Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 58: Let's Go Home...

Zane was entirely unaware that his base of operations had just been raided by Ryan and burnt to the ground. He was officially without shelter from the elements and that evil that lurked within them. And he did not even realize it.

Instead, he was sitting patiently outside of the changing room with two large hand prints on his face. All while being scolded by the two beauties who had made them. Elena was dressed in a red leather jacket with a white fur trim. Beneath it was a black sports bra along with a matching chest rig directly blow it.

The chest rig had a few polymer AR-15 magazines in side of them. Her pants were a pair of blue denim jeans, which clung to her thick thighs, and perfectly sculpted calves, yet were still somehow stretchable.

Over these jeans was a black gun belt with a handgun placed inside of it, along with a pair of matching knee pads and boots. On her hands was a pair of black tactical fingerless gloves, much in the same way that Zane wore.

All in all, Zane had to admit that the young woman looked quite beautiful in her new getup. Elena was pouting, while her face was flushed as red as her signature crimson ponytail. She could not believe that Zane had walked in on her while she was changing. It was incredibly embarrassing for her. After all, no man had ever seen her in such a shameful state before.

While Elena was pouting and averting her gaze from Zane, she snuck glances at his expression, which was emotionless as ever. This, of course, only made her more furious. I mean, how could he treat such a serious situation as if it did not even matter? Was he not the least bit attracted to her?

As for Olivia, she was also pouting, but her face wasn't nearly as red. She had also changed into her new gear. Starting with a pair of black boots, which wrapped around a pair of g3 black camouflage combat pants, with built in knee pads.

The only other distinguishable piece of equipment on her lower half was a gun belt with a holstered handgun, and the necessary pieces of kit that Elena and Zane also had on theirs.

Like Elena, her stomach was bare, with only a chest rig wrapped around it. This chest rig was setup for shotgun shells, unlike Elena's rig, which was set up for AR-15 magazines. Above the chest rig, which clung tightly below her bosom, was a black sports bra and no jacket.

The only other pieces of equipment that the woman wore were a pair of fingerless black tactical gloves, and in-ear electronic hearing protection that both Elena and Zane also had.

Aside from this, Olivia had looted a small enclosed red dot which she mounted to the rail of her tactical pump-action shotgun, and a fore grip which had a built in weapon light, one that Zane had successfully swapped out onto her weapon.

Zane had to admit until now, he had never really thought about either Elena or Olivia as members of the opposite sex. He had long since had the emotional part of his brain beaten to death. Even things like lust had, until recently, had no effect on the man. As he simply no longer cared enough about life to pursue them.

But after witnessing both Elena and Olivia in their underwear, and now their new "tactical" getups, which made them appear as if they were little more than gun bunnies. Zane had to admit that something primal had been awakened within him, and he was struggling to control these urges.

And while Zane reflected on these newly resurfaced emotions, Olivia scolded him for daring to walk in on them while changing.

"Honestly, young man, what exactly were you thinking? I mean, walking in on the two of us when we were in the middle of getting dressed? Didn't your mother ever teach you how to knock? You are a man, after all!?"

Elena, who was previously embarrassed, flinched when she heard Olivia say this. Her expression turned ashen as she looked over at Zane, who she suspected was about to display some raw and powerful emotion. But Zane did not behave the way Elena expected to at the mention of his mother. Instead, he simply scoffed and ignored Olivia's scolding while saying something that Elena knew was untrue.

"My mother is dead…"

Elena eyed Zane with curiosity. While it was entirely possible that the boy's mother had died during the early days of the apocalypse, she knew that Zane had also received no confirmation of such a thing. And Elena knew damn well that Zane's mother was alive prior to the spread of the undead virus.

Thus, she couldn't help but feel that Zane was saying "My mother is dead to me…" rather than the idea that she was actually genuinely deceased. For Olivia, however, this sudden "revelation" startled her.

She knew very little about Zane's family situation. After all, she was only his homeroom teacher, and had only known the boy for a year, as she transferred to his school at the start of this year. It was not like she was privy to the boy's home life.

And thus, she immediately bowed her head and apologized, not knowing that until a week ago, Zane's mother was perfectly fine.

"I'm sorry… I didn't know…"

Zane stood up, ignoring Olivia and Elena as he walked away from them and towards the escalator which led to the lower level of the sporting goods store. Right before he stepped onto it, he said the words that made Elena cry inside.

"Let's go home…"

Of course, Zane had no idea that this "home" of his, which was more of a home to him than his actual one, was currently burning to the ground. All thanks to Ryan and his thugs who had looted Zane's supplies.

Neither Elena nor Olivia had any idea how much their brief time together had meant to Zane, or the "home" they had built together… After all, the boy usually displayed the same emotional capacity as the dead who they were in an eternal conflict with. But she would soon realize what happened to those who crossed Zane's bottom line…