12 Crafting Necessary Tools

It did not take much for Zane to realize why this building had even more Walkers than the main one… Whether the students and faculty had failed to get the notice to barricade themselves in time, or something more sinister had occurred. There was not a single living being that still drew breath in the second building.

At least not other than Zane and the girls. Curiously enough, though, Zane suspected there might be something far more dangerous at fault for this, because several of the doorways were smashed in by some kind of blunt force. Whatever had caused this, it was extremely powerful.

Because of this, Zane proceeded with extreme caution as he entered the wood shop classroom. Luckily for him, there was nobody inside, but more importantly, the tools and supplies were unmolested.

With this in mind, Zane sighed heavily in relief, before explaining to the girls what his plan was.

"You two guard the door. I'm going to make some weapons for us to use. Thankfully, the power is still on, but it won't be in a few days…"

Elena stared at Zane as if he had gone mad before questioning his sanity outright.

"Guard the door? With what, exactly? You know I'm a black belt in Judo, but there is no fucking way I'm fighting one of those fucking things with my bare hands!"

Zane sighed heavily before pulling his combat knife out of his belt and handing it to the crimson haired beauty, where he spoke to her in a cold tone.

"Aren't you also a black belt in Kendo? Use this…"

Elena frowned, a combat knife was hardly a sword, and besides she couldn't help but feel Zane was mocking her, because he knew damn well the term "black belt" was improper when it came to her Kendo and Iaido training, thus she couldn't help but grab the knife reluctantly while scolding the man for his deliberate misusage of the proper terminology.

"It's called a Dan! And Yes!"

Despite her actions, which could be qualified as "cute" in a tsundere sense, Zane had no reaction as he began to turn o the woodworking equipment. When dealing with zombie like creatures like these Walkers, the best melee weapon would be a blunt instrument. At least from Zane's perspective. And thus he got to work on the woodworking lathe and made a two handed club that was similar in shape and size to a baseball bat.

After finely tuning several of such instruments, Zane fire hardened them, before leading the girls into the metalworking class next door, where he fashioned several steel bands, which he bound to the top section of the baseball-bat like clubs.

Once the three weapons were finished, Zane applied several layers of electrical tape towards the thinnest section of the clubs, creating a makeshift grip. With these weapons completed, Zane tested them out by taking a practice swing like he was the star hitter for the major leagues. Once he had done this, he nodded his head, almost as if he was pleased with his work, before handing one of the said clubs to both Elean and his former homeroom teacher.

The women were both baffled by what Zane had created. They never knew that the school's facilities could be used to make such weapons. But then again, few people had the violent mindset Zane had. Given enough time, the man could fashion a dagger, or a set of knuckle dusters, but neither of those two things would be as useful as a war club.

Elena was quite impressed by Zane's handiwork, and was quick to compliment him on his efforts.

"It's a unique design, for sure. Where did you learn how to make such a thing?"

Zane scoffed as he rested his own club on his shoulder. Since they had time to waste, decided to let the girl in on his methods of madness.

"I mean, I have taken both wood shop and metals class. As for the origin of the design, you could say it's inspired by the ancient burda war clubs that the Celtic tribes used, but with a modern twist. Anyway, these should be extremely efficient, and since you have some weapons training, I'm guessing this will be far more useful than the knife I lent you. Speaking of…"

Zane then motioned for Elena to hand him back the knife, which, after a moment's hesitation, she begrudgingly did. As for Olivia, she was inspected the quality of Zane's craft, before sighing heavily, almost as if she regretted not understanding the talent the boy had, despite having him in her homeroom for the last four years.

"I'm starting to think I know nothing about you…."

Zane didn't even dignify such a statement with a response. Instead, he swung the club off of his shoulder and into his hands as he approached the door to the classroom. His words, however, were quite terrifying to the older woman who had not yet mentally prepared herself for this brave new world.

"Let's go hunting…"

Elena's gaze narrowed, almost as if she had suddenly decided to follow Zane's lead, while Olivia tried to ask for answers on just what Zane meant by this.

"Wait, a second. What do you mean by that? Zane! Elena? Will somebody answer me!?!"

But neither of the two former students responded, instead they walked off into the hallway, leaving Olivia all by herself. After a few moments of internal dread and paranoia, Olivia chased after the two of them while practically in tears.

"Don't just leave me behind!"

As for Zane, he was stepping up the stairwell, ready to fight the first Walker he came across, and as he gazed out the window, he saw something chilling. Standing in the Main building he had just left a few hours before was the Stalker, who stared at him with a murderous gaze from the opposite window.

Zane stopped in his tracks when he saw this, felling a certain chill down his spine, but when he looked back at where he swore the Stalker had just been a second ago, it had seemingly vanished into thin air.

One thing was certain… Zane was being watched, and he had a feeling there was no chance in hell he would be able to beat that monster known as a "Stalker" at least not until he had time to properly consume his blood crystals and "level up". Whatever that entailed…