Once Zane, Elena, and Olivia had their equipment packed, and their rucks on their backs, they were ready to head out. Normally carry such large backpacks would be a cumbersome affair. But because their strength and dexterity stats were raised, it was far less burdensome for the three of them, then it would be for some normal humans.
In all honesty, Zane wanted a vehicle to make use of, as it would make their journeys easier, or at least that would be the case if not for one glaring issue. The streets were full of wrecked and abandoned cars. Which had no doubt been left behind by survivors during the initial chaos.
This made it extremely difficult to navigate with your typical car or truck. Perhaps only motorcycles could freely traverse the roads in their current state. Or at least not without some serious difficulty.
Regardless, this was not an option, as they had been so quick to abandon the high school campus after what went down there that Zane and the others did not even think about stealing one of the many cars still stuck in the parking lot.
It took some time for the trio to travel from the relative safety of the suburbs into the deeper parts of the city. Parts which mind you were full of potential hostiles. Whether that be the tens of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of undead that stalked the streets.
Or the small communities of living beings which had a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. Zane could only be thankful that until now they had not had any serious trouble, at least not since escaping from the high school.
Another thing to note was that Zane, and the others lived in a relatively small city. With only three to four hundred thousand people living in the metropolitan area. If they lived in one of America's larger cities, their odds of surviving for as long as they had would have been virtually zero.
Speaking of odds of survival, while Zane and the others were looting a local gas station for some much needed supplies, they found something interesting. There were a few 42 oz bottles of malt liquor stuck in the far end of the refrigerated section.
Zane immediately reached for these bottles, shocking both Elen and Olivia when he opened one up and began to drink it on the spot. Olivi, formerly being Zane's homeroom teacher, felt the need to scold him for drinking alcohol while still being under age. Forgetting that such rules no longer applied to any of them.
Not realizing that beer was a taste that most did not enjoy their first time drinking it, Elena's eyes opened wide in shock at the acquired taste, as she struggled not to spit it out. After all, as much as she might despise the taste, at least for now, she knew it was a precious liquid, and in a survival situation, one should never waste such a thing.
Thus, Elena forced herself to swallow the beer, no matter how much she hated the taste. Where her cheeks became slightly rosy afterward. She then handed the bottle back to Zane and was quick to comment on how much she hated it.
"From now on, I am not drinking alcohol unless we have nothing else to quench our thirst..."
Elena then struggled to prevent herself from gagging. The sight of which caused Zane to shake his head, almost in pity at the girl, while mocking her for her lack of ability to drink.
"Fucking lightweight..."
Zane then took another swig from the bottle, where he then tightened the lid before placing it back in his ruck. Elena, however, looked at Zane with a curious gaze. He had no idea what she was thinking, but in her own mind, Elena realized she and Zane had just shared what was known by some as an "indirect kiss" and that made her deeply embarrassed.
As for Zane, he had never heard of such a concept before, nor would he give a shit if Elena outright told him, instead he was satisfied with their looting session,and immediately raised his rifle back into his hands, which was previously slung across his chest, all while issuing the order to move out.
"Alright... We should probably get going.... We may have cleared out the path to this gas station, but with the current state of the city, there is no telling how long it will be before we get swarmed... Besides, these blood crystals won't loot themselves..."
With that said, the trio began to journey deeper into the city, using their small squad melee tactics to successfully clear the streets of any Walkers they came across. While narrowly avoiding several dangerous encounters with higher tier undead.