Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

While Ryan and the others were waiting to put their plans in motion, Zane had gone out early in the morning after returning from his daily scavenging, and had spent the early morning clearing the undead from the school grounds.

The fact of the matter was prior to the apocalypse, this high school boasted some 3,000+ students, and enough faculty to look after them all. By now, less than a hundred were still breathing. The others had all either been devoured by the Undead or turned into one of them.

And though Zane and his followers had cleared a significant number of Undead from the School Grounds, there were always more entering the campus. Or there had been prior to Zane locking the gates that sealed off the local high school from the rest of the city.

Of course, the Stalker was intelligent and capable enough to unlock said gates and allow access to the school grounds once more for its fellow undead. But for some time now, whenever Zane inspected this matter, he found that the gates were only ever opened by living beings, whether that be himself, or Ryan's unfortunate scouting parties.

This was, of course, a peculiarity, but one Zane did not have the time, nor the concern, to investigate. Thus, he spent the entire morning killing Walkers with his makeshift club, before finally returning to his encampment in the high school's second building.

Zane had recovered a decent amount of blood crystals. Enough so that he was forced to debate with himself about whether or not he should consume them, or distribute them to Elena and Olivia. After all, though, he was the highest level among the current awakened survivors, at least among those he had met.

Zane's skill was passive and showed no sign of advancing into what one might call an active skill.

It became abundantly clear to him during the battle with the abomination just how useful Elena and Olivia were in fights against more powerful enemies. When his rifle had failed him, the two women by his side managed to come through and save his hide.

That was a sentiment Zane never thought he would ever express in his life, but it was true. And because of this, he clutched the small bag which he kept his blood crystals in while coming to a proper decision. When Zane returned, he found that his former homeroom teacher was actually sleeping in his room. Or at least the classroom which he made his temporary quarters out of.

The woman was still dressed in her normal attire. Which was a white sweater, a black skirt, and a pair of stockings. She was obviously not wearing something suited to the harsh environment of this new and dangerous world. And because of this, Zane felt like during his next outing he would have to bring back a proper change of clothes for the mature silver haired beauty.

There was, of course, a problem with this… Zane did not know her sizes, or really understand female clothing, and how they were measured in general. Thus, he debated with himself about whether or not he should bring the woman with him, and protect her as she dressed herself in something more suitable.

Zane realized he was spacing out while watching the woman sleep, and decided not to waste any further time reflected on such thoughts. Instead, he walked over, and kicked the woman in the shin, ever so slightly. By no means was it hard enough to harm the woman, rather it only served as a physical way to jolt her into a state of consciousness.

And it worked like a charm, with Olivia instinctively reaching into her nearby coat, and pulling out a handgun, a weapon that Zane had given her to protect herself. One that he had scavenged from the marauders.

Zane, of course, disarmed the woman with a level of speed he did not think he was capable, not only shocking Olivia, but himself in the process. Once he had ensured that he was not in danger, Zane handed the firearm back to his former homeroom teacher while ignoring what had just happened between them.

"Get up. We have a long day ahead of ourselves, and you're not going to like what I have for you, but it is a necessary sacrifice."

Olivia was too busy admiring Zane's new attire, something she thought made him look "cool". It was only after he stuffed a back full of what were clearly blood crystals into her hands that Olivia's expression paled. There were more blood crystals in this small dice bag than she had ever consumed in her life thus far.

The mature silver haired beauty needed clarification on exactly what Zane was asking her, and was quick to ask about this, albeit with an incredibly anxious tone in her voice.

"You want me to… Consume all of these? Today?"

Zane nodded his head in silence, before looking towards the doorway where he then confirmed his thoughts aloud.

"That's right, I've got enough for you and Elena to reach level two… I just need to go find the bitch, and drag her ass in here so I can keep watch over the two of you…"

Olivia frowned when Zane called Elena a bitch. After all, if the little dispute the two women had in the hallway confirmed one thing, it was that Elena clearly cared for Zane. But Zane did not seem to care that Olivia appeared angry at him, and he instead walked off to go fetch the crimson haired beauty who had had once been so close to.

As Olivia sighed and popped the first blood crystal in her mouth, she thought about just what had gone so terribly wrong for Elena and Zane to have such a complicated and outright terrible relationship. That is until Olivia felt an overwhelming sense of pain take control over her body, as well as witnessing the blood-red letters of the system display themselves to her.

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[Blood Crystal Consumed!]

[Debuff Applied: Corruption]

[+8 XP]

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This would be the first of many such messages that both Olivia and Elena witnessed throughout a long and painful day.