Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Zane did not know it, but after taking care of the marauders and looting their gear, Ryan had dispatched another party out into the city in search of some desperately needed supplies. And while Zane was on his way back from the shopping center, which was now completely overrun with an undead horde of unimaginable magnitude, he came across one of these search parties.

In all honesty, Zane did not know that Ryan and his group were holed up in the gymnasium of the high school campus. Though he had seen Ryan chased by the abomination in what seemed like a lifetime ago. Zane had paid the boy no thoughts. After all, he assumed the abomination had killed the man.

But when Zane flashed his light on the survivors of Ryan's party, who were making their way back to the school campus, after filling several backpacks's worth of looted supplies, which they acquired from God knows where. He was indeed surprised to see some familiar faces.

The group looked at Zane and his equipment with confusion in their eyes. Ryan consistently espoused propaganda that Zane was the enemy on campus, and had stolen some much needed supplies while refusing to share them. Thus leading to the troubles Ryan and his group were having.

But the reality was Ryan and Zane had not been in contact since the second day of the apocalypse. Thus, the reactions on the faces of these familiar faces were a strange one to Zane. And, of course, the students were quick to speak to him as if he were the enemy.

"Zane! Is that you!?! Did you get taller? Oh, who gives a shit. Where the hell did you get that equipment from?"

Zane did not bother answering the question, after all, he was the one with the loaded gun, instead he flipped the safety selector on his m4 carbine to the full auto position, while staring at the boys with a cold expression on his face, and a rifle aimed at their chests.

After all, he did not have time for their bullshit, and if they were going to act aggressively towards him, then Zane would simply kill them and loot their supplies for his own group.

"One…"

The boy who appeared to be in charge of the group broke out into laughter as he saw Zane "acting tough" and was quick to speak about something that caught the black-haired youth's interest. All the while stepping towards Zane with his baseball bat in hand. Almost as if he didn't believe Zane would shoot him. Which he openly spoke about.

"Ha! Look at this loser, acting tough now that he has a rifle. I bet you don't even have the nerve to shoot. He guys… Won't Ryan reward us if we bring this fucking jackass back to him? I bet we might even get to keep his equipment!"

Zane narrowed his eyes when he heard this. Apparently Ryan was still alive, and had put a price on his head… No doubt because of the boy's obsession with Elena, who had chosen to fallow Zane instead. That must have been a deep wound for Ryan to receive.

But Zane did not say anything other than initiating another warning to the group of potential bandits. He kept his rifle aimed at the boy in charge while speaking another single word.

"Two…"

This time the other boys broke out into laughter, thinking Zane's anti-social behavior was laughable at best. After all, they had been locked up in the gymnasium for the first few days of this apocalypse. Sure, after being sent out into the city, they had witnessed the horrors of the wasteland that was now their city.

But that was only so far as the undead they cowardly hid from. They had yet to run into other living beings, who were every bit as savage and cruel as the Walkers. If not more so. Though they knew a group of marauders had killed the previous scavenging party, they had no idea that Zane was the one who wiped out said marauders. Or the amount of blood that now stained his hands.

It was because of this ignorance that they arrogantly mocked Zane to his face, after he had given them their last real warning.

"Look at this guy! Who does he think he is? Clearly, the fact that he has a rifle has gone to his head! Go ahead and shoot, tough guy! If you are really the nut job, you present yourself as that is!"

Zane only said one more word, something that made the group laugh for the briefest moment before things went terribly wrong for them.

"Three…."

After saying this, Zane pulled the trigger, sending three rounds straight into the chest of the boy who stood directly in front of him. Killing him on the spot. Then, without hesitation, Zane shifted the muzzle of his rifle towards the next boy, gunning him down as ruthlessly as he had done his friend no more than a second prior.

The entire conflict lasted no more than three seconds. Zane had spent an entire magazine killing the five boys. But it was over before any of them even realized that they had gotten themselves killed. And once Zane had finished off the boys, he ejected his spent magazine, and replaced it with a new one, before inserting the empty mag into the empty pouch on his belt.

Once he had done this, Zane dropped the bolt with the paddle release on the left side of the lower receiver, in doing so, chambering a fresh round. After ensuring that his weapon was loaded, Zane turned the safety back on before releasing his grip over his rifle, allowing it to hand over his chest with the sling.

He then used his free hands to loot the fresh corpses he had just made. Taking all of their supplies, and dragging them off by himself, back to the temporary sanctuary that he had made for himself on the high school grounds.

With a haul like this, Zane would be able to feed his group of eight survivors, including himself, for at least two weeks. And thus, he was quite happy with the fact that on this outing, which was meant solely to get him some fresh clothes, he had returned with so many goodies. He would remind himself to thank Ryan for giving him such a gift later on. Preferably with a bullet to the head.

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