19 Back to the beginning

The next day, the clock struck seven o'clock and Airon woke up instinctively. He looked at the ceiling of his small room and took a deep breath, today seemed to be a busy day. 

As he dressed, Airon looked at himself in the mirror with a serious face. Honestly he has had problems in his communication with others when he wanted to reflect a friendlier attitude, he didn't know if it was because he had to maintain a leader profile or that's just his personality. 

When he was ready, he left the room to the command room. The place and roles had changed, Airon handed the role to Tylor of watching this place by the cameras, while the ex-soldiers next to him were in charge of taking care of this place being the closest people to him. 

The ranks and security were still clear, civilians were civilians and had to do work to keep this place moving. While soldiers or people with guns who kept this place safe had an official rank. 

"Get ready to move out, we are going to have a long trip where we will possibly pick up many survivors." Ordered Airon Darcy with a calm look on his face, this time he planned to take half of the soldiers under his ranks of which had not had much contact with the outside. 

Some of whom were not soldiers, they were trained for a month so they would be ready. Airon also went on expedition and got to know more closely the people who decided to continue protecting the others. 

"I'll take care of assembling the team, sir." Said Mike, who was the black-skinned soldier that Airon had saved when the temporary shelter outside had been abandoned by the army. 

With a group of ten people, Airon looked at them all with a serious face and said, "The situation is as follows, we move to King County to search for resources and survivors, then we will move to Atlanta and from there we will take a detour." 

"Understood!" 

"Get the vehicles ready, we'll move in ten minutes!" 

"Yes!" 

Looking around, Airon sighed and walked towards the exit. Looking at Mike who looked very serious, Airon said, "The trip will be quiet, remember to be more afraid of the living and not the dead. Those walkers are slow and without intelligence, we just have to open our eyes wide so we don't run into a wave." 

"I understand, sir." Mike nodded, since joining under Airon's orders, he learned many things about walkers. 

...

The place outside the CDC was cleared weeks ago and all the walker bodies were cremated away from this place. At this time, the surroundings of the CDC were clean of corpses. Although there were still some bodies scattered around. 

At this time, Rick and Airon along with the other soldiers got into several different cars and all exited the CDC garage. 

Looking at the walkers approaching towards the group of cars, Airon pointed out, "Rick, the people infected by the virus are no longer human!" 

As Airon looked at the established route, there was a series of gunshots not far from their position, followed by shots from a higher caliber rifle. 

"I understand..." The sound of gunshots startled Rick, and he moved his head to look out the window in the direction they were heard. 

However, there were a lot of buildings and it seemed that the sounds were coming from a place much farther away than he thought. Airon, who looked at this, folded up the map and held up his assault rifle. 

Picking up the radio, Airon reported, "Although the bullets can't pierce the armor, beware of a major attack." 

"Roger that!" 

Last night, Airon and Rick discussed what would be done today. Their first stop was to go to the police station in King County to take the remaining weapons and ammunition. Although Airon had plenty of resources in storage and a few out of the way spots of supplies he had not yet picked up, he was in no hurry to take everything at once and anything he could gather was welcome. 

Another reason he was undertaking this trip was to pick up some survivors who had stayed behind in the county buildings and from time to time he would get information over the radio. 

Although the road leading into King County was blocked, the oncoming lane was not obstructed. Occasionally a few abandoned vehicles could be seen, but it did not affect the pace of the drive at all.　　 

It didn't take long for everyone to drive into town and there weren't many walkers to be seen, perhaps because the townspeople had left to seek shelter and there were very few infected. 

Rick looked all around the outside and couldn't help but sigh helplessly, after he mentioned his house the group of cars turned onto the street where Rick's house was. 

Stopping, everyone got out of the cars and Airon walked down the street in silence. 

"Airon, I'll go inside and take a brief look around. I need the key to the police station, wait here." 

After Rick finished speaking, he walked into the room with an M1911 that Airon had handed him. 

Airon walked to a building in the distance and looked out the windows, and waved his hands overhead. "It's safe to come out, we're here to take you to safety." 

As soon as he finished speaking, Mike and some soldiers came rushing to his side, looking at Airon he hurriedly asked, "Are they survivors?" 

Peering into the houses, Mike found that there were many eyes staring at them in silence. His heart fluttered and he shouted, "There are survivors, get the truck ready to evacuate them." 

Seeing Mike so agitated, Airon pointed out, "Most of them are old people who could not move freely due to the shock, if we did not come for them today they would possibly starve to death. There aren't many of them, get them on the trucks and check them for injuries." 

"I'll handle it." 

When he heard Airo's words, Mike agreed. Times really are tough and nowadays it's complicated for seniors to be accepted. It was a surprise that Airon approved to take them, without him realizing it, the respect he felt for Airon grew more and he internally committed himself not to make mistakes.

Airon didn't follow Mike to rescue the survivors, but walked along the edges of the street, took out his dagger and took out some walkers one by one. 

"Crack!" 

Black blood came out of their brains, staining the ground and after being stabbed in the back of the head they stopped moving.

He then walked to the courtyard of a nearby home and spoke into the radio after tuning to a channel. 

"We're here to evacuate people, it's safe to come out." 

The second floor window suddenly opened and a black boy exposed his upper body, waved to Airon and ran down the stairs. 

Not long after, the front door opened and out came a family of three - Morgan, his wife Jenny and their son Duane. 

"Airon, they're here!" Morgan hugged Airon with a smile on his face, and Jenny also stepped forward to hug Airon. 

"Hello, Mr. Soldier!" Duane walked up next to his mother and greeted Airon. 

Airon smiled and touched Duane's head, then turned his head and said to Morgan, "Morgan, Jenny, I didn't think there were that many survivors in this place." 

"If I'm being honest I didn't expect them to come through this place again so soon. If it wasn't for you and your group, Jenny wouldn't be right next to us." Morgan was very pleasantly surprised by Airon's arrival. 

He received his message only less than twelve hours ago, so Morgan didn't expect his arrival to be so quick. 

"Morgan, we are passing through King County and we have decided to take all the survivors you gathered in this place. 

After saying that, Airon said, "Today I can take you to a place where your safety will be safe. It is not safe to go out every day to find supplies. This time we will move to Atlanta for another group of survivors, and I think the more people we are, the better we can develop." 

Just as Airon was speaking, Rick came out of the nearby dwelling, seeing a stranger, Rick approached with some hesitation. 

"Airon, do you know them?" Rick looked at the three people in front of him, a common family like his own. 

Airon looked at Rick and said, "This is Morgan, Jenny and Duane. I met Jenny when me and my group came through here earlier. We stopped and took out some walkers before splitting up." 

After speaking, Airon introduced Morgan's family, "This is my friend, Rick. He's obviously a cop, one of the good guys." 

When Morgan saw Rick's police uniform, he roughly guessed his identity, and the moment he heard Airon's introduction, he gave Rick a friendly nod. 

Rick still eyed Morgan warily and asked tentatively, "This house...is home to other people." 

Morgan simply nodded and said, "We never saw the original owners. The house was empty when we arrived." 

Just as the conversation was about to get longer, Mike arrived at Airon's side and saluted, "Sir, the civilians and their belongings have boarded the truck, there are 8 people and most of them are seniors." 

"Get ready to move out of this place!" Airon said with a nod. 

"Roger that!" Mike looked at the civilians next to Airon and stepped back before waving slightly. 

He quickly stepped back and began ordering the soldiers to get ready to stand down. Airon noticed the surprised looks from the others and said, "Although it may not look like it, I am a retired soldier and currently protecting a CDC facility that still remains active." 

"That's good news, I'm glad there's still some of the military left on the streets of the country." Morgan smiled reassuringly. 

Rick was amazed that Airon, who seems very young for such a long history, would maintain the safety of a safe haven.

Airon put his hands down and looked at his watch. It was already past eight in the morning and his fingers tapped on the clock. Rick understood he had to leave, so he turned and walked to the car. 

"Morgan, Atlanta is currently completely occupied by walkers, the time has come for you to make a decision: follow us or stay." Airon invited him for the last time.

"Okay, wait a minute, we have to go get our stuff." Morgan's family rushed into the house, Airon didn't wait outside and walked to eliminate other walkers.

Not long after, the Morgan family came out, each with a not-so-big backpack, and the group boarded the modified RV bus where Airon and Geroge along with Rick were traveling. 

Originally, Morgan and the others were already attracted by the appearance of this modified RV, on the outside it has a very fierce appearance. Being able to own such a car in this apocalyptic world will undoubtedly greatly enhance their safety. 

...

King County Police Department, Weapons Depot. 

"Clack!" 

There was no one at the King County Police Station and a group of people quickly arrived at the ammunition depot. 

"There are a lot fewer guns here!" said Rick as he entered the ammunition depot. 

The group quickly reached the deepest part of the ammunition depot, there were still a lot of firearms and some bullets in the gun rack. They all gathered up the guns and ammunition in a hurry, and Rick put his Colt Python revolver back in its holster and picked up a Remington 700 and handed it to Morgan. 

Rick said, "Although it may not look like it, it's a very accurate weapon. 

Morgan took the gun, tried to point it to the side and nodded. 

"If we're done here, let's get moving." Airon said with a slight smile, it always felt good to find new weapons.