Just a little ways from Danny currently stood, a new road - a dirt road to be precise - separated from the one he had been travelling on so far.

The dirt road stretched on flat land for a little ways in a straight line, before it smoothly started winding upwards onto an average-sized hilly area.

After passing through the sparsely placed trees and bushes that dotted the landscape in the way up, at the apparent end of the short path, there was what Danny guessed to be a settlement.

The topmost area of the scenery was completely fenced off, obstructing his eyes from seeing what lied behind the protected perimeter.

The direction from where Danny was approaching was entirely blocked by steel sidings - not unlike those you could find around a construction area in the midst of a city - forming some sort of improvised wall that, not only prevented the intrusion of any unwelcome guests, but also hid what was guarded behind it from anyone approaching by land.

That was precisely the reason why Danny could not say with absolute certainty that the place was, in fact, a settlement, but that was the obvious logical conclusion anyone would arrive at knowing what Danny knew about the evacuation of Clear Water village’s residents and their plans of coming here.

At the point where the dirt road reached the blocked off perimeter, a single wooden gate - which was clearly repurposed from somewhere else -, was placed to control the only visible entrance to the place from Danny’s position.

At both sides of the wooden gate, he could also spot two people sitting in stools, which Danny assumed to be sentries posted there to keep watch over the gate and the nearby surroundings.

Danny’s improved vision allowed him to see the pair of guards much earlier than they could hope to see him, making it possible for him to study the situation calmly before making a decision on how to approach the location.

Not that Danny believed that his better senses made a difference in this particular situation though. From what he could tell, the guards were paying little to no attention to their supposed duties. They were so engaged in their own conversation that, even if Danny stood much closer than his current distance, he doubted he would be discovered still.

Anyway, the question now was how should he deal with the situation.

Should he simply approach and hail the guards, or should he try to sneak into the place?

Danny was sure he could easily get through the walls and into the outpost undiscovered if he so wished - especially given the lackadaisical manner with which the sentries of the encampment conducted themselves -, but what would he gain by doing that? Was it even worth it?

He had no idea how many people there were behind those walls right now. If there were only a few people inside, or if they were highly familiar with one another to the point of being able to tell who was and wasn’t a local resident there, then Danny would be immediately exposed as an intruder.

Explaining himself after being found out would most likely prove to be difficult.

On the other hand, there were advantages of getting inside the place without passing through the security channels.

For one he would be able to take a look around the compound without having anyone over his shoulder. The benefit of doing that was that Danny would be able to observe the settlement as it truly was, getting a real feel on how things stood, and not just seeing the things the people in charge wanted him to see, be they good or bad.

Some might think Danny was being overly paranoid, or that he was overthinking and overcomplicating things, but that was just how he was. A cynical person.

Even though he hoped to be proved wrong every time he doubted someone or suspected their character, Danny could not help but look at everything and everyone through mistrusting lenses.

He wanted to see the good in people and find out that he was wrong in assuming the worst every time, hoping to create real connections and develop true friendships at the same time, maybe even love. However, he was naturally a distrusting and skeptic guy.

Life had been a tough and unforgiving teacher to Danny and revealed to him the ugly parts of human nature far too many times to count.

He had understood very early on how disappointing and cruel people could be, so he would not put his trust in the goodwill of strangers, including the people living inside this encampment, even though he wished that his distrust was misplaced.

Sadly, whenever the situation truly mattered, he was justified in his caution more often than not.

That was also why he was not terribly shaken when he was ultimately betrayed by Carl and his friends. A part of him always doubted that they could really work out as a group.

Despite the fact that things got completely out of his control when Tutu got involved, a piece of him always thought that it would end up like that in the end, no matter the circumstances.

Some might say that by keeping one foot out of the door, Danny never really gave a chance to himself and his former friends. You might even say that Danny was so convinced of his own misgivings, that when he had the chance to defend himself and fight to remain as a part of the group, he self-sabotaged himself by not speaking up and let the course of the events to flow naturally into the direction where he would be left alone once more. He closed himself off.

At the end of the day, Danny never really dropped his guard and let the others get close to him. The armor he wore around other people was lonely and cold, but it was also comfortable in some measure.

It was comfortable because it was predictable. If he knew to expect disappointment and kept his guard up all the time, then it would not hurt so much when he was inevitably abandoned.

In the end, in order to make true friendships and to fall in love - to create real connections -, you have to open yourself to the possibility of being hurt, of being betrayed, of being discarded. You have to expose yourself. Otherwise, what chance would you have to be treasured, loved and supported? You cannot have one aspect of relationships without the other.

So, was Danny being contradictory? Was he being dumb? Maybe he was in a sense, but, at the same time, was not in another. Who can say for sure? People were complex beings made of emotions. Desire, fear, ambition, love all influence heavily how we behave.

You may be someone capable of looking death in the face without blinking an eye and still ran away screaming whenever you see a cockroach. Is that contradictory as well?

One must remember that our experiences mold ourselves. We are but a product of our own upbringing. Danny’s unusual one made him tougher and more resilient, but it also gave him trust issues and made him overly suspicious.

On this particular instance however, Danny judged that the best course of action was to simply approach and hail the guards the normal way in order to get access to the compound.

In his opinion, the risk of being found out and its consequences far outweighed the few benefits he could get from infiltrating the place.

Besides, he knew for a fact that a significant portion of the population from Clear Water village had fled here a couple of weeks ago. What were the odds that those refugees, which were just normal folk from the town nearby, would try to do something sketchy and bear ill will towards him if he just showed up at their doorstep and announced himself?

Danny felt that it was improbable that they would act against him unprovoked, so it was best to keep it simple.

Thinking along those lines, he stepped onto the dirt road and calmly made his way along the trail towards the distracted pair of guards.

“Dude, I am telling you, this has to be some sort of bio-chemical attack!”

Geoffrey rolled his eyes at the ludicrous statement that he had heard a thousand times already.

“Yeah, yeah. The aliens did it right?” Geoffrey responded to his partner’s outrageous claims with unveiled sarcasm.

Geoffrey would never choose to willingly spend his time hearing this fool talk about his conspiracy theories, much less respond to his baseless claims, but, unfortunately, he had been assigned to guard duty with this moron - which was something he had absolutely no say on.

He had his orders and so had his fool of a partner, so here he was, bored to death. So much so, in fact, that he started engaging in a conversation with someone Geoffrey suspected had only one or two brain cells - something he regretted almost immediately after a few words were exchanged, but was too proud to admit, even to himself.

What would he even do instead? Go back to silently contemplate the skies, clouds and blades of grass? Geoffrey had reached the limits of how much time he could dedicate to counting clouds and examining their shapes.

“Mock all you want, but you know I am right. I bet the Chinese are responsible for this mess.” His partner responded.

“Oh god, please, kill me now. Just take me. I won’t resist.” Geoffrey put his hands together on a mock prayer gesture, regretting every decision he had made in his life that led to this point.

“Why the fuck, would the Chinese want to release zombies in our country and how would they do it?” Geoffrey asked exasperatedly after his snarky statement.

“I do not know. Do I look like a fucking Chinese to you?” Geoffrey’s partner responded without an inkling of shame before continuing in a lowered voice. “But I bet they placed a virus of some kind into a missile and sent it over to us, then… BOOM! And now here we are in this mess!”

“Look…” Geoffrey massaged his temples feeling a headache incoming before continuing. “…if you are saying that you don’t know why they would want to create this situation because you are not one of them, then why, for the love of God, are you telling me that they were responsible for it in the first place?!” Geoffrey intertwined his fingers and gestured wildly with his hands as he spoke, questioning the logic behind hiss companion’s words, as if the more he gesticulated, the better his point would sink into the thick skull of his dumbass partner.

His partner simply looked at him, crossed his arms and cocked one of his eyebrows before saying: “Geez man. I never would have guessed you for a China-lover…”

At this answer, Geoffrey froze and looked at his partner’s judging face with incredulity.

‘Why do I have to be punished by being assigned to a watch with this imbecile? What have I done to deserve this torment? Jesus Christ, I am getting dumber for just listening to this…”Geoffrey looked up and thought with chagrin while suppressing an outburst of less than flattering words he really wished to throw his companion’s way right about now.

Really, it was his own damn fault.

What was Geoffrey expecting by trying to engage in a conversation with this idiot making use of rational thoughts and articulated words? He would be the only one coming out from that exchange at a loss.

It would be easier to fight off all zombies in the world than to get any reasonable words out of this fool’s mouth, Geoffrey thought while scolding himself.

Was he really so starved for entertainment in this cursed guard positioning that he would go so low as to try to reason with something that, by all means, should be a brick wall instead of a human?

Geoffrey was getting ready to deliver one of his witty comebacks, putting an end to their discussion in less than amiable terms. Just like it happened so many times before, Geoffrey would throw some spiteful remark, and receive another in return, resulting in them both withdrawing themselves to their own boiling anger and indignation, sitting on their own stools in uncomfortable silence. Then, the boredom would take its toll on them both and undoubtedly force them into another barb-filled argument.

However, the continuation of their usual routine was unexpectedly broken by the sudden voice of a stranger.

“Hello?”

Geoffrey almost pissed his pants after he heard the abrupt greeting coming from just a few meters away from him.

He had been so invested in his hate towards his partner idiocy, that he completely missed someone approaching them until they finally spoke up.

Luckily for Geoffrey and his companion, the interloper was a living person and not one of those roaming undead monstrosities that had claimed the lives of so many of his friends, they would be in deep shit otherwise.

After the fright passed, Geoffrey checked the outsider up and down with annoyance stamped on his face.

He knew he was not being fair by showing animosity towards someone he was seeing for the first time and that had merely greeted him, but even then, he could not help it.

His idiot of a partner had clearly seen him jumping on his chair after he was spooked by the newcomer’s voice. Geoffrey could already foresee all the teasing and mocking he would have to endure for it in the near future.

It also did not help that he was the only one to be scared by the stranger’s greeting, so he was alone in shame.

Being poked fun at from this particular imbecile partner was particularly humiliating, so he could not help the fact that part of the anger he felt from the loss of face was redirected to the stranger.

The one responsible for his humiliation was a young man, which appeared to be in his early to mid-twenties. He had dark hair and eyes, and was decking a full set of black protective leather clothing which made he look like someone out of a biker gang movie or television show. The hiking backpack he had strapped on his back broke the ensemble somewhat though.

‘Another refugee huh?’ Geoffrey thought with sadness and some compassion.

After this outpost had been established on the first days after what folks around here were calling ‘the Calamity’, they had welcomed a great number of people escaping from all over the place.

Being one the guards responsible for manning the gates and also one of the first people to arrive in this place, Geoffrey was already used to the sight of destitute people coming here looking for help and safety. Many had crossed these gates under his watch.

However, the number of refugees had been dwindling as time passed. They barely saw anyone new coming over these days and no newcomer had showed up on the last couple of days. This made Geoffrey shake his head dejectedly, as, the less survivors, the more unfortunate souls out there that met a tragic end.

Well… there was at least one fresh face now though.

Geoffrey was about to welcome the stranger into their camp, but his dumb partner spoke before he could get to it.

“Bah, another damn refugee.” He said with disgust and spat on the ground. “Fucking leeches…” He added under his breath, but loud enough to make sure the newcomer could hear him as well.

After hearing his partner’s heartless commentary, Geoffrey immediately glared at him, to which the rude gatekeeper simply clicked his tongue, crossed his arms and looked away, as if resting his eyes on the outsider would somehow dirty him.

The settlement’s stock of food was not as plentiful as it once was, and there had been talks among the survivors that a rationing system would soon be implemented.

Obviously, people were not happy with the change and the privation. Tough calls and emergency measures were never popular, so it was unsurprising that Geoffrey’s partner was unwelcoming of new mouths to feed.

Whenever fear and unhappiness is on the rise, people tend to search for someone to be held accountable for their difficulties and to carry the blame, even when there is no one to, logically, be held responsible.

In this instance, the refugees that arrived at the settlement later were the ones that were being viewed as the culprits for their current problems.

It was an easy association to be made after all. More mouths to feed meant less food going around, right? It was a simple issue of mathematics.

Why should they, the ones that got there first, share their food and go hungry for the sake of a bunch of strangers, a bunch of latecomers? If there was not enough food to go around, they should not have accepted those people into the settlement in the first place.

If they got there late, it was just their own bad luck. Better to close their doors and reject them, ensuring the safety of those that were already there than risk the safety of all of them.

Geoffrey did not think like that however.

He believed that people should stick together, especially during these trying times. Geoffrey felt that the undead and all the chaos going around were all the more reason for people to huddle together in order to overcome those challenges.

It was only by making use of their individual strengths and by helping each other that they would be able to get through this mess in one piece. If they did not lend a helping hand to others when they were down, how could they expect someone else to lend them a hand when they inevitably fall on their knees? After all, no one could remain standing strong forever without tripping once or twice. Everyone has their ups and downs.

Sadly, not everyone agreed with his point of view. Fortunately, however, the higher ups responsible for making the decisions still had a good head on their shoulders and were not blinded by short-term benefits, meaning that the current policy to help all survivors seeking shelter did not change.

However, the food situation ought to improve quickly, otherwise the welcoming stance they had going on might change any time soon. What would happen afterwards, and what would become of them if the food shortage was not fixed… Geoffrey did not want to think about.

That was a problem for someone else to figure out, though. Hopefully someone way more capable than Geoffrey himself.

Ridding his mind of his distracting thoughts, Geoffrey turned his head back towards the outsider and put his best smile before welcoming him. “Sorry about that. My partner might be rough around the edges but he is harmless. All are welcome here, no matter where you came from. We were all chased from our homes. We are all refugees here.”

“At the very least, in here you won’t have to worry about your safety- wait… are you a zombie hunter?”

Geoffrey was in the middle of delivering his rousing speech, intent on undoing the terrible first impression of their settlement and its inhabitants his partner had made, when he took notice of the hammer attached to the stranger’s waist and the bloodied state it and his clothes were in for the first time.

The man was different from the many people that had crossed these gates under his supervision. Though he was equally dirty, he was not ragged. His posture remained upright, undefeated.

Others that travelled this path had somber gazes and bent backs, as if they carried the weight of the world on their shoulders. Their eyes were often vacant of light, as if all joy had been robbed of them and only the fear of death kept them going.

The eyes of this man showed something else though. They glinted with something Geoffrey could not quite put into words. Maybe it was ambition, maybe it was something else. Either way, the man did not seem diminished or intimidated by their circumstances like many others.

As if truly seeing the outsider for the first time, Geoffrey scratched his chin and thought silently: ‘Well…. maybe not ALL of us are refugees here…’

It looked like there was no need for one of his invigorating speeches after all. This outsider haven’t come here looking for help. In fact, maybe this outsider could help them with their problems.