When the monster advanced once more, Danny repeated his sidestepping motion, avoiding its grasp entirely. This time however, Danny lowered his body and used his hammer to deliver a strike to the zombie’s right leg, putting a fairly large amount of his strength into it.

The blow was successful and the hammer’s steel head made intimate contact with the kneecap of the undead. Danny felt through the handle the crunch of breaking bones and also heard the cracking sound that reassured him that this foe would not pose a problem during the remainder of the fight.

Even so, Danny chose to make sure this enemy would have no opportunity to make a comeback. Thus, after the zombie went face-down to the floor, Danny spun around and quickly approached, stepping over its back to fix it in place before bringing his hammer down on its head, sealing its fate once and for all.

Danny then swiftly turned around again and realized that his other two enemies had already freed themselves from one another, stood up, and were now making their way towards himself.

Danny had no idea how his allies were faring or if any other threats were coming this way. He had no room to check up on them or to look around, focusing entirely on the danger presented before him, since any distraction now could have fatal consequences.

He would have to trust that he would be able to react on time in case something else popped up trying to eat him, given that he had to place his full attention on dealing with the immediate crisis. Any other problems would have to be dealt with as they appeared.

At this moment, instinct and rapid thinking would have to take over, as there was no time for making plans.

Danny tried to keep moving, repositioning himself as to never allow the two creatures to approach him at the same time, keeping one on the way of the other. That strategy was only buying him time though, as Danny did not manage to deliver a deciding blow to any of his enemies before the other appeared and prevented him to follow through on any advantage he managed to build up.

Although the zombies could not be said to be fast, they were not slow either. When moving at their top speed, the creatures moved at a pace that was somewhere in between walking and running. Jogging would probably be the closer description Danny could think of. He did not now if that would remain the same as time passed and the zombies got older though.

In the short time, Danny would not be able to get rid of any one of his foes unless he took a risk. However, Danny was not willing to take his chances, placing his trust instead on the fact that he would be soon reinforced. If worse came to worst and his companions sat around twiddling their thumbs, Danny could still run away and try to reach his place.

Danny had no shame in doing so. He could always flee if they started to be overwhelmed by enemies, as he was confident on his ability to avoid and outrun any zombies that got near, the bag containing the firearms he had been carrying long discarded by the van where Janice was attacked as well.

As long as the enemies did not pile up into stupid numbers that is.

That was only the worst-case scenario though. Danny trusted that his teammates would not stand around and allow things to spiral out of control like that. That belief soon proved to be correct as they came through for him.

Ever since Danny started the fight, not even a full minute had passed, and his friends decisively got rid of their immobilizing stupor. Surprisingly, it was not Carl or Janice that came to Danny’s aid, but Donovan.

Seeing that Danny was not able to quickly finish the remaining couple enemies by himself, the seventeen-year-old came brandishing his hammer clumsily towards the zombie that Danny was not currently engaging with a clearly terrified face.

After a few swings, it was obvious that the teen had no idea what he was doing and was too afraid to get near the monster to manage to do anything to his enemy other than distract it, but that did not make Danny look down on him, on the contrary, his image improved hugely on Danny’s mind.

It took a lot of effort to suppress your own fears and act against them. Courage was nothing more than that, the resistance against one’s own despair and the willingness to throw oneself at the source of your own terror. At least, that was what Danny thought anyway.

Thankfully for Donovan, both Jane and Chris followed behind him. Seeing the youth go ahead with such unwillingness displayed on his face inspired them to do the same.

How could they just sit back in safety when even the fretting kid was taking action? They could not avoid danger and stay behind enjoying another’s protection every single time. Sometimes you had to get your hands dirty and do something that you are not willing to do. Such is life.

The addition of those extra pairs of hands quickly stabilized the situation. Despite the fact that the newly added trio were incapable of taking down their chosen enemy, the mere fact that they managed to occupy the attention of one of the creatures was already enough to tilt the situation in their favor, as it gave Danny enough time to deal with the other threat before coming to rescue them.

Also, by supporting each other and constantly switching the target of focus of the undead while also assisting each other in a timely fashion whenever one of them started to show signs of being in danger of being overwhelmed, they managed to keep themselves safe from harm for the short notice.

No trace of happiness could be seen on Danny’s face however. Even though his situation vastly improved, he was not one to be controlled by his emotions. They were not out of the woods just yet. Any extra seconds spent on dealing with those zombies meant another moment that even more could gather around them.

That said, Danny quickly made use of his newfound opportunity, downing his adversary before killing it in just a few seconds. He was already getting used to this pattern of knocking his opponent down before taking it out and was becoming increasingly proficient in doing it.

After dealing with his own adversary, Danny went to help the struggling trio, and quickly repeated the process. In but twenty seconds of their intervention, both enemies laid on the ground unmoving.

Finally having some breathing room, Danny saw that Carl had already stood up while Janice also got on her feet. She was gripping her injured arm while grimacing and scolding Carl for staying by her side and not going to help their friends deal with the zombies.

Carl merely nodded his head at her lashing and apologized, but it was clear that he was only doing it to pacify her and was not really reflecting on his actions or thought them wrong.

Danny could understand him though. Despite the fact that, from a group perspective, it would indeed be best if he left Janice for someone else to watch over, or even left her recovering by herself while he dealt with the threat together with Danny, what about his own individual opinion?

Carl could not be assured that Janice would be safe if he left her behind and that she would not come into harm’s way, she had already been ambushed once after all, proving that one could never truly be completely in control of their situation and be assured of their safety.

On the other hand, shouldn’t he feel reassured if he left the other three protecting her while he went to deal with the threat with Danny? That was not the case either.

Their performance during this confrontation was the biggest indicator of the capability they had to protect his injured girlfriend and even themselves. Although their initiative to face their fears and to confront the danger was commendable, their actual effectiveness and ability to reach a favorable outcome was another matter entirely. The three of them combined could not replicate the success that Danny alone could achieve.

In Carl’s opinion, the person best suited for the job of guarding Janice was himself. He could only feel at ease if he was the one that remained by her side, watching over her as she recovered. Danny could understand that.

Though others might resent Carl and consider him selfish, Danny did not. He was someone that had an easy time putting himself into another’s shoes and after a lifetime of constantly seeing the ugly, selfish and individualistic side of human nature, Danny was able to extricate his own personal feelings when analyzing a situation, allowing himself to reach rather objective interpretations of any situation regardless of his own personal view.

Danny also did not think that just because something can be said to be selfish, it was inherently wrong, after all, Danny considered selfishness as an inherent human trait. Thus, if one assumed selfishness as something to be considered naturally bad, wouldn’t this side of humanity be naturally evil by extension as well?

Regardless of that, if it was his mother in that situation, would Danny be able to leave her behind in the name of the greater good?

He would not!

Thus, it only made sense that he did not resent Carl, given that he would have done the exact same thing if he was in his shoes.

Danny even had long since forgiven his own father for abandoning him and his mother when they faced the greatest calamity of their lives – Tutu –, much less Carl’s actions which where something he could sympathize with entirely.

However, just because Danny was fine with it and would not begrudge Carl, that did not mean that others would feel the same way. Yet, no one said anything at the moment, Janice aside, their own thoughts on the matter hidden in their own minds.

It also was not the appropriate time to discuss those issues, they had more pressing concerns. The four came back to where the couple stood and retried their individual loot-carrying bags.

Unfortunately, Janice could not carry her own anymore, given that she was not able to place too much strength on her injured arm for the moment and had to keep at least one hand free in order to be combat-ready.

Therefore, Chris and Donovan promptly suggested that they took over her burden, each grabbing one strap of Janice’s previously attributed bag in between them, while holding their own on their other hands.

That would significantly increase the weight they had to deal with and probably tire them out for the remainder of the journey, but thankfully Janice’s uninjured arm was her dominant one, meaning that she would be able to dedicate herself entirely to fighting without any problems, relieving Chris and Donovan on that front.

That was the advantage of gathering in a group in the first place – to be able to supplant each other’s shortcomings.

Janice also quickly shot down any and all of Carl’s attempts on having her stay back, citing she had to redeem herself for not participating in the previous fight. No one blamed her of course, given that she had an obvious reason for that, but she did not allow any objections against her decision to persist. Her mind was set.

As Janice was taking a vanguard position, Carl would not be able to excuse himself from the next fights if he wanted to keep an eye on her. That was a big factor on her unwavering decision to place herself at the front of their charge.

Just like Carl had his own opinions and interests to consider and defend during that chaotic situation, Janice also had her own.

She might not have been too bothered by the fact that she was not able to help if she was the only one to stay behind given her injury. However, she felt infuriated and utterly ashamed by the fact that her boyfriend left Danny and her friends to fend for themselves in order to watch over her.

She was no damsel in distress and needed no special kind of treatment. She felt it was humiliating to be treated as such, and hated the fact that her own carelessness together with her boyfriend’s overzealousness ended up throwing the whole group into dire straits.

She felt personally responsible for the whole debacle, so she took the initiative to spearhead their run back towards the house at this time as to also force Carl into action.

Of course, she was smart enough not to say out loud that she was pressing him into doing what she wanted, as to not make things more awkward or embarrass him, but he would undoubtedly be hearing a lot from her after they got out of this mess.

All those individual thoughts and conversations didn’t take more than a moment though. They were all feeling the tension in the air already and could already see a dozen figures coming their way from many directions.

There was no point in subtlety anymore, thus they started rushing towards their destination as quickly as their legs would carry them. So far, they were not forced to discard any of their gains, but that would change soon if they did not manage to make good time.