“Yeah. You too.” Lara took his hand and shook it absentmindedly while also saying her goodbyes.

After Danny turned around and started making his way to the exit, Lara realized that her time with him was coming to an end and that her window of opportunity to speak up was closing. Noticing that it was now or never, she decided to gather her courage and ask the question that was on her mind.

“Wait! Please! Can… Can you take me with you?” She said while hurriedly standing up from the chair. Her movement was so abrupt that she almost lost her footing and fell over the coffee table, but she managed to keep her balance in the end.

Hearing her question, Danny stopped in his tracks and turned around. He was confused at the sudden request that came out of nowhere and could not help but raise an eyebrow quizzically.

“Why?” Danny asked.

“That…It’s just…” Lara opened her mouth a couple of times to talk, but she failed to come with a proper response every time. How could she explain her intentions to this person she just met? Lara was having trouble figuring out how to properly articulate her thoughts.

“Why do you want to come with me?” Danny patiently asked again, not understanding the reason behind her sudden desire to accompany him.

“I… I want to find my dad and uncle.” Lara steeled both her gaze and resolve and finally answered Danny’s question, even if concisely.

After a brief pause to process her reply, Danny asked in curiosity. “Your dad and uncle? Where do they live?”

“Well, my dad actually lives here, but he went with my uncle to look for his family a couple of weeks ago. But they should have returned a long time ago...” Lara bit her lips hard, using the pain to prevent the tears that were already starting to form in her eyes from streaming down her face.

“Something must have happened to prevent them from coming home, so I have to go looking for them instead.” Lara’s gazed intensely at Danny with her watery eyes as she concluded her explanation.

After listening to Lara, it all made sense in Danny’s head at last. Why this girl had been so eager to hear about other survivors, her earlier reactions, her present request, it all added up to form a complete image on his mind.

She wasn’t desperate for news about the outside world, she was desperate to hear about her missing family. Well, maybe she was concerned about the world’s state of affairs, but definitely not as much as she was concerned about her own dad and uncle.

“Shit. That’s troublesome.” Danny thought. What he had done or said to make her feel comfortable enough around him, thinking that they could travel together, Danny did not know. Even so, Lara seemed determined to go with him.

Whether she was truly that trusting or if she was just plain desperate to get someone to accompany her in this quest to go looking for her family, it didn’t matter in the end. There was no way Danny could agree to her request.

Travelling together would mean that sooner or later Lara would find out about the crystals, no matter how dense or perceptive she was. It was just a matter of time and something that Danny couldn’t accept. He wished to keep that information to himself.

If Danny and his former companions never had a falling out and were still together, there was nothing he could do about them finding out about the secret behind the soul gems, given that Danny wasn’t heartless enough to ditch them at the drop of the hat just for the sake of convenience. However, since they were the ones to abandon him though, they could only blame themselves for missing out on the power train.

Now that Danny was alone, he had no reservations about keeping the information to himself and benefit as much as he could from being the only person around that was aware of the valuable crystals.

Thinking about it now, Danny wondered if that was the reason why Tutu scared off his former teammates. Maybe the demon wanted to chase them away to make sure that they would not slow Danny down, ensuring that Danny would be able to monopolize the soul gems and keep them all to himself.

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Danny doubted he would be able to build the surplus of soul gems he had today – while progressing at the same pace he had so far – if he still was hanging around Carl and the others. The rate of consumption was just that fast after all. If Danny was still in a group, in order to keep the same strengthening speed as his current one, he would have to face way bigger groups of zombies and take on more risks.

Maybe this really was the reason behind the demon’s actions… or maybe Tutu was just being a dick. It was always hard to tell with the sadistic monster.

Anyways, Danny knew he had to turn down the girl. The situation was delicate however. He had to refuse her in a way that did not agitate her too much and also made her accept his decision. Danny didn’t know how she would react if she got too distressed.

Lara was a truly nice girl and Danny liked her. He really didn’t want to fall out with her. At the same time however, he wouldn’t budge in his decision to keep going alone. He had to speak in a way that left no room for discussion while not being too harsh with the girl as well.

Also, he couldn’t risk having her follow him after he rejected her. He wasn’t worried about not being able to get rid of her, since he thought he could ditch her fairly easily given his strengthened speed and stamina, but Danny didn’t want the girl chasing him out there and getting herself killed just because she refused to give up following him.

True, she only had herself to blame if she died because of her own stubbornness, but the girl wasn’t in a good place right now. Her situation utterly sucked. That being said, Danny very much preferred to have nothing to do with her death if at all possible so he would try to be gentle in his refusal.

“But why me? You barely even know me, right? You said so yourself, a girl can’t be too careful out there.” Danny said, trying to dissuade Lara from the idea.

However, Lara shook her head at that.

“I know what I said, but I don’t think I can do it by myself. I know I wouldn’t last out there alone.” She said while strongly gripping her arms and smiling sadly. It was painful to Lara admit her shortcomings, especially since this concerned her family’s safety.

“But I think I can do it if you help me. You have survived out there all alone for so long, and managed to get so far…” Lara looked up at Danny reinvigorated by her words, and with a renewed belief on the validity of what she was saying.

“We can definitely do it together. I am sure of it! Besides, you said you have no place to go, right? Then there is nothing stopping us to go looking for them!” Lara said, arguing her point.

“Sorry Lara but-”

“Wait! I can pay! It’s not like I want you to help me for free! I can give you food, water, anything! You can take whatever you want from the house! Please, just let me come with you.” Danny was about to reject her when Lara interrupted him – afraid to lose this chance to reunite with her family –, offering everything she had at her disposal for him to take as payment, so long as he agreed with her request.

After so much time wallowing in despair, Lara saw in Danny an unexpected and maybe final opportunity to do something about her plight. She was desperately trying to grasp this chance, throwing anything she could think of that might change Danny’s mind at it.

To see anyone like that, so frantic, so distressed, so desperate, was truly a pitiful sight. Knowing that he was partially responsible for her erratic behavior made Danny’s heart clench. Anyone that looked at her right now would empathize with the poor’s girl difficulties. However, it was all for naught in the end.

Even if Danny felt sorry for her, and truly sympathized with her misfortune, he couldn’t help everybody. Danny had his own priorities, and though it was unfortunate for Lara, Danny wouldn’t risk his plans and his future growth just to reunite Lara with her family.

He would not sacrifice his goals for her.

Was it cruel? Maybe. Was Danny being insensible? Some might say so. Life was like that sometimes. Sometimes you have to choose what is most important to you between two options, even if you don’t feel like it. Even if you don’t want to sacrifice anything, life forces you to make a choice.

Danny chose to prioritize his plans over Lara’s cry for aid. He felt bitter about it, but it wouldn’t be the first time life gave him lemons.

“It is not about being paid or not Lara. I can’t bring you with me because I only travel alone.” Danny lied.

“I like you Lara, I really do. And I do feel sorry about your family and what you are going through. Nobody should have to deal with that. Believe me, I know.” Danny smiled sadly at her as he said that, trying to convey his honest feelings behind those words.

“Still, I can’t bring you with me. I am only alive today because I am alone. I tried working with others one time before, but it didn’t work out in the end.” Danny said, mixing truths with lies to explain why he couldn’t help her.

To be fair, Danny’s closest brushes with death ever since the apocalypse begun happened when he dealt with the living and not the dead. First when Carl pulled a gun on him, and then when Lara herself pointed her rifle at him.

Getting shot was one of the most efficient ways to get to an early grave, something that none of the undead managed to get even close to accomplishing so far. Given that zombies were mindless creatures, and that Danny always had his guard up against them, he never truly got in a life-endangering situation when fighting them. He knew what to expect and what to lookout for, so as time passed, he only got better and better at dealing with them.

Humans, however, were more complex and tricky creatures. You could roughly judge someone and predict their reactions to a point, but you could never be completely sure of someone’s inner thoughts and agendas.

Therefore, for his own sake, Danny had to refuse her.