19 The awakening of the force.

Daniel walks with his hands in his pockets while giving a small yawn. She slept very well last night, and now she feels refreshing. The side effects of muscle stiffness and numbness from the "coma" are over. Now Daniel is excited to fully recover his body and feels like fighting someone to release this throbbing sensation in his chest.

-It should be 7 or 8 in the morning-

Daniel mutters under his breath as he thinks about going with Andrea to see this camp. The sun could be seen completely in the blue sky with some white clouds.

-Good morning ... how are you? ... yes, thank you ... hi-

Daniel greets everyone from the camp who passes him with a smile. These people are doing their daily chores, some are fixing vehicles, others are cutting wood, preparing food and so on, they are all doing something.

Daniel can't see Rick among these people, so he must be sleeping or somewhere else. He sees Lori walking about 20 meters away and decides to approach her.

-Good morning Daniel, I hope you rested well-

Carol meets him first and says hello.

-Oh ... yes Carol, rest well, thanks for the concern-

Daniel takes a while to answer because Carol has a strange smile on her face, he tries to figure out what it is.

-I didn't mean that, last night it seems that you didn't let my friend Andrea sleep because of the noise they made. You should be more careful-

Making sure no one was listening, Carol talks quietly to Daniel.

Carol was not present, but she knows what happened and teases Daniel into being nervous. She has no malice in doing this, but she feels like making fun of this inexperienced young man who surely could not control her friend Andrea from hers and was practically raped.

Carol laughs mischievously as she waits for Daniel's response.

-Carol, spying on people is not a good hobby, that will make them see you as a pervert-

Daniel has a more mischievous smile than Carol's.

-Me…-

Carol's mouth is open, unable to utter words. She wanted to yell at Daniel that she hadn't spied on them, but there were a lot of people near her and she was embarrassed to raise her voice from her. Carol can only watch Daniel leave while she is frustrated.

Daniel continues walking without looking back, imagining the face Carol must have now, makes him laugh a little.

-Good morning friend, I see that you are entertained-

Daniel finds Glenn sitting on a tree trunk sharpening his machete.

-Of course yes my friend, yesterday was hellish and made me understand the importance of having a reliable weapon! Good morning too, I hope you rested well because I slept like a baby.

Glenn smiles and with an energetic attitude speaks to Daniel.

Daniel fists Glenn up and sits next to him.

-You don't know how well I rested last night-

Daniel responds in a double sense for what happened last night.

...

Daniel and Glenn talk about many things as close friends. Yesterday's dangerous situation and helping each other to overcome brought them closer together, discovering that they have many things in common.

Daniel also learned that Glenn used to deliver pizzas for a living and his knowledge of shortcuts, agility, and fearlessness made him the group's scout tasked with gathering necessities like food, tools, and more. Glenn was also born in Korea, so he is Korean, but was raised in Macon Georgia by his aunt, who is now deceased and lived in a small apartment on what he earned by delivering pizzas. He got his job from a friend who lived in Atlanta.

Glenn spoke to Daniel about how frustrated he was when he started work and couldn't be on time with his orders, which caused money to be deducted from him. On the third day he found an alley and crossed it to buy more time, that was the first day he arrived on time. Glenn liked going through the alley to buy time, so he devised shortcut routes and practiced a bit of parkour. He was doing well at work and she could buy himself some things with the extra money. Although he sometimes encountered thieves in alleys that he quickly dodged.

Daniel hears Glenn talk about how it was the most epic night of his life where he saved a girl from being raped while delivering pizza. Everyone praised him and shouted good things at him for the good deed he did, Glenn felt like a superhero.

Also Glenn loaned him his whetstone so that Daniel will improve the sharpness of his combat knife.

...

-Good morning Lori. Let me help you-

After not knowing how many minutes they spent talking, Daniel leaves and says good morning to Lori. She was carrying a bucket full of water.

-Good morning Daniel. Thanks for the intention, but I'll take this, at least I can do that haha-

Lori refuses Daniel's help, she is an independent woman. Or at least that's what she thinks.

-Okay, I'll leave it to you. But if you need something just call me, I also need to do something-

Daniel has just arrived at camp so he is new and better adjust by doing some work.

-I'm the one who should tell you that, but for now rest and then you can work. It is not good for your health if you demand too much of yourself, especially with what happened yesterday-

Lori has a worried face. In her eyes, Daniel is a young adolescent, he may be strong and independent but she still sees him as a child since she met him a year ago.

-Thank you, but you shouldn't worry so much, I'm fully recovered. By the way, do you know where Andrea is? I'm looking for her.

Daniel shakes his hands, making a gesture of not caring.

-It's fine, but it's better if you don't push yourself. Andrea is at the lake with the other girls, I just came from there and saw her doing laundry-

Lori touches her lips thinking for a second, she remembers seeing Andrea before.

-See ya-

Daniel says goodbye to Lori and walks towards the lake he saw earlier following the dirt road.

-See you later, have a nice day-

Lori smiles at Daniel, picks up the bucket of water, and continues with her morning chores.

...

As he walks the little dirt path to the lake, he thinks of Andrea.

Now Andrea is Daniel's girlfriend.

Daniel likes Andrea, he doesn't love her because he knows her very little.

Daniel has felt a mutual attraction for Andrea since he met her.

He discovered that she has a cute side, another aggressive, cold, caring, kind, considerate. He still needs to discover more about Andrea's personality but for now he likes everything.

Now that Andrea is Daniel's girlfriend, he will protect her and take care of her.

Both need a partner to stabilize their minds and lean on the other to get through this difficult time they are living.

...

Daniel is standing on a small elevation of stones looking at the shore of the lake to find Andrea to greet her

and thank her for what she did.

-I don't like that guy-

Daniel finds the group of women washing which consists of Andrea, Amy, Jacqui and Carol. The other women in the camp and men are doing other tasks to maintain this camp. All but a man with his arms crossed who looks lustfully at the wet women washing. That man is Ed, Carol's husband, he has a rude face and a fat body without muscles. Daniel remembers how Ed was rude last night, his attitude is bad.

Daniel sees Jaqui wave his hand as if to tell Ed to leave, because clearly that man was just bothering them.

Daniel frowns. He continues walking to greet them and find out what Ed wants. He doesn't like the look in Ed's eyes when he looks at Andrea or the other girls.

The girls started arguing with the one who was speechless and tried to take Carol away, but she didn't want to go, she seems to know what will happen if she leaves. Carol has a scared face.

The girls also tried to stop Ed with words because he was trying to forcibly drag Carol to teach him a lesson. Daniel runs towards them.

-Aaah !! -

The girls scream scared and angry. Ed slapped Carol for not wanting to follow him. Now Amy grabs Carol and takes her back to take care of her. Andrea and Jacqui confront Ed and stand in his way from hitting Carol anymore.

Ed raises his big heavy hand to slap Andrea out of the way, he wants to take Carol now.

Andrea sees her big and heavy hand approaching her face and closes her eyes scared, waiting for the very painful impact. Andrea is an independent and intelligent woman, but she does not know how to fight and has not faced similar situations because she previously struggled with words. She now she alone she is a helpless woman who will be slapped.

"I will never allow that!"

But the impact never came. Andrea slowly opens her eyes to see a large figure in front of her, grabbing Ed's wrist with ease and protecting it. Andrea realizes that Daniel, her now boyfriend, feels very happy, comfortable, with new found feelings and safe with her.

Daniel ran fast and arrived in time for Ed not to hit Andrea, his girlfriend. Only last night did he promise to protect her, he can't break her promise now.

-Who do you think you are to hit my friend? -

Daniel almost said girlfriend but quickly changed him to friend, Andrea told him that they should keep their relationship a secret for now and Daniel doesn't care much but he respects his decision.

Angry, Daniel grabs Ed by the neck, taking his breath away, and lifts him up into the air. Ed turns blue in just 3 seconds from Daniel's incredible strength plus the weight of his fat body and his gravity.

-Cohu *! Cohu *! -

Danieo slaps Ed with almost all of his strength using his free hand. Two of Ed's teeth fly into the air just like him and he falls to the ground heavily. The first thing Ed does is take big gulps with his mouth now that he can.

Ed has almost all of his face blue from the lack of oxygen in his blood, except for the blood in his mouth and the dark red mark from Daniel's hard slap.

-If you dare to hurt Carol just one more time, this will not end in just a slap, I will give you the worst beating of your miserable life, you will wish you were dead at that moment! -

Daniel walks over and grabs him by the collar of Ed's shirt. Daniel speaks in a threatening tone. He then releases Ed who falls to the ground groaning.

-It seems that I did recover all my strength-

Daniel clenches and opens his right fist with which he slapped Ed. He feels his strength regained.

-Daniel! -

Andrea hugs him scared from behind.

"Are you okay? Did he do something to you?"

Daniels turns around and also hugs Andrea, touching her back.

-I'm fine, thanks to you-

Andrea sobs a little now that she is in Daniel's arms, she feels more secure and comfortable here.

-I'm glad, now everything is fine. Are you girls okay? -

Daniel comforts Andre, happy that nothing has happened to him and asks about the health of Jacqui, Amy and Carol.

-I'm fine kid, thanks for the help. This stupid deserves that slap-

Jaqui smiles at Daniel and sighs relieved to have someone strong around to solve these kinds of situations. But she frowns in disgust when she sees Ed groaning on the ground like a wounded animal.

-I'm fine too Daniel, thanks for coming to ... Don't go! -

Amy tries to tell Daniel that he is okay but Carol tries to go with Ed.

-Where do you think you are going?-

Daniel grabs Carol's arm and doesn't let go. He knows he's trying to help that bastard Ed, he shouldn't.

-Thanks, but I must-

Carol smiles at Daniel and breaks free of her grip. She walks up to Ed and helps him up, though Ed doesn't appreciate her help and pushes and insults her. They both go to the camp in order to recover. Ed won't forget this, but now he's a little scared of Daniel and doesn't want to fight him.

Daniel can only free Carol and watch her go with Ed from her. He can't help her if she doesn't think and believe that she doesn't need help, maybe Carol always had that personality. Daniel thought of helping her, but he can only do it slowly, if her strength now then she will go into crisis and her fear of Ed cannot be overcome. The smile Carol gave her was not from someone who will need help, it was from a woman who believes that everything is fine, a woman with a distorted mind.

-Quiet, we'll help her. And if Ed bothers you again just let me know-

Daniel wiped away Andrea's tears, I also spoke with Jacqui and Amy as well.

-It's a bit late but good morning, although it is not so good considering the previous matter. I think it's best if you stop washing for now and take a break to calm down or relax-

The girls agree and leave their clothes hanging in the sun to dry, then go a different way after saying goodbye to Daniel.

Andrea looks back and greets Daniel again, Daniel smiles at him as he waves his hand.

-Quiet, everything is controlled. By the way, have a nice day-

Daniel doesn't know when, but Shane was a bit far away looking at the whole situation. Daniel walks past her and claps her on the shoulder telling her that everything is fine now.

Shane has a puzzled face and doesn't know what to do, he just stands there while he watches Daniel's back walk away with mixed feelings.

Shane wanted to help the girls and unleash the anger that was inside him! But Daniel arrived earlier and resolved the situation. Now that he's calmed down he doesn't know what to do.

Daniel walks into the woods humming a song by Back in USA, Chuck Berry. This song he liked since he appeared on Back to the Future, there he heard it for the first time and memorized it.

...