusted it into the eye socket of the zombie.

Hunter threw the zombie to the ground, and turned back to Jeff with his hand stretched out. "I'm sorry Jeff, As soon as I saw the zombie, start to move, I jumped down from the limb I was on and raced towards you".Jeff wiped off some blood from face and then took Hunter’s hand. "I was wondering if you had left me or not" Jeff said as he stood up with the help of Hunter. Jeff bent down and picked up his machete and placed it back in his sheath.

Jeff turned back to Hunter,"I just hope they appreciate everything we went through for this." Hunter slung his part of the deer onto his shoulder, "I'm sure they will", Jeff nodded, "Let's get back before we run into anymore of these things" Hunter agreed, the two of them picked up their packs and made the trek back to the base with the carcass of the dead mule deer hung over their shoulders.