Chapter 77

**- Narrator -**

Randall started trembling as soon as his eyes met Xenon's cold gaze. An involuntary reaction he had no control over, and nobody blamed him for it. After everything he's been through, they would be surprised if he still had an ounce of resistance in him; Xenon proved to him that such thoughts are futile.

"You know the rules." Xenon said coldly. "Do not try my patience, and you will be left in one piece. Understood?" Randall nodded frantically as if to prove how deeply he understood.

"Good." Xenon nodded. "First question, when did they plan to attack?"

"They won't attack unless we give them the signal!" Randall explained as fast as he could. "We were told to contact them within a week when we found the opportunity for an attack! If not, we were supposed to leave this place and rejoin the main group, taking as many weapons or food as we could take with us."

"How are you supposed to contact them?"

"We have a talkie and a gun stuck under our car!" Xenon was very satisfied with how cooperative Randall was being, making him even more glad to receive his latest skill, judging by how well it was performing. Though he was uncertain of how much of it was thanks to the skill's usage.

"Do you know where they are staying right now?"

"T-t-the group always move! I swear I don't know!" Randall stuttered, earning a deathly glare from Xenon.

* SMACK *

"Answer the damn question!"

"I swear man! I really don't know!" Randall had tears in his eyes, fearing they wouldn't believe him and start another round of finger breaking.

"I see..." Xenon narrowed his eyes at him, increasing the pressure even further on him. Before it disappeared completely. "Tell me, Randall, do you wish to live?" Randall's face drained of all colors at his question.

"PLEASE MAN! I SWEAR! I TOLD YOU THE TRUTH!" He said, frantically shaking in his chair.

"Well fortunately for you, I believe you." Xenon nodded with a smile, Randall stopped for a moment, considering this new bizarre situation. "But you see, we can never trust you as long as your group is still alive..."

"So, let me ask you again, Randall, do you wish to live?" It didn't take Randall long to understand what they were asking of him, yet it also seemed like his way forward. As long as they believed he had no sympathy for that group, and that he didn't even 'desire' to be part of them, regardless of how untrue that might be, there was perhaps the tiniest chance they'd accept to let him live under certain conditions. And he firmly believed that apart from Xenon and Daryl, not a single member of the group was a 'killer' and that as long as a peaceful option existed, they'd try it before anything else.

<Title: Defend the Prison.>

Objective: Defend the prison from the attack led by Randall and Dave's group.

Bonus Objective: Kill all members of the group.

*Rewards:

-> ?????

There wasn't much to do for the group. They can't make the base appear ready for combat, they needed the enemy with their guard down. They had to inform of the impending attack. They can't afford to have them leave their kids unattended for the duration of the attack for whatever reason.

The plan started at two in the morning when Randall was forced to use the talkie to contact his old teammates.

"This is Randall, are you there?" He was doing his best to ignore the gun pointed at his head ready to fire at a moment's notice, as to not alarm them.

"Yeah. What happened? You took your time." Came the response from the other side.

"They were more careful than expected." Randall replied easily. "We haven't been successful in finding a moment alone. Right now is the ideal time to go forward with the plan."

"Is everyone sleeping?"

"Yeah. Dave and another one of the group are on guard duty. He is distracting him while I get the gun and the talkie. He told me to contact you first before killing him."

"We can get there in about forty minutes. Do it."

"Alright. We'll leave the front door open for you. Once we kill him, we gotta make sure nobody gets out to check on us."

"Alright, you do what you gotta do. We'll be there." Rick took the talkie from him and deactivated it.

"Good, now sit tight. Don't make a sound." Randall nodded grimly as he had undoubtedly sentenced his old allies to death. He might not admit it but he did look up to them.

"It's done. They said they'll be here in forty minutes." Rick said through his talkie.

"Alright everyone, take your position. We'll keep you updated on the situation from up here." Came the response. The vehicles were cleared from the entrance to avoid damaging them and keep the hostiles away from any potential cover. The group had people stationed on top of the towers with scopes and machine guns, and they would be the main fighting force. While others were hidden behind the buildings at the entrance to make sure they were dead. The two ex-prisoners took this as an opportunity to gain the group's trust, as they volunteered to take on those relatively dangerous positions. Xenon vouched for giving them a chance, something everybody took into consideration before agreeing to do so.

In the meantime, Xenon, Shane, and Daryl would go through the hills next to the prison, using the trees as covers to approach the invaders from behind. Xenon, Shane, and even Rick insisted that no survivors should be left in the aftermath of the attack, as nobody would ever feel safe going outside otherwise. It is easy to plan an ambush against them if you are highly motivated to do so. There was no resistance to Xenon volunteering for the job, as he proved time and again he was extremely competent. They were very worried about them though and reminded them no small amount of times that their lives came first, that they shouldn't push too deeply into the enemy if there was no other way around it.

"It's done! Dave says we'll wait two hours tops for you to come. If you don't, we'll be forced to leave! I gotta go take my position now." After ten minutes, Randall spoke through the talkie again.

"We've got you. We're on our way."

About a dozen miles away from them, four cars were making their way through the empty highways in the silent night. A group of twelve heavily armed men, each carrying a distinct weapon with them, driving with purpose towards the prison, a heavy atmosphere surrounding them. This would be one of the biggest hits they've ever made; they've never clashed with a group as big as the one they are intent on attacking. And albeit they were relatively confident in their skills, their careful planning, and the skill of their teammates, gunfights were extremely difficult to predict. Each one of them had no doubts that they might die in the attack, yet their preparations still gave them enough confidence to believe the probability of a mishap occurring is exceedingly low.

"That's weird, how come Dave never spoke to us." He commented to the others, who were having similar thoughts by now.

"Maybe their security is pretty tight, and he had to get to his position as fast as possible. I mean he gotta make sure nobody gets out from those cellblocks if that's where they are sleeping." His companion said thoughtfully.

"I don't know man, this doesn't feel right to me."

"Well suck it up, James." He shrugged. "We'll see how it is when we get there. Randall's a good lad, I don't think he'd betray us."

"You're saying he wouldn't betray us to save his skin?" James scoffed. "Please, even Dave wouldn't blink twice before doing it."

"I say I don't think he would. None of us have any guarantees of that." He shrugged.

"I guess we'll see how it goes." James sighed, opting to stay silent through the whole ride, thinking of ways to deal with this situation. He knew that, should they try to infiltrate the prison while the group was on high alert, there was little doubt they'd get decimated almost immediately. Fighting in the open against an armed group occupying an advantageous position with covers was a recipe for disaster. 'Then a few of us will have to make the sacrifice.' James finally decided as the pseudo leader of the group, but even he was uncertain of how successful that strategy would prove to be.