Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 168: Adopting an Orphan

Zane carried the young and strange girl who he had named "Maya" on the spur of the moment. They were almost a comedic pair, as neither of them made a single facial expression, each as cold and callous as one another.

Of course, Zane had not witnessed the young girl mock his lovers for monopolizing his attention, nor would he really care, as such petty matters were mostly beneath him. Instead, he was focused on getting the young girl back to safety in their settlement of Gravestone.

Without a doubt, Zane did not want to adopt the girl, and was hoping that in the coming days they could replace someone who she was related to. After all, surviving in the apocalypse was hard enough without a young child to look after.

But the moment Zane tried to get the girl to settle down in the back seat of the HuNovelFireee, she utterly refused to do so. Clinging onto Zane's armor and fighting against his actions as if his life depended on it. Because of this, Zane became slightly annoyed as he spoke with a harsh tone in his voice, commanding the girl to settle down.

"For the love of god girl! Sit the fuck down!"

For the first time since Zane had met the girl only a few minutes prior, she had finally shown emotion. She frowned at Zane, almost as if she was disapproving of his poor choice of language. And then shook her head silently in denial of his command.

Zane was at a loss for words over this stubborn child who continued to fight him in his attempts to get her to sit down. Ultimately, his struggles were in vain as Olivia and the others became upset at how long it was taking to leave this hostile area.

"Zane, for the love of god, just let her sit on your lap while you drive. I mean, if we stay here any longer, who knows what monstrosity will replace us? And we will have a hard time fighting whatever may come if we have to protect Maya as well!"

As much as Zane found the thought reviling, Maya's grip strength was unusually strong for a girl her age, and thus he was forced to relent to this as he sat in the driver's seat and plopped the girl on his lap. After doing so, she never failed to look away from him, almost as if she was studying every detail of his face.

Shortly thereafter, the women in Zane's party climbed into the armored car. The space was getting crowded now that there were six of them. But somehow they made it work. Once everyone was secured inside, Zane started the engine of the Humvee and drove off towards Gravestone, silently praying to whatever god may exist in this world that they replace this girl's family soon.

---

Over the course of the next few days, Maya made Zane's life very difficult. Not only did she cling to his side as often as humanly possible. But she would actively get in the way of Zane's alone time with his lovers.

Zane was forced to stay in Gravestone and look after the girl because she would throw a fit every time he tried to go out and fight the undead. Though she never spoke and screamed, she was prone to childish tantrums, which Zane supposed was normal for a girl her age.

Regardless, he was forced to send out other settlers of Gravestone, as well as Olivia, Madison, and Elena, to go replace traces of Maya's relatives, and what could have happened to them. But shockingly, no matter where they went, and who they inquired with about Maya's origins, nobody seemed to know the girl.

It was as if she had just suddenly appeared in the ruins of Old Reno without any form of family or guardian. How she had survived until now, nobody knew. When this news finally reached Zane, he was sitting at the dining table of the mess hall within the bunker complex. Snacking on some fries, which he had cooked up earlier in the day.

After all, Lily's potato yields were enormous, as were her vegetables yields, allowing Zane to have fresh supplies to make French fries with. The town of Gravestone had settled its fresh food problem, at least insofar as fruits, vegetables, and grains were concerned. Though there was still a distinctive lack of fresh meat to make use of.

Regardless, all sorts of food items and sauces were being made. Causing Zane to thoroughly enjoy his fresh French fries. Of course there was only one problem, while he snacked on his fries Maya would steal from his stash and eat them herself.

While the two of them were snacking on fries with cold expressions, almost as if they were siblings, Olivia finally announced the results of their investigation.

"Zane… We have come to the conclusion that Maya has no living relatives… And if that is the case, as the ones who found her, it is our responsibility to adopt her!"

Angelica remained silent, sitting on the far end of the table as she avoided making eye contact with Maya, who herself was staring at Zane's mortified expression. After all, he had been praying nonstop that Maya's parents could be found, but after nearly a week's worth of investigation, there was no sign of them in this wasteland.

Not even their corpses could be found. Whatever happened to them, nobody knew. But as much as Zane did not want to look after a kid, he was forced to recognize that Maya's chances of surviving without some form of guardian were almost zero. And thus he sighed heavily, while burying his head in his arms before agreeing to Olivia's proposal.

"Fine! But you are going to have to replace a way to keep the girl away from me! There is shit I have to do, and I can't do it when she is constantly clinging to me like a freaking leech!"

Olivia, of course, had a solution to this, and thus she was quick to assure Zane that he would be able to get his work done from now on.

"Don't worry Zane, I have already thought of a way to do just that!"