Chapter 15

Logan and Maggie made it to the farm, where Hershel treated his gunshot wound and stitched it.

"So can you tell me what happened there?" Rick, who came early, asked as Hershel finished taking care of Logan's wound.

"We've been ambushed by people, but I've taken care of them.." Logan simply said. 

"This is concerning." Rick said with a serious tone. 'Hostile survivors' were among their concerns, and part of why they want to build the walls and recruit more people.

"Indeed it is, we don't even know if those were all of their group. For all we know they may be part of a bigger group, and they are lurking nearby." Logan nodded as this incident opened a new can of worms he wanted to avoid, but still knows it's unavoidable.

"So what do we do about this?" Hershel, who was relieved his daughter was safe, asked in concern.

Logan turned to him and told him "I talked with Rick about this before, we know about a group in Atlanta that has good people, and were thinking about recruiting them." 

Hershel looked at him, he knew the two men in front of him were the ones he trusted the most among their group, and he knew the safety of everyone concerned them more than anything.

"Are you sure they can be trusted? Because if we bring any questionable individual. It's my girls' lives that will be in danger." Hershel, as always being the protective father he is, voices his concerns about the safety of his daughters.

"We may not know them very well, but they risked their lives protecting elderly, who were abandoned in a nursing home in Atlanta, they took care of them." Rick told him.

"Well, I won't refuse their help if you vouch for them. But be sure to make them stay away from my girls." Logan, who heard this, looked to the side. What happened between him and Maggie is still fresh in his mind. 

"Then I will have to depart right away to find them." Logan stood up and rolled his shoulder.

"You shouldn't go with your injury." Hershel frowned at him, wanting him to stay in bed at least for a day or two.

"I'm sorry, but I have to do this. The more we delay this, the more danger we will be in." Logan shook his head adamant on going.

"Then you should at least take someone who knows the place, that way you will find them faster." Rick said not letting Logan go on his own.

"Alright, I will take Daryl with me, you just need to take care of everyone while I'm away." Logan pointed at Rick and basically told him he is responsible for the safety of everyone while he's away.

"I will radio the others and inform Daryl to meet you there on the way" Rick nodded, accepting being the temporary leader until Logan is back.

As he was about to leave, Logan turned to them and smiled "By the way, we managed to gather some good stuff from the town, I put them in our camping place, keep the materials stored for when we need them, and bring any tools the others may need on their digging effort." 

Rick complied "I will see what they need and tell T-Dog to bring them to the others, he's been feeling left out since he was injured." 

"Well, if he's ready to start working, then let him join.." Logan said before exiting the house.

…

Logan took an AK-12 with two extra magazines, a few empty bags, and some other things. He took the truck he brought back since it will be useful to carry anything the Vatos may want to bring. 

"You're already going out." Logan turned to meet Maggie standing a few steps away from him and smiled.

"It's for everyone's safety." Logan said.

"What about your safety?" Maggie countered.

"Daryl will handle that. I trust him with my life even if he seems like an uncaring person, but he's a big softy inside." Logan reassured her.

"I still don't like it." She said again.

Logan knew that what happened still weighed on her mind, he walked forward and pulled her onto a hug.

"I promise nothing will happen." Logan whispered in her ears before both looked at each other, then their lips met. 

After a while, they reluctantly broke the kiss and let go of each other. They bid each other goodbye for now. 

…

Beside the fence, others were still digging, well half were digging and others guarding them, after two hours they will switch places. Daryl already got ready once Rick informed him.

When Logan got there he informed others to increase their alert since he had an encounter with hostile survivors. He gave them assault rifles he brought with him to increase their firepower. 

"So we're going to recruit some street thugs now?" Daryl asked, seated beside Logan.

"Those street thugs are the only trustable survivors we can recruit." Logan said.

"Whatever." With that he kept silent as Logan drove all the way to Atlanta, on the way there they dodged some walkers on the.

"Seems like they're starting to spread." Logan said after they passed the 13th walkers on the road.

"Means we'l need to get ready to deal with more of these a*sholes." Daryl commented,

"All the more reason to recruit those people, with their help our chances will increase." Logan said.

Daryl kept quiet afterward, while Logan focused on driving.

Reaching the city, they went through some roads that have less walkers to avoid wasting a lot of time, since their mission is to find and recruit The Vatos as fast.

…

"This is the place?" Logan looked from the windowless truck, Daryl frowned.

"It is, but it wasn't as wrecked as it is now." Logan looked at him before taking his assault rifle and both stepped out of the vehicle.

They walked warily toward the place while keeping an eye out for anything that may pop out.

They were about to enter the place when Logan noticed someone sneaking on top of a wall, he signaled to Daryl to keep an eye on it.

Reaching the gate they were about to knock when Logan felt something was off.

Instead of knocking he kicked the door open which caused two men who were behind it to be pushed away and fall on the ground as both Daryl and Logan pointed their weapons at them, others behind the two pointed their weapons.

Daryl recognized them, but they looked in a bad stat. 

"Wait." Logan who still has his AK-12.

They kept their weapons pointed but didn't shoot.

"We're here to help. You've met my friend here before." Logan said.

They looked at Daryl, some of them recognized him.

"You're with that cop? Speak. Why are you here?" They loaded their weapons. But Logan raised a hand

"Wait! We're here to help!" Logan said with a loud voice with Daryl ready to shoot anytime.

"How are you going to help us?" A short man came forward, he was clearly their leader as the others stepped aside for him.

"My friends who came before, they told us about your situation, and we decided that we can help each other." Logan said, the man stopped clearly. He was shocked for a moment but he reigned his calm facade.

"Your help is too late, we've lost many of our people We're all that's left." It seems that his words made the man called Guillermo according to Rick and Daryl a bit agitated.

"It's never too late, You've lost people, but you're still here. We almost lost people too, but we managed to survive." Logan said, the guy looked at him.

"Don't lie! you just want more men!!" A bald guy with a goatee angrily retorted.  

"People are Resource. Besides, we came here intending to help you evacuate the elderly here to a better place, this way we can stand better chance in survival." Logan explained.

"If you expect us to believe-" the bald guy was about to continue arguing but Guillermo held a hand up indicating for him to stop.

"The place you got. Is it safe? Will my brothers be able to survive there?" Guillermo seems desperate, not to save his life first, but for his gang.

"I can guarantee it's safer than here, and we're working on making it even safer in the near future." Logan assured him. 

"What do you mean makin' it safer?" A teen, few years older than Carl, said from the side.

"We intend to fortify it, build a wall around it. Admittedly we lack manpower, and quite a lot of materials and equipment, but we're working on solving that." Logan chooses to be upfront and honest if he wants to gain their trust.

This made them interested, but Guillermo kept an unimpressed facade and asked.

"What is your arsenal situation then?" Logan looked at him for a while, trying to assert if the guy was digging information for malicious intent. "We won't hand over our weapons to you, if that's one of your aims." Guillermo continued.

Logan snorted, "I will promise you that we have more weapons than you." Guillermo nodded and motioned to the bald guy to come closer to him. They were whispering to each other.

Logan let them have their chat as he looked at Daryl whose eyes are telling him to ask about what happened here, to which Logan nodded.

"You have a medic?" Logan nodded but curious as to why he asked. "We have one, and a decent amount of meds too, why?" 

"Come inside." Guillermo said as the others finally lowered their guns, some of them followed him, as the others stepped to the side, allowing the two entry, Daryl motioned for Logan to go ahead while he stayed there seemingly in a staring competition with the bald dude.

…

Injured, some of the Vatos gang were wounded, a bit badly, no trace to the elderly they were taking care of, the whole picture was full in Logan mind. The Vatos were attacked presumably by another group, maybe they killed the elderly and some of the gang seeing as there were about 12 of them with four being wounded.

This group proved to Logan again how loyal they can be, even after they were attacked, when they needed to leave the city. They didn't, simply because they will not abandon their friends. This is the most important thing Logan searches for in people. Utmost Loyalty. 

"You want us to treat your men?" Logan asked him.

"That and their safety, if you can guarantee those I will follow you along with the remainder of my gang, if not then you can leave." Logan nodded, "I can't promise that, but I can promise that I will do my best to see all of you survive." 

The two looked at each for a while, the Vatos members were tense.

"We will take that." Guillermo finally agreed seeing how firm Logan is, both shook their hands.

"If it's alright with you, can you tell me what happened to you guys? I have a general idea, but I want to know more." Logan asked.

Guillermo began to tell him what happened after the Vatos seperated with Rick and the others, apparently another group with more weapons attacked them, while most of their gang were taking care of the elderly. And some of them went out to search for supplies, the other group have more than 20 men, while the Vatos were 16 with the absence of three who were running for supplies. 

That group managed to kill 5 of the Vatos gang, along with 8 of the elderly, with injurying 6 gang members, the group oblivious to the information that anyone who died will turn to a walker, kept their dead ones within the place which resulted in death of rest of the elderly and 2 of the injured gang members.

To say that Logan is surprised was to be expected, he also told them that he and another member of his group were ambushed in a town in rural area by a group of ten.

Guillermo described the leader of the enemy group that attacked them, and he didn't fit any of those that attacked Logan and Maggie, but for now Logan know to at least be wary if he were to meet him.

"You got any vehicles to transport your people?" Logan after their talk asked Guillermo about their vehicle's situation.

"We only have one working car, we were going to get some bigger vehicles in the city, to try and evacuate our wounded brothers." Guillermo started being open with Logan after getting acquainted.

"I can help you acquire them, but do you know the place of any hardware stores in the city? We need materials and tools like I said." Logan wanted to make the most out of this trip.

"The place where the trucks are in, is an area  of hardware warehouses." Guillermo negotiated and Logan quickly shook his hand. "You got yourself a deal." 

Logan took Guillermo and Felipe, who was his second-in-command, along with Daryl to their car and gave them four assault rifles M4 which surprised the two, "A token of friendship?." The selflessness of this gang gained them a bit of his trust. Enough to give them some weapons since they clearly lack them, the weapons Rick and others gave them were only enough to equip half of them, plus they lost two rifles. 

Guillermo decided to send Felipe, Miguel, and Jorge with them to help get them three trucks, which were more than enough to help transport all of their gang and their things, the third one was to be used to gather some of the materials Logan wanted.

…

The team was looking at an open area which had a fence around it, but there was a large breach in it, now the place is filled with walkers. 

Logan inspected the area, since it will take a lot of time to take all of them down, he took a careful look at the place from where he is.

Logan pointed "There. That warehouse is empty." The others looked at where he pointed, sure enough there was a building with front and back doors.

"I will bait them inside, once they're all inside, close the front door, and wait for my signal to close the back door." Darly simply nodded already accustomed to the man's suicidal tactics, which he make look easy since he was freaking stronger than anyone he saw in his sh*tty  life.

"You sure?" Miguel looked at him as if he was an idiot, Logan was different from the other people, even if he was trapped inside there with the walkers he'd still be able to take them out, then break out after.

Logan sprinted killing some walkers as the others noticed him, and started to move in his direction. He would kick some back toward the others to keep them close to each other. Acting as a shepherd guiding his sheep to the sheepcote in a way.

After he got them inside, Miguel and Jorge closed the front door behind them, Logan ran fast and came out of the back door which then was closed by Felipe, and Daryl who nodded at Logan.

"That went easier than expected." Logan said confidently

"..." the trio from Vatos gang could only look at him blankly, the guy literally passed through a large group of walkers until he was at the forefront then acted like a shepherd guiding sheeps to their sheepcote. 

"We don't have all day, let's grab the keys and take the trucks, we need to get the others and the goods here before we leave." Logan clapped his hands waking the trio while Daryl shook his head at Logan's antics. 

…

The group managed to get their things and transported their bedridden friends to the trucks, before they made a stop at the hardware warehouses and began to load everything they could before leaving.

Logan told the Vatos to wait for them on the highway as he made a little detour with Daryl to a store district where they basically took some supplies like meds, food, and some camping equipment for their living arrangements, especially tents.

After taking everything they need, Logan radioed Rick to inform them that they're coming back.

It was already dark when they went back to the farm. There were some walkers that were trapped in the spiked barriers that were extended for more than a 100 meters since they came here.

After a short drive from there they reached the farm, Rick, Shane, and the others were waiting for them with serious expressions, after a short greeting.

"We have something to discuss tomorrow." Rick whispered with a serious look.

Setting the tents for the Vatos members, most of the people went to sleep, except a few, Felipe and Miguel along with another gang member Carlos volunteered to take care of their brothers until the morning to see Hershel.

Logan, Rick, Shane, accompanied by Guillermo, Jorge, and another gang member Carlito, went to patrol the farmland in two separated teams, and keep watch over their camping friends.

with the remaining Vatos joining the group, the manpower increased from 8 capable men to 16 capable men, with 4 temporary injured, which will make it 20 capable men in the future, which is a good start.

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[Originally the Vatos were supposed to die shortly after their meeting with Rick, there was a deleted scene in between CDC explosion, and group leaving Atlanta going there to find all of the Vatos and Elderly have already meet their end, presumably at hands of another group, I have a doubt about a certain group being the culprit. I made most of the Vatos survive for plot convenience.]