Now that he knew that the town was considerably emptier than what he initially expected, Danny felt way more confident in progressing without too much hassle.

He was still cautious as the unknown reason behind the disappearance of so many people weighted on his mind, but he felt that the invaders – his most dreaded enemy – could not be responsible for it.

If they were the ones behind the disappearance of the villagers, then why would they leave so many zombies “alive” behind?

The invaders surely knew about the value of the crystals inside those shambling undead, so why wouldn’t they kill them all and collect the treasure? It wouldn’t make any sense. Therefore, Danny discarded the possibility of them being involved in this affair almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind.

That did nothing to alleviate his unease though. Even though Danny knew that the real reason would probably not come even close to his worst conjectures, the unknown was still scary.

Fear was innate to the strange and unknown.

So, it was with tense muscles and adrenaline coursing through his veins that Danny closed in on his final destination – Lara’s family house.

The absence of massive numbers of undead made Danny’s approach fairly straightforward. He did not have to detour as many times, and more often than not, climbing on top of a roof and traversing the village from high up was enough to safely cross the more crowded parts.

Very soon he was leaning on one of the John’s house side walls. Danny had spotted an open window on the second floor on that side of the building. Most houses on the village looked plainly similar, with two-floors being the highest most buildings there reached, including this one.

Danny bent his knees slightly and with an impulse he jumped up and grabbed the window sill, pulling himself inside shortly after. He did forget to account for his bag’s extra size however, so he spent a few comic moments trying to fit himself and his bulging pack through.

If anyone was looking at the direction of that particular side of the building, they would be presented with the hilarious image of a man flailing his legs and wiggling his butt, trying to squeeze through the limited opening of the window with a hiking backpack strapped on his back.

Just like a fat cat trying to go through a pet door it had clearly grown too big to fit through.

Alas, since there was no one to witness his shameful display, Danny was spared from the shame with no repercussions other than a bruised pride and reddened cheeks. He had been spending so much time carrying a bag that it almost felt like a part of himself by this point, something easy to forget.

After managing to get in after a few moments, Danny cursed the damn window for its part in his solo comic show, as if it was the single thing to blame for his embarrassing display.

Anyways, after placing the whole debacle behind him and getting his head back in the game, Danny studied the room that revealed itself to be a boy’s room, no doubt the one Lara’s cousin used to occupy.

Danny took his time to look at the kid’s drawings placed on the wall, before deciding to move on. From his scouting and listening from the outside, Danny already knew that there was probably no one inside the place.

However, even if he was fairly assured that the house was deserted, he had learned his lesson from his encounter with Lara, choosing to get inside the house from the window on the second floor instead, in order to avoid any possible ambushes.

Seeing that no one came to check what was going on even after his less than subtle entrance, Danny’s assumption about the house being abandoned proved to be correct. That also meant that he had gone through all that comic trouble for nothing, but let’s agree to never mention it again, okay?

Danny then opened the door and looked around the place. It seemed that everything was in its place even if a little messy. That bode well for Lara’s family, since the complete absence of blood on the walls and floor probably meant that no one met their end there. It was also safe to assume that her aunt and cousin were still alive after the initial chaos brought forward by the earthquakes, if they had been there at the time, that is.

According to Lara’s intel on her family’s habits and routine, while also adding up what her uncle had told her before leaving with her dad to pick up her aunt and cousin, those two should indeed have been resting inside this house during the quakes, which would hopefully mean that they had survived the initial upheaval given the absent signs of struggle all around.

Danny looked everywhere in the house for clues, but he came empty in the end. There was nothing pointing to where they had disappeared to. He did see somethings of supposedly sentimental value missing from the walls, tables and shelves after comparing with the photos Lara had provided him with, and noticing the dust and coloring marks that remained behind.

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That made Danny think that they had evacuated to somewhere else after Lara’s father and uncle got to them. Maybe they had gone to wherever the rest of the village had gone as well.

However, that did not explain why Lara’s father did not leave a message behind for her or why he did not go back to pick her up.

Danny did not think he would simply abandon his daughter like that. Even if his own father did do exactly that to him, he did not think Lara’s father was capable of doing the same. He knew that people were different, and most fathers wouldn’t be willing to leave their kids behind for whatever reason.

Also, Lara did not have an old demon hanging over her shoulder that would scare her father away, so there was that as well.

Anyways, without any other leads to be found in the house, Danny decided to expand his search area and check the neighboring houses as well to see if he could find anything that would point him in the right direction.

The first, second and third houses he visited did not shed any light on the matter. All he managed to get was a couple more crystals from the third one that had a couple of undead hanging from ropes in a bedroom.

The apocalypse had clearly been too much for them, and they decided to exit the world in their own terms instead of risking becoming chewed alive.

As someone that did everything in his power to remain alive and take control of his destiny, Danny could not exactly sympathize with their decision, but he could understand it nonetheless.

The thought of giving up did cross his head many times in his darkest days, but in the end, he chose to persist. He chose to trust in his mother’s wisdom that one day he would look back and know that all the difficulties he went through had been worthwhile.

Though living was suffering sometimes, we have to remind ourselves that all pain is temporary. All suffering is transient.

As he looked at the zombies with broken necks that could only move their mouths in a frivolous attempt of biting Danny – as if hoping he would place himself in between their teeth, so that they could chomp him – he felt glad to have chosen this path of unflinching defiance. Of resisting to the bitter end and never surrendering.

The state of the couple’s corpses almost seemed insulting to their decision of cutting themselves off the world. As if even the ultimate sacrifice could not grant them the exit and peace they craved for.

Although Danny could not help but have his emotions stirred after seeing the duo, he was not shaken. Even if things were looking grim for the rest of the world, and even if danger was encroaching his position with every passing second, Danny was already taking the first steps in the direction of taking control of his own destiny.

Never before he had so much freedom available to him. Never before had he lived a life with so little fear every day. The monster of his nightmares was still around of course, and many more were coming, but now he finally could see a way of fighting back.

He would learn everything he could from Tutu and take every advantage he could get his hands on. It did not matter that he was making deals with the devil. As long as he did not betray himself, as long as he did not betray his ideals, he would be able to live with pride and look at his mother’s memory with his head held up high.

And who knows? He might even get his revenge against the monster that scarred his body and mind for so long. They were not friends, after all. They were only taking what they wanted from one another. Danny did not forget or forgive anything, he was just focusing on what truly mattered, on improving himself and his chances.

If the demon ended up underestimating him, all the better for Danny. Tutu would only have himself to blame if one day their roles end up getting reversed and his life end up in the palm of Danny’s hand. Danny will not hesitate if that happens one day, closing his fist with all his strength, killing the demon decisively.

But that was a matter for the future. Danny could not even begin to understand the limits of the demon’s power, so it was pointless to think about killing him. Best to banish such thoughts to the darkest corners of his mind. After all, who knew if Tutu could perceive what he was thinking? Who knew what the demon was capable of and whether or not he was watching Danny closely?

To this very day, Danny did not know where the demon went when he was not haunting him or where his limits truly lied, so it paid to be careful when thinking about subjects that involved the shadowy entity.

After reaffirming his resolve to keep moving forward, Danny cut down the ropes holding the couple up before swiftly killing them.

“May you find peace wherever you are.” Danny wished them the best softly after easily dispatching them both.

He could not sympathize with the couple’s decision and also was not a religious person, but that did not prevent him from wishing all the best for the miserable duo. The magical nature of the crystals and their relation with the soul and spirit of humankind was still a mystery to him, but it had made Danny rethink many of his own ideas about life and death, and the world in general.

He was not sure about many things and still had much more to learn, but he already had become much more open to new ideas and possibilities.

After taking out their soul gems, Danny covered the bodies with a sheet to preserve some of their dignity. It was the least that he could do after bursting their heads open and disfiguring them.

Even though smashing heads for the crystals was nothing new to him, and he never had extended such a courtesy to his other foes – leaving them as a mangled mess of flesh on the road – for some reason Danny felt like doing this small and inconsequential gesture this time.

Next, Danny left the house and went towards the fourth one without giving up on his search for clues on the whereabouts of Lara’s family. Even if he eventually did not find anything in the end, at the very least he could say with confidence that he did his best to the girl when he faced her again.

However, it seemed that would not be necessary, as his perseverance was soon rewarded when he entered the next house. Right there in the living room there was a promising clue on where Lara’s family might have gone.