Chapter 22

Logan and his men worked on clearing the area around the fence from walkers, due to the helicopter noise when it landed in the Prison, it attracted a lot of walkers which are now crowding  the fence.

Luckily they added those support braces before, otherwise the fence may have bent in different sections due to the amount of walkers pushing against it. 

Logan leads some of his men outside to drive the walkers away from the Prison which now is named Dreadfort by Shane. While the farm territory was named Greenfield by Hershel.

One of Logan's aims was to secure several territories, Greenfield was their source of food through crops and livestocks, Dreadfort meanwhile is their Base of Armed Operations. His next target is for a residential/manufacturing territory, where they will house people, educate children, and try to manufacture things that are necessary.

…

Dreadfort is becoming more gloomy from outside, spiked barriers stretched all over the fence, the Hesco are being filled slowly with 10 men working on that, while the other 10 are patrolling the perimeter, the remaining 5 are removing the trees that are close to the prison, to give them a wider range of open field and avoid letting people sneak from among those trees.

The wood from the trees is obviously used as their firewood, for now they're using the food in the cafeteria for sustenance. 

Logan took some supplies and put them in the Humvee, along with some weapons, in case they lost some. 

"You ready?" Logan asked. Daryl, who as always held his crossbow nodded "Let us depart then." Logan added as the two entered the Humvee.

…

This has been a concurrence for the two. They would always make trips together, both trust each other and kind of built a close bond. 

"You think we can manage many places?" Daryl asked with a questioning gaze, the two were having a discussion on Logan's aim to find more places they can use as 'bases' each with different purposes.

"We can, the council I made before. I aim to put its members in each territory, they are people with potential for leadership." Logan nodded before answering his friend's question.

"Man, how many people do you plan to babysit?" Darly understood that the guy is planning to make their group far larger. 

"I have concerns that somewhere out there the Military stopped wasting time and effort saving people, and started an agenda of their own." Logan said with a grim look as this was one of his darkest theories about the almost scarce presence of the military.

"Stop beating around the bush." Daryl said with impatience, not dismissing Logan's words, since even if he doesn't voice it. He trusts the guy, perhaps more than anyone else.

"I have a feeling whenever my mind drifts to the subject of the military, that they're cooking something, and we may not like it." Logan said with a dark look on his face, his mind drifting again at the possibilities of what the military is trying to achieve.

"I mean we've never seen much Military forces other than the little numbers of dead ones in Atlanta and those who escaped from their camp which have too little numbers to manage a proper Refugee Camp." Daryl continued to listen, not interrupting.

"Most States should have at least thousands to tens of thousands soldiers in them, Georgia itself should have more than 40 thousands of military personnel " Logan voiced his concerns which weren't unfounded, the amount of soldiers in Georgia so far were too little compared to how many soldiers it have.

Daryl didn't say anything and kept on listening, Logan continued with a serious look " I am trying to prepare, starting by recruiting a lot of people, then slowly gaining control over Georgia and hopefully the nearby States." 

It was a test to Daryl's control over his emotions, which proved a surprise, seeing him only raise an eyebrow made Logan snort. The guy perhaps became accustomed to Logan's stunts that he adapted to them.

"In a sense, I am trying to make a new society of my own. something to contend with the unknown. I call it 'The Neo Republic' a fully functioning society, with its own military." Logan basically informed Daryl of his endgame. 

"You're a crazy bastard, all people are trying to survive, but you? You're planning to build a civilization to contend against an unknown threat your gut is warning you about." Darly said while shaking his head, his words were not mocking, but fully serious indicating he is taking Logan's words as a possibility.

"Yet we're in this together. What does that make you?" Logan smiled playfully and teased.

"Guess it makes me a crazy bastard too." Daryl joined with a smile of his own.

"Look at us, two crazy bastards living in a prison while planning to build a country at the end of the world." Logan laughed as he said in a ridiculing tone. 

…

"Daryl." Logan said with a blank look on his face.

"Yeah. Dumb idiots." His partner nodded with an equally blank face. 

A sign on the road with [Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive survive] followed by a map that shows their location which is a place at the end of some railroad tracks named 'Terminus'.

"They're f*cking revealing their location! Do they want people to take advantage of them?" Logan said with disbelief, how can they be this stupid. 

"Are we going?" Daryl asked, knowing his friend would try to seek them to recruit more people for his group.

"Let's go, I just hope they haven't attracted any vile survivors. I don't want to feel like manipulating traumatized people." Logan said with a cringe assuming the worst, which he doesn't like.

…

It's as he feared, The place was taken by a group of bandits at the end of the world. It doesn't seem that the people were taken for long, seeing that they were in a bit of decent condition.

"What are we gonna do?" Daryl asked his trusty crossbow in hand with an arrow already loaded.

"We're gonna wait until it's dark, sneak in and kill those f*ckers, no pun intended. Then free those people. I pity them, but it's their fault for offering their goodwill to everyone, oblivious to how many vile people survived by taking advantage of others." Logan said, his face scrunched in anger, no matter how much he tries to get accustomed to humanity's potential for evil, he just can't grasp its true depth.

The two decided to wait for the night to fall so they  could sneak in and take care of the bandits who were 27 in total from what Logan saw while they scouted the area discreetly. 

…

Wo Wo! Wo!!

Night has fallen, most of the bandits are asleep right now, the original residents of this sanctuary are locked in some train trailers.

Logan and Daryl, hidden from the guard's sight between the trees, sneaked to an unguarded area of the place and silently jumped over the fence.  

"If you find the leader, try to keep him alive, I have something for him." Logan, carrying an SMG with a silencer, with a bag on his back, he told Daryl as the two divided, sneaking separately, killing any bandit they found. 

Logan skillfully moved in the shadows with silent steps, his first target were the two guards at the front. The two idiots were obviously drunk with empty cans of beers all around them. 

"Can't wait to end my shift, I want to take one of those b*tches to vent some of my still pent up stress." Guard 1 told his partner downing another beer, not concerned with the walkers that are pushing against the fence, since they were doing nothing.

"Same! I want to pin one of them under me, and beat the sh*t out of her while she yells in pain and pleasure at the same time. Hehehe '' Guard 2 began to dream, both were oblivious to the person walking toward them, hidden in the shadows of the night.

The two continue their loud conversation until,

SLASH! THUD! THUD!! 

The two were laughing and chatting in one moment, next their heads were rolling on the ground.

 Logan stood there with some blood over his face and the blade in his hand, he heard the duo talk and was disgusted by it. He is more determined to end these pieces of sh*t tonight.

…

Daryl moved in the shadows provided by the buildings in this place. He peeked from one end and saw one of the bandits seemingly taking a p*ss in a corner, looking behind him and to his sides to make sure no one was around he pointed his crossbow and,

FWOSH! THUD! 

Headshot, the guy didn't know what hit him, Daryl heard footsteps from the corner beside him and took one of the knives in hand.

The moment a guy made the turn a knife struck his throat, which he covered with hands and tried to grasp for air before falling to his death.

PIERCE!

Darly struck him in the side of the head to prevent him from turning. Retrieved his arrow and moved on.

….

The duo managed to assassinate around 14 bandits before some of the others noticed and alerted the others, the ones who were in the middle of raping some women basically put on their pants and went to find out what is happening. 

They started to search the place for the culprit. Even some went to check if it was some of their prisoners that escaped and started taking revenge, but all of them were in the train trailers they left them in. Unfortunately they were shot dead by Logan who followed them stealthily. 

He approached the now widely awake and surprised prisoners, who looked weak and a bit starved, but there was a glimpse of hope in their eyes. Seemed like they were held for days without food. 

THUD!

He threw a bag in front of them. A young man that looked to be in his 20s moved forward and checked the bag's content. There were some guns.

"If you want to live, and survive. Fight for it, take back what is taken from you." Logan said pointing at the whole place. 

The group looked around a bit scared, fearing their tormentors would appear any moment. 

Logan frowned at that "Are you gonna give up? Are you a bunch of p*ssies?" Logan harsh words made some of them snap from their fear, the young man who stepped forward early became angry and tried to talk but all that came was whispers,

"Y-you…don't…e-even…know what.. we suffered." Logan snorted.

"Big news, the world was never fair, you tried helping people out of the goodness of your hearts, I did that too. Difference is, I didn't offer it to everyone, while you did the opposite, whether they deserve it or not." Logan spoke to them, telling them that he took similar action but with a more careful approach.

Logan turned around and pointed his gun as two bandits came from the corner, but quickly shot them in a way that would keep them alive.

The prisoners, especially the young man, were shocked at how easily he took their tormentors down. Logan turned to them again with a hard gaze

"I will move forward and deal with the rest with my companion, you can either stay here until we're done and take your place back, or join me in dealing with the rest, and become part of my Community." Logan turned and walked away, not looking back.

The young man looked at his back, then back at the weapons, he stood there for a moment watching Logan's back before his face gained a determined look and took an assault rifle. He intend to fight and beat those vile bastards that tormented, starved, and raped them. 

Others saw his action and some of the men took weapons too, everyone gained confidence and all of them followed Logan who smiled when he heard their footsteps. He let them kill the duo he shot early.

….

Daryl was having a hard time sneaking around now that the enemy noticed their actions early. Eventually he was found by some of them, and was forced to enter a shootout with five of them using a gun he got from Logan early when they were about to sneak in.

BANG! BANG! BANG!! BANG BANG BANG!!!

He hides around a corner while checking the magazine to see how many rounds he has left. He put it back and shot back taking one idiot who was trying to get close, but was pinned by them again.

RATATATATA BANG BANG BANG!! 

""Aghh!!"" Screams of pain and falling after the sound of automatic weapons raining bullets, but not at him.

Daryl took a look and found the enemies all down, one who he recognized as the leader early since he was leading the group was rolling in the ground, his limbs all shot. 

He came out of his hiding to meet his friend, around the corner he was met with Logan and behind him a large group of people. Some of them were about to shoot him, but Logan stopped them.

"Hold it! He's with me." The armed men lowered their weapons. 

Logan moved toward the only person still alive, the leader howling from the pain unable to stand at all. Logan grasped him by hair and lifted him up before turning to the people behind him.

"Here is your tormentor! This is how I deal with the likes of this piece of sh*t. But I still help people who deserve it! That is what you did wrong! And this is how it will be done if you are willing to join my Community." Logan said out loud. 

"But where can we get food?" One of the many starving people said weakly.

"We grow our food, if you're willing to join us, you will get a portion, but you will work to earn it, everyone in my Community has a role they fulfill. As long as you do what is required, you won't worry about being hungry, and under my protection, nobody will harm you ever again!" Logan made himself their savior, and also their hope.

"We are willing to follow you, if you can guarantee us that we won't be taken advantage of ever again." The young man from early was clearly moved by Logan.

"What's your name?" Logan asked him with a passive look.

"Gareth." Gareth said as he held Logan's gaze which lingered on him.

"Several groups joined my Community, I have a council with a member from each group being part of it. Are you willing to represent your people in my Community? I can show you what we have, and what we are capable of." Logan told the guy in a lighter tone with a more relaxed and welcoming expression, hand stretched waiting for Gareth to take.

Gareth looked back at his people, especially his brother and mother, remembering him trying to console his mother 'it will be alright' to which the evil bastard laughed and retorted 'no, it won't' before knocking him out. Then looking at the same person yelling in pain still held in Logan's left hand by the hair. 

He decided to shake Logan's hand. He is doing the best for his people.

Logan smiled, this time they have gained a big group of 73 people, he plan to add some of them to Dreadfort, while keeping the rest here, bring them food and make them build a forge here, this place is perfect to be their manufacturing territory.