Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Chapter 268: Ghost Town Part I

Tonopah was a small and relatively isolated town situated somewhere between Hawthorne and Las Vegas. It was the natural next stop that people prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse would visit for the purpose of going to the restroom, and generally buying lunch.

The amount of times Zane had passed through this Podunk town he could count on one hand. I mean it was not as if his family had a frequent need to travel south during his upbringing. His fondest memories were eating at the local fast food sandwich joint while his parents bickered about the length of the journey to their destination.

These memories flashed through the young man's head as he gazed upon the settlement, which appeared to be a ghost town. Unlike Hawthorne, which had built defenses around its area, and maintained some degree of self-sufficiency.

Tonopah was empty. And when I say empty, I mean there was nobody there, nor any signs of bloodshed having occurred. It was as if the town's residents just simply packed up an all wandered off one day.

There were no rotting corpses, nor any signs of armed conflict. Everything was perfectly intact, neither a broken window nor a boarded up door in sight. This was strange to Zane, as everywhere he had seen so far had in some way or form been ravaged by the apocalypse.

Yet the only thing that afflicted this ghost town was the fact that it had not been swept clean in months, meaning dust and sand were everywhere. Even the windows themselves were stained with sand. To Zane this was indeed peculiar. And he had a desire to find out just what had happened to this town.

If he was being honest with himself, Zane was hoping Tonopah would have been taken over by the undead. His journey so far had been largely uneventful. And he had only expended resources on building and upgrading his camp. Yet had found no means to replenish his losses.

Zane was just about to say something when Gwen grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him backward with such force that he was yanked to the ground. There was a look of terror on her face as her eyes darted around the place.

After rising to his feet and dusting himself off, Zane tried to condemn Gwen for forcing him into such a situation when she spoke her thoughts aloud.

"We need to go! Now!"

Zane did not understand why the girl was so freaked out. Neither did any of their siblings. That is until they heard a chilling and eerie cry in the distance.

"Oh, my? Do I have visitors? Well, isn't this a surprise? And here we were just now making preparations for the celebration! Come join us!"

Zane looked around for where the voice came from, but found nothing. Even more terrifying was the voices which echoed in the distance. All of which spoke in a mindless trance, repeating two certain words that the more intelligent and feminine voice had expressed.

"Come join us! Come join us! Come join us!"

Zane was usually a stone faced man who felt no fear even in the face of death. But even he had to admit that his spine was tingling, and his skin had become covered in goosebumps, as he demanded an answer to what was going on from Gwen who appeared to be the only one capable of seeing who or what was speaking to them.

"Gwen… What the hell is going on here?"

Gwen did not give Zane the answer he was looking for, instead grabbed hold of his wrist and sprinted through the town. Repeating what she had said earlier with a nervous look on her face.

"We need to go now!"

Gwen was fast, much faster than Zane was. But she had to slow herself down, so Zane was capable of keeping up with her. As for the other Horde Kings that were under Zane's control. Zane had dismissed them entirely, and sent them back to the void to await his summons.

As fast as Gwen and Zane were, they did not make it halfway through the town before Gwen pushed Zane back and intercepted an attack which Zane himself did not see coming.

"Sister! Don't run from me! We have all the time in the world to play together!"

The spikes from Gwen's hands collided with an invisible weapon, or at least so far as Zane was concerned, while Gwen herself was actually pushed back. She spat blood out of her mouth, as if she had been internally wounded by the attack, and fell to her knees as she expressed her shock aloud.

"Fucking bitch…. What the hell are you doing here, Evilyn… This Podunk town is no place for a monster of your caliber!"

All of a sudden, Zane could see who Gwen was talking to. A ghostly figure appeared in front of Gwen, and she was not alone. Zane found himself surrounded by ghosts with looks in their eyes that made it clear they were not all there.

The ghosts had ceased their chants, but were clearly the townsfolk of Tonopah, who had somehow been resurrected as spirits beneath Evilyn's control. As for the woman at the head of this ghostly horde, she appeared to be in her early thirties. Or at least from what Zane could tell, she was after all semi-transparent in nature.

She was dressed in what appeared to be a Victorian era dress, which Zane thought was weird considering most of the Horde Kings he had come across so far. If not all of them appeared to have been raised during the modern era.

So why was this woman dressed in such outdated attire? Was she a reenactor of some kind who was in the middle of the act when she met her end? Honestly, Zane did not know.

Nor did he really care. Evilyn's existence proved that even Horde Kings could be spectral entities, which was a rather shocking thing to Zane, as he was unsure if in his current state he could harm ghosts. Gwen was the one, after all who had dispatched the last one to hell.

But Evilyn paid Zane no attention, at least not at the moment. Instead, she spoke to Gwen with a chilling yet alluring tone in her voice.

"Oh dearest Gwen, though it saddens me to think that you have fallen for this scoundrel's schemes. I must admit that he is indeed the reason I have been requested to search these roads. After all, Balthasar is very angry with the both of you, and has ordered those of us who are more nomadic to search the potential routes which you would travel.

Though I must say, I did not actually expect to find you here. With your speed, if your destination was Vegas, shouldn't you have already found your way there? Why are you both going so slowly?"

Zane's expression paled when he realized his attempts to throw off his pursuers had actually resulted in him being caught by them. Even if they escaped from Evilyn, then the enemy would still know where he was headed.

It would be a simple matter for a Horde King like the one in charge of the Vegas metro area to find someone like Zane if they really put the effort into doing so. So there were two options for Zane at the moment.

Either kill Evilyn, which was unlikely, judging by the fact that even someone like Gwen had referred to her as a monster. Or negotiate with her. Zane honestly did not know what kind of person Evilyn was.

Or how he could convince her to let them pass without alerting her superiors to their whereabouts? But he had to try, and because of this Zane climbed back to his feet and addressed the Spectral Horde King himself.

"Your name is Evilyn, right? I don't know who this Balthasar is, but he must be a formidable figure to compel someone as capable as yourself to perform such a rudimentary task. May I ask what exactly the nature of your relationship with him is?"

Evilyn looked over at Zane. She had not gotten a real good look at the man until now, as her attention was more focused on Gwen. But after looking Zane up and down, her opinion of him appeared slightly better. And she even expressed this aloud.

"My? A charmer, are we? You have no idea what kind of rarity that is in today's world. Tell me sweetheart, are you really ignorant of who Balthasar is? Because I have to say that would indeed be surprising.

Here I thought all of our siblings knew who the head honcho was. But apparently there are adorably little ignorant dolls like yourselves among our ranks. That is, if you're not lying to me. You wouldn't lie to your big sister, would you?"

Gwen looked at the way in which Evilyn's gaze fell upon Zane and immediately became offended. Her mouth falling agape as she quickly jumped between the two of them. Protesting whatever was going on at the moment.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing, bitch? Like hell I'm going to let you flirt with my big brother right in front of me!"

However, Evilyn ignored Gwen entirely, and even did something as rude as phasing through her. Where she proceeded to get behind Zane and envelop him with her misty form. An act that further caused Gwen to become enraged.

Zane himself was surprised, because a ghost was quite literally caressing his head right now, while whispering in his ears the same words she had ended her previous question with.

"You aren't lying to Big sister, right?"

To say that this was an unexpected development was most certainly an understatement. But if Zane wanted to escape from his current predicament with his life intact, and have Evilyn pretend like she had never seen him, nor knew of his intended destination, then it would appear he would need to play the role she had given him.

Because of this, Zane took a deep breath before putting on the most pathetically simpish act he could muster. And in doing so, he nearly caused Gwen's mind to implode on the spot.