Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 42

Running Out of Supplies
While the survivors under Zane’s control had begun a baptism of fire, one that would leave only 1/5 of them alive at the end of it, but would at the same time significantly strengthen their group over all. Ryan’s group was once more running out of supplies.

After all, Ryan had a significantly larger number of students and faculty following him. And until now, he had not sent out patrols or scavenging parties. They were relying entirely on what he and Mr. Diaz had managed to take from the cafeteria.

But the Cafeteria had already been plundered by both Zane and Ryan, and was rapidly running out of supplies. What remained would not feed Ryan’s group for more than a day. It was because of this that he needed to do something, and something soon, to replenish his dwindling rations.

After all, he was planning to launch an attack on Zane’s hideout. In an attempt to use Zane as a scapegoat. And an army could not fight while it was starving. Already, people were beginning to question Ryan’s leadership. Because of this, he had resorted to blaming Zane and his group as a scapegoat.

Ryan had begun singling out those students who openly questioned his rule, calling them spies sent by Zane’s party, and actively blaming them for “sabotaging” the supplies that their camp had. None of this was true, but the punishment was expulsion, and the students who followed Ryan began to fear that Zane was genuinely trying to kill them all.

Was this logical or rational? No, in fact, Ryan had never outright stated why Zane was the enemy, other than the fact that they were competing for the same resources on the school campus. But paranoia was easily bred among a populace that already was fearing for their lives constantly.

And this paranoia was shifted towards Zane, and the others who still followed him. But these lies could only last for so long. If Ryan did not come up with more supplies soon to feed his people, then they would begin to turn on him. Knowing this, he was quick to contact his “lieutenants,” which were nothing more than the guys from his old football team who had survived this long.

Due to the perks that these young men received by being Ryan’s “Lieutenants” they had quickly fallen in line, no longer questioning how exactly Mr. Diaz had met his untimely end. After all, a soldier who was well rewarded was a loyal soldier. Because of this, the lettermen jackets were a symbol of hierarchy among Ryan’s group.

And when there was a gathering of young men dressed in these stylish jackets, it meant something big was happening. Ryan gathered his lieutenants into a secluded area of the gym and created a think tank looking for solutions on how to remedy their supply issues.

“Listen, we’re going to need food and water, right? I mean, we’re running out, and quickly! We also need medical supplies. Who knows when someone might be injured! What the hell are we going to do?”

A young man by the name of Derek was quick to speak to the others, voicing his idea. He was a young man with dark brown hair and matching eyes. Among the group of athletes, he was perhaps the most intelligent of them all, but that was not really saying much.

“Well, we have two options…. We can send out a group of volunteers to go get some supplies from the cafeteria and the nurse’s office. But you already did that and said there isn’t much left. So… Our best bet, believe it or not, is to venture into the city, and pray to god that things haven’t already been looted already…”

Ryan nodded his head in agreement with this. That is until somebody spoke up. There was an anxious tone in his voice. The boy named Tony had olive skin and black hair. He looked like your stereotypical Sicilian American, which was surprising considering they were currently in the western united states, and Italian Americans were more commonly found on the east coast.

Tony was quick to point out just how dangerous venturing beyond the boundaries of the high school campus was.

“Are you crazy? We have no idea how many of these monsters are in the city, or what state the city is in? What if people are out there killing one another for food and water? I don’t know about you, but going out with nothing but baseball bats sounds like a good way to get ourselves killed!”

Tony made a good point. And his words were chilling to the bone, especially to those young athletes who surrounded him. But Ryan was determined to gather supplies, and with the amount of people they currently had in the stadium, they would need a lot of them. Thus, he presented a third opportunity, one that might help them in the long run.

“Well…. There’s always a third options… But I don’t think you guys will like it…”

Judging by the tone in Ryan’s voice, which was the same he had used when talking about getting rid of Mr. Diaz, the boys gazed upon their fearless leader with a bit of fear in their eyes. None of them wanted to hear this third options, but all of them silently motioned for Ryan to continue.

Knowing that he had their ears, Ryan sighed before expressing a terrible and cruel option which would help them ration their limited supplies better.

“We send the weakest members of our group out into the city… Those who come back with supplies will be rewarded, and those who don’t…. Well, we won’t have to worry about feeding them now, will we?”

A look of horror appeared in the eyes of all of Ryan’s lieutenants. Sure this was a simple and effective solution to their problem. They had too many mouths to feed, and nobody was doing any work other than them. But… Was knowingly sending people to their deaths really the best solution they could think of?