Still scared, Ethan drove the jeep, following the motorcycle of the man who had saved them from that hellish place where he worked. The word "worked" was still strange to him; he never thought that today would be his last day of work. They also didn't have much time to ask Rick if this was just temporary and if it happened only in this region.
But when he remembered that earlier today someone from the capital said they were having some serious problems, he could only imagine that it had something to do with this terrible disease. His hands still trembled slightly on the steering wheel as he thought about the people who were devoured alive in front of him.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" the soldier who was in the passenger seat next to him asked.
"Hmm? Oh, I forgot, you haven't been informed yet… We're following the Fireman, he has a safe place…"
"There's nothing in that direction other than villages and forests… We should go to the Northwest, there's a real military base there. Among them are the best soldiers who were selected to be part of the second colonization group—"
"You bastard, you tried to kill me!" The mechanic shouted, pointing his finger at the man in the suit. "Hey, calm down, it was just an accident, I tripped in my despair…"
The man replied calmly with a sly smile…
"Nonsense… You're a murderer!"
The argument made Ethan look at the four people in the back seat when he noticed the confusion forming. He saw the receptionist, head down, squeezed between the two who were fighting, and then he noticed something strange. Next to the man in the suit, the other soldier had one of his arms hanging out of the jeep's window, and his head hung as if he were unconscious.
At the same time that Ethan looked at him, his head lifted, and a grunt silenced all the arguments.
"Grrraaah"
"AHHH FUCK HELP ME." Shouted the man in the suit, who was next to the zombie soldier and now held him with both hands, preventing the monster from biting him.
"KYAAA!" The receptionist reacted again, screaming loudly in panic.
And the mechanic was the only one to think quickly, asking the soldier in the front seat for a gun. The man hesitated for a moment, but realizing that he didn't have a good angle from the back seat, he handed a pistol to the mechanic who, after aiming for a few seconds, finally fired a shot at the zombie's forehead.
"BANG!"
Breathing heavily and desperately wiping away the blood that had splashed on him, the man in the suit opened the door of the still-moving jeep and threw the corpse of the zombie soldier out. But when he closed the door, he realized that the mechanic still had the gun pointed at him.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"You were bitten, weren't you? It's dark and I can't confirm, we better get rid of you too, just in case…"
"FUCKING WAIT!"
Ethan then braked the car abruptly, realizing that Rick had also stopped.
"Wait, you don't have to shoot me, I'll just get out of the car, okay?"
The mechanic just looked on in silence as if ignoring his words…
"Hey, I'm sorry, okay? I was panicking and thought I was going to die at that moment… Now stay calm, okay?" The man in the suit said in an almost pleading tone to the mechanic.
"You… Give me back my gun, I'll check if he has any bites and—"
The soldier was interrupted in his dialogue again, but this time by Rick, who grabbed the mechanic's gun through the window in a quick, almost inhuman movement. And then he looked at everyone inside the vehicle with a serious face.
Ethan, worried, got out of the driver's seat and explained everything that had happened...
"Listen, I'm not going to force you to follow me, you can grab your things and go wherever you want. But if you're going to join my group, you better start understanding that there's no democracy here, okay? I'm the leader and I give the orders, follow my rules and you won't have any problems..."
"...Right now my priority is to take you to a place further away from the big cities and build a safe shelter there. We can resolve any problems you have between yourselves later, I just ask that you hand over your weapons, if you shoot again you might attract the dead from the cities where we're going to stay."
"Your motorcycle then, if you can't take me to the northwest base, give me your motorcycle…" The soldier asked in desperation when he realized that now he would have to hand over his weapons and wouldn't be able to get a ride.
"Do you understand the value of non-electric vehicles? Besides, trust me, the military base you want to go to won't last long due to the same problem that caused your current base to fall."
Grinding his teeth, the soldier handed over all his weapons, keeping only a knife. Rick gave the mechanic a level 1 crystal, saying it would help with the pain, but Maya and Ethan knew what the "medicine" was.
After getting back on the road and traveling for another two hours, they soon arrived at an open village that was almost completely dark. Without power and without the moonlight, which was now completely blocked by the strange clouds of the apocalyptic sky.
The only lighting inside the village came from a few torches and lit fireplaces. Rick soon followed the familiar streets and stopped at one of the houses that had a lit torch outside. When he got off the motorcycle, he turned to Maya and the others who got out of the car and said:
"Welcome to Pineview Village!"
Everyone looked at him with curiosity and suspicion, after all, this place didn't give a sense of security, especially since it was so open. But then the door of the house where they were was opened and a 15-year-old girl ran towards Rick, scaring everyone and hugging him tightly.
"BIG BROTHER I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!"
Rick hugged the skinny girl back, who had the same brown eyes and hair as he did. He looked at her fondly and felt relieved to see that his little sister was safe. And then, he turned his eyes to the door, there a middle-aged figure was looking at him with kind eyes… Someone he hadn't seen in many years, and one of Rick's biggest regrets in his other life…
"Welcome back, son!" The woman said in a soft tone that almost made Rick shed tears…
He then separated from his little sister and went to his mother to hug her, still not believing that she was alive…
But when he looked behind his mother, he saw Vanessa looking at him, and she had a face that Rick had seen many times in the apocalypse while leading a group of survivors. A face that brought bad news…