Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 117: Fugitives

Zane spent some time putting the spoiled heiress into a crash course on how to properly wield and maintain a firearm. From basic shooting position, to actual target practice, and finally how to field strip and clean the firearm, Madison quickly learned how to wield a rifle.

Of course, every time she messed up something, typically in regards to basic firearm safety, Zane would shock the girl as punishment, causing her to become incredibly depressed with her current state as a literal slave.

She did not however make any hostile moves towards Zane, perhaps because she witnessed the state of the current world, Madison would rather be Zane's slave, then risk ever trying to survive on her own, and luckily enough for her, the other girls in Zane's party comforted her after she had been punished for her failures.

Eventually they descended back beneath the governor's mansion and inside the bunker, where Olivia began cooking a meal for the group. Now that they were peacefully beneath the surface of the Earth, with no worries of being attacked, Zane brought up Madison's attribute points and how best to apply the level ups she had been forced to undergo during the previous night.

"Your base attributes are fucking shit. There's no other way to say it. I don't know what kind of pamper life you lived in your ivory tower, but it has severely screwed over your potential. You are essentially weaker than most awakened survivors at your level, which is a serious issue.

But there's nothing we can do to change that, and because your stats are so bad, we're going to have to play some catching up for you. So I advise to try to get as many skills up to ten as possible.

Luckily for you, you are now level 4, which means you have 8 attribute points to use. So invest 2 into strength, 1 into constitution, 1 into dexterity, two into intelligence, and two into wisdom."

Madison did not argue with Zane and instead did as he said. He seemed to know more about the system and how it worked than she did, and if she refused to obey his orders, he would just shock her again.

Because of this, her attributes rapidly changed to a level that was more akin to your average level 1 awakened survivor.

---

[User: Madison Harrison]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 4]

[XP: 0/2,000]

[HP: 100/100]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 11]

[Dexterity: 10]

[Constitution: 10]

[Intelligence:10]

[Wisdom: 10]

[Charisma: 12]

[Skills]

[Force-Field Generation – Tier I]

---

Once Zane had confirmed that Madison stats were improved to more normal levels, he sighed heavily; he wanted to condemn the girl more for being so useless, but she was already in a poor enough mood, and thus he let the other girls cheer her up, while he silently ate the food Olivia brought over.

Zane did not know it yet, but the local horde of King who was in charge of the Undead within Carson City was beginning to make a move, one that would create significant problems for the group's survival if left unchecked.

---

A female Undead stood in the dark streets of Carson City, the sky was blackened from the clouds, not a bit of light visible to all lifeforms that stalked the abandoned streets. This undead appeared to look mostly human, with the exception of her exceptionally pale skin, skin that had cracks throughout it, or her exceptionally blood-shot eyes.

She appeared to be the age of a middle school student, one with a particularly nasty expression on her face as she spoke in English towards the man standing across from her.

"What the hell are you doing here, Bart? I thought we agreed that this was my territory? You can't just enter another Horde King's domain without first giving proper notice. You know the rules as well as I do!"

Bart appeared uninterested in the adolescent girl's tantrum. In fact, he looked upon her as if she were the dirt beneath his feet. While not an exceptionally powerful horde of King in his own right, Bart's power had been growing as of late. He now had two Juggernauts beneath his control, and substantially more Abominations and Stalkers than when this whole apocalypse first kicked off.

Compared to him, who controlled a horde that numbered in the hundreds of thousands, this young Horde King was little more than a Juggernaut pretending to be one of the Undead Royalty.

Carson was, after all, a small city, with less than 60,000 inhabitants prior to the outbreak of the Undead Virus, and because of this, the Horde King in charge of this region was quite literally on the lowest rungs of the hierarchy which the Horde King's prided themselves on.

It was perhaps because this inferior was speaking to him so harshly that Bart's voice was filled with the same disdain that was spread across his face.

"Shut up, Eliza…. If I want to come and go from your territory, there's not a damn thing you can do to stop me… Besides, I have more important things to worry about. A little birdie told me that some of my prey had escaped to your territory. Not that you would know, considering you don't even have a single stalker to perform reconnaissance on your behalf….

There should be a small group of powerful, awakened survivors here in your city. I would be lying if I said I hadn't been keeping an eye on them for some time now. I want to know where they are, because their hearts belong to me. There is one male with black hair, black eyes, and an expression that you might replace if you were to look in a mirror at your ugly, mangled face.

Beside him should be three females. I want them found and given to me within a fortnight, or I shall send one of my juggernauts to challenge you for control over your horde and your territory. Though I doubt such drastic measures need to be taken, I mean, surely even someone like you can manage such a simple task, can you not, little Eliza?"

The Horde King known as Eliza, who ruled over this territory, was practically trembling with rage as she heard Bart's outrageous demands. Though she could not refuse them, because she knew Bart would rip her head off, she could not help but remind the man what would happen if one of their more terrifying brothers and sisters were to hear of her mistreatment.

"I'll do as you ask, Bart, because I don't have a choice, but don't be surprised if Lilith shows up on your doorstep unannounced. She is, after all, such a stickler for the rules, is she not?"

Among the most powerful Undead within the former borders of the United States of America, two names were most fearsome. Lilith and Damian. Damian was on the other side of the country, ruling over the ruins of New York City.

But Lilith was far closer to Bart's domain. She was in what was once Los Angeles, and she had a particular love of bullying Bartholomew. Because of this, Bart's expression paled as he made a veiled threat before vanishing from sight.

"If you say a word to that witch, then you won't be able to live long enough to witness her visit…"

With Bartholomew gone, Eliza sighed heavily as she gazed off towards the small city she ruled over with impunity. Four awakened survivors had escaped from Bart's encirclement of the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, and were now hiding in her domain?

Whoever they were, they must have exceptional hearts if Bart had come all this way, and broken the rules to search for them. Knowing this, the young Undead who took the form of an adolescent girl wore a cruel smirk on her face as she issued orders to a nearby Abomination.

"I want every building in this wretched city searched. If there are any living beings still hiding in my domain, I want them found, especially those four who Bart is after…."

The abomination silently nodded its head, not saying a word, as it was not capable of speaking, but still conveying with its gesture that the orders would be followed to the letter. It then began to tumble off in search of any living beings who might have escaped Eliza's horde.

As for the young Undead herself, she could only lament the fact that there were so few people in the area she had laid claim to, and that her own lack of power prevented her from gaining any higher tier servants. Right now, it would be incredibly useful if she had a handful of stalkers beneath her control.

But this was just not the case, and thus she would have to make do. After all, she had been given a fortnight to search for these fugitives, and Carson was an exceptionally small city. Eliza had no doubt that her abominations would replace those rats who hid from their betters.

Though whether she would be able to properly capture them was another story. If Bart was coming all this way for a mere four awakened survivors, it meant that they must be at high levels, perhaps higher than anything Eliza had ever come across. But that was a worry for another time. First, she had to replace them.