Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

"Every body out! Run! Run for your lives!"

How the undead had broken through their doors and entered the gymnasium, Ryan did not know, but he was among the first one out the doors, taking the nearest exit, which wasn\'t clogged with either survivors or undead. Unfortunately, Zane predicted this route perfectly, and was waiting on the other side of the door. Where he did not say a word and instead fired a shot at Ryan.

Zane\'s projectile hit Ryan square in the chest. Unfortunately for Zane, Ryan had managed to activate his newfound ability, turning his body into stone, just as Zane had pulled the trigger. After all, the moment after he got his skill, he spent the next few hours learning how to use it.

Because of this, he kept several stones in his pocket, which he used to absorb their matter and transfer it to his body.

Zane was shocked when Ryan was still standing, who upon realizing that he himself was still alive, immediately returned fire. Unfortunately for him, he missed all four shots. Which was impressive, because Zane was quite literally charging towards the man. Hoping to close the distance and disarm Ryan before he got killed.

Because Ryan\'s shots missed Zane entirely, Zane was able to do just this, grabbing hold of the rifle and ripping it from Ryan\'s hands. After all, Ryan\'s weapon was not slung to his chest, unlike Zane, and thus, Zane was able to disarm the man, and his stone\'s fingers which had a hard time gripping things properly.

Once the rifle was successfully out of Ryan\'s hands, the young jock resorted to hand to hand combat. Engaging with Zane, punching the young man in the chest and sending him to the dirt. While clenching his chest in agony, Zane somehow managed to climb to his feet and began to sprint away from Ryan.

After all, it was clear that Ryan had consumed a blood crystal, and was somehow able to turn his body into stone. This meant that Zane had no way of killing the man, and would thus have to rely on Elena and Olivia\'s powers to deal damage to their adversary.

With this in mind, Zane sprinted towards his comrades. All the while Ryan taunted him for his "cowardice."

"Where are you running, Zane? I thought you wanted to settle this like men!"

---

While Zane and Ryan were fighting outside the gymnasium, Elean, Olivia, and Lexi were a few dozen meters away. Lexi froze on the spot as Elena held her at gunpoint, trying to bargain with her best friend for her survival.

"Elena… What are you doing? We\'re best friends, remember? You wouldn\'t kill me, right?"

Elena narrowed her ocean blue eyes towards the young woman, who was indeed her best friend until about a week ago. Her voice was cold as she lowered the rifle\'s muzzle from Lexi\'s face, towards her gut. Where she then pulled the trigger before speaking her words.

"You stabbed me in the back and left me for dead… Consider us even…"

Lexi fell to the floor in shock. There was a hole in her gut which was bleeding profusely, and evidently the bullet had severed her spine because she completely lost the use of her legs. Either that or her body had quite literally entered a physical state of shock.

Regardless, Lexi watched in horror as her best friend walked away, leaving her to the Undead horde. Just when she thought she was about to die, Zane ran past her, and shortly thereafter, Zane was followed by a walking sculpture which looked like Ryan.

Perhaps she was just delirious after losing blood, or so she thought when Lexi saw Ryan in this peculiar state. Causing her to reach out, and grab hold of Ryan\'s wrist as he tried to pass her by. With a weak tone in her voice, Lexi called out to Ryan, hoping he would save her.

"Ryan… Save me!"

Ryan looked back to see what had snagged his arm, only to see it was none other than Lexi, who was quickly bleeding out in a pile of her own blood. Behind the both of them were an army of undead, which were sprinting after them at this very moment. Not wanting to waste any more time, Ryan kicked Lexi in the chest and scolded her before running off after Zane again.

"Let go of me, you useless whore!"

These were the last words that Lexi heard as the undead horde surrounded her and tore her limb from limb. Devouring all of her flesh in the span of minutes.

---

Zane finally caught up to Elena and Olivia, who were trying to escape from being encircled by the Undead. By now, all the survivors who were hiding in the gymnasium were dead. The only living beings left standing were Zane, Elena, Olivia, and Ryan, who had just managed to catch up to them at this very moment.

Ryan appeared out of breath, perhaps running while your body weighed as much as a stone sculpture had taken the breath out of him. But he was absolutely furious at Zane. After all, Zane had completely and thoroughly destroyed his gang and his sanctuary.

There was a bitter, seething hatred, both in Ryan\'s eyes and his voice as he called out to the young man.

"Zane, you bastard! You ruined everything! But it doesn\'t matter. Those bastards were just holding me back. And now that you have so kindly delivered me those two beauties, everything will be fine. Elena, Miss Bennett, can\'t you see that everyone in this loser gets close to ends up dying?

He is a walking disaster! Why don\'t you leave his pathetic ass and join me instead? I promise to treat the both of you right!"

Elena was about to curse out Ryan for being an absolute creep when she saw something utterly terrifying appear out of thin air behind the man. Her mouth went agape, as the Stalker finally revealed its presence. And at the same time, she and the others realized that they had become completely surrounded by the undead horde.