Danny did not even have the time to put his pack down and ask her what she thought before Lara swept up the delicacy and studied it closely. It was a good old-fashioned chocolate bar, uncontaminated by heretic things like raisins or nuts as it was meant to be. Anyone that argued otherwise was certainly destined to go to hell. Heaven had no place for such egregious sinners.

Danny said nothing and merely smiled at the sight, allowing the girl a moment to do her own thing. When Lara moved her eyes from the chocolate, rising her face and meeting Danny’s gaze and smile, she realized she had been overeager and blushed furiously at her unrestrained display.

It couldn’t be helped. She had been living basically on vegetables, eggs, and other types of produce she could source directly from the ranch. Any sort of comfort foodstuffs that she could extract pleasure from had been long gone by now.

She still had a lot of canned goods though, since they were left mostly untouched because they had a long expiration date and could be saved for when they were actually needed and would make a difference.

Lara had lost her composure momentarily, but it wasn’t a big deal, right? RIGHT? She thought frantically, forgetting to move or speak, opting instead to look at Danny awkwardly.

Obviously a much smoother approach to avoid further embarrassment… obviously...

Not willing to let the poor girl wallow on her own shame any longer, Danny spoke up.

“So… I guess I managed to pick your interest with some of my things.” Danny spread his arms and said politically, as to avoid singling out her craving for the sweet item and preserve her dignity.

To that, Lara merely nodded and placed the chocolate bar back at the table. She was thankful for Danny not pointing out her behavior, and soon forgot all about it as she chatted cheerfully with him.

After that, the negotiation proceeded without a hitch. Danny managed to successfully secure his new hiking bag, which more than doubled his previous carrying capacity. If he was smart about it and placed his supplies strategically, Danny thought he could even manage to fit up to three times more in there. It was a considerable upgrade indeed.

Besides the bag, Danny also managed to get his hands on a lot of food that would be able to last for at least two more weeks, so the potential crisis on that front had also been averted.

He had swapped many of his initial food stock options for other ones as well.

Considering that he could make use of Lara’s vast reserves of food – at least when comparing to his own – to increase his dietary options, Danny didn’t hesitate a second before doing so. After all, variety was the spice of life.

Besides, from a nutrition standpoint, the more varied his diet, the better it was. Danny wasn’t allergic to anything in particular – therefore he didn’t need to fear any sort of complications arising from that front – so he would be a fool to pass up on the opportunity.

It was also worth mentioning that there was a slight chance that his body would need extra supplements of vitamins or other compounds, given its newly accelerated growth and strengthening, which had been prompted by the crystals.

However, Danny felt that wasn’t very likely. From what he understood from Tutu’s shallow explanation about soul power, the energy didn’t need anything else to work as intended, meaning it was safe to rely solely on the soul gems for his empowerment without any sort of complement.

His rough understanding was that soul power could become almost anything, so, theoretically, there was no need for him to supply his body with the extra building materials, so to speak.

However, although Danny felt reasonably sure that there were no downsides of purely consuming the crystals, there might be unknown added benefits instead in adding the supplements to the mix. Therefore, Danny felt that if he had the opportunity, he might as well try it. He only had something to gain by doing so.

It was worth the shot even if it didn’t end up helping in the end anyway.

Even so, Danny didn’t know the exact reason for his increased appetite, so all possibilities were still valid. He could be completely wrong in his assumptions as well, therefore, the more methods he applied to address the issue, the higher the chance that he would hit the bullseye.

He was firing blindly at this point, but fire enough times and you are bound to hit your target.

Anyway, for all the stuff he got from Lara, Danny had to pay the equivalent value for it. It didn’t sit well with him to shortchange the girl, so he offered her what he deemed a fair price.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Besides a few of his medicines, batteries, tools and other things he had more than one copy off, Danny also gave her a copy of the map he had been sketching ever since he left lakeview, which contained information about places with supplies, zombie-dense spots and many other relevant things.

Obviously, Danny omitted quite a few of good spots when he gave her the copy of the map, keeping them for himself. He couldn’t simply hand over all of his hard-earned intel and leave nothing for himself, right? What if he ended up needing the supplies later on but couldn’t find any good places to loot because he foolishly shared all the interesting locations with someone else?

One that is prudent and prepares for the future doesn’t need to fear rainy days.

He did give up all his sweets though. It wasn’t such a big deal for him, given that he could always find more if he was willing to go scavenging for supplies, and the smile plastered on Lara’s face after he agreed to leave all his accumulated wealth of candies was truly heartwarming.

It felt good doing something nice for someone else just because he could. Since it didn’t go against his goals and there was no harm in doing so, why not, right?

In those tiny little moments, Danny truly felt joy. Too bad they were too short and far in-between.

After concluding his business, and talking with Lara some more, Danny decided it was time to leave. There were still quite a few hours of sunlight, so he didn’t need to find a place to crash just yet and could do with a little bit more exploring.

Danny didn’t even consider spending the night on Lara’s house. True, they had managed to build a good rapport between themselves, but they were still ultimately strangers that had just gotten acquainted.

Just because Danny liked her on a fundamental level, there was no need to take a chance to get to know her better. He had already been careless once this day, so it was best to not take any more unnecessary risks in order to not tempt fate.

Roll the dice enough times and you are bound to get screwed eventually.

Besides, Danny had his own objectives to accomplish. He needed to keep going forward, to keep progressing. Humanity was already on the back-foot in this conflict, so he had to keep moving, keep using his time efficiently to collect more soul gems and grow.

There was no point in saying things like: “there is no harm in taking an early day off, right? One day won’t make a difference”. One day obviously made a difference. It made the difference of exactly one less day.

That might sound obvious, repetitive or even somewhat stupid to say, but it was good to keep it in mind. Our brains sometimes liked to play tricks on us and procrastination was one of the biggest lies we told ourselves. One day could easily turn into two, two into four and when you see, a whole week has gone past and you have nothing to show for it.

In the end, who can say what may and may not make a difference? Perhaps even a single minute might be the line between victory and defeat, life and death.

Danny wasn’t willing to give up on this new life that was both more chaotic but at the same time freer. He wanted to do his best. He wanted to try to truly have full control of his destiny and to also honor the promise he made his mother.

Thinking like that, Danny got up from the chair and looked at Lara while smiling and said: “Well, thanks for the hospitality and the food, but I guess it is time I get going now.”

Lara, who wasn’t aware of Danny’s inner thoughts, was caught unprepared by his sudden departure announcement.

“Already? Don’t you want to at least spend the night here? I have a spare bedroom and you could take a hot shower. Then you could leave feeling better after a good night of rest and it is no trouble at all for me!” Lara said, hoping to keep the company for at least a little longer. She didn’t want to be left alone again.

The offer of a hot shower and ridding himself from the sweat and dirt after a week of travelling non-stop from one spot to another, every night spent in a different place, was beyond tempting to Danny. However, his mind was set and he stood firm by his decision.

“Thank you for the offer. That’s really kind of you, but I really must get going. There is still plenty of time until sundown so I will be fine.” Danny smiled at her.

“Why are you in such a rush? Is there some place you want to go?” Lara asked curiously while at the same time feeling sad at the rejection.

“Not anywhere in particular, no. I just have to keep moving you know? I never stay in one place too long if I can help it.” Danny lied with a straight face.

It was true that he had no specific destination he wanted to go to, but his desire to leave had nothing to do with not wishing to remain in one place. What Danny truly cared about were the soul gems. If he could keep collecting them in a single spot, then Danny had nothing against remaining in one place, but he obviously would not be able to do that here.

There were not that many zombies around, since Lara had been clearing the area periodically. Also, Danny didn’t want to reveal the crystals existence to her. The soul gems were his most important secret at the moment, even bigger than the demon’s haunting, and Danny wished to keep it like that. At least for now anyway.

The exclusive access he had to those valuable gems right now was his most significant advantage and was his opportunity to truly change things and take control of his fate. He had to hide this information for as long as he could in order to maximize the benefits he could get from them.

That might be selfish of him, but Danny did not consider himself as an altruistic person, so that was fine by him. Maybe that was why he held people who had that quality in high regard. Because they had something that he did not.

Danny had nothing against helping someone and doing something nice for little to no return every now and then, but that was only if it didn’t impact his own interests.

Anyway, even seeing the puppy-dog-eyes Lara was showing at the moment and feeling her reluctance, was not enough to shake Danny’s resolve. On her part, Lara was furiously thinking excuses to keep him there, but that was a futile effort.

Seeing that Lara did not speak up again, Danny stepped closer and rose his hand towards her, offering a handshake.

“It was nice meeting you. I wish you the best.” He said smiling.