Sally entered Hank’s office before closing the door behind her.

“So how did it go?” She asked Hank while crossing her arms.

“Well, aren’t you awfully curious? Are you interested in the boy by any chance?” Hank asked teasingly with a smirk on his face.

“He is totally my type and I wouldn’t mind spending some quality time with him, but you know that’s not what I am asking you about.” Sally answered without missing a beat, completely unphased by Hank’s attempt to mess with her.

“Yes, I know. The lad agreed to help us with our problem.”

“So, when are we moving out? Do we have enough people for the operation or should we wait a little bit more to see if more helpers show up? To be honest, I think it was already a miracle that we actually managed to find someone helpful. Given that the influx of refugees has all but stopped these last few days, I thought that everyone out there had already found a decent shelter to hide in or were killed in the process of fleeing…” Sally said somberly while twirling her hair with her index finger.

After hearing that, Hank merely sighed and rummaged the topmost drawer on his desk, searching for a pack of cigarettes.

Once he found them, Hank picked one up and rose it to his lips. He then proceeded to search for a lighter in his pockets, tapping his clothes to locate the missing item while answering Sally’s question.

“We won’t be mobilizing. At least, not yet anyway.”

His search for a lighter was suddenly interrupted however, as Sally reached over the table and grabbed the cigarette that was resting on his lips before scolding the old man.

“Hank, you promised me to stop smoking! This is bad for your health and you know this will be the death of you!”

“Come on lass… look around you. The world has gone to shit. I know I promised you that, but there is no point in hanging on to such small details now. I’ll be dead long before this addiction can come back to claim its price.” Hank pleaded with uncharacteristic puppy-dog eyes.

Sally was unmoved by his argument however.

Even if he was right and the situation left little hope to have a peaceful and long-lasting life to most who were still alive, she still would not budge.

Hank was the closest thing she had to a family. Even before the apocalypse, Hank had always been something akin to a father figure for her. He was also the reason why she joined the police force and sought to become a law enforcer just like him.

They didn’t have the same blood, neither did they share familial ties. Even so, she considered him family anyway.

Therefore, she would not allow the man to poison himself any more than he already had through the years. Medical care was hard to come by these days, and they were also limited by their supplies in whatever help they could provide to the sick.

What would she do if he got cancer then?

Besides, smoking was terrible for your health in terms of vigor, stamina and your overall physical endurance. Now more than ever, you had to be able to run when the situation demanded, so she would not allow Hank to deceive himself into believing this was a harmless addiction.

Seeing that he would not be able to convince her otherwise, Hank placed his pack of cigarettes back inside the desk’s drawer before closing it with a sigh.

He was too tired to argue about it, and he knew she was only looking out for him as well, so he wisely gave up.

Once she noticed she had won this small dispute, Sally nodded her head with a smile, pleased with Hank’s decision, before coming back to the subject of how they would be dealing with their food supply issue.

“So… you decided to wait for possible reinforcements then? I am not sure that the wait will do any good…” Sally knew that moving out or not was ultimately Hank’s decision to make, but she offered her advice nonetheless, knowing that Hank would not mind her voicing her opinions on the matter, even if they were opposite to his own.

Hank was always open to listening other’s views. Sally thought that this was one of his best qualities and also what made him a good leader.

“Well… not exactly.”

Sally looked at Hank with confusion, waiting in silence for him to further explain himself. She didn’t understand what he meant by that.

In her perspective, they could either move out and try to take the factory now or wait and try it later. Those were the only options they had available that she could think of if they were not willing to starve to death, which she most assuredly was not.

Seeing the confusion in her face, Hank smirked and said:

“The boy will deal with it by himself.”

“…What?” Sally looked at Hank with confusion and stupefaction stamped on her face, as if Hank was trying to tell her a joke that she didn’t quite get.

“What do you mean by that?” She asked for clarification, thinking that there must have been something she was missing and did not understand. After all, to her, it wasn’t possible for one single person to deal with the obstacle before them. So, she could only have misheard it, right?

“I meant exactly that. The boy will go deal with the zombies at the factory by himself.” Hank replied with a grin, amused at the fact that Sally had the same reaction as himself after first hearing about it. It looked like he wasn’t crazy just yet and Danny’s claims were truly mind-boggling to anyone hearing them.

… though it was quite funny seeing the incredulity on someone’s face after being told the news. At least Hank felt it was fairly amusing to watch Sally’s reaction. He wondered if Danny had felt similarly when he told Hank the same a few moments ago.

“Are you crazy Hank?! You are sending him to his death! Where is he?! There is probably still time to stop him and apologize for tricking him!” Sally yelled frantically.

She knew Hank better than anyone, so she also knew that he had a very long backtrack of swindling people and tricking them into unfavorable deals.

Therefore, upon hearing that Danny was going to face the danger alone, she immediately assumed that Hank had hoodwinked him into doing so.

Even though she knew that Hank often acted like this, she never thought he would go as far as to send someone to his or her own death for the sake of it. They wouldn’t even get anything out of it if the newcomer went alone and croaked there!

Sally felt very disappointed in Hank at the moment and thought that the pressure of commanding the settlement had taken its toll on him and had somehow… twisted him.

After dealing with this, she would have to have a long discussion with Hank about it.

Sally was fretting for nothing though as she would soon realize.

“Calm down lass! Everything is fine. There’s no need to get your panties in a twist because of a crush…” Hank said with amusement, failing to notice that Sally had blamed him completely for sending Danny to what she believed to be his certain death.

“Shut up old man! You think this is funny?! This has nothing to do with my personal feelings! You went too far with your tricks this time! How could you send someone to their death just like that?! There is still time to make this right! Tell me where he is and I’ll go stop him and apologize for you!”

Hank’s eyes flew open with surprise after being so fiercely scolded by his secretary. However, understanding soon dawned on his face as Hank finally got what was going through her mind.

“Wow… your words really wound me lass. Do you really think I would do that to anyone? That I would draw amusement from having someone killed?” Hank asked with mock disappointment on his face. As if Sally’s outburst had been the ultimate betrayal of their mutual trust.

“What...Then…What?” Sally stopped in her tracks after hearing that. Her angry outburst giving room to confusion and indecision over the situation. Did she get anything wrong?

“The lad was the one who wanted to go alone. I had nothing to do with it.” Hank stated simply.

“Wait… you didn’t make the place seem less dangerous than it was, right?” Sally asked with suspicion, narrowing her eyes as she gazed at Hank.

“Of course not, you scoundrel! What do you think of me?” Hank firmly said, starting to get genuinely annoyed at how little trust Sally had on him.

They had been close to one another just like family for so long… how could she doubt him so much and think so little of him?

“Then… why would he choose to go alone. Even if he doesn’t like working with others, it still does not make any sense…” Sally frowned.

To that, Hank merely shrugged while saying:

“Beats me. The kid must have his reasons. In any case, he seemed very confident he would be able to do something about it.”

“Whether his confidence is justified or not is not my concern. The conditions he proposed were very favorable to us, so I would be a fool to pass up the opportunity.” Hank leaned on his table with his elbows, his fingers interlocked and supporting his chin as he stared at Sally.

“He will either deal with it for us and come back to collect his pay, or he will fail and come back with a humbler attitude to renegotiate our cooperation. Either case works for us.”

“What if he dies trying? And what if he decides he doesn’t want to come back after failing?” Sally retorted.

“If his overconfidence gets him killed, then he probably was more trouble than it is worth anyway. You know how important discipline and keeping a steady and firm line of defense is when facing those monsters. A single mistake and lapse of judgement can spell doom not only for yourself but also for others that are fighting by your side.”

“And if he doesn’t want to come back?”

“If he is too prideful to accept his own failure with dignity and come back defeated, then we fall to the same problem. He probably wouldn’t take orders well enough to be incorporated into our combat group anyway.”

“But don’t we need any help we can find?”

“That’s right. But the key word there is ‘help’. If accepting someone among our ranks does more harm than good, can you still call it help? Senselessly throwing people against our enemies will only cause more death and disorder. And you know that I hate disorder.”