“I suppose I can understand,” I say. “There are a lot of bad people out there. Raiders, you know.”

“Oh, I know all about that,” Hank says. “People get selfish. They get to a point where only their own survival matters. I don’t see it that way. I think it’s important that we all try to survive. That we all try to help others survive. For example, I would love to ask you three to stay with us indefinitely, but the others here wouldn’t have it. They would say that supplies are low enough as it is. I, however, look at it differently. I would say that three recruits like you would heighten our chances of finding more supplies. It would be a mutual benefit.”

“I wouldn’t stay here if it were the last group of people on earth,” Gilbert says under his breath.

Hank doesn’t miss a beat. “I just think this whole thing would be over a lot more quickly if people just banded together. Make super-towns with giant walls so no greyskin could ever get in. I tell you what, if someone had the resources and manpower, people would flock in droves to a place like that.”

“I would,” I say.

“So would I,” Hank says, winking again, a couple of dry noodles sticking out of his mouth.

He finally sets a plate full of spaghetti in front of each of us and decides to have a plate himself. We spend most of the meal listening to Hank tell stories. Mostly funny ones. Ethan laughs the hardest, and I try to, and Gilbert sits with a straight face, eating his food quickly. Hank takes bites like he has all the time in the world.

He is in the middle of a story when he stops talking and the smile fades from his face. I follow his eyes to the box above the door and it is blinking red.

According to Walter, the herd of greyskins walking through the middle of Foley is gigantic. Hank stands next to us as Walter and Barry look at us like we betrayed their trust.

“We didn’t see anything,” Ethan says.

“We didn’t lead greyskins here,” Gilbert adds. “Sensors don’t do much more than tell you when something is coming do they?” He looks at Hank when he says this.

“We’re just going to have to wait them out,” Barry says. “If we stay quiet, they won’t come into the school.”

“We have everyone on lockdown?” Walter asks.

Barry nods.

Walter lets out a sigh. “We aren’t blaming you three for bringing them. Just weird timing is all.”

“We hate it worse than you,” I say, but it sounded better in my mind before it came out.

Walter looks at me sideways and shakes his head. “Hank, you got a place for them to stay?”

“Of course!” he says a little too loudly. “I’ve got plenty of more stories to tell. Some good, some sad, all of them with a purpose.”