Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

It did not take long following the events of the Amazonians' demise for Victor to realize that something abnormal was happening within his territory. First, the Raiders were brought to ruin during a single incident, with their surviving members vanishing without a trace in the days that followed such a travesty.

The Amazonians disappear in the middle of the night? Sure, the Remnants of the American Government launched an attack on their sanctuary and brought down their numbers to dangerously low levels.

But there would at least be some sign of a struggle if they were overrun and destroyed, right? How could they just disappear without any clues where they had gone off to? His initial assumption was that The Amazonians had packed up what they could and absconded into the night.

However, if this were truly the case, then by now somebody would have heard about their whereabouts, right? What did they just die in the desert, and their bones were now being bleached by the sun? Something wasn't adding up with this whole situation.

And it was because of this, Victor reached out to Lilith whom he had formed an alliance with and asked for her opinions on the matter. The tier V Horde King was among the most powerful individuals in the world, and she lived a life that one would not expect to exist in an apocalyptic world.

When she heard one of her siblings reach out to her, her first instinct was to decline the request. But when she realized it was Victor of all people, trying to speak with her, she changed her tune really quickly. Putting on a condescending tone as she chastised the man.

"Oh? What do we have here? Little Vicky is finally approaching his big sister? What kind of catastrophe must you be suffering from in order to seek my aid?"

Lilith had a bad habit of giving nicknames to Horde Kings beneath her status. It was her way of showing she was superior to them, often at the cost of slight grudges being formed against her.

Like Bartholomew, Victor hated the nickname which he was given by Lilith, and was grinding his teeth while he hissed out his thoughts, suppressing his urge to go off on the madwoman.

"I'm contacting you because I have a problem with my farms. In the past month, two of them have either been destroyed entirely or vanished without a trace. While I do have some suspects in mind, who have bared their fangs towards my livestock in the past.

The recent disappearance of nearly a hundred of my pets is something they should not be capable of. And since you have more experience maintaining your farms than I do, I can't help but ask for your opinion…"

Lilith's eyes grew wider as she heard what was going on in Victor's territory and immediately demanded to know all the details.

"Start from the beginning. I want to know everything about your situation…"

Shocked as to why Lilith would take such an interest in his tale of woe, Victor recounted everything, even the minor details of what had occurred in his territory over the past month. And by the end of it, Lilith was damn sure the man was being hoodwinked by none other than the so-called heretic Balthazar was hunting.

"Fucking hell, he's there! He's in your domain you fucking idiot! All this time he has been in the ruins of fucking Vegas!"

At first, Victor did not know who Lilith was talking about, and because of this confusion was quick to ask a question, he was only chastised for making.

"I'm sorry. Who exactly are you talking about?"

Lilith had a temper, and dealing with idiots was one of the things that would easily set her off. Even if Victor was a Tier IV Horde King with superhuman intelligence, the fact that he couldn't put two and two together aggravated her to the point where she immediately insulted him.

"What is your head full of shit you moron!?! Who the fuck do you think I'm talking about! It's fucking Zane! Think about it, the only one who has that kind of power is a fucking horde king! And which Horde King has gone rogue and is operating against us all?"

Victor suddenly understood what had happened, and why his plans had started crumbling around him over the past two weeks. Zane had covertly infiltrated his territory, and had been reaping the harvest which he planted the seeds for months ago.

The Tier IV Horde King was so enraged by this sudden development that he immediately lost control of his emotions. Turning the sandstorm which perpetually surrounded the ruins of Vegas ever since the apocalypse began into a violent and turbulent ice storm.

"That little fucking shit! He dares come into my territory unannounced and leach off of my efforts! I'll kill him!"

Immediately after this, Victor began rushing around the ruins, looking for Zane's hiding spot.

---

Zane immediately sensed that something was wrong following the sandstorm's sudden transformation. And he quickly received an alert from his guardian angel. I'm talking of course about his mother.

"Zane… The Horde Kings are onto you, and Victor is searching for your location at this very moment. You should shut off all power to the Mansion and hide in the basement. When midnight strikes, you must flee from Vegas immediately. Find somewhere else to grind, because you can no longer stay where you are!"

Zane immediately did as his mother warned, and shut off the power to the mansion. He dispersed his Horde King companions and entered the hidden wine cellar of the Mansion. Where he snuck behind a large barrel of alcohol and activated his stealth mode.

He would stay perfectly still for several hours. Trying not to attract any attention. But Victor was a Tier IV Horde King. With his speed, he could easily traverse the entire city, and entire every building, and every room in under 12 hours.

Eventually, the time came when he entered the Mansion where Zane had been staying. Any sign of recent habitation had been picked up by Zane. And hidden away in his inventory space. And with him shutting off the temporary residence feature. The mansion quickly fell back into its original state of repair, as it was in when Zane initially found it.

Because of this, Victor, who was searching through every room in the Mansion had no suspicions that anyone had been living there. Still, he would not be doing his due diligence if he did not check every crevice he could find.

Leaving no stone unturned, that was the best way to find the little rat who was hiding from him. Because of this, he eventually found the hidden wine cellar. The loud thud of his footsteps as he came down the stairs would have made Zane's heart beat rapidly if it was remotely capable of doing so.

Even so, Victor entered the room eventually. Glancing around in the utter darkness in search of his prey. Victor dressed in a luxurious three piece suit and had jet black hair which was combed back in a classic style. Almost as if he was some kind of 1920s mobster.

The man took a quick look at the Wine cellar. Perhaps it was because he had already written off anyone living here. But he did not do a thorough sweep. Walking past the cask which Zane had somehow managed to fit himself behind.

All the while Zane was thankful that his body was no longer capable of sweating. Because if it was he would have been royally screwed. The sound of a drop of sweat hitting the floor easily would have given him away.

But because his body was officially that of an undead, no such thing occurred. He silently watched and waited for the menacing figure to leave him alone. And in the end, that's exactly what victory did. Snorting in disdain as he slowly climbed up the steps of the mansion, where he began searching elsewhere in the city. Retracing his steps in case he missed something.

Zane knew he would not be granted a second opportunity. And because of this, he waited an hour until Victor was long gone, before departing from the mansion. He pulled his hood over his head and sprinted off into the night towards the south. More specifically to Phoenix, Arizona or whatever remained of the city.

There he would begin the process of fighting the local undead, and hunting the awakened who survived the apocalypse in an attempt to raise his power. It had become abundantly clear to Zane during this incident that he could stay no longer than a month in any given area before he would be forced to move on.

Less, he accidentally provokes the local Horde King with his presence. And it was only after he was long gone did Victor realize that the rat had escaped beneath his notice. Thoroughly angering the mighty Horde King who took his frustrations on his own servants.