Night, Prison Camp.
"How's it looking so far?"
Rick came up the watchtower and stood beside Daryl who had been keeping watch for the night.
Daryl turned to look at Rick and took the bottle of water offered to him. "Except for those things down below, everything is good so far."
Rick smiled at his words and leaned against the guard railings. "I hope this peace will continue for a long time."
Daryl took a sip and chuckled as he shook his head. "I doubt that. We'll eventually have problems that will crop sooner or later. Maybe as far as even going against hostile groups that want to raid us."
"Then maybe we should hope that it doesn't come to that. Especially when everything is just starting to take shape." Rick turned to Daryl; he was filled with optimism for their future.
Suddenly, Daryl saw something flickering in the distance.
"Are those lights?"
Rick turned towards the direction where Daryl was looking and saw the lights "Those are car headlights. Get ready, it seems like we've got some guests coming tonight."
Daryl nodded in response and picked up a rifle from the deck and soon saw Rick down by the gates.
"We need some backup at the gates. We've got guests tonight. Over." Daryl called for reinforcements through the radio.
[Copy that. Over.]
When the cars had driven closer, Daryl found them to be oddly familiar. Unfortunately, because it's still dark, he had a hard time recognizing where he had seen them before.
At the same time, Andrea, Cole and two more others had just left one of the cell blocks and hastily made their way over to the gates with weapons in hands.
The two vehicles came to a stop before the prison gates as Rick and Daryl immediately pointed their guns at their guests. Not long after, Andrea and the others also arrived and joined Rick below and aimed their weapons at these group of strangers
"Who are you?! Get d-"
"Rick, it's us!"
Rick was about to advise them to get down from their vehicles when the familiar voice of Jimmy boomed behind the pick-up truck.
They turned their torchlights towards the direction of the voice and saw Jimmy smiling at them while waving his hands in the air.
And not sooner after Jimmy's voice, the engines of the two vehicles simultaneously turned off and they finally got a good look at them. and immediately recognized them.
Surprised, Rick and the others looked at each other and slowly lowered their weapons.
"What..are you guys doing here?" Amanda was now bewildered at the arrival of these people and also figured out that something must have happened back at the farm.
Glenn slowly got down from the vehicle with his hands raised up in the air and with some awkwardness in his voice. "Heyyy, it's us. Are you still welcoming guests this late"
Rick smiled as he slung his rifle to his back and walked over to Glenn and gave him a hug. "What happened? Why have you all come here in the middle of the night?"
At the same time, Maggie and the others had slowly come down and had unsure looks on their faces, especially Hershel who looked extremely miserable
Glenn smiled helplessly as he turned to look at Maggie before turning back to Rick. "Well, the farm had gotten overrun by walkers."
Rick was already expecting that might have happened, so he was only a bit surprised. He gave the others a look and saw a few unfamiliar people. His gaze soon turned to Hershel who looked devastated while leaning against the hood of the truck. "I see. Come on, let's get you guys warmed up inside."
Rick had Andrea lead them inside while he stayed and talked with Glenn by the gates as the two cars drove past them.
"So, what really happened out there? Who are those kids with you?" Rick was curious how the farm got overrun, especially this late into the night since he figured that Glenn, and the others would not do something stupid to compromise their safety. So, he thought it might have been related to those unfamiliar faces who were with them.
Glenn sighed and placed his hands on his waists. "It's those college kids. They said they were making their way to Fort Benning when they encountered a herd along the way and wandered onto the property while fleeing. Unfortunately for them, they also encountered another herd of walkers passing by the farm. By then, they were fleeing towards the farmhouse. Hershel didn't want to help them, but I had to man, they were just kids. Besides, even if we decide not to help them, those things will still arrive at the farmhouse and would eventually force us to flee to the place"
Rick placed his hand on Glenn's shoulders. "I understand. I would have also done the same. and save those people."
The following day, around six in the morning.
Rick was at by the garden on the prison front yard when Hershel came over.
"You got a minute?"
Rick had stopped clearing the weeds and stood up when he saw the old man coming over.
"I got a few."
Hershel hesitated for a moment. "I just wanted to thank you for–"
"No need, Hershel. You don't have to." Rick cut him off and smiled at him. He already figured what the old man wanted to say.
Hershel lightly shook his head and continued. "Let me talk. I know things had gotten rough between us back at the farm, but I still want to thank you for accepting us here despite what happened between us."
"It's fine. I understand where you were coming from. I know it's hard to accept things with how the world has turned into, but we'll eventually need to move forward. This prison will be our fresh start. Besides, we'd love the extra hands since we still have a lot of things to do here to make this place more livable." Rick just smiled at him. He didn't really hold anything against him since he too would probably act the same way if a bunch of strangers had suddenly decided to barge into your property and decided to want to live there.
Feeling a weight off his shoulders, Heshel's smile became even brighter as he gazed at the rising sun in the distant horizon.
"Yeah, I'm already starting to like this place."
In another corner of the country, Michael and the others are already halfway through Houston.
Avoiding the highways, the crew had been travelling through most of the country roads and arrived at the small town of Iota in Louisiana.
"It looks like this place wasn't touched at all."
The crew stopped in the middle of the road as Joel came down from the truck and approached Michael who was on his bike.
"Small places like this are the ideal places to build communities since they only have small populations. So, the chaos wasn't really as intense compared to the cities where no place is safe from those biters." Roxy responded to his words as she got down from the bike.
The two soldiers also disembarked from the truck, and one of them approached Roxy to ask. "Sergeant, should we move on, or should we try to gather some supplies for the road?"
"Let's try to gather some supplies, but let's focus on finding medicines since they're harder to find while on the road." Roxy didn't even get to say anything when Michael quickly relayed the following orders. The two soldiers shared a quick glance before looking back to Roxy, who answered them with a nod.
Michael didn't mind their silent exchanges and instead continued. "You and Joel will stay by the truck. Me, Roxy and you will move together and scour for supplies. First, let's find some maps so we don't get lost."
"Okay." Roxy responded.
While Joel and the other soldier stood guard by the truck and Michael's bike, the remaining three quickly left for the road. They walked past some houses, and more houses, followed by a diner then a gas station before coming across a small police station up a small hill.
Squelch!
x1 [You terminated a Zombie! Gained +1 EXP and +1 Coin.]
There was a walker ahead that came tumbling towards them when it spotted them, but Michael just casually deleted it out of existence by smashing its head with his mace.
The soldier, who had already seen a lot of things, still couldn't help but feel goosebumps when he heard the sound of its head being smashed into pieces like a lump of jelly.
"You could have just decapitated it with your sword. Why make it more disgusting than it needs to?" Roxy remarked in disgust.
Michael just shrugged his shoulders before swinging the mace to get rid of the bloody pieces stuck on it.
"It's more efficient and safer since their heads would still function and bite unsuspecting survivors who happen to walk past near the heads." This was the reason he preferred using his mace more than his Kampilan due to the extra work of eliminating those decapitated heads after.
"Really?" Roxy was a little doubtful, but didn't say anything against it since she knows that Michael is far more capable than her.
"Yeah, I've already killed hundreds of these things and had more or less figured out their patterns."
The trio moved as they talked and soon arrived before the police station with its doors left ajar. Beyond those doors, an unseen number of papers were scattered along the floor and some smears of bloodstain on the glass door.
"Hopefully, the weapons inside are still there." The soldier who was with them had always shown such an optimistic side throughout their journey, and thus far, his optimism had maintained a nine of ten result.
Due to those coincidences, Michael had started calling him Lucky due to those events.