Eat

Somebody once said that the difference between humans and animals is that while humans eat ,animals feed . In the days where humanity was prevalent, this was absolutely true, and while some humans used to eat so savagely that they appeared to be feeding, we ate. We feasted, attended dinner parties, passed plates at tables, even an intimacy was shared on the go, handing everybody their custom made meal. But now, humanity was waning and slowly, carnally, we fed.

We call ourselves 'We' or address each other as 'It' or 'Us' in the same sense that if extraterrestrial life came down from even Mars itself, they wouldn't call themselves Martians. Yes the humans call us 'zombies'. We were the few who caught the infection from the rare ones who wouldn't leave Us with enough pulse and body to stay alive, and yes we're hungry- and for human flesh.

But largely, we're inefficient. We hobble around, our speed stunted by the growing sickness, devouring who we can and moving on. Today though, I realized something I haven't considered in a very long time; we don't eat anymore! Instead,our manners have been replaced with a cannibalistic desire to greedily destroy and consume. For a while, I wondered if a cure could be found in basic etiquette. Tomorrow, I'm going to find out.

To carry out the test, I'd need to find the basic materials of one's dinner: utensils, plates and food. Nearby was a hospital; I could always go there. So I waited for the others to wander around until they eventually settled on somewhere to sit and blank out at (this was the closest we got to sleep). I made my way in, grabbing a cart that I could load onto. After an hour (We took pretty long to get stuff done these days), I had all that I needed. On my way out, surprised, I heard breathing. Inside of a patient's room, I found a sleeping human who must of thought holing up here was a good idea. I grabbed something to bludgeon him with quickly and swung as hard as I could. It hurt me to kill people, even the best way I could imagine possible, with the bludgeon, left the poor man convulsing a slow and brutal death. I threw him over my shoulder and then onto the cart to take him for the first ever orchestrated meal of the apocalypse.
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A curious cloud of moans and groans filled our small camp as I kept the body hidden. They'd smell it if that sense hadn't fried a long time ago. Instead I set plates, silverware, and cups down for everybody. The cups were filled with water- a surprise to them, considering that We hadn't felt the need for it in so long, but I figured that if I was trying to conduct civility, We might as well drink as we did when we were.

"Sit," I stumbled over the word with my rotting, decomposing jaw. "Sit... plates...sit."

They understood and began filing around in the circle I had made. I went to the back and with a knife I had found on the survivor, I began cutting the tenderest of his meat into pieces. After that, I loaded his flesh to the cart (storing the brain under, as a delicacy to feast on later). I rolled the cart out and caught Them all by surprise. They began rising quickly to attack the hunks of flesh.

"No...sit," I began swatting them away.

Recognizing me as the rightful hunter and receiver of the food, they couldn't argue. They planted themselves back by their plates and waited to be served.

I took pieces and began passing them out.

"Not yet," I said while handing a chunk to each one to ensure that They didn't begin early, "Not yet."

Finally, I got to myself. I sat down and They continued to look at the food and then at me. I picked up my silverware, cut a piece of my meat and then raised it with my fork.

"Eat. Not feast. Eat"

I took a bite and They all slowly began as well, struggling with the composure that it took to resist digging into the food ravenously. They eventually got it.

"Eat," they said to each other over and over again. We were facilitating conversation!

"Eat"
"Not feast"
"Eat"
"Not"
"Feast"
"Eat"

I looked with amazement and pride. This opened a new door to the limitations of Our kind. This meant that we could gather and think. Hunt. Build. Breed. Organizing in thoughts, concerns, ideas, all over a plate of food.
"Food from where?" One of my brothers asked.
"From hospital"
"Go back. We go back."
"For feed?"
"No. Eat."
If I could smile I would.
"Brain," I pointed to the undercarriage of the cart and they all made noise excitedly. In their place, ready to be served,they looked at each other chanting.
"Eat"
"Brain"
"Hospital"
"Good"
"Eat"
"Hospital"
"Brain"

A curious cloud of moans and groans filled our small camp . Almost as if we were above the emptiness. Indeed, it was time for advancement.