Chapter 305 (4,000 Words)

"Lu, Lu, we found the other party's car."

In the afterglow of the setting sun, you can clearly see a Hummer driving towards the town.

Seeing this scene, Lu Jiayi became more certain of his judgment. He felt that this organization should have its own set of order. Those people who looked like refugees might be the other party's slaves, or maybe the two sides had another kind of relationship?

"It seems that if we want to figure out the situation, we have to stay here for a while."

"I don't think it's necessary. Although the other party doesn't look like a good person, we don't plan to stay here for long. According to that guy, there are 200 of them. If so many people engage in a firefight, it will be very disadvantageous to us."

Rick was a little worried about their safety. He always felt that there was no need to put himself in danger because of some strangers.

Lu Jiayi naturally agreed with his idea, and he was also considering how to arrange the next itinerary.

"How about this, we split into two groups. Glenn, T-boy and the other guy will stay behind, and the rest of you will continue to take over the remaining places according to the previous arrangement."

As he said this, he pointed to the back of the bus. Everyone knew who he was talking about, but Riel was still a little reluctant and was interrupted when he was about to refute.

"Don't worry. A team of three can easily act. Are you still not confident in my ability? Leave a walkie-talkie here. As for the car problem, we will solve it ourselves. We will contact you if there are any problems."

Seeing that he said this, the others looked at each other, and Rick finally nodded.

…

The next morning, the bus left early, and Lu Jiayi and the other two left behind two bottles of gasoline and several days' worth of supplies.

Lu Jiayi smiled and said while looking at the two of them.

"Next, let's take a look at these guys' backgrounds."

…

Just as the three of them were quietly moving towards the county town, in a dense forest dozens of kilometers away from them, a long-haired man was walking cautiously in it. Rays of sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves, making the forest seem less depressing.

The man squinted his eyes and looked at the shadows in the woods, where a wild rabbit was munching on the grass happily. While eating, the little guy raised his head slightly and looked very alert, which made him look very cute.

The man slowly raised the crossbow in his hand and hooked his index finger on the trigger. The taut bowstring instantly burst out with a huge force, and the crossbow arrow pierced the air like lightning.

whoosh!

The little guy who was enjoying the delicious food in the last second was nailed to the tree trunk. After a struggle, his remaining strength was exhausted and he just hung there, motionless.

The man was Daryl. Since leaving Atlanta with Moore's car, he had been heading west and was now approaching Birmingham.

As for why he appeared here, it all started from when Moore left.

After receiving the mission, Moore returned to Ideal Town. Originally, his younger brother had a seat in the team heading south, but just a few days before he came back, he found Rick and Sean.

It turned out to be Alan and Eric. They were previously expatriates from the Alexandria community, responsible for finding survivors in the wild and then confirming the person's character through long-term observation, so as to expand the number of survivors in the settlement.

However, their work was not smooth, and they did not bring back a single survivor in nearly a year. However, this did not dampen their enthusiasm. After arriving in Ideal Town, they still missed their previous jobs, so they repeatedly sought out Lu Jiayi and Rick to discuss this matter.

During this period, Alan also discovered that Darryl was a person who liked to go out alone. After observing for a period of time, he found that Darryl was very thoughtful and he seemed to be able to tell whether he could get along with a person in the shortest time.

It was this discovery that led Allen to find Daryl privately. The two talked several times, and Allen suggested going out to look for survivors.

After some thought, Daryl finally accepted his proposal, and so the matter was settled. However, our Crossbow is not a person who likes to cooperate with others in the wild. Although he agreed to the proposal, he still decided to go out alone.

Finally, when More returned to Ideal Town to find him, Daryl decided to do what he wanted to do. He chose to stay alone, while Alan and Eric followed More away. It has to be said that fate is a fickle thing.

A rabbit soon became lunch and dinner. At this time, Crossbow was sitting under a big tree. He had no other supplies except the motorcycle. It was not that he didn't bring anything with him. There was a not-so-big tree house just above the big tree behind him. Crossbow found it yesterday afternoon.

So he chose to stay here temporarily, rested for a day, and planned to leave here tomorrow morning.

The quiet environment around him made him very comfortable. This was his favorite environment. He could always unconsciously immerse himself in his own world. Whenever he was confused, afraid, or lost, hiding in the jungle alone was his main way to relax himself.

He threw away the bone in his hand and picked up a dirty plastic bottle beside him. Just as he was about to drink some water, a faint sound attracted his attention.

"Gunfire?"

The sound that can be heard is very faint and one can only determine the general direction.

Daryl looked at the sky and decided to ignore it for the time being. He would rest for a night and decide tomorrow morning whether to go to the scene or not.

…

Lu Jiayi and the other two quickly found a car that was in good condition, threw the gangster into the trunk, and drove towards the town.

The car was parked one kilometer away from the town. The car body was covered with a layer of dust and did not need camouflage at all. However, Lu Jiayi was still afraid that the other party would notice him if he parked it on the side of the road, so he parked the car in a hidden forest.

Coming to the town again, today's town seemed a little different from yesterday. In addition to the scattered survivors clearing the zombies on the streets, there were also many people walking into the town in groups.

Judging from their clothes, they were the ones who hunted zombies yesterday. Let's call them slaves.

Carefully approaching the edge of the town, Lu Jiayi found a two-story house to hide in, and took out the telescope again.

"They seem to be heading to that school."

Glenn was also holding a telescope, and only T was on guard.

Lu Jiayi looked at it for a while and suddenly said.

"Have you noticed? Those who went to school are obviously in a good mood, but those slaves who are still cleaning up the zombies are not in a good mood. I think they look at others with envy and jealousy."

After pondering for a moment, Lu Jiayi still felt that it was unreliable to just look at it this way. Those people in the school didn't seem to like to show up. It was difficult to understand other situations of this force just by observing these slaves.

He came up to the bandit and plucked out his eyes. The man looked extremely miserable. I don't know if it was tears or sweat that wet the dirt on his face, making him look a little ridiculous.

"Listen, I'm going to take the thing off your mouth, and if you dare to scream, believe me, I can kill you before you make a sound, understand?"

The man nodded desperately. He was already scared out of his wits. He had seen several of his companions being killed like pigs and had been locked up for more than a whole day with his five senses taken away. At this point, he no longer cared about the hunger in his stomach. He was willing to do anything as long as he could stay alive.

"very good."

The cloth strip that was blocking the man's mouth was taken out. He quickly moved his jaw and tried to swallow his saliva. He found his mouth was dry and uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but speak in a low hoarse voice.

"Can...can I have a drink of water?"

"As long as you cooperate."

After saying that, he waved at Glenn, who took a cup on the table and poured some water into it. The man didn't care about the dust in the quilt at all, he just leaned forward and drank it in three gulps, and then he looked at Glenn eagerly.

Seeing this, Glenn was about to pour some more, but was stopped by Lu Jiayi.

"Want some more water?"

Seeing the man nodding continuously, Lu Jiayi smiled slightly and took out a bag of dried meat and some dry food produced in the base from his backpack.

After opening the package and letting the aroma of meat waft out, the man's eyes almost popped out and he frantically swallowed his already limited saliva. But he saw Lu Jiayi gently flipping it with his hand, and the dried meat was wrapped up again.

The man then remembered his situation and quickly looked up.

"Answer my questions obediently, and you will not only have water to drink, but also meat to eat."

In this way, the man betrayed his people again under the double oppression of extreme temptation and fear, and even some small details that he had not mentioned before were explained clearly.

Half an hour later, the bruised-faced man was gnawing on a steamed bun with his freed arm, looking depressed, and occasionally glancing at Lu Jiayi's backpack.

As for why he was beaten? Because he didn't tell the truth before. It turned out that his organization did have more than 200 people, but the core members were only more than 70 people. As for the other members, they were the slaves who cleaned up the zombies on the streets.

Lu Jiayi finally remembered to ask the man's name. His name was Andrew, a very common name.

They didn't care about Andrew's eyes at all, but came to the window and discussed something with Glenn and the others. As for Andrew wanting to run, it was impossible. Except for one arm that was freed, it would take at least five minutes to untie the ropes on the rest of his body. Not to mention that he didn't dare to make any small movements under the constant scrutiny of the three people.

"Okay, then everything makes sense. This organization has only more than 70 core members. Excluding the six people we met, there are still about 60 people. There are also 10 peripheral teams. Each team needs to be assigned two core members, which accounts for 20 people. So there are more than 40 people left. If some people stay behind, the number of people who can go out every day will not exceed 30, which means they have at most five teams left."

"And the team we attacked yesterday has disappeared for a day. I kept the walkie-talkie, but no one contacted us. Andrew said they often go out for several days and don't come back. This means that the other party may not know that their people have been eliminated by us. In this case, should we continue to stay here?"

Tzi retracted his gaze from the window and suddenly pointed at the slaves outside who were cleaning up the zombies.

“Should we find out if those people were forced to stay?”

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes turned to Andrew who was chewing a steamed bun. The latter was stunned and quickly drank a sip of water before answering honestly.

"We didn't force them. These people were paid to clean up the zombies. Not only did we clean up the zombies, we also protected them. Otherwise, these people would have already..."

At this point, Andrew suddenly realized that he had let the cat out of the bag. His eyes rolled and he changed his next words.

"They have already been eaten by the zombies outside. We provided them with shelter."

Seeing his somewhat unnatural expression, Lu Jiayi's face turned cold and he walked over step by step.

"What did you want to say earlier?"

Andrew felt that the air around him seemed to become unusually oppressive. Thinking of his previous experience and looking at the ruthless man who was gradually approaching, he finally couldn't help but began to wave his hands.

"Okay, okay, I'll say..."

After explaining again, Andrew's face had several more bruises. He cursed inwardly, but his face, which was swollen like a pig's head, still had a flattering smile.

Glenn couldn't help but slap the guy again. If he hadn't let the cat out of the bag, they might still be kept in the dark.

He grabbed Andrew's collar, and his good-natured personality made him a little angry. If this was not the only source of information at the moment, he really wanted to send him directly to see Jesus.

"So you're just protecting them?"

"Uh, yeah…yeah."

It turned out that the reason these people didn't leave was not because they were threatened or anything else, but because there was a large looting organization called "Legion" in Birmingham, with a number of between three hundred and four hundred people, but he didn't know the exact number.

Although this organization has a large number of members, they cannot control too large a territory with their manpower, so some survivor camps near Birmingham became their targets.

These people brought a large number of troops to the gates of various bases. Anyone who obeyed had to accept their conditions, and the bases that did not obey... would naturally disappear.

Andrew's team survived because they accepted the other party's conditions. Of course, everything comes at a price. The number of hot weapons in their team cannot exceed a certain number, and the core members cannot exceed one hundred. They are allowed to accept other survivors, but these survivors must be peripheral members, that is, help them do the dirty work, and the number of these people cannot exceed two hundred.

"The Legion organization only has three or four hundred people in total. If the two bases join forces, won't their numbers completely surpass the other side?"

After hearing this, T asked the question in his mind.

Unexpectedly, before Lu Jiayi could speak, Andrew was the first to smile bitterly.

"Haha, it's not that simple. We thought the same thing at the beginning. We planned to agree to it first and then wait for an opportunity to resist. Who would have thought..."

When he said this, he seemed to recall something bad, and a trace of sadness appeared on his face. The others did not interrupt him, but he came back to his senses after a moment, and seeing the looks they were giving him, he sighed.

"Well, since it has come to this, I won't beat around the bush with you. This is how the organization arranged it..."