Danny left the Command Center before stopping and raising his hand to shield his eyes from the Sun’s glare. Once his sight got used to the clarity of the outside, he took in his surroundings.

The changes the settlement had gone through ever since he first visited it were remarkable. In just a few short weeks, much has been improved. From the center of the budding settlement, the sea of tents that stretched endlessly was slowly being replaced by buildings that cropped up one after the other.

Even if it the new additions were nowhere near enough to provide better living conditions for every person cramped inside the camp’s walls, it was undeniable that the quality of life of the residents as a whole was steadily rising.

Moreover, new farming fields were prepped and sowed every day to accommodate the new arrivals - which were rescued by Hank’s patrol and scouting teams and subsequently added to the growing population of the settlement - and to ensure that a food shortage crisis would not repeat itself in the future, regardless of the influx of survivors.

Say what you will about Hank’s morals and actions, the leader of the camp was nothing if not a competent leader.

Even Missing People Plaza felt livelier nowadays. Well… as lively as such a depressing place, filled with posters and photos of missing family members, could be. Hank had dedicated a considerable amount of the camp’s workforce time and effort to organize, maintain and improve the plaza.

The aura of despair and despondence that shrouded the area when Danny first visited it was being slowly replaced by an air of solemnity and respect. As if the location was now meant as a place for honoring the dead and the many that were left behind during the world’s change.

It was a welcome shift in perspective in Danny’s opinion. Better to treasure the memories of loved ones and honor their passing than to wallow in despair.

Of course, Danny was smart enough to read in between the lines. There was more to the development of Missing People Plaza than simple spiritual comfort. According to his experience, Hank was not a sentimental person. The man was entirely pragmatic.

The shrewd commander knew fully well how much goodwill he would be buying from the residents when he chose to divert some of the camp’s precious resources to beautifying and improving the plaza. Investing in the area was no doubt a calculated move on his part.

Now that Danny had been in contact with the camp for a few weeks, he had a better grasp of its inner workings and was privy to many rumors and some of its undercurrents. During that time, there had been more than a few voices of discontent among the populace. Some claimed for a more democratic leadership to be implemented, some protested against the decisions of those higher up in the hierarchy, while others just wanted to jockey for benefits.

Hank’s rule of the settlement was not without its difficulties or limitations as Danny came to realize. Even though he held the most influence and power among all the survivors living there, the commander had to constantly wield his position with care, maneuvering around the interests of the many parties involved. Dealing with the overambitious, the stupid and the self-entitled was no easy feat.

However, the capable commander managed to keep the vultures and wolves at bay by keeping a firm grasp on the camp’s military power and by maintaining his image and by fostering goodwill among the majority of the camp’s residents.

Some compromises here and there were inevitable and nothing could be done without facing some sort of backlash or opposition – such was the nature and the burden of the camp’s leadership position. Even so, the settlement was heading in a positive direction in Danny’s opinion.

Personally, he felt that any changes in the top hierarchy of the settlement would be disastrous at this point. Things were volatile enough that rocking the boat too much might cause the downfall of this fragile little haven. Hank has proved himself a capable enough leader so far to ensure the overall safety of the population, so why risk it?

Unfortunately, human nature was a tricky thing. Without direct exposure, people tend to forget the threats they once faced. The passage of time muddled one’s perception of danger.

The comfortable and secure life within the walls of the camp dulled their sense of danger and led people to question whether or not this militaristic government with one single person at its helm was in their best interests.

Shouldn’t they have a right to choose their leader? Now that the initial chaos had passed, shouldn’t they be given the choice? Why should one man who was not even elected get to decide how to allocate the camp’s resources and the distribution of benefits?

Self-interest added by a false sense of security gave rise to dissident opinions among the residents of the camp and triggered the emergence of opposing parties to Hank’s rule.

Sadly, underestimating the danger of their situation did not lessen it or make it go away. As someone who constantly faced against the undead and was used to the desolate sights of human’s civilization collapse outside the protective little bubble of the settlement, Danny knew all too well that it didn’t take much for everything they built there to come crashing down. All it took was one mistake. Without the discipline Hank had instilled in his troops and the careful watch of the camp’s perimeter, everything could go poof in but an instant.

It was a statement to the older man’s abilities that this large group of survivors was still standing when none other could be found in the travelling distance of a couple of days going by car in any direction. There were only large empty stretches of land, huge gatherings of zombies in what were once towns or a handful of survivors scrapping by whatever way they could.

Shrugging his shoulders, Danny turned his head searching for the direction he was supposed to go before walking away from the Command Center of the camp. In any case, none of those political shenanigans and power disputes had anything to do with him.

Given his status as an outside hire, a mercenary really, the intrigues and machinations of those aspiring to control this remnant of human society were irrelevant to him, no matter how much others like Hank wished to attach him to their chariot. His neutral position suited him just fine and he had no intention to change it.

Danny walked for a few minutes down the road, greeting those that recognized him with a nod or a wave, before he finally found the place he was looking for. There, a gathering of armed men waited next to a reinforced bus.

In the absence of military trucks, those were the best option to the camp’s forces when it came to the transportation of troops in larger numbers. Hank’s men had reinforced with metal plates and grates a dozen or so buses just like the one in front of him and used them mainly to rescue survivors in distress and to attack and take control of relevant locations with significant undead presence.

The ten men who lazily killed time in various different ways – some playing cards around a plastic table, some laughing at a random joke, while others took advantage of their down time to catch some sleep – were easily identifiable as part of the camp’s forces by the red armband they all wore.

It was simply impossible to supply identical uniforms and equipment pieces to every single one of the settlement’s troops. After the crumbling of human civilization, any and all survivors had to get by with what they could find or produce with their own two hands. Hank’s forces were not an exception to that rule if the varied way they were dressed was any indicative.

There were no dress codes, no requirements other than the red armband to identify who was and wasn’t part of camp’s militia. Anything they could find that offered some protection against the zombies was fair game. Gloves, leather jackets, hockey masks… fashion sense was secondary when it came down to your physical wellbeing.

Danny briefly scanned the group before his gaze stopped on a man who he deemed to be the leader of this ragtag bunch. The man, who seemed to be on his late twenties, had short hazelnut curly hair and had a pair of glasses resting on his face. He leaned against the reinforced vehicle and puffed a cigarette with a vacant gaze, his mind clearly elsewhere.

As he calmly approached the carefree group, the man finally took notice of Danny. Exhaling one last puff of smoke, the man flickered his cigarette away before turning his head towards the approaching figure.

“Are you Danny perchance?”

“I am. Nice to meet you.” He said offering his hand for a handshake.

“Great! We’ve been waiting for you.” The man met Danny’s stretched hand with his own. “I gotta say, I’ve heard a lot of good things about you. Looking forward to working together. I am Captain Wallace by the way.”

“Thanks, me too.” He nodded. “Captain Wallace? Like, captain Wallace? You were in the army?” His brow rose with surprise.

“Oh, no, no, no.” He denied, shaking his hand sideways. “That’s just how people call me nowadays. Captain Wallace, because I’m in charge of these idiots.” He pointed with his thumb to the rest of the gathered men.

“Don’t listen to him kid. He only says things like that because he loves us!” One of the sitting men playing cards yelled.

“That’s right!” Another agreed while loudly laughing.

“Sigh… You see what I mean? Idiots.” Wallace said with a grin.

Danny could not help but smile as well, infected by the good mood and enthusiasm of those around him.

“Anyway, were you briefed about the mission?”

“Hank just gave an overview, but said I could talk to you for more details.”

Wallace nodded his head and adjusted the position of the glasses on his face before speaking up. “Well… frankly, there’s not much I can tell you as well, even if I was the one to report it. The situation is just too damn weird.” He paused and pulled free another cigarette.

“Do you mind?”

“No. Go ahead.”

“Thanks.” The man lit the cigarette and puffed it before exhaling a cloud of smoke away from Danny. “Do you want one?”

He shook his head. “I Don’t smoke.”

Wallace nodded his head and exhaled another white cloud. “A few days ago, me and my team were out on a scouting mission. Nothing too complex, just the usual travelling around, mapping interesting spots and getting the hell out in case we met danger. You know the drill, right?”

Seeing Danny nod in agreement, the captain continued. “Everything was going fine. Nobody got hurt and we even picked up a couple of survivors along the way to bring back to the camp with us. We were just going to check a couple of kilometers further out, but lo and behold, imagine my surprise when we bumped into a group of more than a hundred survivors walking down the street, all carrying clubs, bats, pipes and other similar weapons.”

“What did you do then?”

“What did I do? I almost shit myself, that’s what I did.” The man smirked. “It felt like I had just walked into a scene straight from ‘The Purge’.”

After pausing to take another short puff, the man continued narrating the events. “Fortunately, they didn’t seem to be hostile to us. God knows we have enough on our plates already without having to worry about killing one another.” He said and gave a silent prayer.

Danny knew that, lately, the patrol and scouting teams of the camp were suffering an increasingly number of assaults. Unfortunately, there was nothing that anyone could do about it, since there was not a single organized force target their groups. Instead, it was the desperate survivors who kept crawling out of their hiding holes as their supplies ran out that threw themselves against the settlement’s forces with wild abandon.

As long as there were still people persevering out there and as long as Hank kept sending their forces outside the protection of their walls, such things were bound to repeat themselves.

“Anyway. They seemed as scared of us as we were of them as we approached. Looking back at it now, I guess it makes sense they would feel that way, given that we were armed with guns and they only had blunt and bladed weapons to defend themselves with. Even if they outnumbered us 10 to 1.” He looked up to the sky, recalling his memories as he gazed at the clouds.

“We tried to talk to them, but neither us nor them could understand shit the other was speaking. Martinez over there,” he pointed with his cigarette to one of the men that was lazily taking a nap on the floor with his hat on his face, “tried Spanish too, but it made no difference.” He puffed once more. “We tried to mimic our way through, but it didn’t help much either.”

“How such a large group of people can just show up nearby without a single one of them capable of speaking English, beats the fuck out of me. But hey, with the world this fucked up, I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, right?” Wallace snickered.

Danny had a pretty good idea how those strange people apparently just cropped up out of nowhere. Tutu had already told him that the reason behind the initial earthquakes at the very beginning of the Apocalypse had been a reshuffling of Earth’s geographical landscape. Therefore, he was not that surprised when he first heard mention of seemingly ‘out-of-place’ people showing up close by out of the blue.

“In any case… Commander Hank grilled us for hours after our return, trying to figure out what exact language they spoke,” the man grimaced, no doubt remembering the unpleasant interrogation he was subjected to, “but we didn’t manage to come up with a definitive answer. We think they were Asian, but we can’t say for sure.” He said, flickering the butt of his finished cigarette away.

“And now…” The man paused for effect and gestured grandiosely and sarcastically towards the reinforced bus and his own men. “… here we are. Since we can’t pinpoint what language they spoke, Hank recruited quite a few people from across the settlement, forming a team capable of communicating in many different languages.” He laughed.

“Hopefully this brute force method will work out.” He said and shrugged, showing he didn’t care very much either way.

“According to Commander Hank, you’ll be heading this operation. The plan is for the assembled team to travel protected inside the bus while me and my squad provide the security.” The man crossed his arms and turned his head towards Danny once more.

“Commander Hank had been crystal clear that you are the one supposed to be calling the shots on this mission. I’ll make sure to keep my men in line. You’ll be getting no nonsense from us. You can count on that.” He said staring straight into Danny’s eyes.

“Commander Hank also filled me in on some of the missions you completed for the camp to make sure I play nice, and I gotta say, I’m glad to have someone like you watching our backs this time around.” The man smiled and nodded at him respectfully.

Returning the gesture, Danny turned around and gazed at his would-be helpers which were lazing around and enjoying their downtime in various different ways.

‘Maybe working with someone else this time around won’t be so bad…’ He thought silently.