“So that’s what he said huh?” Carl commented while stroking his chin.

After realizing that she had mistakenly confused Danny’s recollection of events as a sudden confession, Janice beat a hasty retreat from the bedroom he was staying at, wishing nothing more than to hide from Danny forever and never talk about it again.

She could feel the heat on her neck and cheeks and was biting her lips so hard in shame that she was almost drawing blood, while walking through the hallways of the house.

Janice hated that panicked feeling, that loss of composure. She rarely was caught off guard like this and absolutely loathed her impulse to flee when faced with Danny’s uncomfortable but amused expression. But fled she did still.

Not long after, Janice found her friends resting in the kitchen on the ground floor, having finished their exploration and making sure they were safe and sound and there were no obvious security risks.

Donovan was filling his belly with some packaged cookies they had found in one of the card boxes. It was not the healthiest of meals, but it had a long shelf life and the boy didn’t care. He was simply looking towards distracting himself in the pleasure of chocolate. He ate alone, since all of the others already had something when they were discussing the now completely irrelevant research assignment from college.

Janice quickly recounted her conversation with Danny then. They did not bother trying to hide the information from Donovan this time. Having achieved their goal of talking it out with Danny one-on-one and getting the information they wanted, Donovan’s interference was no longer a concern.

Danny did not follow Janice down. He stayed in the master bedroom for the rest of the night, allowing she and her friends a moment to gather their thoughts alone and to discuss the information she gathered at their own pace.

Danny felt that giving them some space in order for them to reach their own conclusions was the better course of action in order for their cooperation to proceed smoothly in the future.

“I don’t like it.” Carl said while frowning. “I am glad and thankful he chose to help us, but I don’t think it is right for him to still keep secrets at this juncture.”

“I think we should respect his privacy. From what I see from his actions so far, we should be nothing but thankful to him. He must have his reasons to not tell us what happened”. Jane stated her opinion.

“Just because someone is outwardly being nice to you it doesn’t mean that person has no ill intentions. The hand that feeds the chicken can be the same that snaps its neck. I know you like him Jane, but this and that are different matters”. Carl said to her nonchalantly.

Jane frowned, glaring towards Carl and was about to flare up when Janice beat her to the punch quite literally.

Smack!

The sound of Janice’s fist impacting Carl’s arm loudly resounded around the room. One could clearly tell it must have hurt by the intensity of the noise.

“Ouch! Goddamit Janice, what the hell did you hit me for?!” Carl gazed at his girlfriend reproachfully, while massaging the bruised spot.

“Shut up and be glad I didn’t hit you harder!” Janice said while raising her fist threateningly in Carl’s direction before continuing. “What is wrong with you? Can’t you say what’s on your mind in a nicer way? Do you need to make it personal just because someone disagrees with you?” Janice scolded him loudly.

Being subjected to his girlfriend’s unrelenting and condemning stare, Carl widened his eyes realizing his mistake, and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Besides, what Jane said is true. Everyone has secrets Carl, you and me are no exception. How would you like if someone pressed you into telling them every single thing about yourself, digging up your dirty little secrets?” Janice completed.

“I am sorry Jane, I shouldn’t have said that the way I did” Carl apologized honestly after understanding his blunder. Carl could be rude sometimes and speak without care, but he was also someone who was straightforward and always cleaned up after his own slip-ups, never deflecting blame or trying to justify himself. If he felt he was right he wouldn’t relent, and if he knew he was wrong he would immediately seek fix the problem.

Carl was like any other human; he had his flaws and qualities. He spoke without care and made amends without pride.

“It is alright Carl. I know you didn’t mean anything by it” Jane didn’t turn up her nose and graciously accepted his apology. She was quite familiar with Carl and knew that he was a nice guy, even if sometimes careless.

“I still stand by what I said earlier though. It is true that anyone has secrets, but secretly being a murderer, rapist or arsonist is not on the same level as liking anime or having a weird fetish.” Carl crossed his arms and stubbornly insisted in his point of view, suggesting that whatever Danny was hiding might be extremely relevant.

Jane and Janice rolled her eyes at the same time at the statement; however, no one spoke anything against what Carl had said. They knew that Carl was exaggerating, but his words made some sort of sense nonetheless.

In those circumstances who could keep themselves from being curious about what else Danny was keeping to himself? Right now, most of them were feeling very vulnerable and threatened, so it was only a natural response to feel cautious and apprehensive towards the unknown. It was hard to resist the impulse to pry and snoop around.

Meanwhile Donovan haven’t said a thing, happy to keep feasting on his snacks while leaving the decision making to others. He was not someone who was very confident, so he was ultimately comfortable with being at the background of this discussion.

Alas, there was nothing they could do about Danny’s silence at the moment. They wouldn’t fall out with him over it, but it was something to keep in mind.

“Leaving that aside, what we have learned doesn’t help us very much, right? I guess hoping that Danny had all the answers was expecting too much of him. He is just a student like us, how much could he possibly know in advance?” Jane pointed this out and steered the conversation in a more productive direction.

“That’s right. Besides, according to Danny, the precautions he took and the preparations he made were all done not knowing what he was going to face, so how covered we are still remains to be seen. Also, what actually we have available right now besides food and water? And how much of it we have? We need to start considering this and we might want to think of rationing supplies”. Chris added.

Although Danny never said he would share his provisions with them, and everything was still theoretically his – since he was the one to pay for it all –, there was no need to say that out loud.

If Danny wanted to keep everything to himself, he wouldn’t have brought them here, or would have told them off when they arrived at the house. They understood that, so they didn’t waste time consulting him about every single minor thing. Despite their clash of interests regarding Danny’s privacy, they ultimately were in good terms with each other.

That was also why Danny didn’t tell Janice about his other two stashes. It was not that he wouldn’t ever reveal those resources to them, but Danny was a cautious person by nature. Even though he regarded his friends as trustworthy, he preferred to keep a few backup cases just in case. People’s hearts were hard to fathom after all.

“That’s true. But it’s getting late. Whatever we decide to do, and the best course of action to take can be discussed tomorrow morning. I think it’s best if we go to sleep soon and wake up early tomorrow to make best use of daytime. Although we have power for now, I wouldn’t count on it for too long”. Carl said.

Miraculously, through all the destruction going around, the house managed to remain connected to the power grid, which amazingly was also still supplying power to it. For how long it would last was a mystery though.

“I agree. To be honest, I am feeling exhausted. Thinking of all of that blood and death… I feel like sleeping forever and waking up only after this nightmare is over…” Jane said sadly.

Through all the night, the group did not have time to process their feelings. Although it could be said that they were in a safe environment for the moment and, therefore, they could allow themselves to relax a bit, they still had to repress their inner fears and emotions to deal with the situation logically. There was just too much to consider.

Janice could only sigh seeing her best-friend feeble look. Jane was always the one to take things harder amongst the two of them. She was a very empathetic kind of person, so, more often than not, she took the events surrounding herself too personally.

Janice stretched her arm and pulled her friend into a one-armed hug in a reassuring manner, before saying: “I guess that is it then. Let us meet up tomorrow morning here in the kitchen to go over our future plans with Danny”.

“Sounds great. Come on Donovan, you are staying with us tonight.” Carl said and pulled the young waiter with him and Chris before going to the room they had selected beforehand as the boys crashing place.

It was better to avoid sleeping alone for now, given that they would be able to rely on each other in case anything unexpected happened or if they faced any danger. No matter what, there was strength in numbers.