97 Getting into action

Prison in western Georgia, atop a watchtower. 

Daniel sat atop a watchtower, his face could be described in one word, bored, scanning the surrounding forest with his eyes through the scope of his rifle. All the time it was quiet, there were no people or walkers coming very close to the prison due to the fact that it was now completely isolated. 

This originally dense forest had been largely cleared, and the forest that was near the prison had disappeared at least a hundred meters away to the first wire fence of the prison. 

This provided a very wide and safe view outside the prison, which was very beneficial to the snipers who were in the guard towers all the time. 

Airon felt that, although the trees around the prison could provide some support, they seriously blocked the view of the prison and that gave an incredible disadvantage to the people sitting in the watchtowers. 

With simple and efficient methods, the trees around the prison were felled and the forest started more than a hundred meters outside the prison, leaving a large open space, which is also suitable for future expansion work.

Today, the height of the average watchtowers surpassed most of the trees in the forest, although it was impossible to have a clear view south of the forest due to the terrain, their view at this time was not bad at all thanks to the fact that the forest in front of this side of the prison had been cleared to the maximum. 

As usual, there were shifts for experienced people to guard the outside of the prison inside the watchtowers, this time it was Daniel's turn. Looking at his watch, he saw that it was almost noon. He was about to take a break and be a little more relaxed in his surveillance when suddenly, several figures appeared in the viewing hood of his telescopic sight. 

Today, because the top of the watchtower was camouflaged, although both sides were within the field of view, obviously the other side could not notice them coming into his range of vision, and they were still walking vigilantly forward. 

Daniel stood up, positioned his body and looked with watchful eyes at the people through the lens of his rifle. By now, he had identified seven targets in total, but the most curious thing was that a black-skinned woman was tied up and led by one of the group. Seeing this, Daniel had noticed the situation. Except for the woman, all the targets were dangerous because of their weapons! 

Realizing that things were not that simple, Daniel immediately picked up the radio on his bed and reported the situation, "Zz.... Response team, there is an armed group approaching from the west road. There are seven targets, one of them is suspected to be a hostage, I have them in range, act carefully!" 

"Roger eye 1, stand by immediately!" Tyler, from a central communications tower, immediately began to deploy orders one after another. 

The guard towers were immediately reinforced by personnel, the people who were kept working on the outside crops were removed from their jobs for safety and all doors were sealed. 

In no time, the entire prison issued a grade 1 alert, which meant that a potential enemy with considerable unknown firepower was close to the prison, so a strike team would take care of the problem and until then everyone would have to keep their heads down. 

Soon, a team of ten people with class two authority were led by Merle who immediately left the prison. Merle was now feeling better than ever. Since he decided to follow Airon, his temperament has calmed down a lot, although in this kind of situation he ceases to have compassion. 

However, after getting out many times, people began to respect and admire the fact that he knows how to survive. Nowadays no one cares about morals when it comes to saving his own life, and Merle has proved it when it comes to survival in nature.　 

In addition to that, his brother Daryl often takes some people to hunt and brings a lot of meat to improve the stability of the food, he also often scratches some animals to keep them in captivity. 

People began to respect the two brothers, and Merle also experienced the feeling of being admired and respected for how he really is. This invisible sense of identity actually made his performance on the team better and better. 

What kind of person doesn't want to be loved and respected by others when they know what they are really like? This kind of feeling is often false, some people hate cats, but what person in the world would not hate you just because you are someone different? 

But now common sense, the importance of public opinion, the fact of considering what others think has long been disregarded and now everyone can be free. 

As soon as Merle led an immediate response team out the door, he contacted Daniel in the watchtower for intelligence. Through Daniel's guidance, Merle was able to ascertain the enemy's whereabouts with ease and without much trouble. 

"This fucking body armor is really annoying, fucking body armor, how the hell can they get so heavy?" Merle complained under his breath as he continued to move forward with the strike team. 

At this point, the distance between the two sides began to slowly shorten. Merle stopped in the woods more than a hundred yards from the targets and began to explain the action situation to the team. After telling the plan, only Jim and a man named Marcos stayed by his side and the rest began to spread out to the sides. 

"Let's go bust ass!" Merle signaled and began to move in front of the enemies in the distance. 

While all this was going on, Martinez's group walked through the forest, stepping on dry branches under their feet. Every time one of their group took a step, the crunching sound could be heard coming from the ground. Although the surrounding area is a simple forest, Martinez was becoming more and more certain that they were walking in the right direction. 

One of the reasons is that since they entered this forest, they encountered very few walkers, and only occasionally saw one to two. I was sure that there should be people clearing these things in this forest every day. 

However, they didn't realize that they had already entered a trap, behind them a figure they originally thought was a walker stopped moving and then took out a radio. "This is a scout, the target just moved around my position, there are seven of them, and a black-skinned woman is a hostage."

"Copy that Viktor, move and support Captain Merle on interception!" 

"Roger that!" 

Ignoring the walkers that weren't headed in his direction due to their camouflage, Viktor raised his rifle and advanced behind Martinez's group. 

A dozen meters ahead, Martinez raised the gun in his hand, his gaze turned sharp and he signaled for the people behind him to disperse, as he slowly walked slower to position himself behind the others. 

The people around them were getting more and more nervous and pointed the guns in their hands as they carefully watched every movement in the surroundings, but none of them noticed that Michonne had slowed down her speed and was now behind the whole group, her gaze had regained color, her eyes watched the rope in Crowley's hands as she looked for an opportunity to escape from this group.

They all kept walking forward with their own minds making assumptions about what might happen, but just when they thought they were too alert, a hoarse voice of a man was heard right in front of them, "Hey, stop at this fucking place and time! If I were you guys, I wouldn't keep moving forward." 

"Who are you?" The sudden voice startled the whole group, unable to see where the person was. They all unconsciously held their weapons and pointed to the front where the voice came from. 

"I'm the ranger of this place, damn invaders get the hell out of my playground." Merle was the one speaking, and shortly after came out from behind a large tree, with a smile on his face as he looked at the people approaching the prison.

Michonne was the first to react to everyone's distraction, and Merle's appearance only caused her to make a sudden movement, her gaze that was fixed on Crowley's hands who was holding the rope that was tied around her body. 

At that moment, when Crowley raised the gun in panic, the rope in his hands was now only held with one and Michonne was sure she could escape. 

Under no circumstances did she want to lose this opportunity, so Michonne tensed her muscles and lunged backwards pulling the rope tightly, Crowley only felt the rope burn his hand before he let go and the gun in his hand also fell to the ground. 

"Ash!" with a single movement, Michonne broke free of Crowley's hands.

Feeling the burning sensation in the palm of his hand, Crowley didn't have time to worry about the pain, so he quickly grabbed the gun from the ground and just as he was about to shoot Michonne, his movements froze. 

Although Michonne broke away from Crowley, she hadn't expected to lose her balance and fall to the ground. In the time it took for the other party to lift the gun, Michonne had backed up backwards until she felt her back hit a figure, when her gaze lifted she found a bloody person but the most curious thing was that he was holding a gun in his hands and this did not appear to be a walker. 

Merle, who observed the whole process, smiled with a fake look on his face. Originally he wanted to joke a little more with these people, but he wasn't about to see the black skinned woman escape from the hands of these idiots, and when he saw that Crowley was about to try to shoot he knew he shouldn't waste his time. 

"I told you bitches to stop!" Marle's exaggerated shout instantly caught the attention of the people who were about to turn around, they stopped and Martinez stepped forward and said with confusion, "Are you asking us to stand still? But you're holding a carrot while your gun is on your back." 

Merle smiled, showing a mouthful of yellowish teeth, and it was then that Martinez sensed something was not right. And sure enough, Merle again said in a loud voice, "Everyone! Don't be shy and let's greet our guests properly." 

As soon as Merle finished saying those words a group of people appeared from the surroundings, who slowly surrounded Martinez's group, and Crowley who had since some time ago lowered his gun, showed a nervous expression.　

In short, Michonne, who was about to be killed, ran into a scout who had arrived from behind the group and launched a sudden intervention. Seeing how such a situation had unfolded, Martinez smiled wryly, dropped the gun in his hands without showing resistance and then turned her head to look at the others. 

"Put the gun down!" 

Several fully equipped people surrounded them and Martinez's group helplessly lowered their weapons. 

Merle instructed a member of his team to bring Michonne to his side, and as she was brought closer to his position, he glared at this woman and said, "Tell me honey, why did they tie you up? They must have been beasts to you, now are you safe." 　 

Michonne didn't have time to pay attention to Merle's ridiculous words, she just turned her gaze back to the group of Martinez and they began to feel fear for what she was about to say. 

"Because they killed my friend! They want to take me back and quite possibly it's to torture me or do anything else unimaginable to me!"