Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

The gunshots rang throughout the air, alerting the entire safe zone to Zane's misdeed. And while Zane's arm slowly lowered, as if it suddenly lost its strength, Elena gazed in dismay at what Zane had just done.

Naturally, Elena knew that from the moment Zane first saw his mother and the woman's boyfriend, he was going to kill the man. After all, there were things in Zane's past that could never be forgiven. But she had not expected him to outright shoot his mother dead in cold blood as well.

There was an anxious tone in Elena's voice as she only managed to speak a word towards the man who had just committed matricide in front of her.

"Zane…"

As for Olivia and Angelica, they were slightly behind and had only just now caught up to Zane and Olivia, gazing at the aftermath of the man's wicked acts with horror on their faces. Just now, Angelica's opinion of Zane had slightly reversed, believing he was not as bad as she may have initially thought.

But to see him murder two people in cold blood and walk away without a single expression of remorse on his face, Angelica now believed Zane was a cold-blooded killer. And she was right. But Zane did not give the three women time for an explanation. Instead, he holstered his handgun and walked away, leaving behind a single statement as he headed back to the Humvee.

"We need to go… Now!"

Elena's hands trembled, blaming herself for Zane's actions, as she had been unable to stop him from resorting to his baser instincts, she cast one last look at the corpses, and the shocked expressions on their lifeless faces before ushering the girls after Zane.

"I know you're confused about what happened, but I don't have time to explain. Zane is right. If the safe zone finds out he committed a murder, the least of our worries will be exile. We need to leave now!"

After saying this, Elena rushed after Zane, followed by Angelica and Olivia. Once the three of them had gotten back inside their vehicle, they quickly fled the safe zone. All the while, many interested parties inspected the scene of Zane's crime, trying to find out who the murderer was.

But by the time they even had a suspect Zane, and the girls were long gone, fleeing back into the danger of the city searching for a place to spend the night. A place where Angelica could awaken, god willing, and Olivia could spend her attribute points.

Eventually, they found a place, an old homeless shelter, where they were able to set up shop for the night. And while Zane went out to have a smoke, Elena was finally approached by the other two women for an explanation of what happened in the safe zone. After all, neither of them wanted to approach the subject when Zane was still in an agitated state.

"Elena, what the hell happened back there? One moment Zane is fine, and the next he guns down two innocent people? I don't understand?"

Elena sighed heavily, looking out to the direction where Zane had marched off, almost as if confirming he was out of earshot before finally speaking about what happened.

"What happened is Zane just killed his mother and her boyfriend… Not that they were really innocent. In fact, those two really deserved it…"

Angelica and Olivia both gazed in horror at Elena's words, and when Elena realized Olivia didn't know the truth about Zane's past, she sighed in understanding, before explaining Zane's haunting past.

"I'm sorry, I forgot you just transferred to our school this past year… It's not surprising you didn't know. Have you ever wondered why everybody in that school always left Zane alone? Even though he was a total loner? Kids like Zane are usually bullied, right? But not Zane. Nobody would ever dare pick on him after what he did all those years ago…"

Olivia and Angelica looked at Elena as if they had no idea what she was talking about, and thus Elena sighed and reached into their supplies to crack open a cold one. She needed a stiff drink if she were to relive these memories, and she encouraged the girls to do the same.

"You might want to join me. It isn't exactly a tale for the feint of heart…"

After saying this Angelica and Olivia looked at one another before silently nodding where they did exactly as Elena suggested. Once the three of them each had some alcohol in their bloodstream, Elena finally spoke.

"Zane and I have known each other practically our entire lives. We were inseparable as kids. But that all changed when he was around ten years old. For starters, you have to understand that even as a kid, Zane's mother never showed him any love.

There were rumors that he was another woman's child, one that his father brought home after an illicit affair, but nobody ever confirmed if this was true… But whatever was the reason, Zane's mother never loved him. But she absolutely hated him after what happened that night…"

Elena's words trailed off as an anxious expression appeared on her face. She gritted her teeth before chugging the rest of her beer, where she then cracked open another and did the same before continuing her story.

"So I'm just going to come out and say it. Zane had an older sister, one that he was quite close to. Hell, we both were. But his father always had a bit of a drinking problem. One night, the old man got a little too drunk, and a little too horny, and tried to force himself on Zane's sister. Zane, being the good little brother he was, saw his sister was being attacked and tried to stop his father.

I don't know the exact details, I only know what I heard from rumors years after it happened. But apparently Zane struck his father with a vase while the man was on top of his sister, and… The vase shattered, leaving a shard of it embedded in his father's neck.

Needless to say, his father bled out and died… Something that traumatized his older sister, who took her life a few weeks later since she was not capable of coping with what happened. I didn't know this at the time, but that was why my parents forced Zane and me apart. They didn't want me associating with a murderer…

Zane, of course, was just a kid, and it was an accident, and considering what his father was doing at the time, the police just looked the other way. But things were never the same after that…

What happened next is based entirely on hearsay, so I don't know how true it is. But apparently, his mother began to hate him, blaming Zane for the death of her husband and daughter. Not only would she mistreat him in any way she could, but she would go on to date a bunch of men, men who she would encourage to beat Zane on her behalf.

The man Zane just killed was simply the latest in a series of abusers he has had to silently suffer through. You want to know why Zane never cared to mention his family, nor never cared to look for them after the apocalypse began? Because he was finally free from his mother's abuse.

I honestly had hoped she died early on, but as we just saw, she was still alive, and even made it to the safe zone. Which unfortunately for Zane, he just happened to run across them, and for reasons that are obvious, he simply could not control himself. Resulting in what just happened…."

Olivia gazed in shock and horror at what Elena had just said. She had never understood why Zane was the way he was, and whenever she had asked the other teachers about it, they all sort of avoided the topic as if it were cursed.

Now she understood exactly why nobody had ever told her what was wrong with Zane. And why other kids seemed to avoid him as if he had contracted the plague. He was a murderer from a very young age, and one that nobody knew whether or not he would kill again.

Olivia then gazed out into the direction where Zane was smoking, feeling as if her heart had suddenly broken after hearing what he had been through. Even Angelica felt bad for the young man, as she finally understood the context of what had so suddenly transpired in the safe zone.

Zane would continue smoking until he was all out of cigarettes, and by the time he came back in inside their temporary refuge he would notice that everyone else was asleep, and that the girls had left out several bottles of malt liquor for him to consume. An offer that he couldn't refuse.