Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Choosing a Side
Elena’s eyes locked onto the scene displaying itself in front of her. It only took a few seconds for her excited expression to shift to one of caution. She did not have a weapon to defend herself, and several of her former classmates were covered in blood while wielding makeshift clubs that they had used to defeat the Walkers on the first floor.

But more importantly, these kids were standing off with Zane, who held his handgun at his side, ready at a moment’s notice to aim the weapon at those former classmates in front of him. In fact, Elena did not doubt for a second that Zane would pull the trigger if forced into such a situation and because of this, she was quick to try to talk the young man down.

“Zane…. What’s going on?”

Zane did not look at Elena. His concentration on the would be bandits in front of him could not be broken for a second, less he give them an opportunity to attack. Because of this, he stared at Ryan while telling the crimson-haired beauty exactly what her old friend was up to.

“These idiots are trying to rob me…”

Elena could not believe that her old friends would try to do such a thing, but then again, they had abandoned her to her death in the classroom, and even worse, the girl she trusted most actively sacrificed her for survival.

And it was when Elena locked eyes on Lexi that she understood things for what they were. The guilt that the brown-haired girl was feeling mixed with her own misery, blaming Elena for everything that happened to her on that rooftop. But she did not say a word, instead she glared at Elena while the woman herself spoke up about what she had walked into.

“I see…”

This comment immediately cause Ryan to lower his guard, as he desperately tried to convince Elena that he himself was not actually trying to rob Zane. After all, he wanted more than anything to get in Elena’s pants, and had wanted this for years.

But now that the world had come crashing down around him, he finally had a chance to do so, whether she wanted to her or not. And this was his motivation to act like he was the good guy in this little incident.

“Elena, don’t listen to this freak! We found him dissecting the corpses that we had put down… There’s something seriously wrong with this asshole, and I’d say he’s been fucked in the head long before the world went to shit! He can’t be trusted with such dangerous weapons. We are merely trying to defuse the situation.”

Despite Ryan’s attempts to win her over, Elena did not believe the man for a second. Zane might be a quiet loner, who was incredibly pessimistic when he did speak, but he wasn’t some kind of madman who would cut open corpses for fun.

And while it was true that Zane was not technically dissecting the corpses of the walkers, he had cut into their skulls looking for blood crystals. After all, he was the only one who actually knew the value of such things, something that he knew would not last for long.

Thus, while everyone else was focused on surviving this apocalyptic scenario, Zane was focused on scavenging blood crystals to strengthen himself in ways he did not yet understand. But when he was collecting the spoils of war, these assholes tried to rob him.

Seeing how both parties were about to kill one another, Olivia tried to intervene on Zane’s behalf.

“Ryan… I know things seem bleak right now… But you can’t go around accusing your fellow classmates of such horrible things! Now the both of you put away your weapons, there are plenty of things to worry about already. The last thing we need is for the two of you to come to blows!”

Zane did not listen to Olivia. He was wary of the predatory nature of humanity, and he knew that guys like Ryan were the first to act out of control once the rule of law had collapsed. Thus he kept his finger on the trigger guard of his pistol, ready to take aim and fire at his former classmates should he be given reason to do so.

Like Zane, Ryan was also not willing to comply with Olivia’s demands. The man had a taste of true power over his fellow classmates after the apocalypse had begun, and there was no way he was going to yield that authority to his former teacher, who seemed to be hiding behind Zane for protection.

In fact, his fingers tightened around his makeshift club, as he told his former homeroom teacher to go fuck herself.

“Fuck off Miss Bennett! In case you haven’t realized, everything is fucked! We don’t have to follow your orders anymore. You have no authority over us! So Zane, I’m going to ask you one more time, hand over your weapons, and whatever else you have managed to scavenge, and I will let you walk away with your life intact…”

Zane narrowed his eyes. He was just about to put a bullet in this fool’s brain, when Elena stepped between his line of sight and did the unthinkable.

“Ryan, knock it off! It’s like Miss Bennett already said, we have enough problems already. We don’t need you two idiots killing each other over some bullshit like this!”

The two men who had previously engaged in a Mexican Standoff were exact opposites. Zane was cold and emotionless, while Ryan’s expression was filled with anger, and perhaps conceit. But the moment he heard Elena tell him to stop, he could not help but follow her orders.

After all, the man had been trying to win her favor forever, and now was a good opportunity to get her to join his little gang of survivors. Thus, he lowered his weapon and ordered his underlings to stand down, all while approaching Elena’s position.

“Alright fine… Everyone stand down, this asshole isn’t worth out effort. But Elena, you really should come with us for safety. There’s no way I’m going to let you tag along with this nutcase! You know he’s just one second away from doing something horrible, right?”

Zane no longer cared to be involved in this situation and had begun to walk away now that the metaphorical bomb had been defused. He did not care what happened to the others, and was instead focused on getting out of this wretched school once and for all.

Unfortunately for him, his plans to escape this damned prison were immediately dashed for the second time as Elena reacted rather unexpectedly to Ryan’s attempts to force her into submission.

The moment the captain of the football team wrapped his hand around the crimson haired beauty’s wrist, she reacted on instinct, entirely in shock at this turn of events, and thus threw him onto the ground with a perfect hip toss.

Elena did not even realize what had happened until after she had already done it, and immediately turned to apologize to Ryan. But before she could do so, Ryan had already recovered after having the wind knocked out of him. He was both confused and furious at the girl for abusing him like this and thus screamed at Elena in the loudest voice he could muster.

“What the hell Elena? I thought we were friends!?! How dare you treat me like this!”

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the idiot’s scream only attracted the Walkers which lie dormant on the first floor, causing them to scurry up the stairs like a pack of rabid wolves, attracted to the sound of the living which they were compelled by nature to devour or convert.

With a new horde just moments away from stripping the flesh from their bones, Zane immediately scurried off, while Elena and Olivia followed, no longer paying attention to Ryan and his little gang, who ran in the opposite direction. For now, Zane would have to wait to escape from this school, which had been nothing but a nuisance since he first began attending it.