Zane carried the young and strange girl who he had named "Maya" on the spur of the moment. They were almost a comedic pair, as neither of them made a single facial expression, each as cold and callous as one another.
Of course, Zane had not witnessed the young girl mock his lovers for monopolizing his attention, nor would he really care, as such petty matters were mostly beneath him. Instead, he was focused on getting the young girl back to safety in their settlement of Gravestone.
Without a doubt, Zane did not want to adopt the girl, and was hoping that in the coming days they could find someone who she was related to. After all, surviving in the apocalypse was hard enough without a young child to look after.
But the moment Zane tried to get the girl to settle down in the back seat of the Humvee, she utterly refused to do so. Clinging onto Zane's armor and fighting against his actions as if his life depended on it. Because of this, Zane became slightly annoyed as he spoke with a harsh tone in his voice, commanding the girl to settle down.
"For the love of god girl! Sit the fuck down!"
For the first time since Zane had met the girl only a few minutes prior, she had finally shown emotion. She frowned at Zane, almost as if she was disapproving of his poor choice of language. And then shook her head silently in denial of his command.
Zane was at a loss for words over this stubborn child who continued to fight him in his attempts to get her to sit down. Ultimately, his struggles were in vain as Olivia and the others became upset at how long it was taking to leave this hostile area.
"Zane, for the love of god, just let her sit on your lap while you drive. I mean, if we stay here any longer, who knows what monstrosity will find us? And we will have a hard time fighting whatever may come if we have to protect Maya as well!"
Regardless, all sorts of food items and sauces were being made. Causing Zane to thoroughly enjoy his fresh French fries. Of course there was only one problem, while he snacked on his fries Maya would steal from his stash and eat them herself.
While the two of them were snacking on fries with cold expressions, almost as if they were siblings, Olivia finally announced the results of their investigation.
"Zane... We have come to the conclusion that Maya has no living relatives... And if that is the case, as the ones who found her, it is our responsibility to adopt her!"
Angelica remained silent, sitting on the far end of the table as she avoided making eye contact with Maya, who herself was staring at Zane's mortified expression. After all, he had been praying nonstop that Maya's parents could be found, but after nearly a week's worth of investigation, there was no sign of them in this wasteland.
Not even their corpses could be found. Whatever happened to them, nobody knew. But as much as Zane did not want to look after a kid, he was forced to recognize that Maya's chances of surviving without some form of guardian were almost zero. And thus he sighed heavily, while burying his head in his arms before agreeing to Olivia's proposal.
"Fine! But you are going to have to find a way to keep the girl away from me! There is shit I have to do, and I can't do it when she is constantly clinging to me like a freaking leech!"
Olivia, of course, had a solution to this, and thus she was quick to assure Zane that he would be able to get his work done from now on.
"Don't worry Zane, I have already thought of a way to do just that!"