“You can call me Danny.” Danny introduced himself with a neutral tone, not too friendly – since he did not want to appear to be trying too hard and consequently make her suspect his intentions –, neither hostile.

Danny truly held no ill will towards the girl, so he hoped that by talking normally with her and just being himself overall, Lara would see that too and drop her guard so that they could move on and be more comfortable around each other.

“Okay then, Danny. Let me start by apologizing about this whole gun-pointing-at-your-face business. I know it sucks, but a girl's gotta be careful you know? Especially these days.” The girl said in an honest and repentant manner, but without lowering her rifle yet.

“And you did just trespass upon private property.” She completed as if that completely justified her actions and absolved her of any guilt.

Danny understood the underlying meaning behind her words. Being cordial and apologizing for the trouble she was putting him through was all well and good, but it did nothing to change the fact that Danny was a complete stranger to her.

A stranger that just happened to walk straight into her house with unknown intentions.

So, despite the fact that she was sorry to put Danny in that position, she was not sorry enough to take any chances and risk her own well-being for someone she just met. Better a stranger suffering a slight annoyance and/or scare under her own terms than she herself getting murdered for trusting the wrong person, or perhaps even worse.

To be honest, Danny didn’t take it personally. He felt her motives to be reasonably sound, and he also wasn’t petty enough to begrudge her for looking after herself. It was true that the world outside was lawless now, so it was prudent to be suspicious of new faces.

Sometimes even a person close to you could end up surprising you as being someone completely different than you thought. A person that you have known for the longest of times, someone you felt you could trust entirely, could turn out to be someone unworthy of that trust you had placed in them. Danny had seen this happen many times already, starting with his father who abandoned him and his mother when they needed him the most.

If even someone like this could end up betraying your expectations, if even then you could not be sure about someone’s true colors, what does it say about random strangers?

A great person once told Danny that you can see a man’s face but you can’t see a man’s heart. He wholeheartedly agreed with those words, so it was easy for him to put himself in Lara’s shoes and let go of any grievances he might have harbored due to this tense initial meeting.

So long as she didn’t end up shooting him, then all was well.

He might even end up benefiting from this encounter, since trading with her might be a better option to get the stuff he needed, than simply wasting his time searching for it. Disaster and fortune often walked hand in hand.

“Well, I though the place was abandoned given the state of things. You know… with the undead roaming about I thought that whoever lived in this place had long since left or had died off somewhere else…”

Lara immediately flinched at Danny’s mention of the owners of the house being dead, but he pretended not to notice as to not pry into her matters. Everyone had secrets, and pointing them out was a good way to antagonize someone.

“I thought that since no one was going to miss those things, then I might as well help myself. There is nothing wrong with that, right?” Danny explained his actions and shrugged it off as if it was no big deal.

After all, who wouldn’t do the same given the circumstances? He doubted that any reasonable person would argue that there was something wrong with scavenging for food, water and other supplies during a literal zombie outbreak.

“And I did call out before, didn’t I?” Danny added, indicating that he had been forthcoming with his actions.

To be honest, Danny had called out before mostly to lure out any zombies in the area, as he did not expect to find a survivor here. Still, he was glad that he had chosen his words carefully, as he could use them to better justify himself now.

Looking back at it he had been quite careless. He had become too complacent after days of not seeing a single survivor. He should have approached the house more carefully.

Luckily for him, Lara was just an ordinary girl with no nefarious intentions. Things could have gone horribly wrong otherwise.

“Yeah… you did. But I would be a fool to answer don’t you agree? I much rather to just talk it out like this. This way we can get a feel of one another.” Lara replied.

“I do feel like talking it out is a nice way to solve things. But I think that we would better off just focusing on the talking part.” Danny ignored Lara’s rhetorical question and joked, gesturing with his still raised hands and hinting that they should leave the guns aside and just talk it out.

It would be hard for them to get a real feel of one another while she kept him under gun point.

“So… how do you feel about me so far? Any chance of putting down that rifle?” Danny added.

“It is too soon to say… but I guess I should give you the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Don’t make me regret it.” Lara said and lowered her rifle. She did keep it on hand though, while also maintaining a safe distance between them just in case.

“Thank you. I was really looking forward to not get shot today.” Danny sighed in relief and smiled. He hoped the crisis to be over with this and for it to be smooth sailing from now on.

Lara simply nodded with a half-smile and asked: “So where did you come from Danny? I haven’t seen anyone walking around these parts for the last couple of weeks. In fact, you are the first person I see coming here ever since the earthquake. How are things outside?”

Lara tried to sound nonchalant and detached as she questioned him, but Danny managed to catch the shakiness in her voice that betrayed how truly anxious she was for information about the outside world.

“I guess anyone would get antsy in her place. After witnessing the dead rising and not getting any news or updates about the state of the world and what is being done to bring back order, she must be desperate for information.” Danny thought.

“If that’s the case, I might as well alleviate her curiosity first to get in her good graces. Hopefully that will make her more comfortable around me. Then I may be able to ask if she has any of the things I need.” Danny planned in his head.

“I came from Lakeview, to the north of here. Do you know the place?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, I have gone there a few times with my dad. It is not that far from here.” Lara answered.

Before Danny could say anything more, however, Lara’s eyes widened in surprise as Danny’s words finally sunk in. “Wait! Did you walk all the way from over there?! I did not see you arriving with a car.”

“Yep!” Danny’s cheeks reddened a bit when asked that, as he remembered his tragic bicycle episode. For obvious reasons, he opted to not share his embarrassing story with Lara. Fortunately, she did not seem to notice the slight blush on his face as well, which saved Danny from some embarrassment.

“Damn, I take it back. You travelled a long way to get here.” Lara said impressed.

Although she initially said Lakeview wasn’t far from where they were, that was only when considering the distance while travelling by car. To go that same stretch on foot, while at the same time dealing with the undead along the way, was another story altogether.

The trip hadn’t been as hard for Danny as what Lara thought, given that he had been well prepared beforehand and was also constantly being strengthened by the crystals. However, she didn’t know that.

At this point, Lara wasn’t even aware that a zombie’s bite wasn’t as deadly as what many movies of the genre led you to believe. Sure, it did cause quite some damage and could lead to a nasty infection if not treated properly, but that did not mean you would turn into a zombie just because of it. If that was the case, his trip would be many times more challenging, so it wasn’t surprising that she was amazed at the feat.

“Are things that bad over there that you had to walk all the way over here?” Lara asked in sympathy after hearing his answer, completely regretting having pulled a gun at someone she immediately labelled as a refugee in her head.

Lara was a kind girl. All of her caution and reservations towards Danny completely flew out of the window once she imagined all sorts of trouble Danny must have gone through to reach safety, only to be greeted by a gun barrel. She felt terrible about it, her inner thoughts on the matter transparent for all to see.

Of course, what she had in mind and what Danny actually had to deal with were completely different things. She was definitely blowing it out of proportion and overthinking her own role in Danny’s supposed misfortune.

“It is bad. I am not going to lie. But is not as bad to the point that I had to come all the way over here to seek refuge.” Danny scratched the back of his head, troubled by Lara’s sad smile and pitying gaze.

Danny had a soft spot for people like Lara. The frankness, empathy and inability to hide one’s inner thoughts and feelings were all personality traits that reminded him of his mother.

Danny could always tell what his mother was thinking. And not just Danny, she was like an open-book to anyone who met her, much like Lara was to Danny now.

However, Danny much preferred dealing with cynical, serious and individualistic people like him, which he felt was way easier. Being fond of someone meant that Danny had a hard time interacting with those kinds of people the same way he did with everyone else.

Danny had fairly good social skills. He knew how to read the room and how to manipulate others to reach his intended outcome. He wasn’t a master puppeteer, liar or anything like that, but he usually knew what to say and when to say it to get what he wanted.

Even with a harsh early life resulting from being chased by the monstruous demon, Danny had the fortune of meeting a few good people that had taught him how to read, judge and mingle with others, while also giving him all the necessary skills to fit into modern society, or to be able to successfully wear a mask and pretend at the very least.

It was not a question for Danny, or those people that stuck around even after learning of his secret, that the life he would lead would be rife with lies and deception. After all, Danny couldn’t exactly go around explaining his quirks and circumstances by saying he was haunted by a demon, could he?

Therefore, the ones that cared about him tried to prepare him for it with the best of their abilities, providing him with the knowledge that Danny applied to all his social interactions to this very day.

He manipulated, lied, influenced, nudged and exploited others anyway he could as long as it didn’t go against his conscience.

However, feeling this way about someone like Lara meant that Danny couldn’t bring himself to act like he usually did. He felt like he was taking advantage of her kindness if he did so. The idea of exploiting someone that reminded him so much of his mother felt utterly repulsive to him. It was as if he was doing it to her instead of Lara.

Even if Danny knew that one thing didn’t equate to the other and that it wasn’t logical to feel this way, emotions weren’t reasonable.

It wasn’t as if Danny had suddenly developed some misguided urge to protect her or developed feelings of love towards Lara simply because she reminded him of his mother.

He wouldn’t get on his knees and profess his eternal love nor would he start to choke on his words around her like a young boy dealing with a girl he liked for the first time. That was best save for teenage dramas and TV shows.

No. What Danny felt towards Lara was some sense of kinship he simply could not chase off. The resemblance to the person Danny had loved the most in his life made him biased towards the girl.

It was as if he was seeing some small surviving piece of his mother again, even if he knew it to be impossible and irrational. No matter what logic and reason told him, Danny could not help but like her.

That didn’t mean that he would be giving up his own interests and secrets in favor of her just because he was partial to Lara. In practical terms, it just meant that Danny would be more considerate towards her and try his best to not take advantage of the poor girl when trading.

For someone normally as cool and level-headed as Danny, the loss of the objective perspective that he normally applied to everything troubled him.

Danny didn’t think there was anything intrinsically wrong with it, or that there was any problem with feeling emotional every now and then. It was just that he wasn’t used to it.

After all, living on the edge, not knowing when the darkness would strike at him or if he would spend his nights just waiting and waiting for something to happen, led Danny to develop a very disciplined and strict frame of mind early on. It had been essential for the sake of his sanity and survival.

Stepping outside his comfort zone bothered him. It bothered anyone to be fair. They are not called comfort zones for no reason, right? However, just because something is uncomfortable that doesn’t mean it is bad. Changing the status quo prevented stagnation.