Resting on top of the wooden counter of the camp’s warehouse were Danny’s latest purchases.

He gazed at his new possessions with satisfaction. Those would undoubtedly help him out in his future endeavors when roaming out there.

The first thing Danny inspected was his new body gear. He had traded away his old ‘biker gang’ outfit, swapping it for a better and less outlandish getup.

After haggling with Ben, Danny managed to secure a complete motorbike protective gear for himself. The full ensemble encompassed a body armor, pants, gloves, boots and a helmet.

Out of all body protection options that he could find out there, this was probably one of the best, if not the single best, excluding special ops and military-grade equipment, that is.

The body armor was made with some kind of fabric mesh that Ben had assured him was both resistant to tearing and waterproof. It also had integrated elbow guards, shoulder pads, chest plates for torso protection and a spine and back protector as well.

On their turn, the pants were made of leather and also had integrated knee guards for better protection, while the gloves were made of Kevlar material and offered great coverage and defense for his fingers, wrist, palms and back of his hands.

Regarding the helmet, Danny opted for a flip-up version instead of a full face one. Although the latter would offer better defense and coverage, the former had a wider opening at the front, allowing for a bigger range of vision while also being more comfortable.

In addition, Danny hated that feeling of his own trapped warm breath coming back to hit his face, which most facemasks and enclosed helmets caused, so he was pleased to find out that the camp had an option available that circumvented that issue.

Though his face would be less guarded, it ultimately was a compromise that Danny was happy to make.

He felt that, as long as the helmet he chose offered some sort of eye protection while he fought – there was more than one occasion that a spurt of blood almost blinded him after he smashed a zombie’s head in - and also covered the back and top of his head, then that was enough. And the flip-up helmet that he chose fulfilled those jobs remarkably well.

Finally, the boots were made of leather, just like the pants, and had metal tips at the front and back to protect the rider’s heels and toes, not that Danny thought he would be riding a motorbike at high speed anytime soon. Still, it was nice to know that his kicks would pack an extra punch now.

It was also worth noting that the whole outfit was entirely black, with a few shades of gray here and there - with just a small red logo from the company that produced it placed where his heart was breaking the monochrome style, not that Danny had ever heard of the company or that it mattered -, which would allow him to better blend in the shadows of buildings and darkness of the night if he decided to venture out during that period of the day.

Danny knew that any outing after the daylight was gone was riskier, but by camouflaging himself, he would be able to mitigate some of those risks.

After carefully inspecting his new body gear, fondly caressing it during the process, Danny quickly went over his other, but less significant, acquisitions.

Different tools, batteries, utility gadgets and many other things that he felt could come in handy were some of the things that he had traded for with food, knick-knacks and duplicate or superfluous gear he had on hand, like his second crossbow.

It was high time he got rid of the thing, as it was only adding to the weight he carried around.

Danny doubted it would ever come the time he would need it, since he would run out of bolts way sooner than his first copy ever came close to breaking down, therefore, he was quite glad to swap it for something he could actually make use of.

Sadly, he didn’t manage to find any bolts for his sole ranged weapon at the warehouse, but it was what it was. You can’t always get what you want and he had already profited immensely from his trip there, so he could not complain, really.

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He also managed to trade quite a few of his medical supplies for others he didn’t have on him yet. You know… just in case something went horribly wrong. Though he did keep all of his blood count measuring kits for himself.

Those were too important to give away given his deal with Tutu, so he could never have too many of those.

Danny also got his hands on one of those flashlights you could attach to your shoulders or helmet in order to free your hands, which he bought without thinking twice.

Depending on how well lit the factory he would soon be raiding was, or to better put it, how dark its abandoned rooms and corridors were, this gadget might prove to be essential.

Finally, he didn’t manage to find any bags that were better than the one he got from Lara, so Danny swiftly shook Ben’s hand to conclude their transaction.

He then packed up everything he bought while Ben left through the door at the back of the counter to store the goods that Danny had left on the counter as payment for their deal.

After the trade, Danny went down from his two-weeks-worth food supplies to merely one week, but he did not care. Scavenging for supplies was already second-nature to him, so recouping his losses would not be too hard.

He could have saved on costs if he really wanted, since useful information was worth a lot more now that there was no more internet, and Danny still had on him one of the tablets that he had previously prepared – the one from the house he had lived at with Carl’s group for a week.

By sharing just a little bit of the information contained within, Danny would be able to pay for everything he bought without having to leave any of his provisions behind.

However, he decided against revealing its existence in the end, since the item would probably prove to be too much of a temptation for the camp.

It was not wrong to say that, other than his crystals, that single treasure trove of information was his most valuable possession, and by a long-shot at that.

For the camp, it might have been even more valuable than his soul gems, after all, one could not underestimate the power of science and human technology.

Danny did not want to put to the test how well his hosts were in containing their greed, so it was best to give away some of his supplies and keep that card hidden for another, more appropriate, time.

His cooperation with Hank had just started, so it was wise to not put too much strain on their newly born collaboration relationship from the get go.

He was counting on the fact that Hank would not be stupid enough to betray someone who could kill an entire factory of zombies by himself when he returned for his payment, but people tended to take moronic risks and make idiotic decisions when enough reward was placed in front of their eyes, no matter how reasonable or rational they usually were.

Danny quickly finished organizing everything inside his bag other than his new gear and patiently waited for the warehouse keeper to return.

“Hey, is there a place I can go to change?” Danny asked while patting his new clothes as soon as Ben went through the back door, rejoining him in the room.

“Sure! There’s a bathroom over there. Take your time.” Ben said as he pointed to a different side-door in the room.

Following that, Danny nodded his head and went inside after thanking the man.

Soon after, he started swapping his old gear for the new one. As he did so, Danny looked at himself in the mirror and couldn’t help but appreciate the changes his body had gone through those last couple of weeks.

Though they were not very distinct, Danny could see the slight improvements to his whole physique. His muscles were better outlined and seemed bigger and somewhat more compact at the same time.

Frankly, he couldn’t tell if the visible changes were a product of the huge amount of exercise he had been going through every day, with all his travelling and fighting, or if they were a result of his consumption of soul gems and their refinement of his body.

He even thought he might have grown a couple of centimeters! Though that might have been his mind playing tricks on him…

One thing was certain though: he was stronger than ever.

It was almost addictive the feeling of growing ever more powerful, and he wondered if that was a side-effect of the crystals or if it was an inherent trait of his personality.

Maybe he just enjoyed the feeling of tangibly improving himself.

In any case, Danny didn’t keep narcissistically watching himself in the mirror for long, and soon he was fully decked in his new outfit.

If anyone were to look at him now without any prior knowledge of the dangers lurking outside the encampment’s walls, then they would think that Danny was getting ready to jump on top of his sports bike and race to the distance, enjoying the feeling of a fast ride and the wind caressing his body. Such was his characteristic getup.

After checking that everything was properly in place, Danny put his tool belt back on and strapped his hammer back in it, hanging his helmet on his other side. After all, there was no need for him to wear the headpiece inside the camp and carrying it on his hands would be bothersome.

Following that, Danny left the bathroom and gave his older gear to Ben as per their agreement while thanking the man once more for all his help before leaving the warehouse for good.

‘Well… first stop, check. Now to the second one.’ Danny thought silently while making his way through the dirt improvised roads of the settlement.

After he left his meeting with Hank, Danny had two places he wished to visit in the settlement. The first one was the warehouse where he could go to trade for supplies and prepare himself for the job he had been hired to do.

The second one was a noticeboard.