Chapter 349 (5,000 Words)

Hearing this, Daryl once again looked forward. This was an open space of more than a hundred square meters. The rest of the place was more or less covered by tree canopies, resulting in insufficient light. There were no trees here. Under the direct sunlight, the weeds were extremely dense. Although the weather had turned cold, the weeds had not withered yet. The most lush places could even reach a person's height.

However, at this time, all the weeds in the open space were leaning to the sides, as if they were bent by a thug.

"This is?"

"Helicopter."

Looking at this familiar scene, Lu Jiayi couldn't help but think of something that made him very worried. Maybe the people from CRM really discovered them.

After all, among the forces he was familiar with, they were the only ones capable of sending out helicopters. What he needed to worry about now was who was taken away, or whether Glenn and his men would be able to force the other side back with their weapons, or whether both sides would make concessions?

Without hesitating for too long, it was impossible to infer what had happened based on the current clues. The most important thing now was to find the survivors who escaped so that we could get more information from them.

Suppressing the uneasiness in their hearts, the two continued to follow the trail.

Another half hour passed.

"Shasha...Lu, we found them."

"Where?"

…

Two hours later, everyone gathered together again. The first thing that caught the eye was Glenn's thin figure. He was so easy to recognize with his hat on.

However, Glenn looked very embarrassed at this time. His body was covered with black and red blood. There was a scratch on his leg, and his white thigh was faintly visible. The rifle hanging around his neck was also crooked. He was resting with his back against the armored vehicle.

The rest of the people also looked miserable. BIG, who was carrying a longbow, had black mud on his face. At first glance, he looked more like a zombie than a zombie.

The fifty or so survivors from the Highland Community were in much better condition, except that they were all terrified and pale. Some women even huddled in a corner holding their children and dared not get up.

However, there were also a few people who looked equally dirty, and one of them was holding a machete in his hand. The red and black color on the blade told the others that they had all participated in the battle.

Glenn felt a little exhausted and was now closing his eyes, holding a bottle of water and pouring it into his mouth.

Hearing footsteps, he finally opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Lu Jiayi walking towards him.

"You're okay, that's great!"

Daryl stood up and hugged Lu Jiayi. He just nodded to him. This level of affection was already a sign of his closeness.

"Lu! Our people have been captured."

Before I let go, I heard Glenn's anxious voice.

Having been mentally prepared for this matter, Lu Jiayi signaled him not to be anxious and to speak slowly.

Glenn also realized that what he said was too general, so he took two more sips of water and then slowed down his speech.

"Lu, Leon has been captured. The other party has a helicopter. They are from that organization."

Lu Jiayi knew very well who he was talking about, but he still didn't quite believe that CRM could find this place. If this was really the work of the entire organization, then Glenn and his people would probably not survive.

"Tell me in detail, when did you meet the other party? How many people are there?"

Glenn tried hard to recall what happened last night, and it took him a long time to organize his words.

"Not long after you contacted me last night, we changed the route. We drove for about ten minutes when we heard something hit the bus. Then there was no movement. We drove for twenty minutes and then the bus ran out of gas. We got off the bus to check and found that the tank was leaking."

At this point his expression turned somewhat angry, and it was obvious that they were attacked next.

"Because it was the middle of the night, visibility was poor. Even with the infrared equipment on, we couldn't find anyone. And we didn't know exactly where we were at the time. Leon and I discussed it and decided to walk everyone back. We were afraid that the people who attacked us before would catch up with us."

"Finally we decided to walk along the edge of the woods, so that we wouldn't be easily discovered. Unexpectedly, those people had been waiting in front of us for a long time, and kidnapped Leon when we weren't paying attention. After I found out, I led my men to chase them, and finally found them in their helicopter, but the plane had already taken off, so I only had time to see a shadow."

"But those are the only ones who use helicopters, right? We killed a squad of them last time, and they must be here for revenge. Lu, we have to find them as soon as possible!"

After listening to this, Lu Jiayi couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

The last time they eliminated a CRM team it was only because the other party was chasing them. After eliminating a few people, they left almost non-stop, originally thinking that the other party would not be able to find them.

The most important thing is that Franco, who had previously defected from CRM, said that according to his understanding, the other party did not have means such as satellite monitoring, at least they could only access satellite phones.

Assuming that the ones who attacked them this time were CRM, it means that their base may have been exposed. Given the organization's capabilities, those who dare to resist will most likely be killed. CRM is very particular about confidentiality.

The mere fact that I might know of their existence is reason enough to destroy me, not to mention that I also killed their people.

But the base is currently safe.

Either they had just arrived here and hadn't found him yet, or these people were from another force, and Glenn might have happened to pass by them, causing these people to become greedy. However, since none of their luggage was with them and they realized there was no money to be made, they chose to capture one person and go back to find out before taking any action.

If it was the former, then they would face the biggest crisis since the outbreak of the apocalypse in Ideal Town, but if it was the latter, then they would be very safe, because the captured Leon knew nothing about the situation in Ideal Town.

The first priority now is to find out the other party's identity.

"Rick, Daryl, BIG, you follow me. Michonne, you are responsible for leading everyone back to the base. Be careful on the road."

"I'll go with you"

Glenn ate a little and has recovered a lot now. He has been worried about Leon's safety. Seeing that Lu Jiayi obviously wanted to go back, he also stepped forward and wanted to go with him.

Seeing his firm attitude, Lu Jiayi did not stop him. As soon as the five people got in the car, they saw from afar that Wells had come with his men. More than a dozen cars drove over in a hurry, picked up these people and left quickly.

After bidding farewell to the main force, the five of them drove along the road towards the place where Glenn and his men were attacked.

The car drove very fast and arrived nearby in just over ten minutes.

"I can't remember exactly, it was probably around here. I remember I heard the crash after I passed an intersection and drove for a while."

Glenn tried hard to recall what happened last night, but it was pitch black outside and he couldn't remember many details.

Seeing this, Lu Jiayi simply sped up and within a minute, he saw the intersection.

"It's right here. This is the intersection. I also noticed this sign at the time."

Now that we had found the reference object, the next step was easy. It took almost no effort to find the place where they were ambushed.

"Follow me and Daryl, and be aware of your surroundings."

After entering the woods, Lu Jiayi and Daryl separated to the left and right, and found some clues in an open space in the woods with almost no effort.

Atlanta has a tropical humid climate. Even in winter, it is rarely very cold. The average temperature is around 17 or 18 degrees Celsius throughout the year. There is plenty of rain, so the winter is not particularly cold.

This also means that Atlanta is covered with a large amount of vegetation, and the trees have grown extremely tall after years of growth.

The dense tree canopy blocked the sunlight like an umbrella. The five people moved forward cautiously. Glenn and BIG, each holding a wooden stick picked up from somewhere, kept poking at the bushes on both sides.

“Hiss.”

Daryl, who was originally exploring the way ahead, suddenly stopped, stared at a place for a long time, and then hissed behind him.

Lu Jiayi was the first to come over, and sure enough, he saw a series of inconspicuous traces of human activities on the ground. He couldn't help but squat down to take a look.

"There are at least three people. There are traces on both sides. Let's go forward and take a look."

Following the intermittent traces, the five people walked in the woods for a full hour.

Finally, hard work pays off.

It turned out to be a wooden house.

It seems to be a ranger's cabin, which is built entirely with whole logs. Rather than being a house, it is more like an enlarged version of a wilderness survival shelter.

The house had no windows and the roof was covered with grass leaves. If there were not two pieces of clothing hanging outside the house, everyone would have doubted whether there was really anyone living here.

Lu Jiayi found a relatively secluded depression, which was several hundred meters away from the wooden house. He asked several people to sit there quietly and rest, while he found another place that was more conducive to observation.

I heard from Franco that CRM soldiers are equipped with thermal imaging equipment. Although they won't use it all the time, they still have to be on guard.

He immediately set up the monitoring equipment, and then found some bushes and used thin branches to camouflage his face, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed.

"Let me see who you are."

He shrank his body to hide himself more completely, but his eyes never left the wooden house for a second.

He had just roughly observed the surrounding environment just now. Now that he had finally calmed down, Lu Jiayi also looked carefully at the situation around the wooden house.

Through the telescope, every detail of the wooden house was in clear view. It was not until now that Lu Jiayi noticed that the logs used to build the wooden house looked very new. In order to guard against the zombies in the woods, these people had set up a circle of barricades around the wooden house. Only a very small entrance was left at the main gate. A wooden box more than one meter high was blocking the entrance.

There were several zombies trapped on the barricades, with the spikes deeply stuck in their bones, making them unable to move. As these brainless guys struggled unconsciously, the spikes got stuck deeper and deeper. Two of them had their bodies even pierced through, with thick wooden spikes sticking out from their backs.

There was a cleared space outside the yard, with an area of ​​about three to four hundred square meters. In one corner of the space was parked a shabby-looking car. Everything looked so ordinary. Even I, who had been tracking them all the way, couldn't believe that a group of people would live here and capture Leon.

At most, one would think that this was a survival hut built by someone who liked hunting before the end of the world.

But apart from this, the wooden house can be said to be very simple. If the actual situation is only what he saw, then the number of the other side will not exceed seven or eight, which is the limit.

It is now past ten in the morning, and he does not feel sleepy at all despite not sleeping for a whole night. Instead, he feels more and more excited.

In an instant he seemed to be back in the days when he was on a mission, when it was common for him to lie in a hidden spot for days and nights while carrying out reconnaissance missions. Since crossing into The Walking Dead, he rarely encountered situations that required him to take action personally, and most of the time he just had to kill some zombies which was not challenging at all.

Daryl and his companions were wearing zombie masks on their heads and were communicating in low voices.

"Glenn, you and Rick get some sleep, BIG and I will be on guard first."

"Forget it. I can't sleep. I'll stay on guard while you and Rick rest for a while."

…

Time passed slowly. After about an hour, there was finally movement in the wooden house in the distance. Lu Jiayi put away the telescope and put his right eye to the sight of the sniper rifle.

The door of the wooden house was pushed open with a creaky sound, and a bald man came out with a gun on his back. The man had muscular body and wore a gray vest, but his face could not be seen clearly due to the distance.

The big man seemed to be very cautious. He first observed the surroundings carefully, and only walked to a trapped zombie at the edge of the yard until he felt there was no danger. This zombie was obviously a female in her life. She was wearing a long skirt whose color could not be seen. She was whimpering and waving her arms at the big man, her mouth opening and closing.

The big man looked at it for a while, then suddenly laughed and pulled out a machete, and chopped off the two waving arms in two strokes. Then he carefully used the tip of the machete to cut the corners of the zombie's mouth a few times, and the sharp blade cut the flesh. The zombie that lost its arms still kept opening its mouth to tear off a piece of flesh from the big man, but it was trying to open the wound at the corner of its mouth. From a distance, it looked like a clown.

The big man's evil taste was satisfied and he let out a loud laugh. Then he unbuckled his belt and urinated on the zombies.

After solving his personal problem, the big man shivered in comfort and walked into the wooden house again.

There was a sound of footsteps in Lu Jiayi's headphones, and then it returned to silence, as if there was no one in the wooden house.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, Lu Jiayi gradually felt that something was wrong. Based on the man's behavior just now, it was impossible for him to be so quiet, right?

Even if he was the only one in the room, he should have made some movements. Is it possible that he would just lie down and not move as soon as he entered the room?

Just in case, Lu Jiayi continued to wait for half an hour, and it was noon.

Listening to the various noises collected by the monitoring equipment, but there was no movement in the wooden house, he retreated carefully.

"How about it?"

As soon as he reached the edge of the slope, Glenn spotted him, put away the gun in his hand, and there was an expectant glimmer in his eyes.

Sighing, Lu Jiayi shook his head slightly.

Glenn thought that no one had discovered it and looked disappointed. He really wanted to save Leon, not only because he was a doctor, but mainly because this young man was very much to his liking and was a very optimistic and kind guy.

Seeing that Glenn had misunderstood him, Lu Jiayi sat down on the ground and began to explain.

"There's someone in the room, but strangely I can't hear any sound."

"What do you mean? Maybe they fell asleep? Or just didn't talk?"

Rick slept for a while and felt much more comfortable. He woke up BIG who was still catching up on his sleep and spoke at the same time.

Lu Jiayi also recounted in detail what he had seen and heard, and expressed his doubts.

"Could it be that they haven't come back yet and he's the only one here?"

After hearing what he said, Daryl frowned and put forward his own guess.

Lu Jiayi nodded when he heard this.

"It's not impossible, but I stayed there for almost two hours, and there was no sound in the room. Either the other party is well-trained, or it can only be what you said."

"What should we do next? Let's just rush over and catch him."

BIG gripped the longbow tightly in his hand and looked at the few people expectantly.

"No, he has a gun in his hand, and I see that he is alert because he is definitely trained. Let's continue to wait. If there is no movement by this time tomorrow, we can consider arresting him directly. Otherwise, we will only alert the enemy."

The five people returned to the highway and drove to another road that was a little closer to the cabin. Then they drove the car into the gap between the trees and stopped just over 200 meters away from the cabin.

Lu Jiayi quickly camouflaged the car, and then several people began to wait quietly.

The waiting time was the slowest. All five of them had not slept all night and gradually began to take turns to rest.

The time came that evening.

Da da da da~

The sound of a helicopter was faintly heard from the sky, and Daryl, who was on duty, woke up a few people immediately.

The sound was getting louder and louder, but the treetops above were too dense to make out what was happening in the sky.

Fortunately, after just a few minutes, several beams of light hit the ground from the open space in the distance, illuminating the area around the wooden house. The wind pressure caused by the propeller blew the weeds close to the ground, and an orange light lit up in the wooden house. The big man from the daytime walked out of the wooden house wearing a coat whose color could not be seen clearly.

The helicopter landed steadily on the open space, and then several people walked down from it. Lu Jiayi observed these people through a telescope, but due to the backlight, many details could not be seen clearly. All he could know was that there were five people in total.

After they all walked into the wooden house, the helicopter left and the surroundings soon returned to their previous silence. The only difference was the roars of many scattered zombies heard all around.

They all walked towards the wooden house, but were stopped by the outer barricades, but they still foolishly struggled forward.

In the Hummer, all five people stared at the movement in the distance, until the helicopter left, Glenn gritted his teeth and said hatefully.

"Lu, it's them, I recognize that helicopter!"