Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: A Temporary Sancutary
Zane knew enough about how the undead worked to easily evade the majority of the horde, who chased after Ryan and his group because they were the larger group of living beings. Because of this, he led Elena and Olivia out of the school building and into the yard.

The campus was set up in several distinctive buildings that required one to exit into the outside in order to enter the others. The main building of which had the most floors, with that being three, while the others only had one or two, depending on their purpose.

Of course, the outside was just as unsafe as the inside. Since the gates of the school were wide open, all kinds of undead had crawled their way into the campus and were wandering about aimlessly and mindlessly.

Zane realized that since Elena and Olivia were sticking to him, he would have to stealthily avoid detection from the undead if he wanted to make it to the next building in one piece. Thus he raised slowly made his way through the gap between the main building he had just exited, and the one he wanted to enter which housed the shop classes such as woodworking and metalworking. Both of which would be instrumental to his plans to survive early on.

Elena and Olivia followed Zane’s exact movements, and somehow or another the trio made their way into the next building. Where they found that, like the one they had just left, it was swarming with undead. Because of this, Zane pulled out the combat knife which was sheathed on his gun belt, and held it firmly in hand, prepared to deal a lethal blow to any undead he came across.

—

While Zane killed his way to the metals classroom, where he planned to create some makeshift weapons to aid him in his journey, Ryan and the others had fled through the school’s halls. Trying their darndest to escape the horde that followed them. Of course, this only attracted more undead, causing them to become in an even more precarious situation.

Luckily for them, after escaping from the main building with their lives intact, they ran in the opposite direction of Zane and his two followers, instead charging towards the gymnasium, which they hoped was a safe place to stay.

Unexpectedly, there were survivors in the Gymnasium who had sealed it off from the undead which plagued the school grounds. And it was because of this that Ryan and his gang narrowly escaped the horde which was chasing after them.

The Gym teacher had reluctantly opened the door, after hearing panicked screams on the outside, and shut it just in time to prevent the undead from overwhelming their temporarily safe position. Once Ryan and the others were inside, the Gym teacher chastised them for their stupidity.

“What the hell are you idiots doing, running around out there? Don’t you know we are under lockdown? Shouldn’t you have stayed in your homeroom classes?”

Ryan and the others had to catch their breaths, as they had been running for some time, but once they did they explained the tragedy that had befallen their class, and how the main building was completely overrun by the so called “rioters” that most people still believed were nothing more than a nation wide protest gone terribly wrong.

The gym teacher, however, was not so convinced. After watching the videos on his phone, he realized they might be dealing with an apocalyptic scenario, one that was commonly found in a very specific genre of fiction.

Because of this, he had gathered as many survivors as he could in the gymnasium during the initial chaos, and blocked them inside. Unlike other parts of the school, the gymnasium had vending machines which contained both snacks, and water, which, while not a lot, was able to stave off the hunger and dehydration of those few who hid safely behind its slightly more reinforced doors.

Thus, he kindly offered a share of rations to these students, who were clearly both hungry and thirsty.

“Well, that sounds like you all went through some serious shit. Have some chips and soda… It’s not much, but it’s all that we currently have to offer. At least until our scouts report back with some scavenged some food from the cafeteria…”

Although the gym teacher was friendly to Ryan and his group, Ryan was far from satisfied. The man had clearly taken control of the situation here in the gymnasium, meaning unless Ryan somehow got rid of him, he would lose all authority over his little gang, and the perks that came with it. Thus, Ryan tried his best to think of a scheme to get this man out of his way.

“You said you sent scouts to the Cafeteria? That place is swarming with those monsters… There’s no way they would have made it back alive….”

This comment caused the gym teacher to frown… He had sent the most capable staff members he had available to go fetch some supplies from the main building, but if the situation was as dire as this student said it was, then they were likely already dead.

The man grimace when he thought of this, not wanting to imagine what horrors had befallen his coworkers. Still, it was better for the staff to die in a vain attempt to gain supplies, then the students under his protection, and thus the man sighed in relief before letting a dangerous viper enter his territory, completely unaware of the threat that Ryan posed to him.

“I’ll have to send someone to confirm what you said…. In the mean time you kids make yourselves comfortable with the others. You have been through a lot, and I can’t imagine what you are all feeling right now…”

With that said, the Gym teacher walked off, concerned about his fellow co-workers, and the rapidly dwindling supplies that were the only lifeline of himself and, more importantly, his students. He had no idea that he had just allowed a would be usurper into his sanctuary, one that intended to get rid of him by any means necessary.