Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Zane stared at the Stalker, who had appeared directly behind Ryan's back. Before the young jock could even react, his neck was gripped tightly by the stalker who restrained the man who had turned himself into stone as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

Ryan began to grunt and move around. All the while, the Walkers who had surrounded the four survivors had stopped in their tracks, seemingly waiting for the Stalker to make its move.

"What the hell! Let me go, you damned monster!"

Yet the Stalker did not respond to Ryan's outcries, instead its eyes were cast upon Zane, almost as if it were asking for permission to take the life of this living being, one who had awakened a powerful ability.

Zane eyed the creature with curiosity, surprised that it was behaving so obediently, and was quick to speak with it, despite the creature not being able to converse in any of the various human tongues itself.

"You want to eat him? Alright… But in exchange for this gift, you and your horde will allow me and the others to escape without harm. Deal?"

The Stalker eyed Zane curiously. It had been watching Zane for nearly an entire week now. And it had previously come to a misunderstanding that Zane was one of its superiors. After all, those powerful undead are very… Shall we say, unique personalities.

It would not be odd for one of them to infiltrate the ranks of the living and pretend to be one of them if it possessed the ability to do so. Which Zane indeed appeared to have…. But Zane also seemed to have a hard time communicating with the dead, and was even trying to exchange Ryan for safe access out of the horde.

The only thing that the Stalker could think of was that Zane was acting, so that his living companions would not suspect that he was secretly one of those more powerful undead. And because of this, the Stalker wore a wicked smile, almost as if it were trying to convey to Zane that it understood what he meant by this, before eventually nodding in silence.

After making this agreement, the Stalker plunged its clawed digits through Ryan's back. His entire skin was made of stone, and was capable of defending against 5.56x45mm NATO projectiles. Yet the Stalker's claws effortlessly dug through it, as if Ryan's skin was instead made of wet tissue paper.

In the next moment, the Stalker retrieved Ryan's heart from the hole in the young man's chest, whose facial expression was one of absolute horror. Yet despite his desire to scream one last breath of agony, he could not do so, instead his consciousness rapidly faded, as did the strength of his body.

In no more than ten seconds, Ryan's head hung limply while the stone skin faded away, instead replaced with his natural human flesh, his eyes completely lifeless. With Ryan dead, the Stalker gazed at Ryan's heart, which it held onto with a look of disappointment in its eyes.

Zane and the others immediately noticed something. Ryan's heart had become crystalized, it was the same shape as a human heart, but was now the same hue, and diamond cut structure as a blood crystal. And despite the disappointed appearance on the Stalker's face, it motioned towards its horde to part so that Zane and the others could escape.

After all, a deal was a deal. And though Elena and Olivia were frozen on the spot with horrified expressions on their faces. Zane grabbed hold of their wrists and led them away from the Undead horde, and by extension the high school campus.

Their sanctuary was burned to the ground, and the Stalker had showed them mercy for a reason that Zane did not understand. Though the city itself presented plenty of unknown dangers, it was better than sticking around and waiting for such a powerful monster to change its mind.

Once Zane and the others had escaped beyond the boundaries of the school campus, Elena and Olivia finally recovered their senses and were quick to ask about what their new plan was.

"Zane… What are we going to do now? Where are we going to stay?"

Zane did not know the answer to this. In truth, he had no idea just how much of the city was destroyed, and though there was a safe zone established by the authorities earlier in the week. Zane neither knew if it was still standing, nor cared. After all, he would never subject himself to someone else's authority now that society had collapsed.

But while Zane was internally debating about what to do, Elena spoke up, with an almost pleading look on her face.

"Zane… I need to go home! I need to see my family! I need to know…"

Elena's words trailed off before she could finish her sentence. After all, the idea that her family was dead, or worse, had turned into one of those damned monsters, it was too much for her to bear at the moment. Still, she had to know what happened to them.

Zane, however, was convinced this was an absolute waste of time and effort. What they needed to do now was scavenge resources. After all, Ryan had stolen most of their supplies. Whatever was not in their rucks was gone. And they could only sustain themselves for a few days with what they were currently carrying. And he was quick to voice this belief.

"You need to move on Elena, odds are they are already dead... This would be a monumental waste of time."

Elena naturally reacted hostilely to this statement, and was quick to grab onto Zane's wrist, demanding he and Olivia follow her to her home just so she could gain some closure.

"Zane! I need to know! If there's any chance that they are alive, then I need to save them!"

Wisely, Elena stopped short of telling Zane that just because he didn't care about his family, that doesn't mean she felt the same way about hers. And Though Zane suspected the worst had already happened to Elena's family, he knew at the very least there was one thing that existed in Elena's home that made this detour worth the effort. And thus he sighed heavily before agreeing to her request.

"Alright... Fine... But don't blame me if they have already turned, and I am forced to do something cruel... "

Elena was, of course, angry that Zane was already thinking about the worst-case scenario. But she said nothing about this and instead pouted in silence. All the while, Olivia interrupted the two of them, ensuring that she would not impose such a burdensome journey on the group.

"You don't have to worry about me Zane, I live alone. After moving here for this job, I left my family behind. They are several states away, and have not been answering my calls or texts since this whole thing began. Even if I wanted to find out what happened to them, there is simply no way for me to do so. I will follow you wherever you go…"

Zane nodded his head, silently communicating that he understood what Olivia was saying, before walking off to the location of Elena's family home. It would take well over an hour on a normal day to get there on foot. But judging by the dangers which now lurked in the city, it would likely take considerably longer, and daylight would not last forever.