“Shall we get down to it then?” Hank said, amused at Danny’s unrestrained display of joy derived from a single scoop of ice cream.

On his turn, Danny could not be bothered to hide his desire towards the cold delicacy, so he merely nodded his head to indicate he was listening while he continued to enjoy his dessert.

After getting Danny’s assent, Hank’s amusement was replaced by a more serious expression as he started narrating the details behind the camp’s establishment and its subsequent problems.

“Well, for starters, I am sure you have already realized by now from what you saw inside the camp out there, but this didn’t use to be a populated area. At least, no one used to live here as far as I am aware.” Hank said.

“I figured as much.” Danny responded shortly in between scoops of ice cream.

Hank nodded at Danny before leaning back on his chair while slowly sipping his coffee. Afterwards, he looked up as he gathered his thoughts before continuing.

“Though that proved to be an advantage when facing the zombies, as the more isolated the place, the fewer of them we have to deal with, that in itself posed different challenges for us.”

“For one, the infrastructure here was terrible. It was incredibly undeveloped, as you can see by the numerous tents we had to set up to give a roof over every single person’s head out there. Sanitation and the establishment of a safe perimeter also proved to be a challenge, but with a lot of effort and some difficulty, we managed to deal with it and get by until now.”

Hank looked through the single window in his office and gazed at the encampment, the steam coming out of his yellow mug rising in the air as the commander’s sharp eyes focused somewhere in the distance.

“Luckily for us, some of our scouts managed to locate a construction site not far from here, and by making use of the tools and resources we found there, we managed to wall-off the area around the camp and give some peace of mind to everyone.”

“The construction supplies we scavenged also allowed us to start constructing some basic and much needed facilities, like a proper granary, and a public bathroom slash bathhouse capable of accommodating everyone, among other things.”

“Let me tell you, people were NOT happy with the prospect of using latrines long-term. We made do with what we had available, but some comforts are more important than others, eh lad?” Hank chuckled.

“There are even some leftover materials for building some houses around the place after we finish with those communal projects, and we have decided to distribute them based on merit.”

“Those that contribute the most to the camp’s survival and that are willing to take risks for its safety will have such amenities awarded to them sooner than others. That’s only natural after all.” Hank said, inserting in the middle of his retelling another less than subtle bait to entice Danny into working for the settlement.

Though having a good house to call your own and priority on food distribution were incredibly tempting prospects for most, if not all the people living there, for Danny it was not that attractive.

Given that he had to periodically hunt for zombies in order to get more soul gems, Danny couldn’t stay put in one place for long periods of time.

He was not entirely sure exactly how much time he would be spending in this camp, even if he decided to create a long-lasting and mutually beneficial trading relationship with the people living here, but it couldn’t be that much.

Therefore, a house in the settlement was not all that appealing to him if he would be spending most of his time travelling around.

On the other hand, though he did enjoy his ice cream immensely and, like anyone else, Danny preferred to have a tasty and well-prepared meal than simply snacking on bland pre-packaged goods, in the end, it was just food.

It was only pleasure after all, and he was not a glutton.

Danny was perfectly capable of surviving by himself and scavenging for food, even when taking into account his recently increased appetite. All he had to do was search a few buildings and kill some zombies and voilà. He has done it many times already by this point.

Therefore, he wasn’t dependent on hand-outs from the settlement like the rest of the common folk out there in those tents.

Not noticing that his latest attempt of enticing Danny had completely unmoved his guest, Hank continued telling his story.

“Though we have preserved until now, some critical issues arose from the sheer number of people living here. The chief concern being the food situation.” Hank sipped his coffee again after saying that.

“Currently we have over 3.000 mouths to feed here in the settlement. No matter how careful we had been with our consumption and expenditures, and how well-prepared and well-supplied we were when we left the nearby town to come here, there simply isn’t enough to go around.” Hank said while tapping his finger on the wooden desk. The wooden sounds working as a background sound to his unfavorable news.

“Can’t you prepare some farms or something like that to alleviate the problem?” Danny gave his suggestion.

“We can. In fact, we have already started working on that. Many fields have already been seeded and many more are on the way to being cleared for plantation but that does nothing to help our immediate issue. We need food now, not in the long-term.” Hank shook his head.

“Even if by preparing the fields, and starting with the planting of crops asap, we will be able to alleviate our food concerns in the near future, and maybe even entirely supply our demand locally, that does nothing to resolve our immediate crisis.”

“In the future, we will be able to accept more and more refugees without having to worry about being able to provide meals for everybody, but now… now, things are looking grim.” Hank frowned while staring at Danny’s eyes.

“Can’t you send people out scavenging then? I am sure that there are a lot of places not too far that your people can go to get more supplies.” Danny suggested another possible solution, but without stopping his hands from scooping more of the delicious ice cream and stuffing it into his mouth repeatedly.

Hearing that, Hank sighed.

“Well… you would think that, wouldn’t you? Anybody would, really. But that is also one of our problems. You see, there is a limit to how much I can do and how much people are willing to listen to me.”

“Though most know about our current predicament, not many are willing to venture outside and risk their safety. All the easy locations were already picked off clean as well, and even them were not entirely without risk.”

“We had some casualties in the past when fighting with the zombies in similar scouting and scavenging missions. I have lost many good men already…” Hank crossed his arms and said with sadness in his voice.

“Nowadays, if I order someone to go outside to look for more supplies, chances are they will outright refuse me. I can’t simply force them as well, otherwise I will soon face a rebellion, and without someone rational in command to make the hard choices, that will probably mean the end of this encampment.”

“The forces I have available that are loyal to me are pitifully few and they are necessary for keeping up the stability of the settlement. We are already stretched thin as is.” Hank kept tapping his finger in the wooden desk, as if the rhythmic impact on the wooden surface helped releasing his mounting frustration.

“Aren’t you armed? Is it that dangerous even with guns at your disposal?” Danny asked the question that bugged him the most.

Even if they were loud, guns still were incredibly useful in keeping the safety of anyone going outside. Plus, given that they were located in a fairly sparsely populated area, the drawbacks of making that much noise were greatly reduced.

Wasn’t Hank originally part of a police force? How couldn’t he solve such a simple problem with the guns he had available to him then?

Danny also knew that they had managed to evacuate Clear Water Village in its entirety before coming here, so pretty much all the weapons from that place found their way into his hands for sure.

In that case, why wasn’t Hank using this advantage to deal with the food issue?

Danny did not have to wait long to have his doubts answered.

“Kid, do you have any idea how much ammunition we had to burn through to get all those people to safety? For sure, at some point we had a decent arsenal at our disposal, but by now, most of it is already gone.” Hank sighed.

“Besides, you have no idea how long it took me to convince people to make use of spears and other melee weapons when defending our walls in order to conserve ammo for the future. It was a nightmare, I’ll tell you that…” Hank said while massaging his temples. He could feel another headache incoming just from talking about it.

“Sure, we still have a bit of ammo lying around, but I’ll be damned if I allow it to be spent freely in order to solve our problem before trying every single solution possible.” Hank said while tightening his free fist.

“If we default to shooting things every time a new problem arises, then in no time we will have run out. What happens when we actually need them then?” Hank pounded his fist at the desk as he asked that final question, a throbbing vein could be seen pulsating in his temple as he gnashed his teeth. Anger threatening to consume him.

Danny could understand his feelings though. People had the tendency to delay making the hard choices. Sometimes, by the point they can no longer avoid the issue, the price of making the necessary changes is even higher than it would have been if they had acted sooner.

There’s no helping it, that’s just how it is. Our own brains are wired to work against us sometimes. Your body isn’t concerned with long-term benefits or rational decisions, it is worried about survival.

Therefore, it took willpower, a rational mindset and solid decision making to overcome such obstacles, but those qualities were hard to find more often than not, sadly.

Danny could also understand Hank’s reluctance in spending whatever was left of his ammunition stockpile. It was prudent to keep at least some in hand, since they might very well face a situation in the future that would demand the use of those bullets.

If they failed to do so, to cross that eventual bridge, the price charged might be even more costly… blood and lives were a way more valuable currency after all…

He could finally get a clear picture of the situation after Hank’s explanation and see where the hulking commander was going with it.

If he could not enforce his authority and make the villagers do what they ought to do, then he had to look for help elsewhere.

Like from Danny, for instance.

However, their problems had little to do with him. Even though Danny could sympathize with Hank’s dilemma, if the locals wanted to act like children who postpone their homework to the last second possible, why should Danny deal with their mess? Why should he be the one to deal with it?

Why should he care when they clearly didn’t?

If that attitude ended up bringing disaster to their doorstep and doomed them, then they had no one else to blame but themselves and their own inaction.

If they wanted his help though, then they would have to pay his price.