“Anyway, just say the word whenever you are ready to depart and I’ll send someone to gather everyone around,” Captain Wallace said. “The sooner we get going, the better. We don’t know the exact situation those strange people are in and, the more we delay, the higher the chances of something changing or going horribly wrong.”
“That’s true.” Danny nodded. “Are you worried about them?”
Wallace scratched the back of his neck before replying. “Well… given how shitty things are for everybody, we gotta stick together, right? Now that the world is so messed up, I think there’s all the more reason for people to help each other out…” He said with seriousness.
“I guess that’s true. I just didn’t take you for a selfless person. No offense.”
“Ha!” Wallance snickered. “None taken. I agree with you there. I’m not.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I just think it’s in our best interest to support each other. For humanity to survive going forward, we have to drop our petty disagreements and work together now more than ever. How can we overcome the challenges ahead and restore our society, recover some of the normalcy we lost, if we get stuck every step of the way quarreling with one another like we did in the past? There’s no better time to put down our differences than now. We all need to rise to the occasion. At least, that’s what I think…”
Wallace turned around and smiled apologetically at Danny. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to preach.”
“Don’t worry about it. That’s a nice ideal to live on by.” He smiled back at the man.
‘Though I am not sure how much I agree with it,’ he calmly thought inside his head. ‘Alliances and truces between different groups are all well and good, but I don’t think humans can really put down their differences that easily. Unless there’s some existential crisis in front of them or there are a significant difference in power between the two groups, people tend to work towards their selfish agendas first and foremost. I myself am no different…’
He did not externalize his opinions however.
“I am ready to go whenever you are.” He stated to the captain.
“Really? Don’t you need to make any preparations? Do you have everything you need?”
“Yes. I travel light and I am always ready to go.”
----------------------------------------
It didn’t take long for Wallace to round up the missing members of the ‘diplomatic team’.
In just half an hour, every single person Hank had recruited with the intention of enabling communication between the two groups had already embarked on the fortified bus and, with an escort of two other cars – one in front and one in the back –, the convoy departed towards their destination.
The journey would take some time, as the last known location of the foreign-language-speaking group was a few days away from the settlement.
Danny rode in the front car with Captain Wallace and two of his men, while four others of his squad occupied the rear one and the remaining few joined the hired specialists in the bus to protect them in case it was needed.
At night, the convoy would stop on abandoned buildings that were already checked, looted, and cleared by Hank’s people in the past and now acted as safe houses where the group could bunker down to spend the night.
It was in one of those places that the group now rested.
“So, Danny, we’ve all heard about some of your exploits from Captain Wallace here, but tell us more about yourself!” One of Captain Wallace’ squad team members asked while they sat around a fire.
It was the first night they were spending together in this trip and they were all a bit curious about this ‘stranger’ that had been hired specially to aid them in this mission.
“What do you want to know?” He said while stoking the fire nonchalantly.
“Anything, really. Tell us something about your past and how you’ve got here.” Another one of Wallace’s squad members, a woman, asked.
“There’s not much to tell really.” He said and put the piece of wood he had been using to poke the embers with before continuing.”
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“I used to be a student at Lakeview University. I was just in my first semester of med school when everything happened. I didn’t get to learn much at all before things fell apart.”
“From there, I bounced from one place to another trying to survive, scavenging for supplies, avoiding the larger groups of zombies, and fighting whenever I needed to.” He said and took a swig of his water bottle.
“Things continued like that for some time, and after a while, I met someone in distress who asked me for help. I couldn’t bring myself to say no, so I agreed. In the process I, stumbled on you guys’ camp and some time later, here we are…”
“It was a girl, wasn’t it?” Another squad member asked.
“What?” Danny reflexively asked.
“It was a girl you found in distress, right?” The man repeated the question with a smirk on his face. “For you to go out of your way like that, it was definitely a pretty girl.” He said while the other men around the circle gave knowing smiles and the women rolled their eyes.
“…yes, it was.” He agreed, smiling as he recalled his memories of Lara and Wallace’s team laughed out loud at his confirmation.
“Shut up you idiots.” One of the women scowled at the men laughing uproariously before tuning to Danny. “I’m more interested in what you said before. Come on, don’t play coy with us. I know you are not telling us everything.”
“What do you mean?” He cocked his eyebrow.
“Well, you said you got by avoiding large groups of undead, right? But we all know from commander Hank himself that you single-handedly dealt with a building crawling with Z’s, ain’t that right captain?” She turned to her leader for support.
“…yes, Commander Hank did tell me that.” Wallace didn’t want to pressure him or make him uncomfortable. However, he was also curious about this well-regarded newcomer, so after hesitating for a couple of seconds, he confirmed his subordinate’s statement.
“Oh, that…” For a second, Danny got worried if any of his secrets had somehow gotten out, but thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case.
“So? Come on, tell us more! How did you do it?” The excited woman insisted.
Hearing the impatience in her voice, he smiled and took in the sight of the eager crowd around the fire before finally replying, “Well, like I said to Hank before, a good magician never reveal its secrets.”
He laughed internally as he watched his audience visibly stir with annoyance at his cryptic answer. The woman who asked the question clearly the most frustrated of them all.
“Ugh. Don’t be like that! We are working together as a team now. Come on, give us some details! You got to give us something at least!” She begged.
“There’s not as much to it as you might think. A lot of planning, a lot of risk-taking and a lot of luck. That just about sums it up.” He said, indulging the pleading woman somewhat while grossing over all the major and relevant details.
“What I said before was true. During the earliest days of the Apocalypse, I basically avoided zombie groups as best as I could. It was only after meeting Hank and hearing about his troubles that I decided to take on the challenge. It might have been something stupid to do, but fortunately, things went well.”
The woman was clearly unsatisfied by his short explanation, but before she could say anything else, Wallace got ahead of her and thanked him for sharing the short story, putting an end to the matter. After hearing her captain’s words, the woman had no choice other than to swallow back her already prepared rant with a sullen expression and let the matter drop.
Others had various mixed reactions to his modest recounting. Some were left unsatisfied as well, some nodded their heads at him and adopted a pensive expression, while some looked at him dubiously, cynically doubting the veracity of his words.
It didn’t matter in any case, as he wasn’t going to share anything more than that. His own superhuman strength and endurance were cards best hold close to his chest. Hidden.
“I am more interested in what you got out of the job.” Another man asked him. “Did you get that fancy body armor for it?” He said eyeing Danny’s gear with some desire showing on his face.
After his bout at the factory, the entirety of his upper body armor had to be scrapped as well as his damaged helmet. Fortunately however, Hank’s men managed to come up with another identical set in one of their many scavenge runs, and Danny swiftly nabbed it from the warehouse, trading for it and recouping his loss.
“Nope. I got my gear from trading.”
“Damn. You must be loaded.” The man clicked his tongue, even more envious now.
“Heh. I guess you could say that.” He conceded. “There’s a lot of good stuff out there just lying around waiting for someone to pick it up, provided you are willing to face the dangers of course. Alone, I can stealthily get into a lot of places you guys don’t go to due to the great number of zombies around.”
“Hmmm. I guess nothing good comes out for free, huh?” The envious man said, much less jealous of Danny now that he took in consideration what was required of him to reach his current state.
“If that’s not it, then what did you get?” Another man asked, turning back to the previous question.
“Hank gave me a gun, some ammunition and trained me a little bit in how to maintain and use it.” He revealed honestly. “You guys might not know, but I can’t normally trade for those things. Firearms and bullets are trade-restricted at the camp,” he said.
“Naturally, due to your jobs, you guys don’t have to worry about such things as the camp provides them to you. However, as a mercenary of sorts, someone unaffiliated with the settlement’s forces, I can only get my hands on those things if I strike a deal directly with Hank or if I find them myself – which is very hard and has only gotten harder with the passage of time.”
“Then what are you getting from this mission, if you don’t mind me asking?” A woman questioned.
“2 magazines with 15 rounds each. Hank gave me one already after I accepted the mission and he will give me the other one once it is done.” He answered honestly.
“Damn. You really are freaking loaded.” The envious man said again with a disgusted face, setting off his companions’ laughter much to his chagrin.
Danny merely smiled back. He could not complain. Things had been going well for him for a while now. It almost made one suspicious about what the future held in store for him.