Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Corralling the Survivors
Zane thought he recognized the exceptionally fat zombie. But it was honestly hard to tell. After all, he had grown substantially larger in both height and weight since he was a living being. Yet the moment Elena said the undead monstrosity’s name, Zane immediately could see the resemblance.

With a scoff that almost had a hint of disdain in it, Zane spoke his thoughts on the matter.

“And here I didn’t think it was possible for the fat fuck to get any larger… It appears that they have noticed us… I’m going to go find Olivia. Text me if they make any movements.”

However, just as Zane said this, the two undead walked in the opposite direction, back towards the main building that Zane and the others had fled from earlier in the day. With a heavy sigh of relief, Zane grabbed Elena’s shoulder, jolting her out of her shock, while giving her directions.

“We may have barricaded this building’s entry points, but I don’t think our makeshift defenses will hold against that fatass if he dares to try to break them down… I think we are going to have to take shifts observing our surroundings. The last thing we need is that thing breaking down our doors while we’re all asleep.”

Elena was still stunned at how quickly Keith had transformed into something almost unrecognizable. Because of this, it took her several seconds to understand what Zane had said. Whereupon doing so, she was quick to nod her head in agreement.

“Agreed… Kei… That thing looks dangerous. We have no idea what kind of damage it can cause. I just hope that-”

In the next second, Elena’s words were drowned out by the screams of those survivors still in the main building, many of which had come flooding out of their classrooms, and into the gap between the three primary buildings of the high school’s campus.

Zane immediately guessed what had happened. The giant undead had broken down the barricades in the classrooms, while the stalker began to mop up those hiding inside. If Zane was correct, then the Stalker was using Keith as a battering ram to break down the barricades.

Which meant that their temporary shelter was no longer safe. With this in mind, Zane grabbed hold of his club and ran off, all the while shouting at Elena for backup.

“Hurry up! We can’t let those bastards break down our defenses!”

Elena was confused at first about just what Zane meant by this, but was quick to call out to him as she chased him down the hallway, following his lead.

“You don’t mean our fellow students, do you? Zane! Zane, come back here!”

—

Olivia was walking around the hallways of the second building on the high school campus that she worked at. At the moment, she was trying her best to mop up the blood, and guts that stained much of the hallway.

After all, although Zane had removed the corpses of the dead, he had not cleaned up the mess they left behind. And if Olivia was being honest with herself, the stench of the dead was nauseating. How Zane had just gripped hold of the corpses and tossed them off the roof. She would never know.

While Olivia was cleaning the hallway near the main entrance, she heard repeated pounding on the doors. Believing that the undead were attacking again, the silver-haired beauty was about to run off and grab her club, when she heard the screams of the living on the other side.

“Help! Please Help us!”

“Is anybody in there? Please open up! We’re dying out here!”

Whether it was out of a sense of duty as a former teacher, or still some naivety about the goodness of humanity, Olivia bit her lip, and looked around to see if Zane was nearby to give her orders, and when she found that he wasn’t she made the decision herself to save the survivors.

After mustering all the strength in her body, Olivia pushed the barricades away from the doorway just enough to open a gap. Which allowed several students entry to the building, but only one at a time.

“Hurry up! Get in! One at a time! Hurry!”

The first student inside immediately recognized Olivia and cried out in thanks to her while falling onto his knees in an attempt to hug her thigh thighs.

“Oh, thank you! Thank you Miss Bennett! Thank you so much! You’re my guardian angel!”

Olivia frowned when she saw the pathetic expression on the kid’s face and pushed him aside in order to make sure he wasn’t blocking the doorway.

“Move aside Gregory! You’re in the way!”

The boy wiped the snot from his nose and did as instructed. Allowing several more students to enter the building. One by one the remaining survivors made their way into the second building, all the while, the Stalker, and the giant undead continued to ravage classrooms within the main building, almost as if they were trying to corral what remained of the school’s survivors into one place.

Or perhaps this was all some diabolical scheme that the living could not comprehend. Either way, Olivia did not know, or care, and simply did what she could to save the students and faculty who fled to the building she and the others were now occupying.

—

It did not take long for Zane and Elena to rush down the stairs and find Olivia helping the other students inside. This was much to the dismay of Zane, who preferred as little people as possible in his survival group.

In fact, he got in the way, and shut the door just when another student was about to enter, blocking Olivia’s attempts to save the others, while condemning her for her foolishness.

“What the hell do you think you are doing? Do you have any idea what you have done? We only have enough supplies to last a few days, and that is only if it is just the three of us. By letting these idiots inside our sanctuary, you have put not only yourself, but Elena and I at risk too…”

Olivia bit her lip in frustration as she heard this. She had sworn to follow Zane, and obey his commands, but she also felt obligated as a teacher at the school to help as many students as possible survive.

Not only that, but he was not nearby when the chaos began to give her proper instruction, thus she felt a bit mistreated over this whole ordeal. Still, she understood why Zane was reprimanding her. After all, she did not even think about their supply issue.

Unfortunately, she did not have time to apologize, because the student named Gregory immediately stepped up to Zane and got in his face. Which was perhaps the worst mistake he would ever make in his life.