Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 15: Devious Plots

While Oliva and Elena were exploring their newfound abilities, Ryan and his group were getting settled into the gymnasium.

Supplies were dwindling, but thanks to some smart decisions made by the gym teacher, who seemed to have the right mindset during a crisis. The students and faculty who hid in the gym were rationing their food and water at a rate that was not an immediate cause for concern.

But Ryan was not the least bit satisfied with his new and safe lodgings. Instead, he was quite annoyed. For starters, the only people who still looked to him for guidance were his friends from the football team. The other people who were in his group thus far had immediately begun to obey the newfound authority of the gym teacher.

Once one was given an ounce of power, it could change them quite drastically, and Ryan was given control over life and death of his previous group. To suddenly lose this power because they joined up with another group of survivors, it did not sit well with the former star quarterback.

Because of this, Ryan was venting his frustrations with his friends, who had his back at all times.

"It's just annoying is all… We were doing just fine on our own. But the moment we enter this place, what we are suddenly supposed to respect, Mr. Diaz? Why?

The old world is gone, his "authority" doesn't exist anymore. So why the hell are we following his lead? I mean, the man can't even provide food or water for those under his protection. It's total bullshit, right?"

Ryan's statement was blatantly ignoring the fact that he had lost nearly half of the students who were previously under his control, and in less than 48 hours. It was also refusing to acknowledge that he too had utterly failed to provide essential supplies to his group.

But neither Ryan nor his friends recognized these faults. Instead, these sycophants backed their "fearless" leader, who had led them to hell and back on the football team for four years straight. But this wasn't a game, this was life or death, and just because Ryan was a good quarterback, did not necessarily mean he was a good leader.

Despite these harsh truths, none of the boys who stood by Ryan seemed to counter the young man's own perspective. If anything, they reinforced it with their own hype.

"Total bullshit! You should be in charge of these fucking losers? I mean, what the hell do they know about what exists outside this gymnasium? I bet they all ran here to safety before they ever had an encounter with those fucking monsters!"

Ryan nodded his head in agreement with this positive statement. Ignoring everything that was blatantly wrong with it, and instead twisted his failures into "successes".

"You're absolutely right! I mean, if it weren't for me, none of us would be here right now! That fucking creature would have killed us all on the rooftop!"

It was only when Ryan mentioned this did the group begin to feel uncomfortable. They had lost several of their friends on the rooftop, to say that they were completely over the fear that had gripped their hearts during their encounter with the stalker would be a lie.

Instead, they all nervously shifted their gazes away from Ryan when the man brought up this contentious point of discussion.

Even Ryan felt a chill down his spine at the mere mentioned of the Stalker's attack. Thus, he shifted the discussion to his plot to overthrow the current leadership within this temporary sanctuary.

"Listen up you guys, so long as Mr. Diaz is around we will have no chance to take control… Something needs to be done, because I'm through following the orders of people who have no idea what they're doing?"

Despite not outright saying it, the intention behind Ryan's words was extremely sinister, and his friends looked at him with questionable gazes. With one outright asking for clarification on just what Ryan meant by his words.

"You're not saying we kill Mr. Diaz, are you?"

All of the boys thought Ryan would scoff, and play off his suggestion as a joke, but none of them expected him to outright admit it, or shall I say admit it indirectly.

"No, I'm not saying we kill him, at least not with our own hands… That's what the monsters are for, right? After all, soon we will run out of supplies, and we will need to send more scouts to scavenge food and water…

When that happens, we simply cause a riot and suggest that Mr. Diaz puts his money where his mouth is. I mean, how many fools has he already sent to his death?

Bruce, you volunteer to go with Mr. Diaz and make sure he gets caught by those fucking monsters. And when you get back with the supplies, you can spin a tale of the man's heroism as he sacrificed himself to save you or some bullshit like that!"

The young man named Bruce was exceptionally large, far larger than an eighteen-year-old had any right to be.

He was, after all, an offensive lineman on the varsity football team. But despite his intimidating size and strength, Bruce shook his head with a terrified look on his face, before rejecting his leader's orders.

"No way, man… I agree that you should be in charge, but I'm not a fucking murderer! You can't seriously be suggesting we feed Mr. Diaz those… things…"

Bruce was not along in his fear of harming one of the school's faculty members. It may have been the case that they would be graduating at the end of the school year if not for this recent chain of events, but it's not like any of these football stars hated their school or its teachers.

Besides, murder was something that most people would be apprehensive about. After all, these young men were born in a time of peace and prosperity.

What would they know about power struggles, war, and famine? To say that they were apprehensive about killing another human being, that would be an understatement.

When Ryan realized that his team was vehemently opposed to the idea of indirectly murdering the gym teacher, he chuckled in an obvious façade of humor, while denying that he was ever serious about the idea.

"I'm just kidding, guys. You know I would never actually do such a thing. I'm just testing you, that's all. We'll just have to replace some other way to assert our dominance, that's all…"

Despite wearing a smile on his face to reassure his friends that he was just "joking" about killing Mr. Diaz, there was a very wicked look in the young man's eyes that went entirely unnoticed by those around him.

He was definitely cooking up an idea on how to permanently get rid of the gymnasium's current leader in an attempt to usurp the man's position.

And it was just a matter of time before Ryan struck. All the while, the gym teacher who had done everything he could to protect his former students was completely unaware of the venomous serpent he had allowed in to his home.