Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: A Hope For Tomorrow
While Zane spent the remaining hours of daylight keeping a close watch on the perimeter of his temporary base of operations. Ryan had escaped from Keith’s pursuit and returned to the gymnasium with the much needed supplies.

People were happy at first, knowing that one of the runners had returned, but it did not take long before one of the survivors asked about Mr. Diaz’s whereabouts.

“Wait… Ryan, where is Mr. Diaz?”

When this question was asked, Ryan’s friends eyed the young man with horror. They realized then and there that Ryan had actually gone through with his plan and gotten rid of the Gym Teacher.

Whether it was outright murder, or simply crippling the man so that he would be devoured by the undead, none of them knew. But they also realized that Ryan may have gone off the deep end.

Ryan, of course, wore a sorrowful façade as he spun some bullshit tale of Mr. Diaz’s heroism, and the passing of the torch, so to speak.

“Mr. Diaz…. Mr. Diaz didn’t make it… There was some kind of abomination in the main building. It was massive, and broke down all the barricaded classrooms, killing the survivors inside.

When we came across it, Mr. Diaz… He sacrificed himself to buy me time to escape. So that I could bring you all these supplies, and act as your new leader…”

Multiple of the teenage girls broke out into tears when they heard that the man who had helped them all live in safety over the past 48 hours had perished so horribly. All the while, Ryan’s friends from the football team walked away, not wanting to hear the lies that their friend was spitting at this moment.

And after Ryan answered all the questions that had been given to him, he made a shocking declaration to them all.

“There is no reason to despair! I know things are looking bleak, but I will lead you all to safety! It has become abundantly clear to me that we need to get rid of these damn monsters, and lock them out of our school grounds! Only here on this campus can we remain safe, but first we need to secure said campus.

And the monsters are not our only problems. There is another group of survivors. This became apparent to Mr. Diaz and me when we went to the nurses’ office and found that it had already been ransacked. We need those medical supplies if we are to survive here long term!

I have no doubt that the man leading these survivors is none other than that freak Zane. He abandoned my class to their deaths and used his head start to steal precious supplies! As long as he is on campus, with his own group that rivals our own, we will never have a chance to survive!

So… My first act as leader is to distribute these supplies accordingly, then we will device a plan on how to deal with Zane and his gang of misfits! Once Zane and the others have been forced to give us their supplies, we will take back this school from those damned monsters which have caused so much destruction!

Who is with me!?!”

Surprisingly, this speech had a rousing success when it came to increasing morale. After all, what these students needed now was hope. Hope that things were going to get better, and go back to some semblance of normalcy.

They also needed an objective other than sitting around and waiting for help to show up, if it ever would. Thus, Ryan had given this large group of teenagers exactly what they needed to continue moving forward.

As for his friends, they gathered in the back of the gym while Ryan was giving his speech, and were quick to discuss what had happened between their fearless leader and Mr. Diaz.

“You don’t think Ryan actually went through with it, did you?”

One of the other kids was quick to point out how stupid this question was, as he tried to keep his voice as low as possible so that Ryan couldn’t hear them.

“Are you retarded? Of course, Ryan went through with it. This is exactly what Ryan proposed to us. Mr. Diaz is dead, and I have no doubt that Ryan is responsible. The question is, what do we do now that we know there is a murderer in our ranks?”

This was another question that was self-evident, which someone else among their small group of high school athletes was quick to express.

“What do you think? Obviously we obey Ryan…. We are the only people who know that this was premeditated. If he even thinks we are disloyal, he will do to us what he did to Mr. Diaz…. We have no choice but to follow his plan now, whether that will lead us to safety, or hell…. That is a question for tomorrow…”

The group unanimously nodded their heads at this suggestion, before one finally spoke of the glaring issue with Ryan’s plan.

“Are we really going to move against Zane? He’s the only one with a gun, and you all saw how he responded to our attempts to take it from him. If we try to force him and his group to hand over their supplies and integrate with the rest of us, things will get bloody…”

However, this fear elicited nothing but a scoff of disdain from another member of the teenage athletes, who spoke as if his friend were an absolute moron.

“Idiot! Things have already gotten bloody! And besides… There is no way Ryan is going to let Zane walk away with his life once this is all over… You know how he is about Elena, and Elena chose to follow Zane.

I fear that our leader is going to make an example of Zane after we have forced him to surrender. And knowing that Ryan just killed Mr. Diaz for control of this gymnasium, I fear it is going to be a very violent and gruesome example…”

There was nothing but silence from the group after this thought was expressed. After all, there was nothing more to be said. They, like everyone else in the gymnasium, had one choice: to follow Ryan into the depths of hell.