Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Chapter 57: Raiders

There was a silent debate between those five followers who were in Zane's party other than himself and the two women by his side. They said no words, but exchanged via nervous glances their thoughts. And while this was happening, one of the girls in the group, who was the first to comment on this situation, took it upon herself to decide that giving Ryan entry was worth the risk.

Thus, while the group shifted their debate from one of silence into one of words, she snuck away and opened the door, letting Ryan and his thugs inside, much to the surprise of the other survivors. Ryan's smiling face was a welcome sight, at least at first. That is until he finally spoke.

"Thank you for letting me in girl… I will make sure my boys spare you from the slaughter that is about to take place!"

The girl looked at Ryan as if she did not quite understand his words, and as she did so, Ryan's men rushed into the building and attacked the other survivors with their clubs. Bashing the brains out of three out of five of Zane's followers before they even had a chance to make use of the skills they had obtained from awakening.

As for the two girls who remained, they froze on the spot in fear. After all, they were surrounded by a group of teenage boys all armed with aluminum baseball bats. Some of them even wore football pads as a form of protection.

It was an intimidating sight for a couple of teenage girls who had no idea how to use their newfound powers yet. The girl who let the boys in instantly fell to her knees and cried, begging to be spared. Only now realizing just how much she had fucked up.

"Please Ryan, don't kill me. I'm your biggest fan!"

Ryan chuckled, however, as he wiped the tears from the girl's eyes, before saying something that she did not quite understand the intention of. And thus mistaking his mercy for kindness.

"Don't worry, we don't kill women… That would be a waste! Now come along, you two. My boys here will escort you back to our camp."

After saying this, Ryan nodded at a few of hi boys, who escorted the two teenage girls back to their camp where they would soon realize the folly of their actions. As for Ryan and the others who stayed behind, the man in charge was quick to issue orders to his "soldiers."

"Alright boys, ransack this place, Anything and everything that is of use I want scavenged and brought back to our camp! As for Zane's sanctuary… Burn it!"

Immediately, the group of young men began rampaging across Zane's camp. They were quick to find the food, water, and medicine. But when they found the guns and ammunition stashed in Zane's quarters, they were quick to holler at Ryan.

"Hey boss! You're going to want to come see this shit!"

Ryan quickly walked up the stairs towards the location of the voice, which screamed at him. Where he was stunned to find the amount of firearms, magazines, and boxes of ammunition inside the room. After all, Zane had seized these weapons from the Marauders, who had themselves seized them either from other civilians, or from law enforcement and military personnel.

Realizing now that Zane was sitting on an arsenal that could have easily wiped him and his group out, Ryan became terrified and excited at the same time. Terrified at the prospect of Zane possessing the power to wipe him out for god knows how long, but excited that he now had Zane's collection of firepower.

With this in mind, the young jock was quick to give priority to seizing the weapons.

"Hurry up! Get all this shit back to our camp! I want everything in this building looted before Zane returns. Once he finds that his sanctuary has been reduced to rubble, and that his loot is ours, Elena and Olivia will be forced to abandon him in favor of our camp!"

The rest of Ryan's group rolled their eyes at their "fearless" leader. Even now, he was fantasizing about Elena and Olivia. This was despite the fact that they had so many other women to entertain themselves with. Still, nobody dared call the young man in his dreams. After all, Elena and Olivia were by far the two most beautiful women in their school.

Thus, the team quickly got to work looting everything of value from Zane's stockpiles before finally lighting the second building on fire. It would continue to burn for hours on end, until, like Ryan had said, the camp was completely reduced to rubble.

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It was only after they had managed to loot everything, and return safely to their camp, that the naïve girl who had led to the deaths of her fellow survivors, and the destruction of her sanctuary, was forced in front of Ryan.

Ryan appeared to be excited, not only about everything he had obtained from this little venture but also from the idea that Elena would soon be his. Finally, after years of waiting, he could claim the girl for himself. But there was no telling when she and Olivia would return. And thus, he had to entertain himself with the new girls.

Both of which were crying in front of Ryan while he eyed them with a lust filled gaze. It was only now that the naïve fool was starting to wise up about what Ryan had meant by it would be a waste to kill women. And because of this, she was quick to plead for mercy, knowing there was one thing she could offer that could spare her from being forced upon by Ryan and his goons.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! If you promise not to touch me, I'll- I'll tell you the secret to Zane's powers!"

Ryan was just about to tip the girl's shirt off when he heard this curious statement. He was, after all, obsessed with Zane, particularly after Elena had run off with that emo bastard instead of himself. And because of this, any mention of Zane, and taking something from him, immediately garnered Ryan's interest.

Thus Ryan ceased his actions, and gazed at the teenage girl with a severe glint in his eyes, almost as if warning her that if she lied to him, her fate would be worse than death.

"Go on…"

Seeing this as an opportunity to spare herself some suffering, the adolescent girl was quick to spill the beans about Zane's greatest secret.

"They're called blood crystals! They are embedded in the brains of the undead. If you eat them… You have a chance of gaining super powers!"

This information was almost unbelievable, and Ryan broke out into a fit of laughter before looking at the other captive he had taken in this raid, asking for confirmation from her.

'You're joking, right? Is this true? The two of you better not be lying to me…"

The other girl nodded her head slowly. There were tears in her eyes as she answered Ryan's question silently. And suddenly, just like that, Ryan had lost interest in abusing these two teenage girls. Instead he reached into his pocket and pulled out the sole blood crystal he was in possession of.

After eying it carefully for several moments, a wide grin appeared on his face as he expressed his immediate thoughts aloud for everyone to hear.

"How very interesting…"