Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 167: A Chance Encounter in the Ruins of Old Reno

Two weeks or so passed after Lily joined Zane and his team. The entirety of those two weeks was spent venturing into the ruins of Old Reno to help gain combat experience and blood crystals for Lily, whose level and battlefield capabilities were sorely lacking.

It was on the fifteenth day, however, after Lily had progressed to level nine, that something peculiar happened. While Zane and the girls were clearing out a street of Undead like they normally did, they came across a peculiar sight.

All alone in the streets of Old Reno was a young girl. She had to be of elementary age. This girl was surrounded by undead that seemed to be attacking her. Yet she did not cry out for help, or even show a sign of fear. Her expression was cold and callous, almost like the one Zane always wore.

Without even thinking about it, Elean rushed forward to save the young girl, while the other girls in the party worked alongside her. Zane, however, stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the girl with confusion on his face.

He had never seen this young girl before in his life. And he knew this for a fact. But despise this objective reality, he had a deeply familiar feeling about the young girl, almost as if he had known her for years.

It was a jarring sensation, one that did not go away even after Elean and the others had made quick work of the Undead, which surrounded the young girl. They tried to speak to her, of course, with Elena putting on the friendliest smile she could as she did so.

"Little girl, where are your parents?"

The young child gazed at Elean with a confused expression in her blood-red eyes. Utter silence escaped the girl's lips as Olivia, Madison, and Elena tried to figure out who this girl was, where her family was, and why she was alone on the undead infested streets of Old Reno.

But there was one woman among the ranks of Zane's party who did not approach the small child. In fact, she instinctively took a step back upon approaching the girl. Angelica had a natural ability to detect lies and people's true nature. And though she did not detect malice from the girl, who was beginning to appear entirely mute. Something was off about her.

Perhaps it was the fact that her twin tail hairstyle came in the form of an unnatural color. That being a fifty-fifty split of white and black. Or the fact that the girl showed no emotion whatsoever, even though she had just nearly been eaten by a ravenous horde of undead monsters?

No… When Angelica thought about it, this was not why she felt such unease around the young girl. The reason was simple. The child exuded an intimidating and eerie aura. One that chilled Angelica's bones simply by being in her presence.

But only Angelica seemed to have this response. Because of this, she maintained a distance from the small girl, while Elena, Olivia and Madison continued to pry answers from the child while trying to be as friendly as possible.

After all, the girl had just nearly gotten herself killed by the undead, and yet she appeared entirely unemotional. That is, until Zane stepped forward, wondering just who this child was, and why she felt so familiar.

"Have you found anything out about the girl yet?"

The young girl looked up at Zane, and when she did so, her blood-red eyes shined. Though Zane had not been friendly in the slightest, and instead spoke in his usual callous tone, while wearing his normal cold expression. The young child immediately ran up to him and hugged his leg.

This act surprised everyone present. The girl still did not say a word, evidently mute as she looked up at Zane with shining red eyes, refusing to let go of him no matter how hard he tried to pry her away. This received a snide remark from Olivia, who couldn't help but mock Zane, who was normally terrible with children.

"Oh my? Zane, you didn't tell us that you had a secret love child...."

Zane's jaw nearly dropped to the floor when he heard such a shameless statement come from his former homeroom teacher. Meanwhile, Elean's expression grew fierce as she spat venom at Olivia for daring to make such a joke.

"Don't speak nonsense! You know as well as I that Zane can't possibly be her father!"

While Olivia and Elean were about to break into an argument. The girl continued to cling to Zane, making him feel uneasy. Eventually he picked her up and handing her off to Olivia, while expressing his concern about this matter.

"What the hell are we supposed to do with her? I mean, we are solid twenty-five minutes away from any form of settlement. How the hell did she get here on her own? There's no fresh bodies nearby, so it's not like she had just suddenly lost her family. I mean, I'm truly at a loss about what we are supposed to do here..."

The girl tried her best to run away from Olivia's arms and get back to Zane. An Act that continued to confuse everyone. Nobody knew why she was so attached to Zane when he was the least friendly of the bunch. Even Zane was bewildered by this.

Angelica, of course, was the most perplexed. She could not help but feel an instinctive sense of intimidation from this young girl and thus she remained silent and aloof until Olivia finally proposed an idea.

"Well.. For now, we should take her back to Gravestone. I don't know how she survived this long, but it isn't safe for anyone here, let alone a young child. We can send people to ask around New Reno and the other local settlements to see if anyone recognizes her. If not, why don't we just adopt her ourselves?"

Zane looked disgusted at the idea of adopting a child, but Elena and the others seemed to think it was a wonderful idea. Only Angelica agreed with Zane, yelping in shock when she heard this suggestion. She could not understand why, but she knew it was not a good idea to invite that child into their home.

But her opinions were drowned out by the side of the others, all of which agreed with Olivia's statement. Olivia smiled and hugged the child, who wore an expression that felt like she was disgusted by the act, all while Olivia proposed an idea.

"Well, what should we call her then? There doesn't seem to be any form of ID on her. And she appears to be mute…"

Zane seemed disinterested in the whole thing and walked away, causing the girl to panic and try to run after him. She fought so hard that she broke away from Olivia's hands and landed on the ground with a running start.

Once more, Zane found the young girl clutching his leg, where he sighed heavily before picking her up. The young girl clung tightly to his chest. Zane did not know why this girl seemed so attached to him, but he supposed he had no choice but to take care of her for the time being.

Thus he came up with a name on the spot while walking towards the HuNovelFireee with the girl in his arms.

"Why don't we just call her Maya?"

This would have been a joyous occasion to the women in Zane's party, if not for the fact that the moment the man turned away and said this, the Maya pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue at them. Something that was clearly a challenge.

When Olivia and the girls saw this, their jaws dropped, and their expressions paled. It was almost as if they had just had their man stolen away from them. Causing them to quickly run after Zane for an incredibly petty and stupid reason.

Though the group did not realize it, they were being watched the entire time by the Banshee, who for whatever reason disobeyed her orders by refusing to follow them back to the Humvee, where Zane and the girls drove back to Gravestone.