Hoping that Luke would agree to stay hidden, holed inside the room until he said it was okay to leave, Danny started to weave his web of lies and half-truths.

“You could say that I am with a survivor’s camp. We came here for the food as you might have guessed.” Danny said while being wholly economical with the truth.

It was best that Luke did not now that Danny was the only person at the factory beside him for now. Otherwise, the man might doubt Danny’s ability to safely get them out of there and refuse to follow his commands, questioning his leadership or even outright panicking.

Panicked people do dumb things.

“I though as much. There is really no other reason for anyone to come here other than the food. I still held some hope that some might have escaped from this hellish place during the chaos and had brought reinforcements, but I guess I am truly the only one left…”

“I am sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. It is not as if any of this is your fault,” Luke said while shaking his head. “I made some friends during my stay here, but I didn’t really know anyone all that well anyway. We were not that close. I haven’t been here long enough for that.” Luke shrugged.

“I didn’t even know the coworkers I arrived here with all that well. All my close friends and family live far, far away from here…”

The fat man smiled faintly at Danny, trying to show that he was okay and that it was not a big deal, however, his pitiful attempt of presenting a strong front was betrayed by the mention of his friends and relatives… which were probably dead as well.

Statistically, it was improbable that they were still alive.

Though both Luke and Danny did not know the exact circumstances of the world and the world’s population, they had an inkling that things were grim all around.

In the period of less than a month ever since the Apocalypse had begun, not even a tenth of humanity remained. Those that had not been claimed by the quakes were soon drowned by the unstoppable waves of undead.

…not to mention the invaders, whose actions still remained a mystery.

“You didn’t work here? You know, before things changed.” Danny asked.

“Gods no. I am a real estate agent. Well, I was a real state agent at the very least for all that is worth in light of our current predicament.” Luke replied with a self-mocking grin.

“I was inspecting some of our properties around the area together with some of my colleagues when things turned sour. At first, we had no idea what was going on. We thought it was just one huge earthquake. We took shelter in some place I can’t quite remember right now after the tremors started… maybe it was an electronics store?” Luke scratched his chin looking up and trying to recall a memory that eluded his thoughts.

“Anyway, it didn’t take much longer after the shakes stopped for us to realize that something weird was going on. After we got out of the building that we used as shelter, we saw first-hand a woman being torn apart by some of those… I don’t even know what they are.” Luke shook his head as if trying to shake off the gruesome memories.

“I know what you mean.” Danny nodded his head, staring into Luke’s eyes and conveying the message that he didn’t need to elaborate on the details. There was no need to relive those moments if they bothered him so.

Luke smiled at his rescuer for his consideration before continuing with his story. “After that it was one desperate escape after another until we finally found this place a couple of days in.”

“What happened then?”

“Our peace did not last long.” Luke sighed before continuing. “A few days after our arrival the camp was overrun. As soon as I heard the screams and realized that something was off, I ran to this room as fast as my legs could carry me before shutting myself in…” Luke said while lowering his gaze to his hands that rested on his thighs facing up, “…at the first sign of trouble, my first impulse was to run away and hide here while others fought to defend us… pathetic right?”

“I never been much of a fighter. Even if I had gone out there at the first signs of trouble, there was nothing I could do to help. At most, I would get in the way of the others and end up making everything worse. The only difference would be that I would have died alongside them… once those creatures got inside the fences, the fate of our camp was decided already...”

The way Luke spoke made Danny unsure whereas the man was recounting the events for his benefit or if Luke was trying to convince himself that his words had truth in them. That his decision of hiding away instead of trying to help was the correct one.

Danny could understand Luke’s feelings and even empathize with him. Sometimes it was hard to keep on living when everything you knew crumbled around you. It was clear that he was struggling with the guilt over his own inaction and what he perceived as cowardice.

Even so, there was no point in Luke second-guessing his past decisions. The milk had already been spilt. There was nothing that could be done about it even if his choice had not been the better one ultimately.

Maybe this outcome could have been avoided if he had acted differently, maybe not. For all they knew, things could have ended even worse should Luke have decided to act heroically. They would never know anyway.

There were no ‘ifs’ in life. The past was immutable.

Therefore, Danny chose to push the matter aside and draw Luke’s attention towards a more productive direction. Self-recrimination would not help anyone now. It would only serve to torture the frazzled man’s conscience.

“How did they get inside though?”

“Huh? Oh, that. I am not sure.” The man dumbly answered.

Luke had been so distracted by his wandering thoughts and self-criticism that Danny’s sudden interjection and shift in subject caught him completely unprepared.

“There is no breach in the fences from what I saw, only a couple of opened gates.” Danny elaborated further, sharing his observations and patiently waiting for the man to catch his train of thought.

“Oh! Right! During the commotion, I did hear some shouting about someone leaving a gate opened or something like that. Some idiot probably forgot to lock the doors and doomed us all.” Luke massaged the back of his neck while he smiled sadly. He had no energy left on his body to spend feeling angry at the supposed idiot who had allegedly condemned them by forgetting to lock the gates.

Even if the carelessness or negligence of a single person was indeed the real reason behind the tragic downfall of the former survivor’s camp, the poor schmuck who was responsible for it all was long dead and gone. The horde had already claimed him or her as one of their own at this point and he was just another dead body among the crowd.

It was hard to hold a grudge against the dead, especially given the price he or she had already paid for their stupidity. If anything, Luke could only muster feelings of sadness at the enormous waste of life caused by a single mistake.

“And you have been trapped here ever since? You never went outside to take a look? You didn’t try to escape even once?”

“I would have if I could have. Ever since that day there was not a single moment that I couldn’t hear those monstrosities shuffling around on the other side of the door,” Luke said while trying to suppress a shiver. “I looked for air vents and peeked through the windows, hoping for a chance to get out, looking for a way, but alas, nothing ever changed.”

Luke scratched his bushy black beard with his dirty fingernails before adding after some thought, “The creatures kept their routine patrol, never straying too far away from the factory and the ones at the corridor never truly going away. Every day was no different than the previous one, so here I stayed… trapped…”

“At first, I still harbored some smidgeon of hope that someone would come for me, that I would be rescued. Even if not for me, I had faith that if anyone had managed to escape from the camp after it was compromised, they would come for the food here. That they would not leave behind such precious supplies, letting it go to waste…” Luke said while gesturing with his left hand to the shelves that were packed with provisions inside the room.

He had barely put a dent on the huge stockpile of food there.

The supply stash was nowhere near running out, and even after subtracting Luke’s daily consumption, the vast majority of the goods there were still untouched. In fact, it would have taken Luke many, many months to spend it all by himself. The stash could keep him alive for at least that long without any form of rationing even if Danny never showed up.

…Provided that Luke could endure the harsh conditions that is. The mental strain of living just a few meters away of numerous undead, all the while under the threat of bringing them down his head if he ever was too loud was no joke.

“However, as the days went by, I realized that there was probably no one left alive to come back. A rescue seemed less likely with every passing day…”

“Actually, I had already accepted that I would die here alone before you showed up. I suppose that my assumption that someone would come for the supplies here was not that off the mark, even if you are not who I was expecting to see.” Luke smiled at Danny before adding in a trembling and quiet voice, “I am just glad to not be alone anymore…”

Humans were social creatures. For all Danny was used to his solitude and privacy, even he would get twitchy if he spent too long with only his thoughts for company. Admittedly, he had a higher tolerance for isolation than most, but it was important to interact with others every now and then. Even if just to keep one’s own sanity in check.

Danny did not say or do anything other than offer a nod in solidarity as he waited for the man to get a grip over his feelings. There was no need to do anything more than that. His mere presence was all that Luke needed. The comfort of another human being. To know that he was not, in fact, the sole survivor on this big round Earth.

Luke exhaled with closed eyes after a couple moments, as if he was expelling all his troubling thoughts and anxiety together with his foul breath, before rising his head and asking with seriousness in his tone, “Tell me, is it too much to hope for a way out? Can you take me out of this hellhole?”

Though he presented a stoic visage when asking this most important question, Danny could spot the shakes in the poor man’s hands that betrayed the fear and apprehension that gripped his heart and mind. Fear of hoping, fear that the implied plea for salvation would go unanswered.

Luke’s words had been spoken without faltering and the question had been presented without flinching, but the survivor’s body denounced the absolute mess that hid behind the serious countenance.

Not that the presented image could or had the intention to fool Danny. That would be hard after everything the would-be-savior had already witnessed. Luke merely wished to retain some semblance of his dignity and prepare himself to have his hopes dashed.

Fortunately for him, the hardening of his expectations was unnecessary as Danny had every intention to help the man out of this terrible place. Nonetheless, Danny still had to play his part, since he needed Luke to play ball in order to preserve his secrets.

“Maybe…” Danny returned the man’s gaze impassively. Not letting what was going on inside his head show. Like a masterful angler, Danny dangled the bait in front of his fish, waiting for it to bite.

And bite Luke did. With the ferocity of a fish which have starved for days.

“Please, please, just take me with you. I’ll do anything!” Seeing that there was room for negotiating as Danny had left the matter lingering in the air, Luke grasped at the opportunity with the desperation of a drowning man. His tentative attempt of acting with pride dropped in record time when faced with the prospect of salvation.

What was dignity compared to safety? Compared to not have to shit and piss in a cardboard box left at the corner of the room? No matter what it took, Luke was determined to secure his ticket back to human civilization and out of this death trap.