Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 82: Vive la révolution

Perimeter of the Safe Zone, the Mayor was not in the best of moods. In fact, he was slightly panicking. After all, he had lost half of his awakened soldiers in the battle.

That was a serious blow, but what was worse was the fact that the remaining blood crystals were stolen from beneath his own eyes. He had no idea which of his aides had taken them, or what they planned to do with them.

But if the blood crystals got out into the general population, it would cause issues. Not only would a large number of infected suddenly appear within the safety of the walls. But they would also have an unknown number of awakened lying low in the shadows.

What they would do with their newfound abilities, the Mayor did not know, but he suspected the people would turn their anger against him. After all, he kept the lion's share of provisions for himself and his administration.

While distributing out the dregs to the citizens, who were supposed to be under his protection. Greed was a natural part of the human existence, and even in the worst of times there would be those like the Mayor who sought to elevate himself above the masses, even if it meant putting humanity's very survival at risk. Thus, the Mayor quickly ordered a search for the blood crystals that went missing.

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While the Mayor was losing his mind about the theft of his blood crystals, his personal aide, a man one might consider to be the Mayor's right-hand man, had actually been the one to steal them. After all, as the Mayor's most trusted "servant" he would never be suspected of this crime.

This aide was a young man who had watched the Mayor squander the resources they had at their disposal and selfishly horde the majority of it for himself and his administration. If that was not bad enough, he had witnessed the mayor forsake warnings from his advisors about potential threats. As well as solutions to deter them.

The loss of the first line of defense was entirely the fault of the mayor. And its loss meant thousands of citizens perished in the attack. Only a fraction of the survivors who dwelled in the area were successfully evacuated.

It was a complete and unmitigated disaster, one that could have been entirely prevented. And one that personally affected this aide. After all, his family were some of the victims of the botched defensive operation that should have been an evacuation effort, like the so-called general advised.

Because of this, he now had a deep-seated hatred for the Mayor, a man he had served prior to the apocalypse with great pride and distinction. Because of this, this aide stole the blood crystals and entered the seediest parts of the safe zone.

Located within a bar was a group of, shall we say, less than exemplary citizens. Some of them were criminals before the apocalypse began, and others were normal people. Now incredibly disgruntled with the current state of affairs.

These men drank what little remained of the safe zone's beer, while throwing darts at a picture of the mayor, which was pinned to the dartboard. Every time someone hit his fat face, they bellowed in laughter and cheered one another.

"Take that, you fucking bastard!"

When the aide stepped foot in the door, one would expect he was not welcome. After all, he was the personal servant of the man that these ruffians all despised. And it appeared that was at first, as all eyes were drawn to the aide while utter silence prevailed. That is, until one man lifted a beer in a toast to the man, while welcoming him inside.

"Martin, you glorious bastard! Did you get the goods?"

Martin took off his backpack and approached the bar where he placed it down and opened it to reveal hundreds of blood crystals which had been previously extracted during the defense of the safe zone.

He then began handing them out. He, of course, was unaware of the potential consequences that came with consuming these blood crystals, something he was not privy to. All he knew was that they granted special powers to the team, which succeeded in taking back the second layer of defense and driving off the undead horde.

With an eager grin on his face, Martin distributed these blood crystals among his fellow rebels while declaring his intentions aloud.

"Each of you takes one of these. If you put them in your mouth, they will supposedly turn into liquid, and once consumed, they grant you super powers. With these, our revolution can finally come to fruition.

We will bring that gluttonous bastard down for all that he has done to us and ensure a free and fair society for all! After all, the United States is done for. I heard it from the big man himself. So, why should we follow that fat slob? Because he was elected prior to the collapse of the nation?

Fuck that! It's our time, the people's time to rise and take over what remains of our society. With these now, only will we be able to overthrow that bastard and his regime, but we will be able to drive those filthy monsters out of our city once and for all!"

After expressing this sentiment, all of the rebels raised their beers in the air and took a drink in celebration. After which they consumed the blood crystals. Entirely unaware that only one fifth of them would survive the transformation. While the rest would be infected with no possible cure to the disease, which would ultimately turn them into one of the undead.

Of course, it was only after the thirty minutes and the painful state of corruption passed did these rebels realize this, where they had a particularly emotional farewell to their infected comrades, who they personally dispatched to the afterlife.

Yet Martin was not to blame for this tragedy, instead this incident only further strengthened the hatred these would be rebels felt towards the mayor. The time for revolution was now!