Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

While Zane and the girls ensured that everything was ready for Madison on her big day. The girl herself examined her armor more thoroughly. Not only did she pay attention to the stats that made her significantly more powerful in the field.

But she looked into her bedroom mirror and examined herself. She blushed as she gazed at how revealing the armor was. Aside from the dark gold metallic boots that went up to her knees, her matching gauntlets that went up to the forearms, and her pauldrons that barely protected her shoulders, she might as well be wearing a bikini. Or more accurately, a bra and a thong.

It was honestly embarrassing to think about going out and fighting in such a complete and utterly scandalous set of attire. But when she shifted through her recent memories, she could have sworn Zane was staring at her, even though he tried to deflect his gaze.

In fact, she could clearly see within her own mind the man staring between the gaps of his fingers, as if he was trying to get a better look at her. Did Zane really think she was that attractive? Why would he when the other women by his side were just as beautiful, but with better bodies?

Madison began to feel a complicated surge of emotions in her heart. Previously she had planned to ask Zane to make her his woman tonight as his present, but now that he had gone out of his way to prepare for such an excellent, albeit perverted set of equipment for her birthday, that plan was thrown out the window.

No… She would have to offer herself up as thanks for such an amazing gift. Yes! That was it! This would be her way of thanking the man! Never mind the fact that he already planned to craft a similar set of equipment for all of his party members, as well as the other strike team that lived in Gravestone.

But would Madison know of such plans? Certainly not, and thus this was her latest justification to give herself to Zane. Little did the man know she was planning such things. Instead, he was laughing while hanging up some party banners in the mess hall. While cracking a joke at Madison\'s expense, something he was not normally known to do.

"Did you see the look on that girl\'s face when she ran away? It was priceless. I don\'t think I have ever seen anyone that embarrassed, and the way she covered her ass when we could no longer see the front of her. I honestly haven\'t laughed this much in years…."

Elena smiled. It had been a very long time since Zane had remotely expressed any emotion, and though he had begun to open up more than the months passed following the apocalypse, he had never seemed so… happy…. Until now.

And if Zane was happy, then she was happy for him. She was just about to make a joke about the man\'s unusual state when Olivia spoke up before she could do so.

"My oh my… What is this that I see? Do my eyes deceive me? Because it looks like Zane is actually smiling right now! Angelica quick, take a photo! We might never see such a thing again in our lifetimes!?!"

Zane, however, took this joke at his expense with a stride as he shook his head and stapled the banner across the rooftop of the bunker\'s mess hall with the staple gun.

"Crack your jokes now, but don\'t be surprised if your prediction actually comes true after this!"

Elena was pouting. She wanted to be the one to make fun of Zane, but Olivia had beaten her to it. Meanwhile Angelica had actually snapped a photo on her phone of Zane smiling while setting up the decorations. Not that Zane really cared.

As for Olivia, she approached them an and grabbed hold of his cheek in an endearing manner, while telling him it was all in good fun.

"Don\'t be a sourpuss Zane! You can make fun of Madison for her behavior, but we can\'t make fun you? If you keep that mentality up, I think you and I will need to have a serious discussion in my office!"

The idea that after everything they had all been through, Olivia was still his homeroom teacher caused Elena, Olivia and Zane to all break out into laughter at the same time. Angelica, of course, joined them. She, after all, knew of the relationship that the trio had before the apocalypse and thought it was funny that Olivia would make such a statement.

After taking a few seconds to calm down, Zane spoke in a more somber tone about his thoughts regarding everything that they had all been through.

"I never thought I\'d be able to laugh again and have fun with a group of people like this…. Hell, if those bastards could see me now, they\'d be green with envy!"

Elean and Olivia went quiet when they heard this. They naturally knew Zane was talking about all of his former classmates who had shunned him due to what he went through as a child. And though they understood why Zane would say this, he was, after all, speaking ill of the dead. It was only a few months ago when they became the three survivors left standing after their school as infected.

Perhaps more of them could have made it out if it wasn\'t for Ryan\'s madness. But grieving the dead was a daily occurrence now, and it took only a few minutes for the two women to recollect their previous joyful expressions as they refused to dwell upon the past any longer.

After all, in this world of complete and total uncertainty, it was impossible to know when one would die, or how. Instead, most people who had the right mentality choose to count each day lived as a blessing, and continue to move forward in their efforts to thrive within this post apocalyptic wasteland.

Gravestone had more to celebrate than most. They not only had ample stockpiles of supplies for a small population, but they were in a well defendable area, with access to power, water, and a small portion of freshly grown crops.

As a small survival community, it was doing better than most within the world right now. So much so that they actually had the means to celebrate a birthday without any worries haunting the event. In a way, Madison\'s celebration was a way for Zane and the girls to sit back and count their blessings so far.

Zane and the others would continue their efforts to prepare for tonight\'s celebrations for several hours until all was ready.

---

Madison emerged from her silent pouting several hours later. After figuring out how to unequip her armor, and spending an ample amount of time messing around with the inventory feature in her system, she emerged with a fresh layer of makeup and her previous attire.

She was honestly surprised by the decorations that Zane and the girls had put up, as well as the cake they had baked her. It was a freshly made cake, one created from some raw ingredients that were stockpiled in the bunker.

And it was her favorite style of birthday cake. That being red velvet. When she saw the effort that everyone had gone through on her behalf, despite the quite literal apocalypse looming in the background, the girl couldn\'t help but break out and cry as she hugged Zane and each of her friends, thanking them for their hard work.

"Thank you! Thank you all so much! You didn\'t have to do this, and you did it anyway! I can never thank you enough for what you have all done for me!"

Zane honestly felt a little bad. He had, after all, killed the girl\'s family in his assault on the bunker, and had in a way broken a serious promise to her. And even now, the girl seemed to be suffering from some form of Stockholm syndrome, as he had no other way to explain why she liked him and the others so much who were responsible for her previous suffering.

But ultimately, he handed the girl a beer and made a toast to her and her special day.

"To Madison! You may be the newest member of our band of misfits… and the youngest… But without you, we would all be dead by now. And I look forward to working with you in the future!"

It wasn\'t the best toast, but Zane was already feeling awkward thinking about everything else. Regardless, everyone shared the toast with smiles on their faces before digging into the birthday meal that had been made in the girl\'s honor.