Danny woke up the next day with the pitter-patter sound of raindrops hitting the cargo storage metal frame, where he laid still within.

The former day cloudy skies and its dour outlook had already forecasted that it might rain soon, so Danny was not surprised to wake up to find it raining in the morning.

Though, personally, he quite enjoyed the rainy weather and its overall gray and gloomy atmosphere, Danny would be lying if he said he was pleased with the current meteorological conditions.

Fighting zombies on a slippery ground, while being drenched from head to toe, was not exactly ideal after all. Even if combat would become equally trickier for both parties, Danny’s threshold for mistakes was way lower than his enemies’.

If a zombie slipped, giving an opening for Danny to capitalize on, then it was just another body added to the count of defeated enemies. If Danny slipped however, it could mean game over.

A single irrecoverable mistake was all it took.

Even so, it was not like there were no advantages to the current weather as well.

For one, it would easier to move unnoticed, as the rain would muffle any sounds he made while sneaking around, and the poorer visibility conditions would work as veil covering the zombies’ eyes, hiding him from them.

Granted, those effects were limited as it seemed that he was not exactly dealing with a downpour, but more of a drizzle. Also, it did not look like the rain would be intensifying anytime soon.

Nevertheless, he was not complaining. There were less benefits to a lighter rain but also milder downsides. The climate worked as a two-edged sword for him.

In any case, Danny still did not know how well the undead could see, but one thing was certain, their eyesight as a zombie was definitely worse than what it used to be when they were alive. Whatever difference this obtrusive weather would make, be it big or small, it will only blind the zombies even further to Danny’s movements, no matter the degree or exactly how much.

After eating a hearty breakfast and stretching his muscles to dispel the drowsiness from just having woken up, Danny left the side-turned cargo compartment of the truck.

Following that, and upon seeing that there were no threats skulking around, he got back to his journey.

It did not take too much time after leaving his resting spot of the previous night for him to reach his destination. Only a couple of hours, really, so it was still well within morning by the time he got there. The afternoon still hours away.

With his improved strength and stamina, Danny could travel way faster than any normal human being, taking only a fraction of the time it would normally take to complete any trip. Even his sleep did not consume as much time anymore.

‘One of the unintended side effects of eating the crystals, I guess…’ Danny thought silently.

While Hank and his troops could take a day or even more to make the journey there, and maybe even more, it only took Danny three to four hours altogether. Even if we were to discount the fact that he traveled light and alone, conditions that would allow anyone to travel faster than a group, it was still a noteworthy feat.

Anyway, as Hank had already told him the previous day, as long as Danny kept to the route that had been traced for him, sticking to the road, the factory was hard to miss.

… and indeed, it was.

The whole compound comprising the factory was enormous for such a small town, so Danny could easily understand why other survivors would want to set up a base there and why Hank was putting his hopes on this place to solve all his problems.

There was bound to be tons of food still in there. Danny would not believe otherwise.

Barring from a complete disaster, like an explosion or a fire breaking out, there was little chance that there was not anything left there to scavenge. And from the state of the buildings, nothing of the sort seemed to have happened, so Danny was quite sure that Hank was right on his money and this place could, in fact, save the camp from starvation.

In fact, the issue was not how well-stocked the place actually was. No. The issue was how to get all the goodies remaining inside from out of there while keeping their lives…

Regardless of how imposing the size of the compound actually was, even more imposing was the horde of undead surrounding it.

Danny could not be sure how many of the creatures were around and how many of them he would have to kill to completely clear the area, but just from a first glance, Danny already knew that there must be easily over a couple hundred of the things prowling around the factory. Probably more.

Even if Hank brought all his men with him to fight the zombies sticking here, and even if all their shots were perfect headshots, securing one kill for one bullet - which Danny doubted was feasible -, would they even be able to kill everything inside before being overrun? Was it even worth it considering the alarming state of the settlement’s stock of ammo?

Hank and his troops had to get somewhat close to engage the threat after all, even when using firearms, and the undead, though incapable of catching up to a running human, were not that slow either.

Also, one had to consider that numbers were not everything in a battler. It wasn’t easy to keep your head cool and stand your ground with a steady aim while a wave of corpses was literally coming your way to get you. Panic was to be expected. Fear, the common response.

No matter the actual feasibility of such plan, Danny doubted Hank and the settlement could deal with this obstacle without casualties.

In any case, what Hank would have to do and what it would cost the camp to achieve their goals by themselves was not relevant. What was relevant, was how he, Danny, would deal with it.

His rewards depended solely on his ability to make a seemingly impossible task, possible. That was what he promised Hank, anyway.

Even if it sounded impossible or hard beyond belief, Danny knew he could do it, so long he prepared sufficiently for the challenge ahead that is.

For starters, Danny had to come up with a plan to deal with the horde of zombies there in an effective manner. He had to be as efficient as possible, maximizing his advantages and reducing his shortcomings.

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No matter how strong he had gotten, how much his reflexes and stamina had improved, or even how good his equipment was, there was no way Danny would survive if he threw himself at the myriad undead surrounding the place and simply started swinging his hammer around like a berserker.

Once he was surrounded by his enemies, with no way to escape, his only fate would be to be clawed and chewed to death. He was just one after all, and there was undoubtedly strength in numbers, no matter how weaker each individual zombie was compared to him.

It was a good thing then that tackling the issue head-on, rampaging without thinking in the middle of his enemies, was never his intention in the first place.

Instead, Danny cautiously and calmly started circling around the factory from a safe distance, checking for entry points and looking out for any interesting features, taking note of anything that could give him an advantage, anything that would provide a little extra edge in the coming fight.

At the same time, Danny made sure to always to keep an eye out for the zombies’ movements. Just in case they managed to sneakily approach him while he was distracted examining the area.

One could never be too careful while on the outside, and he would not let complacency and arrogance be the things that got him in the end after having finally tasted a little bit of freedom after so long under the demon’s oppression.

Even so, he doubted he would find a lone zombie walking on the outer perimeter of the factory all by itself.

As of now, Danny did not know the exact motive behind it, but he could say with certainty that the undead tended to band up together. Sure, there was always the odd straggler here and there who went against the main current and refused to stick with the groups like all the others, but those were few and far between.

‘Maybe it’s the sound they make that attracts each other, or maybe it is just a fragment of their former selves, a habit from their lifetime that still influences their actions to this day, even after death…’ Danny reflected while watching the undead shuffle around each other from behind a flowery shrub, crouching to remain perfectly hidden.

‘…or maybe I am just thinking too much into it and there is no rhyme or reason behind it.’

Banishing his errant thoughts to the back of his mind, Danny went back to his scouting, patiently examining the place in detail from all the angles he could.

The whole factory was comprised of many dull concrete buildings, some smaller and some bigger than others.

One particular structure stood out from the remaining, however, as it was way larger and taller than the others. Given its shape and size, Danny immediately assumed this to be the main plant of the factory, where most of the work was done or, better yet, where most of the canning work was done.

The higher concentration of zombies around the edifice also suggested that it had acted in the past as the main building in the former survivor’s camp, housing most of the residents there.

‘That, or the gathering of zombies there simply means that this was the place where most of the survivors were when the camp was overrun, marking it forever as their final destination. The place of their untimely death…’

‘That’s a sad and grim thought all right…’ Danny spoke inside his head to no one in particular, before getting back to the matter at hand.

Regarding the factory’s perimeter, the rectangular-ish plot of land which housed the compound was entirely surrounded by steel-wired fences.

Along those fence stretches, there were quite a few gates spread out here and there, acting as access points. Those gates were made of the same material as the fencing itself and all of them were closed off and locked, with only two of them being the exception to the general rule, standing there wide opened.

Interestingly enough, both opened gates stood in direct opposite directions from one another.

If one could be said to be the main gate to the place, facing the front end of the factory, then the other one was located at the rear of the compound, working as a backdoor of sorts.

Danny did not know exactly how this place fell to the undead in the past, after all, this was the first time he had ever come here and Hank did not provide him with such information. The older man either did not know or did not think to tell Danny about it.

Either way, from the distribution of zombies around the compound, Danny suspected that the opening of one of those two gates had something to do with the camp’s downfall.

It was just too weird.

While one side had almost no zombies roaming about, the other was fully packed, the zombies looking like sardines in a can.

It was almost as if all the survivors had tried to make a mad dash for one of the exits while ignoring the other opened one, clogging the way out and trapping themselves until they finally all died there.

Even if, in the heat of the moment, no one could open the other exits - be it because they did not have the keys or there was not enough time -, why would the survivors who used to live here choose to flee in that one particular direction when there were actually two escape routes?

‘Maybe they didn’t know that the second gate was opened, or maybe it was just herd mentality that led them all to their deaths…’ Danny speculated while scratching his growing beard.

It did not matter to his current goals the why or the how all those poor souls had lost their lives though.

The truth of their tragedy was lost to the past, and, as long as it did not directly impact his plans going forward, his actions would remain the same and solving the mystery served no other purpose other than alleviate his curiosity.

In any case, after completing his round and engraving anything of significance he had observed in his brain, a plan had already started to form in Danny’s mind.

His idea was actually fairly simple.

As there were too many undead for him to deal with at the same time, and even in one go for that matter, Danny had to find a way to either split the huge group of zombies into smaller and more manageable pieces, or to funnel them down somewhere in a way that he would only have to fight a few zombies at a time, allowing him to slowly whittle them down with time.

Preferably, however, he would do both things.

While scouting the factory, Danny kept an eye out for spots with natural chokepoints and other features that he could make use of to reduce the zombies’ fighting potential.

After he finished doing that, and after taking some time to weigh his options, he concluded that making use of the buildings themselves and fighting his enemies in an enclosed space would be the most advantageous course of action for him.

The enclosed rooms of the buildings and its lengthy and narrow corridors would guarantee that Danny would not be surrounded by his foes, making his job easier as he would not have to pay so much attention to his back or sides.

At the same time, by making use of the tighter space to fight, Danny would ensure that he never has to battle more than two or three zombies at once, which would make the whole fight against the immensely large numbers of zombies actually doable.

Besides, by doing that, his advantage will only grow with time as soon as he starts taking the undead down.

By killing more and more undead, without stop, the bodies of his downed foes will keep piling up. Eventually, the corpses of his enemies themselves will work in his favor by forming barricades and obstacles which will get in the way of the remaining zombies, funneling them even further and reducing their ability to pressure Danny even more.

At least, that was the best plan he could think of to maximize his chances.

The advantages obtained from numeric superiority is greatly diminished in tight spaces after all.

On a side note, by fighting inside a building, Danny would be able to retreat to a previous cleared room whenever he felt too tired to continue, and by locking its door behind him and barricading himself within, he would be able to prevent any enemies from chasing him whenever he is at his weakest, allowing himself to take all the time he needs to rest and recuperate.

Like that, Danny would be able to only fight when he was in top shape or when he felt confident enough to continue.

Honestly, it was a simple strategy, but an effective one.

Ever since he started consuming the crystals, Danny hardly ever felt tired or spent anymore, even after hours of incessant travel, therefore, all his caution and fallback plans might prove to be unnecessary.

Even so, he could not take this coming fight carelessly, as he had never gone against such a large number of undead before.

Who knew how much time the whole fight was going to take?

He did not know if his endurance would hold throughout the whole affair, and if not, for how long it would last. Thus, it was prudent to plan ahead and make sure he had contingencies in place in case he actually needed them.

Better to have and not need, than need and not have.

In any case, this was not just a job to him, but also an opportunity to test his limits and measure how far he had come.