Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 103: The Nomad Lifestyle

The next few days were difficult for Zane and the girls, they traveled throughout the current section of the city they were living in, picking every corner store, every drugstore, every grocery store, and every sporting goods store completely and utterly clean.

At the same time, they farmed the Undead that got in their way. Angelica proved to be…. Shall we say, useless at combat? She was too innocent, too fearful, and too squeamish to take a front position in the party's formation like the other girls did.

If it were not for the fact that she was a healer, Zane might have become angry with the girl. But since he specialized in urban sniping, Zane came up with an idea to make Angelica useful on the battlefield and not just in a support role.

During the following week, Zane looted a proper spotter's scope and began instructing Angelica on how to perform in the role of a spotter. A spotter was essentially an assistant to a sniper whose job was to spot potential targets and calculate the distance between the target and the sniper. There were also other tasks like calculating the wind drift, et cetera.

But essentially, this role allowed Angelica to aid Zane in his sniping skills.

She apparently had +2 base attribute in wisdom, which aided in her perception. And after leveling up multiple times, Angelica invested her attributes into intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. Allowing her to expertly fulfil the role of a spotter within a very short period of time.

But these battles started to become more intense, as the undead within the area began to concentrate on their area, possibly because of the overwhelming losses they had suffered in a very short amount of time.

And it was a combination of this, and the fact that the area had begun to run out of supplies to sustain themselves with, that Zane sat the girls down and had a conversation with them, one that was far more somber than their previous discussions.

"I'm not one to mince words, so I'm just going to come out and say it. The shelter we are staying at is no longer safe. Just this morning, when I was out on my own, scouting the area, I found no less than four abominations within a five-mile radius.

I have also seen stalkers nearby watching us, no doubt coordinating the efforts to box us in. It's been over three weeks since the apocalypse began, and within another week at the most, the power within the city is going to go completely out.

This is in addition to the fact that we have already picked everything clean in the area. With this in mind, I have decided the time to move on and replace another place to take refuge is now. So I want you girls to pack things up, and we will head out within the hour."

Olivia and Elena were used to following Zane's orders without question. They had also grown accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle, having not had a permanent place of residence since the school burned down.

Because of this, they immediately stood up and began to clean things out. But Angelica was new to the group, and since they first settled in this homeless shelter roughly a week ago now, she had honestly thought it was a place they would not be leaving behind.

Because of this, she was confused about where exactly they were headed and what the plan was. Approaching Zane with a timid tone in her voice as she asked these questions, which were very dear to her.

"Zane… Where will we go? You didn't say…"

Zane had not honestly thought about this. Until now, he and the girls always just drove around the city looking for an ideal place to stay. They never had an actual destination in mind and would make camp in the best area they could replace during their travels.

Thus it was almost confusing when Angelica ask such an obvious question. Because of this, he was quick to inform the girl of the process, in which he and the others frequently found their temporary shelters.

"No place in particular, we will cross that bridge when we come to it…"

There was a rather anxious look on Angelica's face, and a glint in her eye that said she knew more than she was letting on, because of this Zane cornered her, and demanded to know what she knew, albeit in a far more friendly way.

"Why? Do you know of some place that is safe and well provisioned?"

Angelica was startled by this question, and it took her several seconds to respond. After all, despite warming up to Zane and the group, it was difficult for her to adjust to this world. Just a few weeks ago, she was a university student from out of state.

In that time, she had seen her friends eaten alive by monsters, or outright murdered by other seemingly normal people for their supplies. She herself was taken into slavery, where she witnessed the horrors that happened to other young women like her in such a situation.

Hell, the only reason she was spared was because the slaver who wanted to fuck her realized she was pure, and decided to sell her for what she was worth. She had been through a lot of trauma during this time, and it was strange to be with a group of people who genuinely looked after one another.

Even stranger still that two of the women she lived with were both pining after the same man. An eighteen-year-old man, barely old enough to be called as such. A man who clearly had a lot of trauma in his past prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse.

To say that these last few weeks had been a whirlwind of emotions was an understatement, and even someone as naïve and innocent as Angelica found it hard to trust that Zane was genuinely someone she could rely on.

But ultimately, she forced herself to say what she had heard in passing.

"I don't know how true this is… But when I was… in captivity… I overheard the slavers talking about a bunker in Carson. A private bunker that the governor had built in paranoia after Covid became widespread a few years back.

Supposedly, this bunker is intact, and is stockpiled for enough supplies to last its inhabitants for a quarter of a century…."

Zane narrowed his eyes when he heard this, an underground bunker sealed off from the rest of the world would indeed be a good hideout, but it sounded too good to be true, not to mention there was the question of how the slavers found out about this information, which was Zane's immediate question

"And how, pray tell, did these slavers replace out about this bunker?"

Angelica's emerald like eyes widened as she heard this question, almost as if she was excited by the fact that she knew the answer.

"Oh, I can explain that! You see, one of the governor's friends was on his way to the bunker when he and his family got caught by the slavers. In order to buy his freedom and that of his family, he gave up this valuable information, but only after all of his attempts to buy his way out with things that would have been valuable in the old world were denied."

Zane thought about it for a second. They were on the north side of the city, and the capital of Nevada was in Carson city, approximately an hour south from their current location. They were currently running low on fuel, but that might not be a problem if they could replace a proper gas station that actually still had some reserves left over.

The problem was that Carson is a much smaller city than the Reno/Sparks area. And while this meant fewer undead, and thus a higher chance of long-term survival, it also meant there would be fewer blood crystals to loot, and of course in addition to this, less evolved undead to extract higher tier blood crystals from.

Still, if a reliable means of fuel could be sourced, the journey to and from Carson was not a long one. And the supplies they could get from this bunker could last them a very long time. Especially if they conquered it and made it their own base of operations.

With all of this in mind, Zane pet Angelica's silky golden hair as he nodded his head, agreeing to her proposal. The young woman blushed in embarrassment, but made no move to evade Zane's praise.

"Alright, you have successfully convinced me. It might be a tough journey there, one which we will have to fight our way out of the city, but the rewards of this venture are well worth the risks."

Though Zane had never smiled, at least not in the week since Angelica had known him, there was an obvious look of excitement in his other dark and brooding eyes. Something that caused the girl to smile herself as she innocently hugged the man, thanking him for treating her as a valuable member of the team.

"Thank you! I'll go to tell the others"

With this Angelica released Zane and wandered off, causing the man to pull out a pack of cigarettes and have a smoke, all while contemplating the battles that awaited them.