Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

The journey to Elena's house was a difficult one. After all, the three of them were forced to dispatch small groups of walkers with both their abilities and their knives. After all, any shot fired would immediately attract unwanted attention. As for Zane, he was severely lacking in offensive capabilities, as his skill was passive in nature.

Thus, Zane helped when he could, but was mostly relying on both Elena and Olivia to kill the hostiles. What surprised Zane was that they did not run into any other living beings on their journey through the city and towards the suburban neighborhood where Elena lived.

Eventually the party arrived at Elena's house, to find that its windows were boarded up, as were most building that had not already been broken into and looted. Elena's heart skipped a beat when she saw that there were signs that her family had survived. She nearly broke into a sprint towards her home when Zane stopped her.

Zane pointed towards the entrance, where the door which appeared to have been previously barricaded was broken down. No doubt by Walkers. This caused Elena's hopeful expression to shrink, as she broke away from Zane's grip, and sprinted off towards her family's home, all while shouting out to her family who she prayed silently in her heart and mind were still alive.

"Mom! Dad! Jimmy! Are you in there? Please tell me you're alright!"

Zane immediately chased after Elena, shouting at her to not rush into unknown danger, and Olivia naturally followed after the both of them.

"Elena god dammit! Hold up! We don't know what's in there!"

When Zane finally crossed beyond the entrance with his rifle in hand, he found Elena staring in horror at what she saw. Her parents were already turned, and they were desperately clawing at the entrance to her little brother's room. While the young boy shrieked at them, to stop.

"Mom! Dad! Stop it! Please! I'm begging you, don't hurt me anymore!"

It was abundantly clear from the lack of decomposing on Elena parent's flesh that they had only recently been turned into Walkers. Despite this, Elena froze still. She could not move a muscle as she saw what her parents had become.

As for Zane, he sighed heavily and shook his head, before reaching towards his gun belt and pulling out his combat knife. Elena immediately noticed what Zane was about to do and grabbed hold of him, stopping him from doing what was necessary.

"Zane, don't you dare! Please! I'm begging you! We can still save them!"

Zane, however, had an emotionless expression as he looked towards Oliiva, who had just caught up to them and gave her a command. He knew better than anyone that there was no saving Elena's parents. They were already dead...

"Olivia, get her out of here! She doesn't need to see this…"

Elena screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to get Zane to stop as Olivia use her electric discharge to temporarily paralyze Elena's body, all while dragging her away from the bloody and cruel scene that Zane was about to engage in, and just in time too, because Elena's screams had attracted the attention of her parents.

The two walkers stopped clawing at their son's door, and instead rushed towards Zane, who nimbly dodged their attacks while simultaneously sticking his blade in their skulls with expert precision and speed. As quickly as the Walkers attacked, so too did they fall to the floor, dying for a second time…

Zane did not crack open their skulls in an attempt to find blood crystals, in a rare sign of respect for the dead. Instead, he knocked on the door, which contained Elena's brother who, judging by his previous screams, still appeared to be living.

"Hey kid… Are you alive? Open up your sister wants to see you…"

The kid's voice immediately heightened, almost surprised that his big sister was still alive. He immediately opened the door to find Zane standing there next to his parents' bodies.

"Elena's alive? That's-"

The boy froze solid when he saw his parents' corpses and their blood staining Zane's knife. Elena appeared to have recovered from her temporary paralysis and ran back inside. To see what Zane had done, she shouted at the man, calling him a nasty name as she rushed towards her brother. Seemingly ignoring the gaping bite wound on his arm.

"Zane! What have you done!?! You murderer! How could you!?! How could you kill my parents like that?"

Zane did not pay attention to Elena's hysterical screams. Instead, his focus was elsewhere. It was obvious that Jimmy was getting weak. The color of his flesh was paler than it should be, and almost immediately after Zane noticed this, the boy fell to the ground, coughing while being held in Elena's arms, as he called out to her in a feeble tone.

"Big sis… I'm so happy you're alright… But I'm not feeling too good right now…"

Zane was completely silent as he stashed his knife back in its sheath. There was a blatant red flag displayed in his system, one that Elena appeared to be ignoring.

---

[James Pryce]

[Living Being]

[Infected]

[Duration: 29 seconds]

[Duration: 28 seconds]

[Duration: 27 Seconds]

---

Zane's hands trembled when she saw this. Luckily for him, he had already stashed his knife away or he would have accidentally dropped it on the spot. His voice cracked slightly, almost as if he was having a hard time speaking the words that needed to be said.

"Elena…. Elena, you need to get away from him from now…."

Elena stared at Zane. Tears had been flooding her eyes since she realized Zane had killed her parents. There was absolute hatred in her voice as she spoke to him.

"No! You get away! You fucking psycho! Leave us be! Jimmy… Everything will be alright, your big sister is here for you now! I'm going to make you all better, don't you worry!"

By now, the countdown timer on Jimmy's affection was down to less than ten seconds. And Zane knew from experience that when that timer ended, the boy would turn into a Walker. Because of this, Zane called out to Olivia with a stern and cold voice, mustering all the strength he could as he gave her command.

"Olivia… Do it again!"

Olivia had apparently seen the countdown as well, and just when Elena was going to scream at Zane, she felt the electricity of Olivia's skill enter her body once more paralyzing her. Olivia then dragged the girl out of the area so she didn't have to witness another death in the family.

Once Elena was gone, the clock ticked to zero, and Jimmy's moaning ended. Instead, he began to snarl like a beast, his mouth frothed as he climbed to his feet, all while Zane's twitching fingers gripped hold of his sidearm's pistol grip.

There was a dreadful tone in his voice, which was the first hint of remorse that Zane had shown since this apocalypse began. Just when the boy was about to bite into him, Zane withdrew his pistol from its holster and pointed its muzzle towards the middle school aged Walker's head.

"I'm sorry…"

*bang*