"Ol' Harman, you know what you are asking here, right?" Hank asked, his voice cold.
His wife, Marie, and daughter, Jasmine, also looked at the old man with displeased and angry looks on their faces.
How could they not be angry? He was basically asking them to risk their life to take him to meet Max, after all.
"I know, Hank." Harman began but Hank cut him off, "No, I don't think you do, otherwise you wouldn't be asking this."
Bang!
While speaking, his voice got louder and he suddenly banged the table in anger. Then, he took a deep breath and said, "Look here man. We used to get along very well and I consider you a friend. If you need my or my son's help with anything else, we won't refuse, but this, we can't do, sorry."
Harman looked at Tom and saw he was frowning, most likely thinking maybe the situation had got to his head and he had gone mad, he sighed, leaned back on the couch and said, "This will sound fantastical, but it is true..."
After a while, he finished speaking and everyone in the room was staring at him, wide-eyed.
"I told you it would sound fantastical." Seeing their expression, Harman couldn't help but smile wryly.
Then he continued, "Anyways, I had another dream a short while ago. I won't bother telling you what exactly I saw, but I will tell you this—something very bad is going to happen which would kill us all. However, Tom's friend Max can save us. So, please, believe me and take me to him."
Marie shook her head, "All this sounds way too absurd to believe, no disrespect to you, Herman."
She then looked at Hank, bit her lip and said, "However, my gut feelings tell me that... we should believe him."
Hank looked at her in disbelief, "You want me to believe him and then what? Go risk Tommy and my life? God forbid, but what if we die out there? How will you and Jesse survive then?"
"Old man, though it's dangerous outside, it's not like everyone will attack us unprovoked, right?" Finally, Tom spoke and his words made Hank glare at him.
"Have you seen people these days? If you have, tell me if there is any difference between them and us?" Hank coldly asked, exasperated.
Tom nodded, "I know, old man. We don't look starved like them and they will notice it immediately and will most likely force us to lead them to our house for supplies. However, we can, you know, cover ourselves up."
Hank stared at him before finally asking, "You think we should take this risk, huh? You believe his fantastic story?"
Tom took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch, "I don't know, old man, but it's true he made me buy all the rations we have been surviving on as if he knew what is going to happen. Also, you know our remaining supplies won't last us long. Once they are used up, we are going to die anyway. So, why not just take the risk and go to Max?"
Hank closed his eyes for a moment before he looked at Jasmine, who had been silent all this while, "What about you, Jesse? What do you think we should do?"
Jesse thought for a moment before asking, "If you cover yourselves up and have those big kitchen knives, how high would the chances of someone attacking you be? If they are more than fifty percent, I don't want you to take the risk, Dad."
"Fifty percent, huh?" Hank nodded before asking, "What if it's more than fifty and we don't go. We stay put, eat through our supplies and then what?"
"Maybe the Governor's office will take charge once again by then and we will be saved?" Jesse muttered.
"I see." Hank nodded. Then after thinking for over a minute, he looked at Harman, "I'm believing you, Harman. I hope it won't make us die faster."
Harman let out a sigh of relief and shook his head, "It won't."
"We'll see." Hank said, standing up, "Marie, Jesse, you two will stay in Harman's house until we return since it's safer than ours without us here. That way, you can also take care of Esmeralda. You don't have any problem with this arrangement, Harman?"
Harman shook his head, "Of course not. I'll be happy to have them accompany her." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
...
Half an hour later, Hank, Tom and Harman, dressed in oversized clothes and with their faces covered in dirt, walked out of their neighborhood. Harman was walking in the middle and Hank and Tom were flanking him with the big kitchen knives in their hands while looking around cautiously.
In their neighborhood itself, they saw many people, looking at them greedily, but when they saw they were carrying weapons and didn't look much better than them, they left them alone and wandered off to somewhere else.
They also saw people eating grass and leaves on the way and they also saw something that sent shivers down their spine—they saw a group of three dragging a dead body inside a house, their intent clear on their faces.
"People become monsters when they are starved." Harman sighed.
Hank let out a sigh and nodded in agreement. He then looked at Tom and asked Tom, "Tommy, tell me about this Max guy? What kind of person is he? I don't think I have met him, right?"
"Yeah. He only ever came to our house one time. You were at home then." Tom nodded, thought for a moment and then said, "Well, how should I say this... he is a little strange, or maybe it would be more correct to use the word 'unique' or 'eccentric' here."
Harman paid attention, wanting to know about him. After all, in his dream, he only saw Max could have saved them if that hadn't happened and didn't get much information about him.
"I mean, he doesn't like to talk much to anyone, even me who is his best friend. And he rarely comes out to hang out, preferring to stay at home.
From this, you would think he is an introverted, shut-in, but you couldn't be more wrong because after spending quite some time with him, I know he isn't an introvert or public-shy guy.
He just... doesn't have much interest in most things... as if everything is too banal for him. Also, he is very sharp and smart and if he puts his mind to something, he can definitely do it one way or another, but again, he rarely finds anything that interests him."
Saying this, Tom thought for a moment and added, "Also, even though he isn't too strong physically, hell, even I'm stronger than him, but when I'm hanging out with him, I strangely feel safe."
Hank looked at his son strangely when he heard the last bit. In response, Tom snapped, "What's with that look, old man? Do you think I'm gay?"
"Cough, no! I don't think so." Hank coughed awkwardly, before casually adding, "Though I wouldn't judge you if you were."
"Just shut up, old man." Tom snapped.
Their casual banter cleared some of the tension, making them relax.
But they didn't notice they had caught a few people's eyes because of how relaxed they looked and those people had begun following them.