Treegiraffe2's Arc

Chapter 2 of 10

Dawn cracked over the field, and the last skeleton burned to bone dust in the sun. Treegiraffe2 pushed the cobblestone block aside and stepped out. She had survived. But her stomach knotted, and her hands shook when she gripped the diamond sword. No food. Not one loaf, not one apple. Tetra2 could not rise if she starved before the first cottage stood. "You look like you might fall over," Skibble said. He leaned against the oak, the boy who'd talked her through the night and helped dig her shelter. He pointed across the grass. "There. That's your problem solved, if you can walk that far." She followed his finger. Beyond a low rise sat a barn with wooden beams and a dark open door. A fence ran around it. Inside the pen, animals moved. A black-and-white cow chewed slow. A pink pig snuffled at the dirt. A chicken pecked between them, bobbing its head. "Whose barn is that?" she asked. "Nobody's now," Skibble said. He shrugged. "Found it empty two days back. The animals stayed." Treegiraffe2 walked to the fence. The cow blinked at her. She thought about Tetra2, about greenhouses and steady food that didn't wait on the weather. Animals were steady too. They bred. They fed you again and again. This was better than one meal. This was a start. She climbed the fence and dropped inside. The pig squealed and trotted off. She didn't want to hurt them all. She only needed enough to live, and enough to keep the rest. Behind the barn she found square bales of hay stacked in a golden wall. She broke one open. Straw spilled out. The cow lumbered over and ate from her hand. The pig came too, then the chicken. She had feed. She had breeding stock. She grinned so wide her cheeks hurt. "Smart," Skibble said. He'd climbed the fence behind her. "Most people just eat the first cow they see. Then they've got nothing." Treegiraffe2 knelt by the chicken. It had left something in the straw. A small brown egg. She picked it up. Warm. "They'll keep giving," she said. "Eggs. Milk. More animals." She looked at the barn, the pens, the hay. "This is Tetra2's first farm. It was here the whole time." She cooked one pork chop over a small fire and ate until the shaking stopped. Her strength came back. The starving problem was gone. But she counted the fence line and frowned. Half the rails had rotted through. Gaps yawned wide enough for a cow to wander out. Wide enough for a zombie to wander in. When night came again, the monsters would smell the animals. Every cow, pig, and chicken she'd just saved would be torn apart in the dark. "We need to patch that fence," she said. "Before sundown." Skibble looked at the gaps. "That's a lot of wood," he said. "And not a lot of daylight."