It did not take long for Danny to find out what he was looking for after he started walking among the myriad boards of Missing People Plaza.

He had gone through just a few dozen postings there when he noticed a small girl loitering nearby, all by her lonesome.

Why she was alone there or where were the ones responsible for her, Danny did not know. He also did not bother to ask. No doubt there was just another tragic reason behind her solitude, something everyone living in this settlement apparently shared in common.

Everyone who was alive in this new world, really.

Instead, Danny approached the little girl and, after bribing her with a chocolate bar, Danny showed her the pictures he had on hand of Lara’s family, hoping that the girl would be able to point him in the right direction.

Luckily for him, asking her turned out to not be a waste of time, as the girl was, in fact, able to help.

She had recognized Nathaniel in one of the photos as the man who usually sat under a tree close by. So, after she gave Danny directions on how to reach said tree, he went on his way, glad that he found a clue so quickly after he started searching Missing People Plaza and that he would not have to go through all the postings there.

Soon, Danny got to the place the little girl had told him about and found the middle-aged man. The lone man seemed to be in his fifties or sixties, and sat there with an absent-minded expression on his face.

“Hey. Are you Nathaniel by any chance?” Danny asked once he got close enough to the immobile figure which was leaning against the tree.

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Following their meeting, Danny and Nathaniel spent some time introducing themselves to one another and telling each other about the events that led them there.

While Danny told him about his meeting with Lara and her subsequent request for help, Nathaniel recounted his tale of misfortune ever since splitting up with his daughter, all the way from Clear Water Village to his unjust treatment at the hands of the leadership of this encampment.

Danny was not surprised at the man’s bad luck after listening to his story, however.

He knew very well that people could be either saints or demons depending on their own interests and circumstances, so he was not too surprised once he found out how Hank and the rest of the camp’s leadership had wronged Nathaniel and his family.

If anything, it only went to show that Danny was right to act cautiously around those people, no matter how friendly they appeared to be at first glance, and to keep his cards close to his chest, hidden.

To be honest, he did not think that Nathaniel’s revelations changed anything about his own relationship with Hank and the settlement. He still intended to build a mutually beneficial cooperation between the two parties, as he saw no impediment to doing so.

While Nathaniel’s fate was a warning to anyone who cared to listen to his tale about the treachery of human nature, in a sense, Danny thought he fell into a pit of his own making.

Make no mistake, Nathaniel was undoubtedly the victim in this case. Danny knew as much. It would be wrong to just lay blame to Nathaniel as if this whole debacle was his fault. Obviously, the ones in the wrong from a moral perspective were the leaders of the camp.

At the same time, however, one could not simply discount the fact that Nathaniel had acted carelessly.

He and his family were good people. Good people who, by not doubting others’ intentions, and by not taking precautions against foul play, had ultimately put their fates and the fates of their loved ones at the hands of strangers.

Though Danny could sympathize with their plight, he could not agree with their actions, thinking them to be a bit naïve. Still, better to be naïve and good-natured than to be skeptical and cruel.

Danny much preferred the former kind of people.

In order to be treated fairly, and to work harmoniously with another party, Danny believed that it was necessary for one to be either as strong of the opposing group or to have enough deterrents at hand to ensure that your own interests were not simply trampled all-over.

That was where Nathaniel had been wrong. He had put faith in morality instead of facts. In a modern and functional society, that might even have worked in his favor, but nowadays, the price of not adapting one’s mindset was steep indeed.

In any case, after each of them finished retelling their respective tales – Danny obviously having omitted many details of his own, as he was surrounded by many secrets by this point -, Nathaniel asked what his visit’s future plans were.

While Nathaniel sighed with relief at finally having some good news at long last, and receiving some reprieve from the series of misfortunes that had befallen his family, Danny saw things a little bit differently from the pessimistic and outraged view Nathaniel had on the small group of four’s circumstances.

Danny thought that, from all the things that could have happened to Nathaniel and the other three, this was already one of the best-case scenarios.

When he first embarked on his quest on Lara’s behalf, Danny knew for a fact that something was holding the family back and preventing them from returning to reunite with Lara at the farm, therefore, no matter from what angle he looked at the problem, and what scenarios he conjured in his mind while he looked for them, something bad had to have happened to the four.

From being outright wiped out in some dark corner of this world, to having lost a couple of people along the way, their situation could be a lot worse.

It all boiled down to perspective at the end of the day.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

In Nathaniel’s point of view, their situation was incredibly unfortunate already, as he felt that he got a bad hand dealt to him at every turn possible. When drawing his conclusion, Nathaniel only looked at his own expectations of what should have happened and what actually happened, so it was not surprising to find out that the man was not pleased with how things turned out.

On the other hand, in Danny’s point of view, the situation of the four was incredibly fortunate, as he felt that from all the bad things that could have happened to their small group, being simply stuck and not even starved yet was probably the best conclusion he could have hoped for. He only looked at Nathaniel and the others’ situation from an outcome-based point of view, so it was also not surprising to discover that Danny was quite satisfied with what he found out.

It was somewhat of a glass half-full or half-empty kind of situation.

Anyway, Danny explained to the older man that he had been recruited to do something for the settlement, so he would probably be busy the next few days or week.

Danny did not go into details of what he would be doing though, as it would be counterproductive if, by knowing what the job entailed, Nathaniel became plagued by worries and ended doing something stupid because of it.

Best to leave the man in the dark and calm, than to tell the truth and lead him to panicking, after all.

Danny then told Nathaniel that after he completed the mission, he would have more clout with the settlement and could negotiate for the family’s release, so all Nathaniel had to do was wait for the good news.

As Danny would not be around to look after them once he left for the factory, he also warned Nathaniel to not make any rash moves while he was away, and to patiently wait for his return.

Now that Danny knew that the settlement’s relationship with the four of them was tumultuous at best, he worried that Nathaniel would do something reckless before he returned, fueled by rage or something of the sort. However, Nathaniel assured him that he would do as Danny had instructed him.

Though Nathaniel was not entirely happy knowing that his benefactor and newfound ally was working for Hank, someone he deeply resented, now that he knew that his daughter was safe and sound and that their finally had a chance to escape this hateful place, Nathaniel was filled with hope once more and was glad to play along with Danny’s plans.

After asking the old man a couple more questions about the camp, its surroundings and anything else he could think of that could be helpful to his next trip, Danny left the man behind with a few encouraging words.

Before that however, he made sure that Nathaniel and the others had everything they needed to survive the next week on their own, giving him some supplies taken from his already lighter bag, in order to ensure that the family would not have to go hungry while he was away.

Following that, Danny headed to the very same gate he had crossed earlier that day. It was time to leave the camp.

Nearing the exit, Danny noticed Joff still at the same spot he had left him a few hours ago, still arguing with his less charismatic partner, none able to convince the other about their own opinions.

Once Danny got close enough, the older guard took notice of him, stopping his quarrel with his partner before turning to speak, “Leaving already? You just got here!”

“Yeah. I followed your advice and went straight to the command center. Thanks for that by the way. Anyway, after a nice chat, Hank gave me a job, so now I got to head out to deal with it.” Danny responded with a smile.

“Don’t mention it. We are all friends here.” Joff said, dismissing Danny’s thanks graciously. “But even if you got yourself a job, do you have to go outside now? I know there is still some day time left, but even so, isn’t it better to wait until tomorrow to have a full day to get wherever you need to be?” Joff asked with genuine concern in his voice.

“Besides, there is just half an hour still left on my shift. We could go for a drink after this, and you could crash on my tent if you do not have anywhere else to sleep. I have a spare sleeping bag.” Joff then offered generously.

“Thanks for the offer Joff, really, I appreciate it. Still, I want to get an early start to finish this job as soon as possible. I am going to hold you for that drink, though.” Danny answered in good humor.

“Well, suit yourself.” Joff said while shrugging. “Be safe out there. You can never be too cautious when dealing with those… things, and I don’t want to lose my new drinking partner before even sharing a single beer… or two.”

To that, Danny merely nodded his head while wearing a smile and waved his hand as he went down the incline that led away from the encampment’s protective walls.

Next, he would be heading to the canning factory Hank had told him about. The place was not too far off from where he was.

The commander had already marked Danny’s destination on a paper map he gave Danny when they went over the details of the job. Though Danny did not think that he would be able to reach the destination before night fell, he was sure that he could make it come morning of the next day.

For now, the plan was to simply whittle down some of the distance he had to travel while looking for a place to crash for the night at the same time.

If everything went according to plan, the next day he would arrive at his destination before scouting it and thinking of a plan to deal with all the zombies residing there as safely as possible.

The journey during the couple of remaining hours of daytime proved to be very tedious and without surprise. He only came across half-a-dozen undead during his jog and quickly made short work of them before removing their crystals for safekeeping in his ever-growing personal stash.

Danny was still in a fairly unpopulated area after all, so it made sense that any zombies he could find were few and far in-between. Even so, that was bound to progressively change as he came closer and closer to his destination.

Apparently, the factory itself was built at the periphery of another town, no doubt having the intention of making use of the cheap local workforce residing nearby. Regardless of the factory owners’ objectives, the only thing that mattered now was that the town’s close proximity to the factory meant that there would be much, much more undead for Danny to deal with there than what he had come across so far.

Fortunately, however, the village stood at the opposite side of the factory from the direction he was approaching from. Therefore, Danny would not have to cross the town to get to his destination and would be able to decide for himself - up to a point of course - how much of the undead menace he wanted to fight.

In any case, as the curtains of darkness befell over the horizon, Danny spotted a truck tipped over to its side next to the road he had been travelling on.

Though its contents had already been thoroughly looted - probably by the members of the very camp he had just come from given that this was the route Hank himself had traced for Danny -, it would still prove to be a decent hideout to spend the night in.

Therefore, after checking around the perimeter and killing of the zombie driver, who was still stuck at his seat flailing his arms and legs around, Danny removed the now unmoving corpse from the front cabin of the vehicle and left it by the side of the road, its head now cracked open and its crystal safely under Danny’s care.

Having done that, Danny entered the enclosed cargo space before shutting it behind him.

The inside of the truck was pitch black after having closed the doors, but that proved to be no problem to Danny, since he immediately retrieved a flashlight from his backpack, illuminating the spacious interior of the cargo container.

Truthfully, as long as Danny kept his backpack with him at all times, then he was well-prepared for a great many number of scenarios and was able to deal with a wide variety of problems and obstacles, darkness just one among many. He had made sure of that.

After making sure that the double doors awkward positioning resulting from the side turning of the cargo compartment would not spontaneously open during his night of sleep, Danny swallowed his last crystal for the day.

It seemed that after a period of non-stop soul gem consuming, his body was slowly getting used to it. As his tolerance apparently grew stronger, the pain he felt during each session was getting fainter and fainter, making Danny wonder if he should increase his consumption rate in the near future.

In any case, that was a question for another day, so Danny merely closed his eyes and tucked his bag under his head, consigning himself to his restful, even if uncomfortable, night of sleep.