Zane ultimately decided to trust Serena's advice and followed the path south of Phoenix. It appeared to have paid off, as even after several hours of travelling to in that direction. Zane was not pursued by any other Horde Kings.
As a result, he soon found himself wandering into the borders of what had once been the city of Tucson. Tucson, Arizona, was roughly twice the size in terms of population to that of the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area.
Prior to the outbreak of the war it had roughly one million people living within it. Which meant the Horde King in charge of the area was likely Tier IV. Albeit at the bottom of the scale. From what Zane had seen so far, the Tiers of Horde Kings varied wildly.
It was a measurement based upon three primary factors: individual strength, the size of their horde, and the scale of their domain. These three things contributed to the tier of a Horde King. As a general rule of thumb, or at least so far as Zane could tell, the Horde Size of the various tiers of Horde Kings was as follows:
Tier I: 0 – 100,000
Tier II: 100,000 – 500,000
Tier II: 500,000 – 1,000,000
Tier IV: 1,000,000 to 10,000,000
Tier V: 10,000,000+
Obviously, there were variations between this rule. As one could compensate for a lack of horde size with supreme individual strength, much like Gwen had done to reach the pinnacle of Tier I prior to entering Zane's service.
Or perhaps they could simply have an exceptionally large, and resource rich domain. The world was changing after all, and things that previously did not to exist in this world were starting to appear in the wild.
But if he were going solely off of the population of Tucson prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse, and with the assumption that the overwhelming majority of its population had been turned into undead. Then, it was reasonable to assume that the local Horde King was Tier IV.
She was quick to introduce herself, while assuring Zane that the lower level undead could not get to them in the trees.
"I'm sorry for startling you with that shot. But you were so close to that Walker, I honestly thought you were a dead man! I'm Allie, by the way. Although the Walkers can't climb the trees, and the branches are too high for the leapers to get to. We do have to be careful of stalkers up here.
It would be wise for us to get out of here before any of those bastards show up. They are incredibly difficult to deal with if it's just the two of us! I can tell you're not from here, and the chief will want a word with you. So quickly, come with me, I'll take you some place safe!"
Having no other choice, but to either stay and fight off the undead himself, and in doing so, likely alert the local Horde King to his presence. Or to go with the woman and hide among the survivors in the area. Zane chose the latter as he quickly followed the woman across the tree line.
Due to his enhanced abilities, Zane as coasting along the branches, jumping between them with ease. While the woman, Allie, appeared to be instead carefully watching her step. And on occasion, swinging on vines to get to the next branch.
She had never seen such a powerful awakened human before, but it made sense if he was capable of penetrating the thick jungle that now surrounded Tucson and cut through it from the outside world.
The girl continuously asked question about the outside world, while Zane effortlessly kept up with her slow and cautious pace.
"I'm surprised that an outsider managed to find their way here. We have been cut off from the outside world ever since the local terrain changed. Where are you from exactly, and what's your name?"
Zane was not willing to give up his name, nor use the same Alias as before. After all, the Horde Kings were hunting him down. And by now, Victor had likely begun to interrogate the locals on his farms to see if any of them had come into contact with Zane.
Because of this, Zane comes up with a new name on the spot.
"I'm Dave, and I'm from Phoenix. The city.... well you wouldn't believe me even if I told you the truth about its current state..."
Allie took that to mean that Phoenix was destroyed, and that Zane was one of the last survivors. Because of this, she remained silent throughout the rest of the journey to the local settlement. Which when Zane laid eyes upon it, he would be surprised by how the humans in this area currently lived.