92 Chapter 92
- Xenon-
I knew those two were up to no good as soon as they spoke. Not only because of the overly friendly and disarming way of speaking, as if there was nothing to worry about in this world, but also because of the thinly veiled bloodlust underneath their smiling faces. Especially from the one called Felipe.
It did teach me a very important lesson though. Both of them wanted to kill me very much, but I sensed far more bloodlust from Felipe, mainly because of how bad he was at acting. While I could sense some of it from Fernando, it wasn't the same intensity. And since they were both in the governor's group from their last words, I could tell they haven't planned a single scenario where we lived. So it got me thinking: can somebody hide their bloodlust completely? It got me wondering how reliable that skill of mine was.
Back to the present, I was running through the empty streets following the direction they came from. I needed to ascertain how many of them there were if there were more than two. Also, I needed to get in a position to spot them before they came too close. I also advised Shane and Daryl to do the same thing, though they should stay a bit closer than me.
I spent quite some time on my search but never could see or hear anything abnormal. I knew Woodbury was quite far from us, which makes it less likely they sent only those two if they were planning on getting solar panels as well. Assuming that is what they were after in the first place. Maybe they only found us by coincidence. But did I truly want to risk our lives on "maybe"? No, I will do things the way I always did. Assume the worst, and hope for the best. Now, if I was in their shoes, with nefarious intentions, and wanted to kill us and take our loot. What would I do?
The only idea I could come up with was laying a trap. But that means they'd have to know what route we'd be taking, something they had no knowledge of. It is safe to assume so because if they did, they wouldn't have risked making themselves known to us unless they were incredibly dumb. And again, they have no way to know that because their base was nowhere close.
Now, an obvious solution would be to take a different route on our way back. That would certainly increase our odds of getting out of this unscathed at a significant time cost, but it was a worthy trade. I'd take that any time of the day instead of an armed conflict, especially one I wasn't confident winning. We had enough fuel to travel a whole day without stopping, so that wasn't a problem for us either.
I took out my map and looked at roads that could lead to this place from Woodbury. I eliminated all those that could come from that direction. I also eliminated the one that lead straight to the big horde of walkers we dealt with here. It only left a few, most of which would increase the time we'd take to get back significantly. Not to mention that regardless of the route we take, we'd have to converge to the same intersection, unless we were planning on taking days on the trip, which we couldn't afford to do. I eventually decided on a course of action.
"John, how is it going on your side?"
"We're almost done. Everyone's tired, but they're soldiering through. At this pace, I'd say we need half an hour at most to take everything of value."
"Put it on hold for now. Take some time to reinforce the back of the trucks. We might have to deal with bullets on our way back." He took some time to answer back in acceptance, and I couldn't blame him. We never anticipated we'd have to fight our way out. Thankfully, we were at a hardware store, meaning that the task I assigned them wasn't particularly difficult.
"Shane, Daryl, anything out of the ordinary?"
"No."
"Negative. A few walkers are coming our way because of the noise. They shouldn't be a problem though." Damn. I really hate being misinformed. Frankly, I was hoping for some bad news on their part. Like a tank is coming our way or something. At least, to let me know that something is about to happen. The fact that I know that something is being cooked in the background is a far worse feeling. As Zed always liked to say: The unseen blade is the deadliest. I can't disagree with that statement.
- Narrator -
The increased work pace certainly drained the group, but the looming threat over them did wonders to motivate them. They were able to finish loading everything in record time and now were ready to depart with full reinforced trucks.
Maggie and Andrea would be driving the trucks since the men had the most experience with guns, and Xenon was almost sure there would be gunfights on their trip back. They were both given certain directions to follow, and Xenon was counting on them not to flip the trucks over because as long as that didn't happen, they would be able to get through this successfully.
Xenon was driving at the front with Andrea, and Shane was sitting next to Maggie. The logic is that if a fight broke out, only a single person would be able to shoot from the front seat comfortably. The others were at the back, ready for action in their own way.
The military trucks provided some opening people could shoot through. The back was originally covered, but not any more thanks to the reinforcements they were able to add. Overall, as long as they didn't blow up the trucks, which Xenon seriously doubted they'd do since they were after the content, they were very confident they would live through this.
Everyone was armed and ready to fight should push comes to shove, and albeit Jason, their resident solar panel technician was given an assault rifle as well, he was told to stay undercover unless he had no other choice, a decision everyone was in agreement with because they understood how valuable he was at the moment. They knew that once he was back home he would start passing on the knowledge to a few others just in case something happened to him. They took off as soon as their briefing was over. And it seems that luck was also on their side because they noticed that as soon as they left, the horde of walkers that Xenon led away from the town was making its way back there, as the latter could see them slowly popping on his map.
The roads were empty again, except for the occasional walkers that could be easily ignored. But problems started appearing as soon as they got far enough, mainly because this was an unexplored road they were taking.
"Walkers ahead, about fifty of them. Get your bows and get ready to fight." They had about a hundred arrows in total, more than enough to deal with them. Xenon was constantly using his [Detect Presence] ability to scout for any people around, but its range was very limited to give him any valuable data while he was on a moving vehicle.
"We take them out of the road first, otherwise we'll have to pick the bodies ourselves." Shane remarked, earning a nod from Xenon.
"Good thinking." Xenon approved, and everyone took their positions. The walkers already spotted them, so half their work was already done. The bows made dealing with walkers extremely easy, reducing the risks significantly. It took them five minutes in total to deal with every single one of them before they resumed their journey back home.
But it seems like that day was not their lucky day, as not only a dozen miles away they found trouble again, in the form of four cars blocking the road at an angle that distinctly indicated some kind of accident between them. And while accidents weren't exactly uncommon, there were either far more vehicles involved or far less, which got Xenon frowning at the situation. He narrowed his eyes in thought as the trucks were slowing down from a distance away due to their heavy cargo. The world was running in slow motion in Xenon's eyes, as the gears of his mind were audibly turning at full speed, analyzing the situation from various angles, a sinking feeling slowly settling on his stomach. He activated [Detect Presence] but he got a negative answer. Though that can also be attributed to how far they were, and he knew very well that should this be an ambush, the moment he got a positive answer, it would already be too late...
